by Vanessa Vale
“They’re beautiful. Tall, lithe and have tamable hair. For years they belittled me and it was easy to believe when I heard it enough.”
“But you were driven from town because you supposedly seduced your gardener,” Piper commented. She knew the story as I’d told her that very first day over coffee and whiskey.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s silly, isn’t it? I’d never seduced a man. Marina and Tara knew that and it made their efforts all the more ironic. I didn’t know how, still don’t.”
Knox pushed off the rail, came over and squatted down before me. “That’s where you’re wrong. You seduced both of us. On sight. True seduction is when a woman doesn’t even know she’s doing it.”
“You have your husbands. Me. Lane and Spur. The Tates. The miners you are teaching. You’ve befriended the town,” Piper added. “We all believe in you.”
“Except for the Thomkinses,” I countered. After their visit when I first arrived, and knowing I was now Mrs. Dare, they offered me a cold shoulder. However, they offered everyone in town a cold shoulder, so I didn’t feel singled out. For once.
“No one likes them,” Piper said. “My point is that your stepsisters… what are their names?”
“Marina and Tara.”
“Odd names,” she murmured. “Marina and Tara can do nothing to you. You have men, money, a mine. They can’t take any of that from you, no matter what they say.”
“I wouldn’t put it past them to come up with something devious,” I grumbled.
“They can’t say you’re having an affair behind our backs. No one would believe you,” Jed said.
“Why is that?”
“Because you make so much noise when you come, the whole town knows you’re well satisfied with us.”
I flushed hotly and stood to smack him, but he took my hand and tugged me into him. He kissed my forehead and I felt safe, protected in his arms. Embarrassed, but content.
Piper groaned.
“If they do say something—” Knox said, his voice deep and with a hint of anger, “—then Piper can shoot them.”
Piper clapped her hands together with a sick sense of glee. “Finally. I can shoot someone.”
***
Marina and Tara showed up on our doorstep and Piper had been very disappointed. I’d been relieved, but much like a tooth pull, knowing what was to come was perhaps more painful than the extraction itself. I’d thought the women were gone from my life when I’d boarded the train in Clancy, but they’d reappeared. And now I had to get rid of them, this time on my terms.
Instead of them coming to the house where I had two very overprotective husbands, husbands who were hovering over me as if I were a piece of china that might fall and break, I was at the mercantile the next day when they approached. It had taken an hour of cajoling to get Jed and Knox to agree I could go on my own. I wasn’t delivering the baby today and I wasn’t nauseous at all. If this was the way it was going to be for the next nine months, it was going to be a long winter.
Like two looming black crows, Marina and Tara swooped in and began to pick.
“That color will make your complexion even more sallow.”
I was facing the table with the bolts of fabric. I’d just picked up a yellow color that would work well to make sacks for the miners, easily visible within the dark tunnels to find tools and their lunches. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, let it out. No, I wasn’t sick—at least, not yet.
Where was Piper’s bravery or my husbands’ protectiveness? I was alone and had to face them, knowing they’d be angry at me for something I’d done, or not done. For anything, really.
It was time. I’d had enough, so I adjusted my glasses, then turned to face them.
Mr. Beebe was keeping himself busy at the counter but I could see he was listening intently. Thomas slipped out the front door. One of the ladies from church, her name I didn’t recall, was by the premade dresses. Three miners were toward the back scooping nails from a barrel and into a tin bucket.
“Marina, Tara. A lovely day, isn’t it?” It was, but that was irrelevant.
“You sent us to a house that had been destroyed in a mudslide.”
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t. You were adamant about staying in my late husband’s home and I had no opportunity to tell you otherwise.”
“We spent the night in the boarding house,” Tara said, as if the idea was so far beneath her.
I gave a pleasant smile. “That’s nice. Mrs. Byrne has a lovely home and I’ve heard she makes delicious biscuits.”
“We will stay with you tonight,” Marina exclaimed.
