Little House Lewd: Chapter 9

Again that night she was awoken to her chest being fondled. The sensations were stronger now that she had spent so many days excited off and on. Clarence’s speech came back to her like a little voice, reminding her through the perverse haze that she need only to endure this. She recited psalms in her mind half coherently until she could remember no more, then she quoted poems and speeches.

The more she distracted herself, the harder Mr. Brewster seemed to be trying to get her attention. He toyed with her chest for so long she expected to see daylight, but the day never came. He slipped his long, narrow rod between her slick thighs from behind. His hands never tired of tormenting her chest. When he finally came, spraying her inner thighs and the inside of her nightgown, she was only repeating a single line of ‘The Lotus Eaters’ over and over in her mind to not give way to the desperation raging inside the belt.

When he rolled over and went back to sleep she simply lay there shivering and shuddering, muscles twitching in need. It took a long time before she had enough control of herself to go get cleaned.

Friday morning dawned stormy with a cold straight wind blowing fiercely. She was so tired from the consecutive nights of broken sleep that she could not bring herself to even attempt conversation or cheerfulness with the Brewster’s who did not try either.

All day at school Laura listened to the wind. She was afraid that its sound would change to a blizzard’s howl. The wind blew through the cracks in the walls and gaps around the window. The sound rose and fell, always blowing snow from the drifts. Every time she looked out the window her hope that Pa would come for her dwindled until she was sure he would not. Twenty-four miles in such cold weather was too much for the old farm horses.

At recess Clarence came in early to check on her.

“You don’t look well,” he said, his face serious.

“I’ve been hoping that my Pa would come get me today and take me home over the weekend,” Laura admitted dejectedly. “With the weather like this he won’t be able to. I don’t know how I’m going to get through the time till Monday.”

“Aunt Livy is a cranky old bat,” Clarence said stoutly. “Likely she’s jealous that Uncle Lou is showing attention to you. She’s always hated any woman being around him, and with him acting like you say right in front of her she’s probably fit to be tied. Not having Johnny at home probably isn’t making her too happy either, but Mama saw how she was the other day and thought Livy might try to drown him if she got too upset with Uncle Lou.”

Laura looked at him in surprise. “Has she drowned a baby before?”

Clarence shrugged. “Can’t prove nothing, but their first baby drowned when she was upset at him, so Mama thought it was better to be safe than sorry.”

He went back outside then, leaving her with those thoughts to process. If she had done such a thing to her own child just for being angry at her husband, what would she be willing to do to Laura?

By late afternoon it was clear that they were all simply going through the motions until the day was over. She turned from another long look at the window to see Charles sitting half asleep, eyes pointing at his book but not at all seeing it. Suddenly he jumped, wide awake. Clarence had jabbed his arm with a pin. He caught her eye for a moment with a smirk, and she almost laughed, but caught herself. No matter that she was friendly with him, she could not let this pass.

“Clarence, why aren’t you studying?”

“I know all my lessons,” he replied easily.

She did not doubt that. He learned quickly. He could keep up with Martha and Charles and still have plenty of idle time.

“We will see how well you know your spelling then,” she challenged. “Third spelling class, rise. Come forward.”

Indeed, Clarence correctly spelled every word she gave him. She was sure that he had missed words the first day just to test how she would punish him for fun.

The shanty suddenly trembled in a howling wind. She listened closely, trying to discern if the pitch was rising and wondered whether she should dismiss school early. If she did not and the storm grew worse, Charles and Martha might never reach their home.

She listened harder. It seemed that the wind had a silvery sound. They all tilted their heads to better hear, but none of them knew what to make of it. The sky was the same gray with low fast-moving clouds it had been all day. The strange sound grew clearer, almost like music. Suddenly, the whole air filled with a chiming of little bells. Sleigh bells!

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; the wind was not becoming a blizzard after all. Two brown horses swiftly passed the window. Laura recognized the Morgan horses of young Mr. Wilder. Prince and Lady were standing close outside the south wall sheltered from the wind by the shanty.

Laura was so excited that she had to steady her voice before she could speak.

“The class may be seated. You may all put away your books. It is a little early, but the storm is growing worse. School is dismissed.”

