'NO.'
The brothers froze, turning to stare at Daniel who had spoken, the younger sibling's mouths opening in shock. Frank even forgot his own misery, turning around to kneel upon the settee and placing his hands upon the back, his eyes wide as he waited for Adam's reaction.
Adam slowly folded his arms, looked down at the middle child with a stern frown furrowing his brow. 'Excuse me?' he asked, sounding altogether too much like their father.
Ephraim flinched but Daniel was either too angry or too stubborn willed to let his disquiet show. He stood back a pace, clenching his hands into fists, straight down at his side, shaking with rage. 'I said, NO!' he snapped. 'Y'all ain't going to whup me!'
'I'm not changing my mind, Daniel,' Adam said but he made no move toward the boy, letting him vent some of his rage. It was natural for a lad to feel some fear when faced with a spanking, lord knew that he had felt the same chill sinking in his guts the many times that Mr Pontipee had given him a foreboding look, sat upon the armchair and crooked his finger at his eldest son. Why he'd even be concerned if Daniel hadn't have kicked up a fuss; a compliant Daniel meant that something was dreadfully wrong and since their parents' deaths Daniel had not been himself.
'You just try!' he was saying now. 'Y'all just try and whup me. I ain't little like Frank. Ya'll can't just pin me and force me to do what you want!'
'Dan-' Ephraim started, putting a hand on his twin's shoulder but it was shaken off.
'Don't you think it's unfair?' Daniel asked him, practically growling as he gestured to their older brother. 'All we did were some silly old pranks. He thinks he's the boss, just cause pa-' but there he stopped, his throat tightening and the last word rising as his voice broke. He gave Adam a stricken look, chin held high and bottom lip caught between his teeth, his eyes filling with tears.
Adam moved then, but he didn't snatch his brother or drag him to the chair, he simply took him up in his bear-like embrace, ignoring the boy's struggles and his flailing punches until finally Daniel hitched a sob, his fists uncurling against his brother's shirt and the fingers snatching hold of the fabric.
'I ain't pa,' Adam said quietly, raising one hand to rest upon the boy's thick curls and kissing them softly, 'but I gotta do some things that he did... now he's gone. I don't like it, Daniel, not one bit, but we gotta make them proud, right?'
Daniel was too overcome to reply but he nodded furiously, sniffling into Adam's chest and twisting his shirt.
In his peripheral, Adam saw Ben and Caleb move, Ben to console Ephraim, who wept silent tears, whilst Caleb took a seat between Frank and Gideon, who were sniffling and sobbing once more.
Once he was sure the boy was worn out from his tears, Adam turned and led Daniel toward the armchair, quirking a swift smile when his brother regained enough composure to drag his feet and grumble at the unfair treatment.
'I think the unfair treatment would be not spanking you, now that Gid and Frank have had their share, don't you?' Adam asked as he sat.
Clearly not liking to say yes or admit that this was what he deserved, Daniel settled for a sulky twist of his mouth instead, but he did not resist overmuch when he was pulled over his older brother's lap.
Adam settled the boy in place, putting a firm arm over the boy before moving to the bracers. Daniel squirmed, earning himself a swat that made him cringe and go still, allowing Adam to shuck down his pants without further complaint.
'Hold still.' Adam looked over and saw that Ben was having difficulty. Ephraim, although seeming willing to submit to his brother's attention, had started to squirm the moment he had been pulled over Ben's lap to the point that he was in real danger of falling off it. Ben tried to hold on, using both his hands to try and keep his younger brother in place. Ephraim wasn't responding to his commands to stay still and, when Ben had given him a warning swat, began to kick violently.
'Adam,' Daniel said, propping himself up on one arm and looking up at his brother with a pleading eye.
'I know, Daniel,' Adam said with a smile, resting his hand upon the boy's back and then looking over to the Pontipee's second brother. 'Ben, you need to pin him.'
Daniel nodded as Ben looked over in surprise, still holding his twin down as the boy squirmed. 'He's right, brother. Ephraim's allus been the same. Pin him, he'll feel better.'
Wetting his lips, Ben shifted, lifting his right leg and trapping his charge's own down. He caught the boy's flailing arms and pulled them to his lower back, holding firmly.
As if a magic spell had been cast, Ephraim stilled, huffing a few worn out breaths. Then he turned his head, resting his cheek upon the arm of the chair and looked up with a rueful smile. 'Thanks, brother.'
Ben gave a mighty chuckle. 'Don't thank me so quick, little brother,' he said and then pulled down the boy's pants.
Daniel gasped as Adam did the same, burying his face in the crook of his arm.
Adam let the first swat fall and grimaced as he heard his brother yelp. That first spank was always the worst he thought, a nasty reminder of how much worse things were about to get. Knowing Daniel was already worn from his earlier tantrum, Adam kept his spanks regular, without the stinging attention-getting swats that he usually went for. Daniel was crying enough already and he didn't want to exhaust the boy before the discipline was done.
Ben on the other hand had started off with some memorable blows, setting Ephraim off howling after only the third swat. Everyone knew he was a noisy spankee; the playful twins had been regulars over their father's knees when Mr Pontipee had been alive.
Daniel in turn set about matching his brother in length and pitch, kicking and jerking as Adam's swats covered every inch of his backside.
When they had been going for some time and Daniel's bottom a fair rosy shade, Adam began to talk.
'You're doin' well, Daniel,' he said, listening to the boy's wails change pitch at the kindness. 'Think you got something to say?'
'S-sorry, b-b-brother,' Daniel hiccupped.
'Sorry for what?' Adam asked patiently.
