I don't know if this story will end up being an embarrassment that I have to remove or if it will be successful. But taking a chance...

The Whipping Boy*

*A person who is made to bear the blame for another's mistake.

One

Every time the young man shuddered, every time he sucked in his breath, every time his buttocks clenched when the lash-tip snapped against his skin, Rufus only plied the snakewhip more forcefully. He used his wrist and forearm to give it more snap, more sting. The tip of the leather thong licked at the buttocks that were white as the underbelly of a fish. His tanned back, already as broad and muscled as a full-grown man's, was already crisscrossed with bloody stripes.

Adam Cartwright gripped the ropes that bound his wrists. His legs were about to give out, his knees weakening as the pain seemed to drain all his energy. He held on to the ropes so as not to sag between the barn posts. But if the whipping didn't stop soon, Adam felt he would pass out; never before had he known such pain.

The girl, sitting in the straw in the corner, sobbed, begging her father to stop. Adam wanted to snarl for her to be quiet – not to beg that mean sonovabitch for anything, even his life. But he didn't; if he opened his mouth, Adam feared what might come out – perhaps a moan or a cry – and he wouldn't give the man the satisfaction.

"Please, Pa! Please! Enough! You'll kill him!" She lay on her belly in a manner of submission, pleading with her father, holding out one small hand. She had already received her share of the lashes across her pale back and held the remains of her dress against her breasts in some attempt at modesty. But not only had Adam, bound to the posts by her two older brothers, had to watch her receive the five or six lashes, but her brothers also saw her groveling half-naked in the straw, curling herself up into a ball like a hedgehog to protect her face and belly and screaming with every bite of the lash, while her father called her "whore" and "slut" with every fall of the whip.

Her two brothers had averted their eyes, wanted to leave the barn, to run away from the whippings, but their father shouted they needed to see that punishment was meted out. And how could they call themselves men if they hid from such things.

And Adam, his arms spread-wide, had pleaded with Rufus Morgan to stop beating his daughter. Rufus relented – after all, he wasn't a cruel man by nature - and then turned the snakewhip on Adam.

But now, after taking out his hatred against Ben Cartwright on his eldest son, Rufus paused, his arm heavy from the repeated action. He was winded. The man sucked in his breath and dropped the whip when he sat on a haybale. The only sound was the girl's sobbing as she lay on the barn floor.

"I'm going to tell you something, Adam Cartwright, and you better listen," Morgan said, his voice quavering. "If I ever see you around here again, ever catch you with my Rosalie again, I'll kill you and if she comes up with child, I'll kill her before she gives birth to a Cartwright bastard."

Adam said nothing, could say nothing. He needed all his strength to remain upright.

"Rosalie, get in the house and wash this boy off you. Then start dinner."

"Yes, Pa," she whispered. Rosalie managed to stand up, her dress clutched to her. Her chemise had been torn open in the back and her pantalettes were lying in the straw where she had pulled them off for Adam. Her brown hair had half-fallen down, strands plastered to her damp cheeks; she pushed some out of her face, glancing at the discarded undergarment but decided to leave it and quickly ran to the house.

"What about him, Pa?" the younger of the two sons asked. The two young men, one 18, older than Adam by only two years, the other a few years younger, were as blonde as Adam was dark.

"Yeah, Pa. What about him?" the younger asked. "Should we just cut him down and leave him to find his way home? It's a good five miles to the Ponderosa and it's getting dark fast and cold. He's in a bad way, Pa, and…"

"Hollis," the man said to his youngest son, "get the buckboard. Burley, you get a blanket." Rufus had slit open the back of Adam's shirt. "It's getting cool outside and with that shirt... See if you can pull up his dungarees while he's still hanging there. At least see his privates are covered."

Rufus picked up the snakewhip and coiled it. He sighed as Burley jerked up Adam's pants, causing Adam to cry out in pain as the rough material slid up across the welts, the first real sound the boy had made during the whole whipping. Burley tentatively reached about Adam and catching the waistband, buttoned the first button so the dungarees wouldn't just slide back down.

