My thanks as always go to my two special friends for their technical advice. To my Beta readers for their help and their ability to always point and laugh. Also my friend vcwriter17b, who did the final edit for me. It's these people that lend me something so precious, their time. Thank you all.
*******
I took the long way home. Even as the past few days once again played themselves out in my thoughts, I reluctantly had to smile. With Abe as Traveler, he was finally going to get his hands dirty and drag the families back from the brink. But after our talk, he just turned and bowed to me. Not only that, Cindy had seen him do it. I almost screamed, 'what the fuck', back at him.
Generations of travelers have had to get their hands dirty for the sake of the families at some time in their position as head of the families. Commonly known by the name of Traveler. Yet all Abe did was talk of his own family problems and keeping his last two boys in line. Shame he couldn't do that with Callum. The prison system and inmates met him halfway on that one.
The house loomed closer, as was my divorce from the man I've truly come to love like no other. Even as the engine came to a stop, my ass refused to move from the car seat. I had spouted loyalty and commitment to the families to Abe and what did he do, cut and run. A tear trickled down my cheek, God I'm going to miss this place, my home, my family.
I was within my rights to refuse of course, but that would have left a hole in the families as a whole, the families would be rudderless, many would go under and be forced to leave a life they had inherited from mothers and fathers alike. Now I'm going to spend so much time away from the man who stood by me when I was at my utmost lowest. My own immediate family was safe, but the families of the river, those very river people that up until a few years ago, I was not only one of them, my father led them. And, with his death, I had led them.
Taking a deep breath, expelling it ever so slowly, because I knew that at the end of it, I had to get out of the car and hope like hell my husband and children will understand. As I opened the door and stepped inside, the silence was almost crushing.
My husband Robert was sitting in his comfortable chair staring at me as I closed in on him. Looking around the room felt so odd, I should be tackled to the floor by our two munchkins by now.
My eyes rested on Robert. "Where are the children?"
His face was as neutral as I've never seen it and I had been able to read this man almost as long as I'd known him.
Robert used his head to nod towards me, his hands holding onto the arms of the chair he was sitting in. "Barry came by an hour ago, he took them home with him. What is going to be said now will let us both know when we can see them again."
I stiffened, still not sure what I was hearing.
I knelt down in front of him, I lost focus, the tears in my eyes blurring the view of my one true love. "Robert ... I need..."
"No Cassie, the time to talk would have been after Brenda Cooper's funeral, at worst, after the trial of that scumbag son of Abe's. Not now, now is so past the time to talk. Now is the time for action."
My heart sank lower than the floor of the basement.
"Please Robert, we do need..."
"Stand, take off your shoes, drop your pants and I'm assuming you're wearing panties, because they're coming off as well."
The specificity of his request wasn't a coincidence, sure there was anger in his eyes, but he would never have even suggested this. That lightbulb moment came to me, just as defeat stood beside the reality of what I was going to do.
I think Robert detected the defeat in my voice, when I said. "You've spoken to Cindy."
The nod came first and now conceding defeat and vainly attempting to throw myself at the mercy of my husband, I took my sneakers off, my jeans dropped and my panties followed barely a few seconds later. I did have the wherewithal to pull both completely off, the shame of what I was doing was enough, waddling the last few paces to his lap like a duck would have had me in tears.
I didn't have to do this, I'm sure I could come up with several reasons why I could put a stop to this in a heartbeat. Being Traveler was one reason, but being this man's wife and bed partner had equaled that very statement. So many years ago, I, Cassie Marshal, had looked into this man's eyes and told him that I loved him and I meant every word. The two children in our lives were to us the icing on this big beautiful cake.
Since Cindy had been here, she would have told Robert what I needed to do to keep the families from going under. I may be Traveler now; I may be in a marriage with this wonderful man. But to keep the families together, I was going to have to spend weeks if not months away trying to salvage what Abe had done. That alone would be putting so much of a strain on my own marriage. I had to give my husband this, he deserved it for what I needed to do.
It hurt like a bitch. It was humiliating and I deserved every goddamn handprint on both cheeks of my ass. I chose not to count, my burning ass wasn't interested in the number, just wanting to know when it was all going to end and in what year would I be able to sit on a seat without the aid of a very soft cushion.
