Chapter 4

Warning: spanking in this chapter

Adam reached the top of the stairs and headed for Percy's room. Once they reached his room, he pulled Percy in and sat him down firmly on the bed. Pulling out the desk chair, he set it right in front of Percy giving him no room for escape.

After sitting down, he leaned in towards Percy as he sternly declared, "The time has come for us to have a little talk, Percy. And you are going to sit there and listen."

"No, I'm not!"

Percy started to rise but changed his mind when he saw the look in Adam's eyes.

"Percy, you and I both know that you did all of those pranks. And even though Alissa wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, you ended up dumping cold muddy water on her head."

Adam stood up and started pacing back in forth in front of Percy.

"Do you realize she could have been seriously hurt? How could you do something so irresponsible and dangerous?"

Percy kept his head down as he spoke barely above a whisper.

"I didn't think anyone would get hurt. And besides, I thought it would fall on you."

Adam let out a frustrated sigh as he came and stood in front of Percy with his hands on his hips.

"Why did you want to keep causing problems for me?"

Percy just shook his head as tears started to well up in his eyes. "I don't know. I just wanted you to be as miserable as I was. I didn't want to stay here, and so I thought I would make you miserable too."

Percy swiped at the tears as they started to slide down his cheeks.

Adam pulled the chair back a little further from Percy and sat down in front of him, leaning forward placing his elbows on his knees so he could look into Percy's eyes.

"Percy, just because you don't get your way every time you think you should is no reason to throw tantrums or try and make other people miserable. Sometimes we don't always get what we want, but acting like a two year old or trying to hurt someone certainly isn't the answer. And you definitely won't make any friends being that way either."

Adam's expression softened as he placed his hand on Percy's arm.

"You know, Percy, we were more than willing to try and make your stay here enjoyable for you. You even said that you didn't want to go to San Francisco, so Alissa thought we could show you some fun things to do while you were here. I realize that you are use to the city and not the country, but you didn't even try to have fun."

Shaking his head Adam frowned as he continued on. "Obviously it wasn't enough, and now you are telling me that because you thought you were suffering, you wanted to make others suffer along with you?"

Percy kept his head down until Adam put his hand under his chin and made him look him in the eye.

"Well, answer me young man."

"I guess so."

Adam sat back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of him.

"Percy, has your father ever spanked you for your bad behavior?"

Percy's eyes widened as he indignantly stated, "Of course not! My father would never do that."

"Hmm…that is obviously part of the problem. You have never been given any consequences for your bad behavior, and so you continue to do whatever you want no matter how it affects anyone else."

Adam put his hand on Percy's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Percy, people can't go through life just doing whatever they want and never have any consequences for bad behavior. Even as an adult, a man can't steal a horse or rob someone and not have a consequence when he is caught. That is why there are laws with serious consequences to hopefully deter the person from doing wrong. And maybe if you would have been given some consequences, you wouldn't be so quick to do something without thinking just because you thought it was funny."

Adam stood up and grabbed the back of his chair and moved it away from Percy as he placed it in the center of the room. Then he turned and faced Percy with his arms crossed as a stern expression settled across his face.

"Well, young man, I think the time has come that you learn in this house if you act disrespectful and without regard for other's safety… unpleasant consequences will follow. And you have definitely earned one of those consequences for your recent behavior. I truly hope after tonight, Percy, you will think twice about acting reckless and being rude and disrespectful to other people."

Percy gasped in outrage. "What do you mean?"

Quirking his brow, Adam's voice was firm as he spoke slowly.

"You are a clever boy, I think you know."

Percy suddenly jumped up and crossed his arms in front of him as he smugly declared, "You can't discipline me. That job is for my father!"

"Normally yes, but as they were leaving for their trip your father told my father that he was in charge of you while they were away. And when my father is gone, then I am in charge."

Percy suddenly cringed when he realized what those implications might mean as he watched Adam take a seat in the chair he had placed in the middle of the room and crook his finger at Percy to come to him.

"Time for that consequence young man. I think you have more than earned this spanking, and beings that I am the person in charge of your behavior at the present time… I will be the one that will spank you. Come here, Percy."

Percy stood there fuming as he stammered, "I…I will not let you do this."

