Innocent Immigrant: Mail Order Bride: Ménage Marriage (Colonial New Zealand Romance Book 1)

by Jax Lusty

  Good God, she smelled delicious.

  I imagined my face between her thighs, licking the sweet juices from her cunt as she gripped me with her legs, begging me to make her come. I’d take her hard little clit between my teeth and push two fingers into her tight quim, making her scream and spasm, until she pleaded with me to cease.

  The vision overwhelmed me, and I staggered to the washstand, my balls tightening and then pulsing as they drove my semen in long spurts that sprayed across the rose pattern around the ceramic basin. Dropping the underclothes, I leaned my forearms on the kauri washstand and sucked in great gulps of air. After what I’d seen of Katie I hoped to get inside her soon, or I’d need a visit to Flora’s to avail myself of one of her whores.

  With luck, Griff and I would tonight be able to convince Katie to stay with us.

  I spent the next few hours between chores at the stables and checking on our guest. I had no need to relieve myself again though my cock was certainly responsive any time I laid eyes on Katie’s sleeping form. I expect she was exhausted, and it pleased me that she’d been able to find the sort of comfort at our home that allowed her to sleep.

  Around four that afternoon, when I again stood a step inside the bedroom door gazing at her, she must have been aware enough to sense my presence. Her eyes flew open.

  “Who are you?” she said. “You frightened me.” She took the quilt tight up to her chin.

  I’d hoped Griff had informed her there was more than one man living in the house, but perhaps not. “Hello, Miss Masefield, I’m Ari...Ari Raukura.”

  Her pretty face screwed up as if trying to decide whether she was safe or if she should call for help. She cocked her head. “I thought this was Mr. Tucker’s house; are you sure you should be here?”

  Her voice had a lovely lilt that made her question sound melodious. I smiled to reassure her. “Yes, this house belongs to Griff and me.”

  “I see,” she said slowly.

  “Are you rested?”

  “Thank you, yes.”

  She kept the bedcover pulled hard up to her chin. The way she peered over it, with emerald eyes that looked round with a mixture of curiosity and alarm, reminded me of a kitten recently weaned on its first solo exploration.

  “I expect you’re hungry. We’ll have supper in a couple of hours but until then, come to the kitchen and have tea. We have some fruitcake, and I can offer some bread and jam.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  She cast her gaze towards the door as if willing me to leave the room.

  “You’re our guest, Miss Masefield, and I can assure you we don’t allow guests to starve. When did you last eat?”

  She thought for a moment. “Last evening, on the steamer.”

  “That’s nearly a full day without food. I expect to see you in the kitchen in ten minutes.” I left her before she thought up a new excuse to refuse our hospitality, and it wasn’t until the kettle was heating on the range that I recalled I’d taken away her clothing. I chuckled as I wondered if she’d have the courage to come to the kitchen in her nightgown.

  “What’s the joke, Ari?”

  I’d seen Griff pass on his horse towards the stables. He’d certainly made good time in his work at the warehouse and return to the villa. “Our guest has recently woken. She should be here in the kitchen for tea any minute, but I’ve just remembered that I’ve hidden her trunk. She’s trapped in the bedroom in her nightgown.”

  Griff joined my laughter. “I’m glad you did that. It wasn’t until I reached the warehouse that I thought of the same idea. If she bolts from here, she’ll find herself in trouble—”

  “Excuse me.”

  We both swung around to the sight of the young woman standing in our doorway; a huckaback bath towel wrapped tight over the top of her nightgown. Her brilliant eyes were dancing with anger.

  “Where are my clothes?”

  “Maraea has taken them to be washed,” I told her, trying not to smile at the thought of her knowing how I’d inhaled her scent from them first.

  “I am quite capable of washing my own clothes; there was no need to have them removed.”

  She was right to be annoyed, and if she’d stamped her foot it wouldn’t have surprised me.

  “I’m sure you are more than capable, Katie,” said Griff. “However, Maraea does the household laundry, and she will see to your clothes.”