Suddenly he stopped, I had held back the tears and had even stifled the thought that a little begging him to stop might help. But he had stopped, and then he placed an arm over the small of my back to stop me from moving. Even though, at that moment my thoughts were leaning more towards rolling off onto the floor and begging him to forgive me, while I was maybe curled up into a ball.
His hand once again came to my abused ass cheeks, the cream soothed the burning pain and a gentle moan escaped my treacherous lips.
Every day I bless the Gods for sending this man to me. Even now, when I'm bent over his lap and he's rubbing that soothing cream into my ass cheeks, I still love him to bits. He knows I could snap his neck, bust him up so badly, such was my childhood I suppose. Even at a young age I knew I was being groomed to take the mantle of Traveler. Being ex-military himself, my father had taught me the dark arts. From hand to hand, then onto the use of firearms.
Throughout my time as Traveler, what my father had taught me had held me in good stead. My dad always said that you had to learn to take it, just as much as dish it out and yet I'm putty in this man's hands. Yes, he knows it and I'm eternally grateful that he doesn't abuse that fact. Regardless, my burning ass was telling me otherwise.
After a while Robert lowered me onto the floor. He kept me on my hands and knees as he straddled me so that he could undo my blouse and my bra.
Feeling just a little brave, I said. "Although as your wife I wouldn't stop you, I do question your morals of taking advantage of a woman in pain here."
He laughed and I was grateful for that.
My husband got me to stand; he then carried my now naked form to our bed, and then had me lay face down while he laid next to me, anger still in his eyes.
"Cindy left the place you had your meeting with Abe and got here a day and a half later, you took three days to make the same journey. Am I that much of an ogre that you had to take twice as long as your enforcer to come to me and tell me what happened with your meeting with Abe?"
My hand sought his, thankfully he allowed the contact I so desperately needed from him.
"Before we married, I made you a promise and I've kept that promise, you and both our children have held my love because I was sure that with Abe's help, the families were safe. Yet, now Callum is dead, the twins in the wind. Abe relinquished the title of Traveler and handed it back to me and the families are on the brink of falling apart. The fallout of that will be felt for generations to come, destroying so many of our families along the way."
My hand went out and laid on his cheek, a tear came to my eyes and followed gravity towards the pillow.
"All that I have said so far is the only positive from all this. In real truth, if I don't pull this around within the next eighteen months to two years, the families will fall. Generations will move away from the water, from the canals, where we belong. Forget Abe, he has shown his true color and that's yellow. I have to at least try; my soul and conscience scream at me that I have to at least try.
"I am Traveler; we have led from the beginning. The families look to me as a symbol of hope, prosperity and a continuation of a way of life that has kept us fed and nurtured for so many generations."
Yet right at this moment in time, I crawl over to my husband, rest my head on his chest and cry my eyes out.
*******
I was alone when I woke. I could hear talking from the other room but nothing to indicate what they were talking about. All I knew was that Robert was next door, slowly I moved to get off the bed, then stood before reaching for my dressing gown. Robert was by the kitchen when I came in, he waved and pointed towards the couch, I laid across it, my ass still too warm to argue about it.
Watching as Robert had a coffee in one hand and a notepad in the other he came over, placed the coffee onto the table and sat on the floor next to me on the couch.
"Okay, this is what Barry and I've got so far. I talked to the waterways authority and bid for Callum's boat. They couldn't agree quickly enough. The lorry transporting it down to Barry Mitchell's boatyard arrived an hour ago and has just left the yard. Barry already sorted out a work crew to rewire the boat and I'm sure a fresh coat of paint will be added, the engine is being looked into since you and Cindy sugared the damn thing."
It had been some time since I'd even thought about Callum's boat. As a matter of fact, the Waterways Authority would have removed it from the canal to a storage facility. Once the police had finished with it though, since at the time it was still considered part of an ongoing investigation and Callum's now of course dead, they had a boat they didn't want taking up space in one of their storage yards.
My cheeks warmed and he smiled.
"Barry is sending the paperwork onwards to register the boat to the boatyard."
Going over everything Robert had said, left me feeling a little dizzy.
"How did you manage to get all that done since I've only been back a few hours?"
