Little House Lewd: Chapter 6

The long walk back was another trial of vexation. Being able to walk in her own broken path from the morning made it easier both on her legs and inside the belt. When she reached the door she took a few moments to get her breath and gather herself.

Once inside she saw that the sofa she slept on had been moved into the front room. Mrs. Brewster was at the stove cooking, and Mr. Brewster was seated in his chair with a news paper.

“I see the sofa has been moved. Am I to sleep in here going forward?” she asked, trying to keep the hope out of her voice.

Mr. Brewster didn’t even look up from his paper. “You’ll be in the big bed with us. Warmer that way.”

“I’m warm enough on my own. No need to crowd your marital bed like that,” she said, emphasizing to hint that the proposal was out of line.

Still, he did not look away from his paper. “You’ll sleep where I say unless you’ve changed your mind on that belt.”

Laura took a deep breath and counted to ten in her head to calm herself. How could the situation continue to worsen? Every time she thought it could not possibly go more south something new seemed to come along to prove her wrong.

She decided not to say anything. Nothing she could say would change things for the better anyway. She took her things to the other room. The curtain that had hung around the sofa was also gone, but her satchel was still in the corner where the sofa had been.

Her things were quickly put away, and she returned to the main room. Before supper Mr. Brewster took her to the latrine. They did  not speak, and no one spoke during the meal either. Mrs. Brewster again left the table halfway through the meal to sit in her rocker and brood at the fire.

Laura did all the kitchen work herself while the Brewsters sat around the heater silently.

When she went to throw out the dish water she noticed the floor had not been swept, so did that as well. As she tidied  she noticed the highchair tucked away, and realized she had not seen little Johnny since the morning before.

“Where is Johnny?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“He’s staying with my brother’s family,” Mr. Brewster answered. He did not elaborate, and Laura decided she did not want to inquire further.

She was astonished at herself that she could have completely missed that a child had vanished from the home for so long. As she studied history she wondered how she could have been so distracted. She was angry with herself that a child had disappeared and she would have not even thought to help until far too late.

The clock chimed six, then seven, and by the time it chimed eight o’clock she could hardly keep her eyes open. It was strange to be so sleepy that early in the evening. She reasoned to herself that she had not slept much nor well the night before or even the night before that.

Without saying anything to the silent couple Laura went to the other room. In the dark she put away her book and changed into her night dress. It was time to face the newest invasion of her person, but she steeled herself that she would not show her discomfort.

She would not even show that she were bothered at all. She drew back the blankets and climbed into the strange bed, positioning herself nearest the wall and curling up small under the quilts.

At least this is more comfortable than the sofa, she thought to herself as she slowly warmed.

Again, she was lost in a blizzard. This blizzard was worse than any before; the stinging snow and the wind’s hard blows tried to drive her and Carrie off the narrow sofa. Laura held onto Carrie with all her might for so long, but suddenly Carrie was not there. The blizzard had stolen her.

Laura’s heart stopped in horror. She could not go on having failed her little sister; she had no more strength. What would she tell Pa and Ma? They would be so disappointed in her and devastated to lose Carrie.

Then Pa came driving from town on the bobsled.

“How about going home for Saturday, Half-Pint?” he called to her through the thinning snow.

Ma and Mary and Carrie and Grace were so surprised! Ma’s whole face lighted with her smile. Carrie was there! She hurried to help Laura take off her wraps, and Grace jumped up and down clapping her little hands.

“Charles, why didn’t you tell us!” Ma questioned.

Pa answered, “Why, Caroline, I said I’d do a little hauling. Laura’s little!”

She was so happy in the glowing sitting room of home. She had not gone away at all; she was there!

Her eyes opened to the rough board wall of the Brewster’s bedroom wall, and it was Wednesday morning. The dream had been so real that she still almost believed it. Pa might come to take her home over Saturday. It was like him to plan such a surprise.

Not until she left the bed did she realize how warm she had been. The air in the bedroom was so frigid her toes and fingers quickly went numb while she dressed, but in bed she had been toasty. Ruefully, she admitted to herself that Mr. Brewster had been right that sleeping all together in the big bed would be warmer.

That thought led her to the surprising realization that nothing strange had happened that night. Mrs. Brewster had not quarreled, and Mr. Brewster had not molested her. She had slept through the night without moving from the spot she’d fallen asleep. She had not even known when the couple came to bed or got back up. She felt refreshed for the first time in days.

If only there had not been the awful belt locked around her she could have almost been chipper.

The morning was mostly a repeat of the previous day. She helped Mrs. Brewster get breakfast. Mr. Brewster took her to the latrine. While they ate she told him that she would be doing extra lessons for Clarence.

“He is very behind for his age, and wants to be as caught up as he can with this being his last opportunity. It will only be two or three evenings each week, but I don’t expect the lessons to be long,” she explained.

Mr. Brewster looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup. As usual, she could not tell what he might be thinking by his flat expression.