  “My name is Miss Masefield—“

  Griff laughed. “We haven’t completely lost our manners, but we’re less formal in the colonies. Seeing as you’ll be staying with us, why don’t we drop the formalities? Call us Griff and Ari...Katie.

  “Fine, Griff. That still leaves the matter of my missing trunk. Am I to call the constabulary?”

  “So long as you wish to leave the house dressed in that manner.” I paused to take my time appraising her from top to toe, giving her a taste of how she would feel out in public dressed that way. “You’re most welcome to call Constable Jenkins. You will find him keeping order in one of the many public houses that at this moment will be filling with single men, parched from a day working their shift in the mines. Without a doubt, they will make you feel more than welcome.”

  “This is outrageous.”

  Griff stepped towards her. “This is taking care of you. You’re in a new country, unprotected. You do not strike me like an imbecile; therefore I’m not going to explain your situation to you again. Right now, you are under the protection of this household. We won’t keep you captive, but you will be introduced properly to the community so that they know to leave you well alone.”

  “Or answer to us,” I added.

  “Do you understand?”

  Griff’s voice had deepened slightly, and I recognised its shift from a point of ambivalence to authority because of his anxiety at not wanting to let Katie get away from him. It seemed he cared for her already, but he would not go soft in his effort to have her obey. “There will be consequences, Katie, of the sort you will not enjoy if you choose to go against my request. Again...do you understand?”

  Katie looked at the floor for several seconds then back at Griff, her eyes blazing. “You are not my guardian, and I have no compunction to obey—”

  “Enough. I will not have my future wife—”

  “Your future wife? Are you a lunatic? And what say do I have in this matter?”

  “Very little, unless, of course, you have the means to return to England,” I added calmly, trying to counter Griff’s rising ire. “We can offer you a more than comfortable life here; one much better than that you were destined to endure. The time will come when you will look upon Sid Watson’s passing as a blessing. Until that day, we hope you will enjoy our hospitality and obey our house rules. Come and sit now. You’re still weak from today’s shock and a lack of food.”

  She appeared to think about this for a moment before shuffling to the table, one hand clutching the towel at her breasts.

  Griff followed close behind her, pulling out her chair. “Please sit, and let me take the towel. You can’t enjoy your tea with one hand protecting your modesty.”

  “If I could have my trunk...”

  I stepped in before Griff could react. “Tomorrow, perhaps. Right now, you’re to sit and eat.”

  She was indeed hungry, enjoying tea, bread and jam and a large slice of fruitcake. I was surprised that a woman so petite could manage such an amount of food. Occasionally as she leaned forward her gown gaped, and I caught a glimpse of the slope of her breasts. When I discovered Griff looking too, he winked at me. I believed he was right. Katie would make an excellent addition to our household.

  By the time she had finished her tea her demeanour had changed somewhat, and she happily answered our questions about her circumstances in England. Life at the Girls’ Home where she’d lived for fifteen years sounded grim. Although she might have thought she was in a sorry position in Kotuku, I’m sure it was an improvement on the situation she’d recently left.

  When te
a was finished, Katie immediately cleared away the plates.

  “You can leave those—”

  “So long as I’m here, I’ll help where I can,” she said.

  I have to say, neither Griff nor I could take our eyes off her as she moved around our kitchen in her nightgown and bare feet. It was an unnervingly provocative view, and my damned cock returned to its semi-turgid state.

  When I spoke, my voice was gruff. “I’ll get your clothes, and we’ll take a walk around the property.” Griff nodded at me, and when I cast a glance down the length of his body I noticed he was similarly aroused. No doubt he thought the same as me; until we could touch Katie, we were more comfortable if she was decently clothed. I eyed her once more, the sunlight behind her making her nightgown all but transparent. God, she was a vision.