Clarence dashed outdoors and came back a moment later. “It’s someone for you, teacher.”

Laura was helping Ruby into her coat. “Tell him I will be there in a minute.” She looked up at him happily, but he did not smile back. For a moment she was sure he looked troubled, but he was already talking to Charles.

“Come on, Charles. You ought to see his horses!” Clarence was back out the door before anyone else got a word out.

Laura didn’t have time to think more on it. She rushed into her coat and tied her hood and muffler. The stove’s drafts were closed, her mittens on, and she grabbed her books and dinner pail before carefully fastening the door behind her. All the time she was so excited she could hardly breathe. Pa had not come, but she was going home after all!

Almanzo Wilder was sitting in a cutter so low  and small that it was hardly more than a heap of furs on the snow behind Prince and Lady. He was muffled in a buffalo coat and fur cap with flaps that was as snug as a hood. He did not step out into the storm. Instead he lifted the fur robes and gave Laura his hand to help her step into the cutter. Then he tucked the robes around her.

“You want to stop at the Brewster’s?” he asked.

“I must, to leave the dinner pail and get my satchel,” Laura replied.

At the Brewster’s she dashed inside quickly and gathered all her things into her satchel.

“I am going home over the weekend,” she said happily to Mr. Brewster. “I will be back Sunday night.”

She was almost to the door before he caught her arm.

“Hold up a second,” he said, and for a horrifying moment she thought he was about to forbid her from going. He fished in the neckline of his shirt and pulled the key out. “Got to unbuckle you before you go.”

He had her lift her skirts as usual, and removed the belt.

“Thank you,” she said, both confused that he would bother and grateful to have the thing off. “Have a pleasant weekend Mr. and Mrs. Brewster!”

Getting back into the cutter she saw Almanzo looking at the house with a look she could not place, but it was all behind her now. She was going home!

Almanzo tucked the robes snugly around her, the sleigh bells began merrily ringing, and swiftly behind the brown horses they went.

Through the thick black woolen veil she said, “It’s so nice of you to come for me. I had been expecting Pa would, but with this weather I had stopped hoping.”

Almanzo hesitated. “Well… He was figuring he would, but I told him it’s a drive that would be pretty hard on his team.”

“They will have to bring me back,” Laura said doubtfully. “I must be back for school Monday morning.”

“Maybe Prince and Lady would like to make the drive again,” he replied tentatively.

Laura was embarrassed. She had not meant to hint, had not even considered that he would bring her back. Again, she had spoken before she thought. With sincerity she vowed that going forward she would always think before she spoke.

Without thinking at all of how rude it would sound, she said, “Oh you needn’t go to the trouble. Pa will bring me back.”

“It would be no bother,” Almanzo said. “Besides, I told you I’d take you for a sleigh ride when I got my cutter made. This is the cutter; how do you like it?”

Laura laughed happily. “It’s fun to ride in; it’s so little!”

He told her how he had made it smaller to be more snug and easier on the horses. As they talked the low clouds raced backwards overhead, the horse’s tossing heads filling the air with music.

Soon but not soon enough, they were at Pa’s front door. She was out of the cutter and up the steps before she stopped herself.

“Oh thank you, Mr. Wilder. Good night!” she called back breathlessly.

She launched herself the rest of the way up the stairs and into Pa’s arms as he opened the door. Ma’s whole face lit with a welcoming smile. Carrie ran to unwind Laura’s muffler and veil. Grace clapped her hand and joyfully shouted, “Laura’s home!”

Pa held her at arm’s length to look at her. “Well well well, the same little flutterbudget!”

It seemed that there were not enough breath to get all the words out. They talked all through supper. Laura was more hungry for conversation than for the food, but she ate heartily the comfort of Ma’s cooking. She told them about each of her pupils and how the days at school went, but did not utter even a whisper of the profane things she had been subjected to. There in the warmth and comfort of home she could not bare to think of the dark dreary humiliation of the Brewster’s treatment of her nor the extortion deal she had made with Clarence.

After supper and the evening work was done Pa asked for his fiddle. Laura drank in the music like a dehydrated man desperate for water. She was so happy to be there, safe, warm, with no threat of molestation. It was all she could do not to cry for joy.