“Well, let me know if you have trouble with him. That boy’s always scheming something,” Mr. Brewster said, and went on with his meal.

Laura did not know what to make of that. He seemed to be sincerely warning her against Clarence and offering assistance. This was very much at odds with the fact he had tried and still seemed to want to assault her. She pondered on it through the meal and while she cleaned up, but couldn’t come to a conclusion. In a way she wanted to tell him that Clarence had found out about Mr. Brewster taking her to the outhouse and his threat to tell the other parents, but simply did not trust what the outcome of telling him would be. For all she knew they may team up against her and that would be far worse than dealing with them separately.

As she was putting on her wraps Mr. Brewster told her that he would be down around noon time to take her to the latrine and would bring her dinner then.

Outside, she found there had been a snowstorm in the night. She had to break her path to the schoolhouse all over again, the higher drifts making that bump within the belt to vex her further. The early sunshine was faintly pink on miles of pure snow and every little shadow was thin blue. As Laura plunged and plowed through the soft drifts, she saw Clarence breaking a path for Tommy and Ruby behind him, and she was struck with the dissonance of his darker nature towards her the evening before and the care he took of his smaller siblings.

They floundered to the school-shanty’s door at the same time. Little Ruby was covered from head to foot with snow, even her hood and her braids were snowy. Laura brushed her and told her to keep her wraps on until the room was warmer. Clarence put more coal on the fire and refilled the coal hod without being asked while Laura swept the snow through the cracks between the floor boards. Together they set the little school room to rights.

The sunshine streaming through the window made the shanty look warm despite it being colder than outdoors. Soon enough Clarence had the fire going hot and the good stove’s warmth made their breaths invisible.

At nine o’clock Laura called the school to order.

Martha and Charles came in panting, three minutes late. Laura wanted to excuse their lateness; she knew they lived farther away than the rest of them and had to break their path the whole mile. Laura had only a half mile to break and it had been hard enough. A few steps in deep snow are easy, even fun, but breaking a path was hard work that grew harder with each step.

“I am sorry but I must mark you tardy,” she said regretfully.

“We’re sorry, Miss Ingalls,” Martha said breathlessly. “We didn’t know it would take so long.”

Laura nodded agreeably. “Breaking a path is such hard work, I know. Warm yourselves thoroughly at the stove before you take your seats.”

Martha smiled at her. It was such a warm smile that Laura felt as if teaching school could be easy. While they warmed she called the Second Reader class to the front to begin lessons.

The whole morning went smoothly. Even Clarence behaved himself, though he occasionally caught her eye with a mischievous twinkle that she was sure had to do with their secret.

At noon on the dot Mr. Brewster came with the dinner pail. While the children were distracted eating he took her to the latrine. Before they went out to play Ruby came to Laura’s desk and shyly offered her a cookie, and Clarence invited her to come out and

snowball with them.

“Please do,” Martha begged. “We will have three on a side if you do!”

Laura was so pleased to be wanted, so eager to be out in the sunshine, and so relieved for an excuse to be away from Mr. Brewster that she went. It was great fun. She and Martha and Ruby fought against Charles, Clarence, and Tommy. The air was full of snowballs. Clarence and Laura were quickest of all, dodging and scooping and molding the snow with their mittened hands and throwing and dodging again. Laura was glowing warm and laughing when a great burst of snow exploded in her eyes and open mouth and plastered her whole face.

“I didn’t mean to get you like that!” she heard Clarence saying.

“It was a fair hit!” Laura laughed, blindly rubbing her eyes.

“Here, let me; stand still,” he ordered in the big-brother tone he had used for his siblings. He took hold of her shoulder as if she were ruby and wiped her face gently with the end of her muffler.

Something about the way he did that made her pause, and the look on his freckled face when her eyes were cleared made her stomach flutter.

“Thank you,” Laura said quietly.

She turned and just barely caught the stricken look on Martha’s face before the other girl could hide it, and knew that she must not play any more. She was too small, too young. It was clear that Martha had an interest in Clarence that could easily turn her against Laura if she began to think of her as competition. Clarence himself had already made it clear he was only playing along for the fun of it. He could easily become a huge problem just because he wanted to.

That very afternoon, Clarence proved her right. He caught Martha’s brown braid as it whisked across his desk when she turned her head and pulled it. Martha turned to scold him, but he smiled at her and she turned bright red instead.

“Clarence,” Laura called out, “Do not disturb Martha. Give your attention to your lessons.”

He gave her a friendly catlike grin that clearly said “Alright, if you say so, but I don’t have to.” He looked at her almost suggestively behind the heads of his classmates.

To her horror, Laura felt her own cheeks turn pink. She was angry at herself to be feeling such a way, and towards a student at that.