I pushed my glasses up, lifted my chin. “No, you will not.”
Both of them narrowed their eyes. “You have no say.”
“It is my home. I have all the say,” I countered.
Tara sniffed and played with the lace edging of her sleeve. “Then we will tell your husband about your behavior in Clancy. How you lost your job.”
Her voice carried so others in the store could hear her blackmail. I would have cowered, before, but not now. Instead, I shrugged and pretended to have Piper’s spine and devil-may-care attitude.
“Tell my husband. Tell both of them.” They stared at me, clearly confused. Good. For the first time in my life, I felt as if I was the one in control with these two. “Ladies, you’re frowning. Remember what that does to your face.” I leaned in and whispered, “No man likes a dour woman.”
They smoothed out their expressions immediately while I tried to hide a smile. I was enjoying this. Immensely.
“Both husbands?” Marina turned to Tara. “It’s worse than I thought. You’re a schemer. A swindler. A… a hussy!”
I looked up in the air as if deep in thought. “As to the first two, I don’t believe so, but as to being a hussy, I will admit, Knox and Jed like me that way.”
The churchwoman stifled a laugh with a cough, but moved a foot closer.
“Jed and Knox, the Dare brothers?”
I nodded once. “Yes, my husbands.”
“You can’t have two husbands,” Marina screeched.
I winced, completely for effect. “Of course I can. You don’t know about the law?” Shrugging, I continued. “Oh, dear. A woman in Slate Springs is legally allowed to have two husbands.”
While stunned, they looked completely doubtful. “You’re a liar, out to make us look poorly.”
“Mr. Beebe,” I called. The man stopped pretending to be busy and looked my way. “The marriage law. It is fact, is it not?”
“Yes, it is. The mayor himself shares a wife with his brother.”
Both women gasped.
“What were you saying?” I asked.
“We will tell, about the town council, Mr. Nevil, how you had to flee,” Tara said.
Marina nodded. “All of it.”
With the tinkling of the bell on the front door, Jed and Knox came into the store, followed by Thomas. Obviously, Mr. Beebe had sent him to fetch my men.
“Oh, please do. Jed, Knox, we’re over here having a little chat.”
My men loomed over Marina and Tara, not only casting them in shadow, but blocking their exit.
“Marina and Tara were about to impart how I came about leaving Clancy and marrying Mr. Thomkins.” I turned and smiled to the miners. “Ed, Tanner and Ezra, please join us. And, ma’am, I apologize but we have yet to formally meet.”
The church lady turned about, put her hand to her chest in surprise. “Mrs. Percy.”
“Mrs. Percy, please join us. Mr. Beebe, you can hear from behind the counter?” I called.
He cleared his throat, then replied with a swift, “Yes.”
“Good. Begin then, Tara. Or Marina, do you wish to start?”
Marina turned pale, swallowed, then lifted her chin. “Eve was refused the position of schoolteacher because of a torrid affair she had with her gardener.”
“Torrid affair?” Knox asked.
“Indeed,” Tara replied, clearly willing to stand
behind her sister’s lies.
“Is that why you hurried to marry us, so you could cover up any… consequence of your actions?”
If I didn’t know that my husbands knew the truth, I would have been afraid. What he asked made sense and the others in the room were on bated breath waiting for my response. So were Tara and Marina. Their shoulders were square and I could detect the familiar upturned lips indicating their power was returning.
Jed winked at me, and since he stood behind the women, they couldn’t see.
Mrs. Percy gasped, the miners grumbled.
Tara said, “You’re pregnant?”
“Certainly vomiting on your dress is evidence enough.”
No one could argue with that.
“Besides, I am a hussy. Isn’t that right, Marina?”
“A hussy?” Jed stiffened and I saw his hands clench into fists.
“Yes, Mrs. Dare was called a hussy,” Mrs. Percy offered.
“Don’t worry, husband. I told them you liked me that way.”