At bedtime she looked from the attic window at the cheery lights of the town twinkling. Her own bed felt so soft and safe. The sound of Pa and Ma’s quiet voices talking without quarrelling at each other was like a lullaby.

It took only minutes for Laura to fall into a deep restful sleep without fear of falling off a narrow sofa or hands pawing beneath her nightgown. She did not even dream. The night seemed to go on forever in warm comfort when almost all at once, her eyes were opening again. Downstairs the stove lid rattled, and relief to be home washed over her anew.

No matter how much they talked she did not seem to get enough. While she and Carrie did the upstairs chores after breakfast Laura said, “Carrie, do you ever think how lucky we are to have a home like this?”

Her little sister looked around, surprised. There were only the beds and their boxes of personal things, all ordinary.

“It is snug,” Carrie admitted, almost confused. “I never really thought about it before.”

“Just wait till you leave home,” Laura advised. “You’ll think then.”

Carrie lowered her voice. “Do you dreadfully hate this new school?”

“Yes, I do,” Laura whispered back. “But Pa and Ma mustn’t now that.”

They went on making the beds for a time before Carrie spoke again. “Maybe you won’t have to keep teaching. Maybe you’ll get married like Ma did. After this school you’ll have taught more terms than she did when she met Pa. Maybe Mr. Wilder?”

Laura laughed. “I don’t want to be married! And certainly I wouldn’t marry Mr. Wilder; he’s a friend of Pa’s and been a homesteader for several years already so he’s not likely to want an old maid school teacher like me. I likely remind him of his sister when she was teaching our school. I’d rather stay home anyway.”

Carrie scoffed good naturedly at her. “You’re eighteen; hardly an old maid!”

With the house chores completed Laura set washwater to heat and went to unpack her satchel. Going through the clothes, she made sure to pull out her other nightgown that had twice been sullied by Mr. Brewster that week. She was surprised to find the garment was clean, with nary a stain to be found. It was as if it had never even been worn.

Confused, Laura set it aside. She left the rest of her clothes next to the washboiler and went to see Mary Power while the water continued to heat. She wanted to see if she were keeping up with her own class in town by studying alone.

“So, how are you liking your new school?” Mary Power asked when they were alone in her room, chatting while Mary got out her school books.

“I’m getting along alright, I guess,” Laura said. “I’d rather be home. I’ll be so glad when the two months are over and I can come back.”

“Graduation is right around the corner. Once you get back there will only be a little while and then we’ll be all done with our schoolgirl days,” Mary Power said wistfully. Then her tone changed more playfully. “Nellie Oleson tried to get your seat, but Ida  wouldn’t let her. She said she’s saving that seat for you till you come back, and Mr. Owen said she can.”

“Whatever did Nellie want my seat for?” Laura exclaimed. “After the way she swindled that seat for herself when Miss Wilder was teaching you’d have thought it was pure gold.”

Mary fluttered her hand dismissively. “She just wants anything anybody else has, that’s all. Oh Laura she’ll be fit to be tied when I tell her that Almanzo Wilder brought you home in his new cutter! I can hardly wait!”

The girls laughed till their eyes watered thinking of the way Nellie’s face would pucker when she heard the news.

“She’s high and mighty thinking she’s such-a-much, refusing to do any work like that will make a man like her more. She still doesn’t realize that out here a man wants a wife who can do more than sit around like an ornament in the house. I’d say she’s sorely mistaken if she thinks being pretty is going to turn the head of a man like Almanzo Wilder,” Mary went on, “Especially as he’s already beauing you home!”

“Oooooh, no! No he isn’t!” Laura cried out. “It isn’t like that at all; he just came for me as a favor to Pa.”

Mary’s dark eyes sparkled more darkly at her, and a teasing grin came to her face. “He must think a lot of your Pa!”

By the time Laura got home the water was hot. She spent the rest of the day washing and ironing in the cozy sitting room. She ripped her brown velvet hat, talking all the time with Ma and Carrie and Grace. She helped Ma to get an early supper and happily bathed in the warm kitchen before bed.

If I could only live like this for always I’d never want anything more, Laura thought as she went to sleep. Ruefully, she knew that by that same time next day she would be back in the clutches of Mr. Brewster. This comfort would only be temporary.