But suddenly, Gary Spaulding was blocking my way, his hand around my upper arm.
“I wasn’t asking you, sweetie—I was telling you,” he snarled. “Now get upstairs and I’ll be along to tuck you in soon.”
“No!” I shouted in his face. “I know what you did to Maria but you’re not going to do it to me!”
He went pale for a moment, then his face darkened and his grip on my arm tightened.
“You shut your mouth about what doesn’t concern you, you little slut!” he snapped. “Now get upstairs—that’s an order!”
“I don’t think she wants to go, Mr. Gary.”
Nick’s voice came from the basement door and I saw him standing there, a frown on his face. He had on nothing but a ragged pair of pajama bottoms and his muscular arms were folded over his bare chest. I looked up at him hopefully—could he really get me out of this, the same way he had often talked Nancy out of punishing me?
At first, it didn’t look like he could.
“Nicolas, this isn’t your business. Go on back to the barn now—Kira and I have some things to discuss.” Gary Spaulding drew himself up as he spoke, acting like he was a wise, all-knowing adult speaking to a kid who didn’t understand grown-up things.
But Nick was having none of it.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Gary, I can’t do that,” he said mildly, but there was glint of steel in his forest green eyes. “You see,” he continued, “I happen to know that Kira has a very important music test in band early tomorrow morning—she might even get a scholarship! But if she’s distracted or tired because she stayed up too late and she doesn’t do well, I’m afraid her band teacher might want to know what kept her up.”
“What?” Gary Spaulding’s mouth was hanging open in surprise but Nancy Spaulding’s eyes were narrowing as she stared at Nick.
“The school guidance councilor will probably want to know too,” he went on, still speaking in a mild, conversational tone of voice. “And maybe even the principal. It would be a real shame if all those nice people had to get involved just because Kira was too tired to do well on her test. Don’t you think?”
For a moment Gary Spaulding’s hand tightened on my arm until I was sure he was leaving a bruise.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he growled at Nick.
“Dare to do what?” Nick asked, his smile hardening. “Dare to let people know what you and Nancy do to the kids in your care? Dare to let them know we sleep in a barn instead of a bedroom? Dare to tell them we spend all our spare time cleaning your house and mowing your lawn?”
“You…you’re just earning your keep!” Gary Spaulding sputtered.
“How about the way you never give us anything but scraps to eat and rags to wear?” I demanded, finding my own voice at last. “Or the way you have locks on the pantry and refrigerator and we’re all half starved all the time? Or what about the box?”
But I had pushed it too far.
“The box is where you’re going right now, young lady!” Nancy Spaulding snapped. She stomped over to me and grabbed me by my other arm.
But her husband didn’t want to let me go. For a moment, they both pulled on me and I felt like I was in the middle of a tug of war!
“Let me have her first,” Gary growled. “I’ll teach the little slut a lesson!”
“For fuck’s sake, Gary!” Nancy snapped. “You can’t! The things you do leave traces. Yes, even when you’re ‘careful,’” she added, forestalling his protest. “If someone actually complained and they examined the girl, they’d be able to tell. The box is a punishment that doesn’t leave marks.”
“But I’ve been waiting so long for her to get ripe!” Gary Spaulding sounded like a spoiled child. “It’s my turn with her—you agreed!”
“Not…Tonight,” Nancy enunciated the words, glaring at him.
“Not ever,” Nick growled, giving the two of them a hard stare. “Take your hands off Kira right fucking now!”
“Watch your language, young man!” Nancy Spaulding whipped around to face him. “Don’t you dare say another word! All this time we trusted you and now you threaten us like this? Of all the ungrateful, horrible things to do!”
“You’re not putting her in the box,” Nick snarled and I thought his forest green eyes looked almost gold for a moment.
“Oh, yes I am!” Nancy snapped. “And you’re not going to say a thing because no one will believe you. She won’t be hurt in any way, but she will spend the night in the box for disobedience. Now!”
She marched me over to the box and threw back the lid. I hadn’t been inside it in years—not since Nick had come and had smoothed things over with his charm. Now I stared at the small wooden space in fear. Had it gotten smaller? I had been a skinny little girl the last time I had been forced into the tiny space. Now I was almost a woman, my body bigger and fuller—which meant there would be much less room for me in there.