“My husband, bless his soul, liked me to be a little wild,” Mrs. Percy added. She leaned in toward me, whispered, “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
I bit my lip, trying not to grin. This older woman would be getting an invitation to dinner as soon as this fiasco was over. Marina and Tara, however, both looked as if they’d swallowed a few summer flies.
Jed’s ears turned red at the woman’s admission.
Knox came around Marina and Tara and stood beside me. “What you’re saying, ladies, is that my wife had relations with a man in Clancy and could now be carrying his child?”
They narrowed their eyes at me and smiled fully. “Yes,” they both said at the same time.
“While you ladies are unmarried and aren’t familiar with such things, I feel the need to point out that my wife—”
“Our wife,” Jed cut in.
“Yes, of course. Our wife was a virgin on our wedding night. Unlike most unions, there were two witnesses to this, not one.”
I couldn’t help but flush at such talk. The ladies turned a bright red, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of embarrassment or anger.
“I have to wonder if your statements are accurate about this as Jed and I had undeniable proof to the contrary.”
Mrs. Percy looked to the ladies as did the miners.
Marina’s and Tara’s mouths opened and closed like a trout pulled from the stream.
“She is not fit to teach schoolchildren,” Tara said, finally.
Ed stepped closer. “That’s good, because she’s teaching me.”
“And me,” Ezra added. Tanner just nodded.
“I told my husbands the truth, Marina. Tara, they know what you did, how you drove me from town, arranged for my role as a mail order bride.”
“We do,” Jed said, coming to stand on my other side.
“Your lies, your slander, won’t work on me any longer. Any money you think I have belongs to my husbands. By shaming me, you haven’t made friends of them.”
For the first time, both women looked contrite, although I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t an act to play on people’s sympathies.
“If you are seeking charity, you will not find it with us,” Knox said.
“We could be a little charitable,” Jed countered.
Knox looked to Jed with surprise.
“We would be happy to purchase your fares back to Clancy.”
“If you wish to remain here in town, you should be more… prudent in your behavior.” Mrs. Percy spoke up, chiding the women. “If you are seeking a husband, or two, you will find swift success.”
“Ed and I will marry one of you, but you’ll go over my knee for a sound spanking beforehand.”
Both women looked appalled.
“Don’t worry,” I admitted. “You might like it. I do.”
“Time to go, sweets,” Knox said, taking my elbow.
“Goodbye, Marina. Tara. Good luck with your lies,” I said.
“Mrs. Percy, would you like to join us? We were just headed home for lunch. Our sister, Piper, and her family will be there.”
The older woman preened. “I’d be happy to.” She took Jed’s proffered elbow and we walked out into the sunshine. Mr. Beebe held the door for us. As we made our way down the boardwalk, I heard the man say, “Ladies, either you stop being lying harpies or no man will want you. I’d take you over my knee myself if Mrs. Beebe wouldn’t shoot me. Ed, spread the word. There will be two weddings tonight. The grooms will be determined by sunset.”
CHAPTER TEN
Jed
Including Mrs. Percy at our lunch table added a bit of humor to the meal. Usually, our conversation led toward bickering with Piper or wanting to thrash her husbands for, well… just being the men who fucked our sister. They might be married to her, but that didn’t mean I had to like the notion. The older woman wasn’t as quiet or demure as she led everyone to believe and had even Piper blushing. The stories she’d shared so far were probably pretty tame and could only imagine what she wasn’t saying.
“You shouldn’t let those two bother you,” the older woman said. She picked up her cup of coffee and took a sip.
Eve glanced at the slice of cake on her plate, then at Mrs. Percy. “They’ve been mean to me for so long, I’m accustomed. I wasn’t confident enough to fight them. Before. Now…”
“Now you have husbands who will always be there for you,” I said. I sat at the head of the table, leaning back in my chair, trying to keep a relaxed appearance, all the while ready to go and push her stepsisters over a cliff. No one fucked with my bride.