  She returned quickly, fully dressed, and we set off for a tour of the property, visiting the stables, the milking shed and the hen house. Tyrol, our sheepdog, took a shine to her, as did Rip, our terrier we kept both as a pet and to control the large ship’s rats that were keen to make the farm their home.

  CHAPTER 4

  KATIE

  “What is that bird?” I asked. “Its song is beautiful.”

  Griff took my hand and led me to stand beneath an enormous tree with a broad-spreading crown. Tiny flowers covered the tree, reminding me of snapdragons. They were a deep red, although I recall some were a more delicate cream with a scarlet blush. Then I noticed what Griff had intended me to see. There were birds feeding on the nectar in the flowers, pausing to sing before swooping to another branch.

  “That’s the parson bird, or more correctly, the tui.”

  At first glance, I thought the bird to be black with a white tuft of feathers at its throat. Then one swooped closer to us and I saw it was multi-coloured. Brown feathers adorned its back, and furthermore, a deep emerald sheen was evident when it was caught in the varying light. It was a pleasing-looking bird, but it was its song that made it most extraordinary: beautiful, soaring, clear notes finishing in clicks and cackles.

  “It’s very pretty. I’ve never heard a birdsong like that.”

  “The tui is also a terrific mimic, so wherever you are in New Zealand, some of their calls will be familiar, and others will be songs you’ve never heard them sing before. You can even teach them to talk, the same way a parrot can be taught. Wait until dawn,” said Ari. “You’re in for a treat.”

  Across a dirt track that was loosely named a road, though not paved the way the roads were in the town I came from in England, was the beach. Dunes covered in wild grasses flattened out to the sweep of the sandy bay, and the rolling waves that continued to pummel the shore. It seemed wherever you were on the property, you could not get away from the echo of the pounding surf.

  The view from the house in the kitchen was framed by the wide boughs of what I learned was the pohutukawa tree. These trees seemed to tumble and fall, then continue to grow, gnarled and twisted, so that they stretched and reached out towards the ocean. The bush was so different to the forests I was accustomed to in England. The cleared farmland quickly ran out, and large stands of enormous trees created a canopy for the wild range of ferns and scrub that grew beneath.

  It was all well and good to admire the country, but I didn’t allow myself to consider that for long when I had the pressing matter of my future forefront in my mind.

  We took a supper of a cold roast leg of lamb, potatoes, greens and an unusual purple-skinned knobbly tuber that the local Māori grew called kumara. It was sweeter than a potato and an easy taste to become accustomed to, especially when served with butter, salt and pepper. The meal was tastier than anything I’d enjoyed for a long while.

  During supper, Griff and Ari shared a bottle of ale and after dinner, when they each poured a whiskey, they encouraged me to take a small glass of sweet port. They told me a little about their life, how they’d been born in New Zealand so had the advantage of the country not appearing strange and wild as it did to me.

  Griff’s parents were originally from the north of England and had settled first in Australia before coming to New Zealand to start a small shipping company that had grown under Griff’s management. Ari, however, was part Māori, which accounted for his deep brown skin and magnificent dark eyes.

  The port was my first taste of liquor, and after a sharp catch at the back of my throat, I enjoyed the way it warmed me once I had swallowed. I would have to be careful; at the orphanage we had endured many lectures about temperance and the evil of drink. At some stage, my small glass was refilled, and I could feel a rosy glow on my cheeks and a pleasant calm seep into my bones.

  I stole many looks at the men through dinner and again, as we sat in the living room, I studied them even more carefully. They were certainly attractive and strong, and I could see how easily a young woman would fall for their charms. Griff seemed the more authoritative of the two, Ari’s character appearing to be gentler. Perhaps this was because he tended the animals and the land, whereas Griff was dealing with commerce, men, and money.

  “Katie, there is something important we must talk about with you tonight,” Ari said.

  “Oh?” I knew my circumstances were difficult, but I expected to have some time to gather my wits and make new plans.

  “As we’ve told you, you’re under our protection...but this can’t last. A single woman will be scandalised living in the house of two bachelor men.”

