'Someday I'm going to marry one of them,' thought the seven year old, perched on her window seat, peaking through the white curtains with the little pink flowers.  She was of course, referring to the King and his accompanying noblemen who moved loudly down her street every Tuesday and Friday evenings. Rosemary would never miss a night watching these men in their dark robes, colorful vests, and thick gloves move between the houses.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear her father come into the room.  She turned her head, startled, when she heard her name.

"Rosemary?"

She was still kneeling, hands resting on the sill, but now had her head turned towards her father. 'Oh no!' she thought to herself. 'He's making me miss the show!'

"What are you doing there?" her father, Henry, said sternly as he walked into the room, turning on the Little Mermaid desk lamp next to the single bed in the middle of the room.

"Um…" Rosemary couldn't think of a good reason to be out of bed at nearly 10 at night, so she simply looked at the floor. Her father walked to her side and picked her up, peering out the window.

"Sweetie, were you watching the garbage men?" He was a bit perplexed. Rosemary knew her bedtime was 8, and though she didn't have to be asleep, she was not allowed to get out of her bed.

"Er, yes Daddy." Rosemary looked at her father, her small green eyes piercing the shadowed blackness between them.  She knew she was going to get a spanking.  She had been spanked for something similar before - only that time she had been caught drawing with a flashlight and crayons.

Henry sat on the mussed-up bed, setting his little girl in front of him. He never liked having to spank Rosemary, but felt it was a necessary evil to parenting. His father had spanked him when he was growing up, and believed in it strongly. The only difference between his childhood spankings and Rosemary's, were that he was spanked with a leather strap. He couldn't bring himself to use the small paddle his father had given him, and had remained steadfast in using his hand.

"Don't spank me! I won't do it again, I promise," Rosemary looked right at her father, eyes large, her mouth open slightly.

"I have to Rosemary." Henry didn't like to talk much. She knew the rules and the consequences. He pulled her close and reached under her nightshirt and pulled her snug Beauty and The Beast underwear down to her knees. Quickly lifting her over his lap, the spanking commenced before Rosemary could really process it.

Her reaction was delayed, but she quickly grew animated. Her howls and "Ows!" and "Ouches!!" fell on the seemingly deaf ears of her father, as well as the garbage men listening through the cracked window in her bedroom.