"I will count to three, Percy, and you had better be over here or it will go a lot worse for you."

Crossing his arms stubbornly in front of him Percy said defiantly, "NO!"

Adam's eyebrow rose threateningly, "One."

Percy continued to stand there, hoping he could win this little standoff.

"Two."

Quickly looking for a means of escape, Percy took his eyes off of Adam for just a moment as he wondered what his chances of getting out the door might be.

"Three."

In one easy movement Adam was off of the chair and grabbed Percy's upper arm and pulled him back to the chair.

"You could have made this so much easier on yourself young man."

Adam sat down again and quickly tossed Percy over his lap and firmly held him in place as he put his leg over Percy's kicking legs to keep him from moving.

"I was only planning on fifteen swats, but since you wouldn't do what you were told, you have earned five more."

Adam quickly rained down six stinging swats before Percy realized what was happening. But by the seventh swat, Percy's backside knew exactly what was happening as he felt it suddenly start to burn.

"Stop, you can't do this! It hurts!"

"I know, that is the point, Percy." SWAT! SWAT! SWAT! SWAT!

"Do you know why you are getting this spanking, Percy?"

"Yes, because you are mean!"

"Wrong answer." Adam landed two more hard swats to Percy's backside.

"OW! OW!" Percy yelled loudly, as he tried to get off of Adam's lap.

"Care to try again?" Adam asked, as he held Percy firmly on his lap.

"Because I did awful pranks," Percy bawled, as tears were starting to fall down his cheeks.

SWAT! " What else?"

"I…I was rude and disrespectful to everyone."

"Good, now are you going to behave and start acting your age and treat people with respect?"

There was a moment of hesitation as Percy tried to decide if he really wanted to answer this. But suddenly Adam persuaded him as he continued with a few more stinging swats.

"Ow, your hand hurts. Yes, I…I will behave and be respectful," Percy cried, as all thoughts of not crying had left after the tenth swat.

By now Percy had decided that he never wanted to make Adam angry enough to do this ever again and would have promised him anything.

Adam had not gone easy on Percy in the least. And even though he hadn't delivered as many swats as Ben probably would have, he had made each swat count hoping that it would make an impression on him to behave, or at least behave while he was under his supervision. So he ended the spanking with two final sharp swats and then waited for the crying boy to calm down. Finally he helped Percy stand and placed him between his knees in front of him.

"I am sorry it had to come to this, Percy, I really am. But I will not put up with this kind of behavior anymore and if you don't change your attitude, we will end up here again… and I am sure you don't want that."

Adam reached over and gently pushed back a blonde curl that had fallen over Percy's forehead.

"I hope now you will stop and think before doing something that is going to get you in trouble. And you will improve your attitude and the way you act towards everyone. I think you will be a lot happier if you do, and you will see that people will want to be around you more."

Percy started to reach back to rub his smarting backside, but suddenly became embarrassed and stopped.

"You have a very hard hand," he muttered, as he looked at the carpet.

Adam chuckled softly, "People keep telling me that."

As Adam stood he put his arm around Percy's shoulder and patiently explained, "In this house, Percy, once someone has been punished…the slate is clean and all is forgiven. So we will start fresh tomorrow."

Percy shrugged Adam's arm off of his shoulder and walked over to the window and looked out at the night sky.

"I want to be alone now."

"I understand. I think you should just get ready for bed and we will talk some more tomorrow."

Adam placed the chair back up against the desk and walked to the door.

As he was starting out the door he turned and said, "Good night, Percy. We will see you in the morning."

Percy didn't say anything but continued looking out the window, so Adam just quietly closed the door and left.

As Adam came down the stairs he found Alissa sitting at the dinning room table with a bowl of water in front of her. She was trying without much success to get the slimy mud off of her face that dear Percy had placed in the bucket over the door. His little prank had backfired and landed on Alissa instead of Adam, drowning her in slimy mud from head to toe.

"You do look a sight with all that mud on your face," Adam laughed, as he came and sat down at the table with Alissa.

"It's not very funny, Adam," Alissa frowned, as she kept scrubbing at her face.

"I don't know what he put in that bucket, but I can't get it off my face without scrubbing my skin off!"

"You know it is rather funny that once one of his pranks ended up on you, you certainly changed your tune and decided he needed a good talking to."

