CHAPTER XII
THE RECKONING
The whole house was in silence as noiselessly she stole down the stairs.It was close upon midnight, and she did not meet or hear anyone. Theplace might have been empty, so still was it.
The long, long roar of the sea came to her as she groped her way downthe winding, dark passage that led to the room from which Bunny had beenso rudely ejected a few hours before. There was no light here, but sheknew her way perfectly, and, finding the door, softly opened it andturned on the electric light.
The room was just as she had left it, the sofa drawn up by the burnt-outfire. She had collected all Bunny's things earlier in the evening, but,since the rug had been forgotten, she thought it advisable to take theopportunity of ascertaining if anything else had been left behind. Shefound the rug, pushed the sofa back against the wall, and began a quietsearch of all the drawers and other receptacles the room contained.
She had almost finished her task, and was just closing the writing-tabledrawer when a sudden sound made her start. A creaking footstep camefrom the passage beyond the open door. She turned swiftly with ajerking heart to see her step-father, bloated and malignant, standing onthe threshold.
For a single instant he stood there looking at her, and a great throb ofmisgiving went through her at the savage triumph in his eyes. He hadbeen drinking, drinking heavily she was sure; but he did not seem to beintoxicated, only horribly sure of himself, brutally free from anytrammels of civilization. He closed the door with decision, and movedforward.
In the same moment she moved also towards the sofa over which she hadthrown the rug she had come to fetch. Her heart was beating hard andfast, but she would not address a single word to him, would not so muchas seem to see him. Supremely disdainful, she prepared to gather up herproperty and go.
But as she turned to the door she found him barring the way. He spoke,thickly yet not indistinctly.
"Not so fast, my fine madam! I've got to have a reckoning with you."
She drew herself up to the utmost of her slim height, and gave him asingle brief glance of disgust. "Be good enough to let me pass!" shesaid, in tones of clear command.
But Sheppard did not move. He had been fortifying himself against anysudden strain such as this all day long.
"Not so fast!" he said again, with a gleam of teeth under his darkmoustache. "You made a mistake this morning, young woman; a very bigmistake. Don't make another to-night!"
Maud froze to an icier contempt. The steady courage of her must haveshamed any man in his sober senses.
"Stand aside instantly," she said, "or I shall ring the bell and rousethe house!"
He laughed at that, a cruel, vindictive laugh. "Oh, you don't come overme that way! You mean to have your lesson, I see, and p'raps it's aswell. It's been postponed too long already. There's a deal too muchspirit about you, and too much lip too. You think I'll put up withanything, don't you? Think yourself much too high and mighty toassociate with the likes of me? Think you can call me any darn' namesyou please, and I'll bear 'em like a lamb?"
His voice rose. Obviously his temper was already beyond control. Hewas in fact lashing it on to fury. Maud knew the process well.
It was enough for her, and she waited for no more. She stepped quietlyto the bell.
She was nearer to it than he, and she did not for a moment imagine thathe would dare to molest her. But she had not realized the maddenedcondition to which he had wrought himself; and even when he suddenly andviolently strode forward she did not draw back or dream that he wouldtouch her.
Only as his hand caught her outstretched arm did the knowledge that hewas as utterly beyond control as a wild beast burst upon her. Sheuttered a desperate cry, and began a sharp, instinctive struggle toescape.
It was a very brief struggle, so taken by surprise and utterlyunprepared was she. One moment she was fighting wildly for freedom; thenext he had her at his mercy.
"Oh, you may scream!" he gibed. "No one will hear you! Now--do youknow what I am going to do to you?"
"Let me go!" she panted, crimson and breathless.
He locked her two wrists together in one iron hand. His strength wasutterly irresistible. She was as a pigmy in the grip of a giant.
"I'll let you go when I've done with you," he said, gloating openly overher quivering helplessness. "But first you will have your lesson. I'mgoing to give you the trouncing of your life!"
With the words he suddenly wrenched her round and forced her, almostflung her, face downwards over the sofa-head.
"You've been spoiling for this for a long time," he said, "and--beingyour step-father--I'll see that you get it. Never had a good spankingbefore in all your life, I daresay? Well, well see how you like thisone!"
And therewith he pulled off one of his down-at-heel carpet slippers andproceeded to flog her with it, as if she had been a boy.
What she went through during that awful chastisement Maud never forgot.She fought at first like a mad creature till she was suddenly aware ofthe light wrap she wore ripping in all directions, and from that momentshe resisted no more, standing passive in an agony of apprehension whilehe wreaked upon her all the pent malice of the past few weeks.
It was a brutal punishment, administered with the savage intention ofbreaking down the stark silence with which she sought to meet it. Andeven when he succeeded at last, even when the girl's strength went fromher and she collapsed as he held her with a wild burst of hystericalcrying and broken, unnerved entreaties, he did not stay his hand. Nowwas his grand opportunity for vengeance, and he might never get another.He did not spare her until he had inflicted the utmost of which he wascapable.
Then at last roughly he set her free. "That's right! Blub away!" hejeered. "I've taken all the stiffening out of you at last, and a damn'good job too. P'raps you'll keep a civil tongue in your head for thefuture, and give me no more of your dratted impudence. There's nothinglike a sound drubbing to bring a woman to her senses. But I don'tadvise you to qualify for another."
He put on his slipper, breathing somewhat heavily after his exertions,then stood up and wiped his forehead. His fury had exhausted itself.His mood had become one of semi-malicious elation.
He looked at the girl still crouched over the sofa-head, sobbing andconvulsed, utterly broken, utterly conquered.
"Come!" he said. "Don't let us have any more nonsense! You won't giveme any more of your airs after this, and we shall be all the betterfriends for it. Stand up and say you're sorry!"
She gasped and gasped again, but no words could she utter. The hatefulcallousness of the man could not so much as rouse her scorn. Her pridewas in the dust.
He took her by the arm and pulled her roughly up, making her standbefore him though she was scarcely capable of standing.
"Come!" he began again, and broke off with a brutal laugh, staring ather.
A flame of fierce humiliation went through her, burning her from head tofoot as she realized that her night-dress had been rent open across herbosom. She caught it together in her trembling fingers, shrinking in ananguish of shame from the new devil that had begun to gibe at her out ofhis bloodshot eyes.
He laughed again. "Well, my fine madam, we seem to have pitched theproprieties overboard quite completely this time. All your own fault,you know. Serves you jolly well right. You aren't going to say you'resorry, eh? Well, well, I'd give you another spanking if I felt equal toit, but I don't. So I'll have the kiss of peace instead."
He caught her to him with the words, gripped her tightly round the body,tilted her head back; and for one unspeakable moment the heavy moustachewas crushed suffocatingly upon her panting lips.
In that moment the strength of madness entered into Maud, such strengthas was later wholly beyond her own comprehension. With frenzied forceshe resisted him, fighting as if for her very life, and so suddenly, sounexpectedly, that in sheer astonishment his grip relaxed.
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br /> It was her one chance of escape, and she seized it. With a singlefurious wrench she tore herself from him, not caring how she did it,found herself free, and fled, fled like a mad thing, panting,dishevelled, frantic, from the room.
His laugh of half-tipsy derision followed her, and all the devils ofhatred, malice, and bitter cauterizing shame went with her as she fled.