Reckonings #Spank2z Blog Hop

I had a bit of a hiccup last week so I've missed a few days but am back with the letter R today for Spanking Romance Reviews and Celeste Jones' A - Z Blog Hop challenge. I've just skipped Q altogether - forgive me but I'm not so creative...although I do hope today's post makes up for it.

So R for me is for Reckonings. One book I love which is not a spanking book but had (to my utter surprise and glee) a pretty rough spanking scene in it, is Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. I wasn't expecting spanking and this is before I'd discovered that there were whole romances devoted to spankings so you can imagine how dog eared this particular chapter is. If you've not read this series of books (I think there are six or seven or maybe even eight by now), they're wonderful. I highly recommend them. Jamie Frasier is probably one of the most seductive alpha male's I've ever read.

As I was looking around the internet (hoping to find the snippet that I could cut and paste in here without having to retype it from my book), I came across several discussions about this particular chapter. There were people who were so offended by this 'beating' that they almost stopped reading the book. I understand it, but in a way, it brought even more to light how our books may be perceived by people who are not inclined toward BDSM or spanking or maybe in particular, non-consensual punishment spanking.

The scene I want to share with you is a punishment scene where Claire disobeyed Jamie's orders to stay hidden, got caught by the enemy and required rescuing that put a whole bunch of men's lives in danger. One thing to note is the time is 1743 in Scotland where this sort of punishment was not unheard of.

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Jamie unfastened his collar and cuffs and unbuckled his sword belt, made no move to undress further. He pulled the strap from the scabbard and doubled it, flexing the leather meditatively.

"Come to bed, Jamie. What are you waiting for?" Claire asked.

He came to stand by the bed, swinging the belt gently back and forth.

"Well, lass, I'm afraid we've a matter still to settle between us before we sleep tonight." I felt a sudden stab of apprehension.

"What is it?"

He didn't answer at once. Deliberately not sitting down on the bed by me, he pulled up a stool and sat facing me instead.

"Do you realize, Claire," he said quietly, "that all of us came close to bein' killed this afternoon?"

I looked down at the quilt, shame faced. "Yes, I know. My fault, I'm sorry."

"Aye, so ye realize," he said. "Do you know that if a man among us had done such a thing, to put the rest in danger, he would ha' likely had his ears cropped, or been flogged, or killed outright?" I blanched at this.

"No, I didn't know."

"Well, I know as you're not yet familial with our ways, and it's some excuse. Still, I did tell you to stay hid, and had ye done so, it would never have happened..."

(conversation carries on for a bit, then, when he thinks Claire is on board with taking the punishment...)

"Well, then," he said. "Best get on with it. You've done considerable damage by crossing my orders, and I'm going to punish you for it, Claire. Ye'll recall what I told ye when I left ye this morning?" I recalled all right, and I hastily flung myself across the bed so my back was pressed to the wall."

"What do you mean?"

"Ye know quite well what I mean," he said firmly. "Kneel down by the bed and lift your skirts, lass."

* * * * * * * *

I'll leave you there and apologies for the interruption in the middle but I'm typing from a book! If you'e not read the Outlander series, it's definitely worth doing so. I hope you enjoyed today's snippet and don't forget to hop along to the other participating sites!

Here's a handy link to the book if you're interested: