“The town of Lusty was founded in the 1880s by two ménage families?” Drew’s eyebrows had shot up.
Julia grinned. “We like to say that our townspeople have earned the name, time and time again, ever since.”
Dev chuckled. “I was under the impression that living ‘alternative lifestyles’ was an invention of the new millennium.”
“Oh, not at all. Someday you should sit down and do an Internet search. There are several well-documented and famous examples of ménage relationships throughout history.”
“Now I’m intrigued,” Drew said.
Dev felt the same way. Of course, what Julia had just said went a long way toward explaining that interesting first meeting they’d had back in New York with her grandmother, Kate Benedict.
“Then,” Julia said, “after we finish with the museum, I’ll take you to meet my best friend, who happens to be the sous-chef at the restaurant in town.” Julia chuckled. “We’re kind of a tight-knit community. You just might get to meet a whole lot of cousins—Benedicts, Jessops, and Kendalls, including the sheriff.” She leaned forward. “I’ve always been one of his favorite cousins.”
“Good. We’d like to meet as many members of your family as possible,” Drew said.
“What about your brothers, sweetheart? Will they likely show up at the restaurant to check us out, too?”
“No, thank goodness! Fortunately, they’re in Houston. They left New York not long after I did. They’ve decided to move the headquarters of Benedict International from New York back to Texas.”
“That’s too bad. I was particularly looking forward to meeting them.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d just as soon put that off for as long as possible.” Her brow furrowed, and he wanted to smooth out the worry lines with his lips. “My brothers—all six of them, but especially the triplets—can be really nosy and intrusive when they put their minds to it. The last thing you want, believe me, is to have them give you a hard time.”
Dev flicked a quick glance at Drew, who responded by grinning. Julia might be dreading the usual interference and high-handedness of her siblings because she was afraid they’d try to make things uncomfortable for them.
Dev knew that in this, as in most things, he and Drew were on the same page. Julia’s brothers were welcome to try and make things difficult for them. In fact, he sincerely hoped they would.
The sooner they found out Julia now had two completely devoted champions, the better.
Chapter 7
“This is one of my favorite photographs.” Julia stood aside so both Devon and Drew could get a good look at the sepia-colored print.
She would point out to them, when they went to the Big House later, the very spot where this picture had been taken. The family still used the side lawn for picnics, although these days it was a much larger group that would gather there for such events.
In this photo, that had been digitally reproduced, enlarged, and enhanced, were the founding families of Lusty, Texas. Sarah Benedict, seated in a rocking chair, looked serenely happy holding her twin sons, Charles and Samuel. Behind her, appearing smugly proud and totally smitten, were Sarah’s two husbands, Caleb and Joshua. At the other end of the grouping, Amanda Jessop-Kendall, also reclining in a rocker, obviously pregnant and smiling, was flanked by her husbands, Adam and Warren. The men had one hand each on her shoulders, in a touch that Julia had always thought instinctive and unconscious. The love between the three of them was palpable.
This particular occasion had been a Fourth of July picnic, Julia knew, and was one of the times the families had entertained a couple of very good friends who, even in their day, had been rather well known.
“Holy hell, is that Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp?” Dev looked over at her.
“It is. That Adam Kendall was a Texas Ranger, and both Caleb and Joshua Benedict had served as US Marshals more than a time or two. Somewhere along the way, they met and became good friends with the famous lawmen. I also know from reading Sarah’s journal that Bat Masterson played an integral role in protecting her from a would-be assassin, in Denison, Texas.”
“Huh. So these Benedicts are what—your great-great-grandparents?” Drew’s brow was furrowed, and Julia grinned. She knew he was trying to figure out the family tree. It usually took newcomers quite a while to get all the connections.
“Actually, they’re all six of them my great-great-grandparents, because Sarah’s daughter Chelsea married Amanda’s sons, Jeremy Kendall and Dalton Jessop.”
“So that’s how it is that everyone in town is your cousin!” Drew looked as if he’d solved a great mystery.
“My only first cousins in town are Benedicts. The rest are fourth or fifth cousins, several times removed. Then too, later that same generation and the next, there were more marriages between both Jessop-Kendalls and Benedicts and the children of their friends, the Parker-Joneses. And of course, the children of the man and woman who comprised Sarah’s household staff—Rita and José Mendez—settled in Lusty, and thus we have Mendez, and Sanchez cousins as well.”
“Don’t forget that nice Peter Alvarez who came home to us just a couple of months back. He’s marrying Jordan Kendall and Tracy Jessop, so that’s a triple connection right there!”
Sarah turned at the sound of the soft, feminine voice. “Hi, Aunt Anna.” She went over and gave her aunt a hug and kissed her cheek.
“Hello, dear. I see you’ve brought your men around for a visit.”
Sarah introduced the men and then just stood back and watched the tough Navy SEALs with her even tougher aunt.
“You were both raised in Pennsylvania,” Anna Jessop said to the men. “But you”—she smiled at Dev—“you were born in the South. Georgia, I believe.”
“Ah…yes, ma’am. My parents moved us from Atlanta to Hazleton when I was seven.” Dev shot a glance at Julia. She just smiled at him.
“Kate told me you both served on the same SEAL team for a number of years, and now you’ve moved on to the next phase of your careers. You’re teaching what you’ve learned to young recruits over at Goodfellow.”
“We are,” Drew said.
“Well thank you both for your service to our country. We all owe everything to those of you who have the courage to stand in harm’s way.”
“Oh, well—” Dev looked sweetly flustered. Drew actually blushed.
“Of course, you won’t be in the Navy for the rest of your lives,” Anna Jessop said. “Have you given any thought as to what you’ll do after? Men, in my experience, need to keep busy. Just look at Julia’s uncles, Caleb and Jonathan. They thought they’d retire and help Bernice out with the running of the household. ” Anna made a kind of a snorting sound that left no one in any doubt as to what her opinion was of that idea.
“Um, I take it retirement didn’t work out well for them, ma’am?” Drew ventured.
“No, indeed it certainly did not. So they’ve opened their own private investigation agency. They’ve got their office right out there at the airfield, next to Morgan, Henry, and Tamara’s charter air service.” Anna nodded her head. “Mark my words, everyone is happier when the men in the family are kept busy.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Both men responded at the same time.
“So you best be thinking about what it is you’ll be doing when the time comes to leave the dress whites behind. It’s never too early to begin planning for the future, you know.”
“You’re absolutely right, Mrs. Jessop,” Dev said.
Anna Jessop nodded, clearly satisfied with that response. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll leave you to look around.” She turned her beaming, elfin-like smile on Julia. “I’ll be in the office if you need anything, dear.”
Anna trundled off toward the back corner of the museum. She usually sat at the small desk just outside of the actual office. She liked to be available for any of the family and the odd stranger who might wander in.
“She looks like Mrs. Santa Claus,” Drew whispered.
“Hmm, but she conducted that ‘interview’ better than Admiral Marston.” Devon looked over at Julia. “Enjoyed that, did you?”
“Oh, I love my Aunt Anna, and tend to enjoy any time I get to spend with her.” Then she leaned closer. “Anna Jessop is our secret weapon.”
“She’s a very effective secret weapon. And you’re a smart-ass.” Dev softened the comment with a small but sweet kiss. “Show us the rest of your heritage.”
Julia hadn’t had many opportunities in the past to play tour guide here at the museum. Though she couldn’t count the number of times that she’d visited herself, rarely had she brought anyone along who hadn’t been born and raised in Lusty.
She showed Dev and Drew pictures of the Big House, taken shortly after Sarah, Caleb, and Joshua had moved in, and told the tale of how her Benedict great-greats had gotten together in the first place.
It was a story she’d heard all her life and never tired of, a story of passion and high adventure. Her great-great-grandmother had been more or less sold into marriage by her father to a man whose heart, it turned out, had been as black as sin. The deceitful groom assumed the gunslingers he hired to be no-accounts—men who wouldn’t risk themselves when the shooting started—to escort his bride from Chicago, across Indian Territory to Texas. Instead, Caleb and Joshua Benedict had proved to be his undoing. Intent upon murdering his bride, Tyrone Maddox had himself been gunned down by Joshua, who’d drawn his gun in defense of Warren Jessop.
“She ended up inheriting not only the bequest left her by her grandfather, but because Maddox had been so thorough in his ruse of marrying her as to make her his sole beneficiary, she inherited his entire fortune, too.”
“Good. What kind of a bastard marries a young woman just to murder her and inherit her estate?” Dev’s moral outrage was obvious. Drew appeared equally incensed.
Julia nodded. Theirs was a common reaction to the horrific tale. “As it turned out, Maddox was cash poor, but land rich. And the land he’d amassed in the last year of his life he did so on speculation of it being worth something in the not too distant future. He’d gotten wind, apparently, of a new commodity about to become even more valuable than gold.”
Dev tilted his head to the side slightly. “Oil?”
Julia smiled. “Yes, indeed. Sarah wrote in her journal that neither she nor any of the men—Benedict, Kendall or Jessop—thought much would come of it, but they decided to hang on to the land, anyway, just in case.”
“Wise decision,” Drew said.
Julia grinned. “We all certainly think so.”
She showed them the other photos and artifacts the museum currently had on display. The families still had Adam’s Texas Ranger badge, and one of his Colts. There was a sign, “Jessop-Kendall Investigations,” which had adorned the business Amanda and Warren had opened in Waco.
A trio of gold coins caught the SEALs attention, and had them bending over the case trying to get a better look.
“Recovered from some pirate ship?” Dev asked when he straightened.
“In Texas?” Julia laughed. “No, not a pirate ship. Those coins were minted in 1854.”
“Those are Liberty Head gold dollar coins,” Drew said.
“They are. You know coins?”
“Some,” he said. “One of my foster fathers—a professor—had a collection of coins and liked to try and instill an appreciation for collecting in me. Hmm, 1854…” Drew straightened and looked at Julia. “That was the first gold dollar Congress ever commissioned.”
“Is that why they’re here? But no…Lusty wasn’t founded until 1881.” Dev looked at Drew, who merely shrugged his shoulders.
“Those three coins are from a stash of gold discovered by the Jessop-Kendalls on their trek into Indian Territory in 1880—the reason, in fact, that Amanda Dupree ventured from Richmond, Virginia, to Waco, Texas, in the first place.”
“Stash of gold? That’s an odd way of putting it,” Drew said. “Do you mean, she came West on a treasure hunt?”
Julia kept smiling at him until he shrugged. “What, they discovered the lost Confederate gold or something?”
“That was just a myth,” Dev said. “The so-called lost Confederate gold was actually stolen at the end of the war by the politicians of the day, proof that nothing much has changed in a century or more.”
“If you say so,” Julia replied. She never argued a point when she knew she was right. Her refusal to do so now made Dev and Drew both look back at those pieces of gold.
Julia stepped over to one of the last photos in the museum, set on the wall not far from the exit. It showed the Benedicts and the Jessop-Kendalls sitting around the table in the dining room at the Big House. In the middle of the table was a document…the same document that had been preserved under glass in a cabinet and was now on display below the photo.
“This picture was taken after the fact, but it commemorates the signing of the town charter, and the first meeting of the Lusty Town Trust. In those days, it only comprised the six of them. But as time went on, every member of the families, upon adulthood, became a member of the Trust. Today, we only meet once a year en masse—that would be in October, to commemorate our version of Founders Day.”
“The Town Trust?” Dev asked. “I saw it mentioned in the lease we signed for the house. I thought it was the name of the rental agency.”
“Well, in a way. You see, Warren Jessop set up a legal covenant—a trust, into which was donated large parcels of land out of the tracts that both the Benedicts and the Jessop-Kendalls owned. On this land they established the town of Lusty. Income from the land is divided between the central coffer and the individual members. We each have our own inheritances, trust funds set out for us when we’re born. But the land is owned by the entity that Warren Jessop set up. We can do a lot of things, but we can’t sell any land.”
“That was very clever of him,” Drew said.
“Yes, it was. In the 1880s it guaranteed that no one could move in, take over, and hold witch hunts. Towns had more autonomy then than they do now. And basically, as it turned out, the families were blessed. Even though the good people of Waco had heard of a town out here, for many years, no one paid it any mind. That allowed the people of Lusty to live—and love—as they chose.”
They’d managed to spend nearly two hours in the museum. Julia blinked in the late morning sun when they finally emerged from the small building.
On the sidewalk, they were greeted by a few passersby, all of whom offered both Dev and Drew sincere smiles. “Where to next, madam tour guide?” Dev reached for her right hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. Drew repeated the gesture with her left hand.
Julia never realized she liked those sorts of little gestures until now.
“How about we go grab a cup of coffee at the best restaurant in town?”
Drew looked up and down Main Street. “I think it’s the only restaurant in town,” he said.
“Well, it is, but it’s also the best.”
“It certainly has a catchy name. Lusty Appetites,” Dev said.
Julia laughed. They walked at a leisurely pace, which suited her just fine. “I’m told Kelsey came up with that name before she understood what kind of a community she’d moved into.”
“She’s the chef married to your cousins Matthew and Steven,” Drew said.
“I think you’re trying to memorize all the family connections,” she teased him.
“I have a chart.”
Since he’d said that very seriously, she believed him. “I’d be happy to help you with that chart.”
Drew grinned. “I want to see if I can do it on my own, first. That way I’ll learn it better.”
Stepping inside the restaurant was always such a treat. Julia closed her eyes and inhaled deeply and let the myriad aromas of good cooking tease her senses. It always smells so damn good in here. If she wasn’t hungry when she opened the door, she sure was within minutes of entering the place, nearly every time.
&nb
sp; “Smells good in here,” Dev said. “I wasn’t hungry, but now…”
It wasn’t noon yet, so the dining room was only about a third full. Ginny Rose looked up from the table she was clearing when they entered. Her gaze went from Julia to the two men, and then back to Julia. Her eyes widened, and Julia figured Tracy must have told her about her “men problem.”
“Hey, Ginny,” Julia greeted.
“Hey there, Julia. How are you today?”
Julia bit back the smart-ass answer that immediately sprang to mind. After a full night of one outstanding orgasm after another, she felt way better than fine. However, in the month or so that she’d known Ginny Rose, she’d come to appreciate that the other woman was different than most of the women she knew. A bit shy—especially around her cousins Adam and Jake Kendall—and almost fragile, Ginny had impressed her with her hard work, her respect for Grandma Kate, and her absolute devotion to her son, Benny.
“I’m great, thanks. We were only coming in for coffee, but I think now we’re going to eat.”
Ginny smiled. “Kelsey’s and Tracy’s cooking has that effect on just about everyone. Those that don’t cotton to the meat and gravy aromas sure do go for the pastry and cake ones.”
Julia introduced the men to Ginny, who greeted them shyly but readily offered her hand. “Y’all just sit wherever you like. I’ll bring you menus in a bit.”
Ginny disappeared into the kitchen. Julia led the men over to a nice round table near the back from the door but within sight of the large picture window. If they wondered why she’d chosen a table for six instead of one of the several empty ones for four, they said nothing.
Julia knew her town and her family. She wondered just how many of people would “happen by” in the next half hour or so.
The first one, of course, came sailing out of the kitchen, a tray in her hands. Julia was not one bit surprised to see four glasses of sweet tea on the tray Tracy Jessop carried.
Tracy set a glass in front of each of them, then took the last one in hand and sat in the middle one of the three empty chairs. Her raised eyebrow told Julia she noticed the men had tucked her in between them. Julia knew the sight wasn’t an unfamiliar one, because that was how most men in Lusty tended to seat their women.
Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Navy SEALs [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 7