The smile Eve gave me was sweeter than the cake. “Yes. I do.”
“And a sister-in-law who won’t hesitate to make their lives miserable.”
“You like us and you torture us. I can only imagine what you’d do to them,” Knox added.
Piper pursed her lips and pointed her fork at him.
The baby hiccupped and we looked to her. She was sitting in the crook of Lane’s arm, alert and watching all of us. Knowing I’d be holding a baby of my own in a year made my heart open, made me feel so damn good.
“Do you think they really will be married tonight?”
“Probably.” Spur shrugged. “Not sure who would want to be shackled to women like that though.”
“They need a firm hand,” Knox said. “Applied often to their bare ass—” He cleared his throat. “Bottoms. I beg your pardon, Mrs. Percy.”
“I’m only old, not a prude,” she countered.
Even through his beard, I could see Knox flush. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I was quite like your sister in the day,” she shared, pointing a bony finger toward Piper.
Everyone stared at Mrs. Percy, then Piper.
“I want to hear every salacious story,” Piper replied, leaning forward eagerly and putting her elbows on the table.
Spur pushed back his chair and stood. “Perhaps Mrs. Percy would like to chat with you further at our house. Lillian will be hungry soon and I think your brothers would like us to leave.”
I liked Spur after all. “Since Mrs. Percy has said herself she isn’t a prude, then I will share that we do wish to get our wife alone.”
Moving around the table, I stood behind Eve, put my hands on her shoulders. I had to hope she blocked the sight of my rock-hard cock pressing against my pants, my head filled with ideas of what I wanted to do to Eve.
“Yes,” Lane added. “I remember when you told us you were expecting Lillian, Piper. We didn’t climb off you for a week.”
Him? He was a dead man. After we fucked and claimed our wife a few times.
Piper groaned Lane’s name, her cheeks pink. Mrs. Percy just laughed.
Lane smirked as he looked at me, then Knox as he stood and carried Lillian to the entry. Spur helped Mrs. Percy from her chair as Piper eyed us with an impish grin.
“Did you know, dear, that I shot my first husband?” Mrs. Percy’s words turned Piper’s head.
&nbs
p; “You… did you kill him?” Without looking toward us, she added, “We’ll see ourselves out.”
Spur shook Knox’s hand as he gave a rueful shake of his head, then escorted the women out of the room. We didn’t move, only heard their footfalls at the entry, then the front door closing behind them.
“I thought they’d never leave,” Knox grumbled, pulling Eve to her feet.
We turned her to face us and we loomed over her. It never ceased to amaze me how small she was, and yet so damn brave.
“I… I should do the dishes.”
Slowly, I shook my head, stepped close and put my hand on her still flat belly. “They’ll keep. How are you feeling?”
Eve looked down, put her hand on top of mine. “Fine.”
“You shouldn’t be riled in your condition,” I said.
She arched a brow. “Then how did Piper make it through nine months? She isn’t the most placid woman.”
Knox grunted. “We’re worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” she repeated.
“Not good enough,” I countered, turning my hand so my fingertips pressed on the top of her mound. “Amazing would be better. Incredible. Delirious.”
The corner of her mouth tipped up, her hips shifting into me subtly. I doubted she knew of the movement, but I knew. I knew every nuance of her. “I don’t feel any of that from speaking with Marina and Tara.”
“No, but you can feel that from your husbands claiming you,” Knox countered. He looked to me and I nodded.
A little whimper escaped her lips and my cock turned rock hard from that single sound.
“It’s time to make you ours,” I said. We’d taken her virginity, taught her the pleasures of her own body, how she could please us. Passion. We’d fucked in so many different ways, in almost every room of the house. And the mine office. But we’d yet to take her together. “Yes?”
She looked between the two of us, reached out for Knox’s hand. “Yes.”
Knox didn’t delay. He scooped her up into his arms, holding her close and very, very carefully as he carried her upstairs to his room and sat down on the bed with her in his lap.
