Between the Lines of Time

Chapter 19

The next few days after that night went pretty smoothly according to Maddie, Stephen went back to his job during the days and Elias and her would spend their time in the gardens and sneaking in a swim here and there. She was still torn up by his request and she was not sure if she wanted to try.

Now that that night had passed, she started to rethink all the events that had happened these past few months and she devised a plan that in order to keep her sanity and hopefully escape her predicament, she would need to keep telling herself he is not the man he is trying to be and that the second she fights him hard enough his exterior will crack. So she set out to do just that believing that once she saw the monster he was in true form again, her feelings would no longer be so confused and she can get back on track with working on a plan of escape.

She thought long and hard on what her plan should be as far as getting Stephen to reveal himself and she thought that maybe her going against his direct orders would be the best option in this moment. She knew exactly how to do it as well.

It was Wednesday, nearing late afternoon, Elias had just been put down for a nap and Maddie knew that in less than an hour Stephen would be home from town and wanting to spend some quality time together. It was perfect, Maddie planned to be in the pond when he got home as this was a direct insult to his rule of no swimming and it was late enough in the year that if he were to get really mad, Elias wouldn't suffer the consequences if he were to put a guard in place as days were starting to cool down with the autumn breeze.

Maddie made her way to the pond, excited and a bit nervous of the events to come. She was excited as she always did love swimming and this was a moment she could enjoy to herself, self care if you will. And nervous because, well, what exactly would Stephen do?

Taking off her garments, to where she was only wearing a loose fitting shift, she dove right into the pond, smiling big as she resurfaced. She did this multiple times, just enjoying herself, almost forgetting her plan to begin with.

She was floating on her back looking up at the clouds when she heard the unmistakable sound of an angry Stephen Bonnet. Smiling to herself she pretended to not hear anything.

"MADISON!!" Stephen yelled running towards the pond the second he got out of the carriage as he saw her swimming on his up the drive. He was furious. Did she do this often? He thought as he angrily made his way to her, yelling her name as he went. He was so angry that she went against him and disobeyed. He didn't understand why as he thought things had been going well.

Reaching the waters edge he shouted, finally getting her attention. Maddie just got out of her floating position, and started to tred water, making no effort to get out

"Yes, Stephen?" she questioned in an annoyed tone,

"What in Danu's name are ye doin' in der? I told ye there would be no swimmin'" Stephen said, so angry spit flew out of his mouth, this only made Maddie smile bigger on the inside as she was ready to see his true self.

"Hmm? Well maybe you did, but like I told you before, I know how to swim and you can't stop me." Maddie said, and punctuated her stance by going under water to swim further into the middle of the pond.

"Get. Out. Of. The. Pond." Stephen said, furry dripping from every word. The blackness in his eyes did scare Maddie just enough to consider his request, but not enough to obey.

"And if I dont?" she asked, trying to sound uninterested.

"Oh darlin' ye are 'bout to find out" stephen said as he started undressing to go in after her. He hated the water yes, but that didn't mean he didn't know how to swim, and swim very well at that.

"What are you doing?" Maddie asked as she didn't expect him to actually come in after her,

"What does it look like darlin?" stephen said before he jumped into the pond in her direction.

Seeing this, Maddie quickly tried swimming further into the pond, hoping he couldn't swim as fast, she made it a few meters before she felt his hand on her ankle. She tried kicking him off but he just gripped tighter and began dragging her back towards shore.

Maddie tried with all of her might to swim away but it was no use, he had about 2 feet on her and was insanely strong compared to her. She was starting to regret her idea.

Reaching the shore, Stephen pulled her out of the water and laid her down across his lap. "I should beat ye fer disobeying me like dat" stephen snarled, still so angry, but lucky for Maddie, the cool water seemed to calm him down just enough to have a sense of awareness to him. He realized that if he were to really punish her like he wanted to, all the progress they made the last few months would be erased and he did not want that to happen. But he still needed to punish her as he was her husband and she his wife.

"You don't get to punish me just because I went swimming." Maddie shouted at him trying to get out of his grasp.

"I am yer husband and ye directly went against my rule of no swimmin' ye are in trouble and ye will be punished." Stephen said before landing a hard smack across her rear. Maddie yelped in shock and pain and tried harder to get away. Stephen just held her tighter while he spanked her several more times to where tears were rolling down her face.

"Ye will not disobey me again" Stephen said, delivering the last blow. Maddie was crying softly now as she was both in pain and angry at the embarrassing way he "punished" her.

"Now comb here" Stephen cooed, pulling maddie up to him in his arms. Maddie tried to push him away, not wanting anything to do with him, but he was still so much stronger than her. He held her against his chest and whispered sweet things in her ear, all about not wanting to lose her and yet again how water is a dangerous thing.

"You are a fucking sadist" Maddie said to him as he was holding her.

"I don't know what that means, but I take it ye are tryn to insult me." stephen said flatly, still angry from before but also worried that he would lose her like he does now in his dreams. That earned Maddie another smack on the rear but lighter this time. She still yelped in pain from the spanking she just had was still very prominent on her ass.

"Lets go inside darlin' its time fer dinner, and we have a long night o'head of us." Stephen said, picking Maddie up bridal style and walking towards the house.

All Maddie could think was that she was happy to see the monster come back as it will help her not develop feelings, but angry at herself that she is about to endure more later.