"The one you call Cassandra Wilton; I challenge you for her!"
The hulking lad towered over the much shorter and slighter husband.
"Nice joke, Parker!" returned Ralph.
"This is no joke, Wilton. This day makes me a man and under the Rites of Manhood, I have the right to challenge you."
Ralph gazed at Cassie who appeared panic-stricken.
The mayor spoke up.
"He is quite right, Ralph. Coming of Age Day usually results in our young women and men pairing off, but if none of the local girls appeal to a lad or he favors a woman already spoken for he has the right to challenge her husband or fiancé for her."
"Since when?"
"For more than three hundred years! I know you and the Misses came from a backwater, but you agreed to live by our town rules when you made a covenant with us."
"It's absurd! Parker is twice my size."
"Refuse to fight and you lose by default. No one respects a man who surrenders his woman without a fight."
"Don't I have a say in this?" interjected Cassie.
"You have the right to abide by our rules. All your rights come through your husband or father. Whatever happens, you will continue to have a husband and retain all the rights you have now."
"That's not comforting in the least!" stated Cassie in terror.
"How am I supposed to fight?" asked Ralph.
"As manly as possible, nude and hand-to-hand."
"He'll kill me!"
"Deaths are rare and considered unsporting," intoned the mayor.
"This is insane!"
"Not at all," replied Mayor Gates, "It is a longstanding and honorable tradition. A brave and bold young man proves his worth to the entire community and the female object of his desire. Short of going to war and returning a hero he can't impress more people faster or more convincingly."
"But I don't want to be Parker's wife! I belong to Ralph!"
"For now." Intoned the mayor.
Parker walked over to the circle marked off in lye beneath a pole in the town square and began unbuttoning his shirt. The young ladies of the town oohed at his exposed muscles.
"He has laid down the challenge, Wilton. Accept his challenge or let everyone, including your wife think you a coward. Remember, the battle does not always go to the strongest nor the race to the swiftest."
Ralph looked at the mayor. There was no question he was being serious! Some of the townsmen, his peers and those he had done business with surrounded him and edged him towards the circle. A group of the town's largest ladies as well as younger wives and girls who had just come of age in the ceremony surrounded Cassie completely hiding her from view.
"Stop!" she screamed as they reached for her clothing.
"Don't make a spectacle of yourself!" intoned the mayor's dowager of a wife. The sound of slaps and tearing clothing could be heard emanating from the scrum of women.
"Ralph!" cried Cassie before her mouth was muffled.
Parker Gray was naked now. His fine physique glistened under the reddish sunset. The lad was large everywhere. Ralph felt the men tugging at his clothes.
"Be a man, Wilton," one of them intoned. "There is no shame in losing like a man to a man. Show us all you don't have a pussy."
Knowing resistance would be futile. Ralph loosened his tie and cast off his jacket and waistcoat. He undid the top buttons and tugged his shirt off his slim frame. Ralph was thin but wiry. He had a divot in his pigeon chest, but his arms were comparatively muscular from nearly a year from operating his printing press, even with the steam power assist. Some of the newly minted adult women snickered at the sight.
The women surrounding Cassie broke their huddle. She was clad in just a thin blanket that hid her from armpits to thigh. They had chased down every pin in her hair. It fell like an anthracite Niagara halfway down her back Her crystal blue eyes were wide with confusion, rage, and terror. The mayor's sturdy wife took Cassie by the scruff of the neck and marched her to the pole abutting the circle in the town square. Cassie's arms were forced up and the town farrier locked her wrists in a pair of manacles that the panic-stricken woman was only now noticed.
Ralph finished stripping off. His spindly legs and flat buttocks elicited some chuckles as did his unimpressive manhood.
The mayor's hefty wife wolf-whistled at Ralph and then donned a mischievous expression.
"Shall we show the town what these gentlemen are fighting over, Mrs. Wilton?"
With a flourish, she tugged away Cassie's blanket leaving her in just her marital jewelry. Cassie screamed and flushed scarlet from head to toe.
Still in a state of disbelief, Ralph was pushed into the circle as a whistle sounded and the mayor belted "Begin!"
Ralph had the presence of mind to swipe up some lye designating the circle and tossing it in Parker's face. Startling the lad and leaving him flatfooted. Ralph launched himself at Parker and knocked him off his feet. The townspeople gasped and applauded. The printer's worth had just risen tremendously in their eyes.
Parker, his eyes still stinging and practically blind, grappled with Ralph who delivered a most satisfying knee to Parker's groin. The lad, now in great pain and enraged, managed to get a firmer grip on the older, thinner man. He rose to his full height and tossed Ralph into the center of the ring, The awkward angle at which Ralph landed combined with the force of impact snapped his tibia like a twig. Ralph tried to rise, but the pain caused him to crumble. Parker stood over him, daring Ralph to stand up. The new printer tried two more times. On his second attempt, the fractured bone broke his skin to horrified gasps from the crowd, especially the townswomen. The town doctor hurried into the ring as the mayor raised Parker's hand and arm in official triumph.
Cassie looked on stunned. Her nudity, for the moment, was forgotten. "Ralph!" she cried. It was as though she could feel every bit of her husband's pain. She saw Doctor Bruner open his bag, saw him place a wad of leather in Ralph's mouth and with the help of two strong men, set the bone and splint his leg. Only then did it dawn on Cassie that he had lost. Parker quickly redressed. He loomed into vision. His eyes were hideously bloodshot from the lye, with a wolfish leer upon his face. He eyed Cassie head to toe, grinned, and retrieved her cast-off blanket. With one hand he wrapped her, with the other he opened the catch on the manacles. Cassie's stretched taut body collapsed into his arms. He kissed her deeply before throwing her over his right shoulder and heading out of the town square and onto Main Street and his home atop his Leather goods shop. Cassie felt as though she was gazing down at her body from a great height. As if all of this was happening to a stranger. She was too stunned to protest, to try and squirm away. It was all beyond comprehension. This was not how the fairytale was supposed to end! She thought back to the events of less than a year.
**