Rufus watched without taking any pleasure, as Burley cut the ropes that had basically help Adam upright and the boy dropped to his knees. But Adam gripped the square post and forced himself to stand. Then, leaning one shoulder against a square post, he finished buttoning his trousers. Those Cartwrights were made of sturdy stuff, Rufus thought, and if he didn't have such a reason to hate Ben so much, didn't have suspicions that could never be confirmed, he would have been happy to walk into his barn and discover young Adam Cartwright tupping his daughter; he could then force the boy to marry Rosalie. It would be a good match and a joining of the families of possible friends.

But Rufus hated them all now – even the pretty, youngest boy - and knew a child fathered by this dark one would be an abomination. How his wife, may she rest in peace, could have once loved Ben Cartwright, Rufus couldn't understand. Ben Cartwright had brought nothing but pain and misery into his life and although Rufus prayed that by the gift of divine grace, he be relived of this burden of hatred, that he be able to forgive Ben and his progeny, Rufus Morgan couldn't. And now things had become worse.

And as Adam staggered by Rufus Morgan as he left the barn, he spat at the man's feet. But Rufus only sat, too weary to acknowledge the slight.

~ 0 ~

Burley had lowered the back of the buckboard and reached out to assist Adam. Adam ignored the proffered hand and painfully made his way out the buckboard. His body screamed with every movement, his back and buttocks on fire.

"Let me help you, Adam," Burley said, taking Adam's arm.

"Let me go," Adam growled, pulling away from Burley's hand, gripping the blanket about his shoulders with one hand. "Get the hell away from me."

Once both his feet were on the ground, Adam lurched forward, his knees again threatening to buckle under him but he clenched his jaw. He wasn't going to show any weakness in front of those two. They had seen him whipped, seen him humiliated and he would never be able to look either of them in the eye again.

"Look, you can't blame my pa, Adam. After all, he saw you and Rosalie…" Burley stopped as the heavy front door of the Ponderosa opened and the golden light from the multiple lamps inside cut through the darkness. Young Hoss Cartwright, a partially eaten apple in one hand, stared at the people before him, confused as to what was happening.

"Adam, what the…?" Hoss tossed aside the half-eaten apple and grabbed Adam's arm, trying to help him into the house.

Adam shoved him aside. "Get the hell away from me." He staggered toward the door. He knew he had to make it inside himself, standing on his own two feet. He couldn't fold up now.

Ben Cartwright came to the door and saw Adam swaying like a mad dog, unsteady on his feet, a blanket hanging over one shoulder. Hoss stared at his brother's exposed bloody back and even in the dark, he could see the seat of the dungarees had odd thin, lengthy reddish stains.

"Adam! What…?" Ben reached out for his son but the boy only pushed him away with both hands, not looking at him, and the blanket dropped into the dirt. His shirt hung open and the cold air hitting his wounds made him gasp.

The two Morgan boys climbed back up into the buckboard seat. Ben grabbed the horse's traces and held them.

"What the hell happened to my boy?"

The young men looked at one another and then Burley said, "My pa whipped him. He caught Adam and Rosalie in the barn."

"In the barn? But what were they…?' And by the way the two young men looked down and even avoided each other's eyes, Ben knew. "Never mind. I'll take care of this but you tell your father no one whips my boy – no one. Your Pa's going to have to answer to me. You tell him." Ben released the traces and stepped back. Burley snapped the reins and headed back to their ranch.

"You think he's gonna kill Pa?" Hollis asked.

"I don't know. He may try but Pa can take care of himself."

"Why does Pa hate Ben Cartwright so much? He ever tell you?"

"No. I asked once – years ago – an' Pa said it was none of my business, just that he had his reasons. I never asked again."

Neither brother said anything else; they rode the rest of the way in dark silence.