 She had not often been on the receiving end of male affections that weren’t aggressive, and Clarence’s flirtatious demeanor was speaking to a deeply buried hurt within herself. In her own school the boys had always been drawn to either Nelly or Mary Power. She had always felt too small, plain, and tomboyish by comparison to those more wanted girls, and would never admit it, but jealous as well. The boys were friendly to her, but not romantically inclined.

On top of that, this was the first school she had taught with older pupils. Both the Perry school and the Wilkins’ schools had been attended by younger children. She had never had to learn how to deal with pupils who were around her own age or larger than her. She couldn’t imagine how she would not have trouble with them going forward.

Finally, it was four o’clock. In one way it was a relief, but she knew that her first ‘private lesson’ with Clarence must come to pass. Even once that was out of the way she was going back to the Brewster’s where who knew what was waiting for her.

But if nothing else, Wednesday was gone. There were only Thursday and Friday. While she helped the younger pupils get ready to go she couldn’t help but hope that Pa would come for her. It would be so like Pa to come and save her from a miserable two days in the Brewster’s house. But, of course, he did not know how miserable it was. She must not expect him.

She was daydreaming about Friday night at home when the last student left, and she was alone with Clarence.

“Oh teacher, I’m ready for my lessons,” he said playfully.

Laura felt the tension between her shoulders increase. She visualized Mary happily at college to bolster her nerves before turning to face him. He was sitting on top of the front desk looking excited.

“What do you want of me, Clarence?” she asked resignedly. Her heart was already beating hard and quick.

“We can start things a little slow,” he replied, and she noticed there was a tone of nervousness behind his excitement. “For today just open your dress front so I can see your chest.”

Her fingers were tingling numb as she unbuttoned her top. Each button undone felt like another little piece of her dignity she was giving up, but she reminded herself why she was doing it. Mary needed to stay in college. Her little sisters needed clothes and books to go to school. Her family needed to buy supplies. Pa had hardly been able to get any work at all, and the crops had been decimated by crows and goffers every year. There was some food from the garden, but without her earnings they could not buy flour and coal and lamp oil.

Clarence leaned back on the desk as he watched her. One hand unbuttoned his pants and slipped his penis out between the opened fly. Slowly, his hand stroked up and down.

“Pull the corset down so I can see ‘em,” he requested quietly.

Her face burned and her fingers shook, but she pulled the corset until her chest was exposed. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, but she heard him gasp when her small breasts were freed over the top of the corset. Immediately the gasp was followed by a low groan and Clarence cursed.

Laura chanced a glance at him and saw he had stopped moving his hand and a viscous white goo was oozing over his fingers. Had he already finished?

“Did you…” she trailed off, stunned.

He yanked a handkerchief out of his pocket and began to wipe up the mess before it could drip down onto his pants.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” he said, out of breath. “I’ve never seen any bare before and I got too excited.”

She was too stunned to even think clearly. Until that moment the only man to ever pay her any attention was the younger Mr. Wilder who had walked her home from church a few times, and from the school exhibition the night before she was offered this teaching position. He had been polite, but never looked at her with any overt romantic interest. No boys her age had ever been interested in her before either, yet here was one who was so excited by the sight of her he had done that in seconds.

Clarence stood up and righted his clothes. He noticed that Laura had not moved, and so reached over and pulled the top of her corset back up into place and began buttoning her dress top.

“Let’s get you covered back up. Wouldn’t want such small sweet things to freeze off when I’ve only just started to enjoy them!” he said brightly with a large lopsided grin.

She gazed up at him silently, her blue eyes large and shining in a way they never had when she looked on another person. He had coerced her into an immoral deal, but he was not unkind to her. He teased and cut up in school, but he had twice been quick to take care of her when he saw she needed it. She was so conflicted about him she could not speak.

Clarence’s eyebrows creased and his expression became more serious. “You okay?”

Laura gave herself a little shake. “Yes, yes I am alright.”

He smiled at her, and finished the last button right under her chin. “Good! You worried me for a moment there. Thanks for the lesson, Miss Ingalls!”

With that he was out the door and she was alone.

Absentmindedly she readjusted her clothes. She was lost in thought while she swept the room, cleaned the blackboard, straightened the desks, and closed the stoves drafts. Her wraps were put on mechanically. The whole walk back to the Brewsters’ she did not even notice the inside of the belt rubbing ever so slightly against her.

Inside she did not bother to say a word to Mrs. Brewster. She put her things away and helped with the work silently. Mrs. Brewster’s sullen silence went unnoticed. When Mr. Brewster came in from the barn she went with him to the latrine without a word. All through dinner she ate without ever knowing what was on her plate. The work after dinner was done, and she sat for the time before bed staring blankly at a page without knowing what it said. When the clock chimed 9 o’clock she went into the bedroom, changed clothes, and curled up in her spot next to the wall without saying goodnight.

Laying there shivering under the quilts, Laura could only think, as she had all evening

long, that she must not let the feelings she had for Clarence be known to anyone, least of all herself.