  Bachelor men, so neither of them was married. “Then I must find lodgings?” Surely that couldn’t be as difficult as Griff made out, but when I looked to him he was shaking his head.

  “You know that would be impossible in Kotuku. The accommodation is filled and anyway, if there was a spare room available, the men of the town would soon discover the single woman living there. I don’t think I have to tell you what the result of that would be.”

  My breathing became uneasy through my tightening chest. “Clearly you have something in mind. Please, tell me what it is you propose?”

  Ari answered. “Propose is the right idea...”

  Griff fixed me with his intense blue eyes. “We propose, or should I say, I propose, to marry you. Immediately.”

  My hand flew to my chest. To have lost one fiancé only to have a new one at my feet in one day was more than I could take in. I didn’t know these men, but then, I hadn’t known Sid Watson, either, and by all accounts he wasn’t a man I ever wished to know. The two men in this room seemed kind and genuine. Now I had a new opportunity, in a new country, and I wasn’t sure I should rush into the first offer that came my way.

  Just as at the Girls’ Home, I hadn’t rushed into a life of service to escape the Home the way many of the others had. Instead, I had looked at my options, of which there weren’t many, and the idea of becoming a mail-order bride struck me as the likeliest way I could improve my lot.

  Clearly Kotuku wasn’t the town I should be settling in to once again make a decision about my future because the prospects for employment seemed extremely low. My instinct was to return to Auckland and find my acquaintances from the ship.

  I could see by the men’s faces they eagerly sought an answer from me. “That’s a very kind offer, Mr. Tucker, but I can’t give you an answer right now.”

  “I shall be honest. The offer isn’t just to be my wife, but to be a wife, though not in the legal sense, to Ari, too. It is our way in this town, given that there are so few women. Ari and I would share you, and both welcome the task of caring for you, too.”

  This I couldn’t take in. It was shocking and surely depraved in the eyes of our Lord, and I told them so.

  “On the contrary, it is sanctioned and encouraged by our Pastor. The men outnumber the women to the extent that sharing is a valid way to take care of the physical needs of many of the men who are not lucky enough to have their own wife. In the view of Pastor Fraser Mackay’s Mission of Perpetual Divinity, this is the way a woman does her duty.”

  Two husbands! I had heard stories of a
community in America which condoned a man taking more than one wife, but never a wife taking more than one husband. “Please,” I begged, “you surely have the grace to give me time to think about your unusual proposition.”

  “You will be well cared for and protected by both of us, Katie. Likely better than any other men in the whole region can care for you. We only ask for your obedience and companionship. But we must move quickly. You may have until the morning to give us your decision. Then, Griff will go directly to the Pastor to register his intention to marry.”

  I nodded, my pounding heart still making it difficult to speak. “Fine, thank you. You will have your answer in the morning.”

  While we talked, I had already made a plan. I would agree with anything they said so that they would relax their guard. In that way, my belongings would be left with me tonight, and I could devise a way to get back to Auckland and find Mary and Janet. Surely my two friends would be able to help me.

  The pressing problem was that the only transport I knew of to take me there was one of the Tucker vessels. In fact, my only way of embarkation would be for Griff to carry me willingly and place me at the foot of the steamship’s ladder. I decided I would worry about that when the time came. If I made enough of a fuss on the beach, I believed one of the other men in Griff’s employ would assist me.

  First, though, I had to get myself from the house, even though already part of me wanted to stay with two such handsome and seemingly kind men. As the men were so eager to enforce, Kotuku was not a safe place for a single woman. Was I silly to turn down their offer? Perhaps, but already I’d been shown that a decision made in haste, as was my agreement to marry Sid Watson, was not a good decision.

  If I excused myself for bed, they would surely let me be. I would wait until either they retired themselves, or I heard them settled and talking in the drawing room; then I could sneak away. I think it must have been the alcohol that both gave me the courage to tackle this plan and robbed me of my common sense.