But Daniel clammed up, hiding his face in the palms of his hands and sniffling.
'Daniel,' Adam warned keeping his spanks coming. 'You know it's not over until you tell me what you did wrong. I can do this all day if I need to.'
'Ephraim?' Ben asked. Ephraim's face was pressed into the arm of the chair, without the freedom of his hands to hide him. His face was flushed and puffy, his hair stuck to his face from tears. 'Sorry,' he sobbed, 'S-s-sorry!'
'Sorry for what, little one?'
Ephraim bit down on his lip and turned his head aside, staying quiet.
'Ah-ah, no biting,' Ben clucked his tongue, raising his knee and tipping the boy so that his undercurves were more exposed.
Ephraim quickly turned back. 'NO!' he squalled, writhing frantically as Ben blistered six quick swats on the sensitive area. 'AHH! Beeeeen! I won't! No bitiiiiiing!'
'Enough of that tone, boy,' Ben said sternly. 'Now What. Did. You. Do?' he asked, punctuating each word with a scorching blow.
'Ahhh, the hat! The haaat! Sorry! Soooorry!' Ephraim sobbed, letting out a whimper of relief when the man returned to spanking his bottom.
Adam had almost forgotten to keep up his own assault on Daniel's backside, marvelling that Ben had become so expert at handling a spanking in so short a time. But at this confession he shared a grin with Benjamin and focused back to his own charge. 'See, Daniel? That weren't so hard. But are you really telling us that putting Aunt E's hat on old Gloria was all you did?'
By Daniel's silence and Ephraim's hitched gasp, Adam could tell that it wasn't. He kept spanking for a second, letting the boy decide his own fate and then tilted his leg.
'NOO!' Daniel shrieked, throwing his hand back to cover his sit-spots where it was caught and pinned against his back. 'I'll tell! I'll tell!'
'Too late, little boy,' Adam said, landing six stinging spanks over the area, holding tightly as Daniel bellowed and kicked his legs. When that was done he stopped, his hand raised in the air, ready to strike. 'I believe you were saying?'
Daniel turned his wet, blotched face to look over at Ephraim, his brows raised in mute apology. Ephraim looked back, tears running down his face and sniffling, but he closed his eyes and gave his twin a resigned nod.
'We...' Daniel began and then dried up again, scrunching his face up in dismay. 'OW! We put tar on her wagon!' he rushed when Adam laid down an encouraging swat.
'You... What?' Adam said, processing the confession with mild horror.
'We painted her seat with taaar,' Daniel sobbed, 'and her footwell. She won't notice till she gets to town.'
Adam pressed his lips tightly shut, avoiding Ben's eyes as he heard his second brother coughing back a laugh. On the settee Gideon had given a shocked gasp whilst Caleb had his hand firmly clamped over Frank's mouth, the second youngest shaking with gleeful laughter.
But the most surprising thing was what they had not confessed to. Adam looked straight at Caleb as he addressed this.
'So, you're saying that you didn't have anything to do with this morning's prank in ma and pa's old room? Neither of you?'
Daniel shook his head violently, no, whilst Ephraim did likewise.
'We promise, Adam,' he said.
Adam raised his brow at Caleb who looked suitably shamefaced and ducked his head into Gideon's curls to avoid any more scrutiny. Adam decided to leave it be for now.
'So, you painted Aunt E's wagon in tar,' he said sternly, resuming his spanking on Daniel's bottom. The break in swats must have been nice but would have felt just awful to return to. Daniel let him know it, squalling and kicking his legs desperate for release. 'That was a terrible naughty thing to do now, wasn't it?'
'Uh huh,' Daniel moaned, clutching at the arm of the chair and nodding into his arms.
'Aunt E will have to throw away her dress I'd imagine, her boots too maybe.'
Not having thought of this, Daniel sucked in a gasp, his eyes wide. 'Sorry! So s-sorryyy!'
'I want you both to think real hard about how you can make it up to her, okay?'
'Yessss!' Daniel hissed, falling back over Adam's leg and giving in completely to his brother's hand.
'And what do we say when we've done wrong?'
'Sorry!' the boy cried.
Adam stopped spanking and rubbed gentle circles into his brother's back, whispering encouraging words to him as he had Frank. And as with Frank, when the boy had calmed, he pulled Daniel's breeches carefully up over his tender backside and lifted him to sit upon his knee.
'You did real well, brother,' he said, accepting the boy's tight hug. 'I'm real proud of you.'
'Ya didn't have ta spank so hard,' Daniel grumbled through his tears, his head buried in the nape of his brother's neck.
'Oh?' Adam exchanged a jolly smile with Ben, who now held Ephraim in a similar position. 'Looks like I shoulda spanked harder, I missed a spot of sass!'
'Nooo! Daniel said, wriggling in his brother's lap and sniffling petulantly. 'You didn't, no sass, honest!'
Adam let forth another deep chuckle and squeezed his younger sibling tightly to him. 'I'm sure I can believe you,' he said with feigned sincerity.
After a few more minutes like this Adam rose, crossing to the settee and putting his charge down carefully on the seat next to Frank. Ben did the same, placing a quietly sniffling Ephraim down next to Gideon, who had miraculously fallen asleep amongst the din, his head cradled in Caleb's, mouth open a little in deep sleep
Adam watched the five youngest Pontipees with a fond smile and then shifted his gaze onto Caleb.
The third son gave a muted sigh, gently shifting the sleeping youngest brother onto Ephraim's arm and then stood, fixing his brother with a bold eye.
'I'm ready, brother,' he said calmly.