"Well, all the times he had done something before there was always some doubt in my mind if he really was to blame. But with this mess…there was no doubt who had done it!"

Alissa frowned as she dipped the cloth in the water and tried to scrub her face once more.

"Did you get firm with him and tell him he wasn't going to get away with that kind of behavior anymore?"

Finally giving up with the mud on her face, Alissa started concentrating on getting the mud out of her hair as she looked over at Adam.

"I hope you weren't too hard on him, Adam. After all he is a guest in your house."

"Oh, I think I got my point across! And if he forgets, he will be reminded every time he sits down for a day or two!" Adam grinned, as he tried to pull some dried mud from Alissa's hair.

Alissa looked up quickly as she gasped, "Oh Adam, you didn't spank him, did you? You said you were going to give him a good talking to."

"Well in my family a good talking to means a lot more than just talking. It means the person getting the talking to is also going to get their backside warmed along with the talk! And I did talk to him before I spanked him. I tried to explain that his behavior was not acceptable anymore, and he would be a lot happier if he would change his attitude toward everyone."

"Oh dear, I hope his parents won't be too upset with you for doing that."

Adam shrugged slightly, "I doubt they will be upset. When we were young, if we had been guests in someone's house and had pulled half of the shenanigans he pulled, our father would have expected the man of the house to do the exact same thing I just did. And when he got back and heard about what was done… then we would have gotten twice as much from him."

"Gee, that is a bit much, don't you think…. to get tanned twice for the same offence? I was never spanked as a child. My parents didn't believe in it and then it was never used in the home I went to after they died."

Adam looked surprised as he asked, "Well what did they do to punish you?"

Alissa grinned mischievously, "I never got punished because I never did anything to get into trouble. I was the perfect child!"

Alissa leaned over and batted her eyelashes at him to emphasize her point.

"Well that explains it all then," Adam replied playfully, as he lifted his brow in amusement.

Alissa frowned slightly, "Just what do you mean by that, Adam Cartwright?"

"Now I know why you go and get yourself into so much trouble without thinking of what the consequences might be. You never had any consequences when you were a child to worry about. So you don't think things through before you jump in with both feet!"

Adam laughed and came over and sat next to Alissa and put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulder. Then he leaned over and kissed her until they both had mud on their faces before he was through.

Leaning back from Adam Alissa thrust up her chin with a bit of a pout, "I don't think what you said about me is very funny, Adam. I do think before I do things. The problem is I just do things that most girls around here wouldn't even think of doing."

Then she smiled as she gave Adam a saucy wink, "That's what you get for falling in love with a modern girl, Adam."

"Oh, I think I can handle this modern girl just fine," Adam said smugly, as he kissed the tip of her muddy nose.

"I believe you have learned first hand that there will be consequences if you push me hard enough," Adam said, with a teasing grin.

"Hmmph…yes, I vaguely remember…big bully," she grumbled.

Then Ali couldn't help giggling as she looked at Adam and took her cloth and started to wipe some of the mud off of him that he had gotten on his face after he kissed her.

"By the way, why do you say a well deserved 'talking to' when you mean something a whole lot more severe than a little talk?"

"That is just the way my father always put it when we were in trouble. We knew if he used those words…. we wouldn't be doing a lot of sitting down with any comfort for the next few days." Adam grinned rather sheepishly as if he was remembering those days.

"Enough talk about Percy! Let's concentrate on us for awhile."

Adam pulled Alissa out of her chair and onto his lap. She smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately in spite of the mud.

Upstairs in Percy's room, smiling was the last thing he wanted to do right now. He was lying on his stomach because sitting was definitely not an option. Every now and then he would punch the pillow and yell into it because he was so angry with Adam. How dare he think he can get away with tanning me he thought. Wait until my father gets back…. he just may shoot him! I know he will definitely take him to the sheriff to put him in jail. He can't get away with putting a hand on me! He will be so sorry when my father gets back! And I'll just stand there and laugh as they cart him off to jail. Percy slowly drifted off to sleep with thoughts of sweet revenge on his mind.

TBC

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Oh Percy, if you only knew what was in store for you, you would just stay in bed. Thanks to all that have left reviews...I appreciate you!