Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Lawmen [The Lost Collection] (Siren Menage Everlasting)

by Love Under Two Lawmen (lit)

  He hated traveling, hated the frontier. But he figured when he caught up to the Dupree woman and retrieved his journal, all this discomfort would have proven to be worthwhile.

  Especially when he followed the clues he recalled reading and recovered the very real treasure his stepfather had so painstakingly hidden.

  Chapter 3

  “I never had a sister, although I’d always wished for one. That’s why I decided I wanted to meet you,” Sarah said.

  Amanda stood still for her cousin’s inspection. Sarah Carmichael Benedict didn’t quite match Amanda in height. She wore her blonde hair in a soft upsweep, and her brown eyes fairly shone with intelligence. Her own coloring differed in that Amanda had received the red hair and green eyes of their common grandfather, or so she’d been told. Otherwise, looking at Sarah was very nearly like looking in a mirror.

  “My mother had red hair,” Sarah said softly. “She said it was a family trait.”

  “You lost her when you were young,” Amanda said. “That’s hard. I’ve never had much in life, but I’ve always had my mother. We’re very close.”

  “You’re lucky.”

  “I know.”

  “Why don’t we have tea out on the verandah? Dinner will be ready in a half hour or so. In the mean time, it’s nice out, and that seems to be the only place I’m permitted to be outside these walls without armed guards lately.”

  The last bit Sarah said while slanting a sideways glance at her husbands.

  Amanda wanted to laugh at the guilty looks worn by both Caleb and Joshua Benedict. Instead, she assumed a serious expression and lowered her voice as if sharing a confidence. “I’m not sure if you’ll be allowed that privilege this time, as I’m here and I don’t think any of the men trust me at all.”

  Sarah grinned. “Yet you don’t seem very upset by that idea.”

  Amanda returned her smile. “I’ve learned not to care what other people think of me. Folks will believe the worst, and there’s nothing you can do, usually, to change their minds.”

  “I predict that we’re going to be good friends,” Sarah said. She stepped forward and linked arms with Amanda. To the men she said, “Please have some tea brought out to us.”

  “Bossy.” Caleb Benedict shook his head, then turned toward the kitchen, followed by Joshua and the two lawmen.

  Amanda laughed and walked with Sarah outside to the verandah. From what she’d seen so far, her cousin’s house resembled some of the fine plantation homes outside of Richmond. Amanda guessed she was going to have to revise her impression of the so-called rustic Western frontier. So far, nothing had been as expected.

  She’d not had that chance to freshen up yet, either, but just then she thought that could wait. She hadn’t returned her cousin’s sentiment, but she thought they were going to be good friends, too.

  “What do you think of Adam and Warren?” Sarah asked once they were seated on identical rockers.

  Amanda met Sarah’s gaze. “I’m not sure if my thoughts on that pair can be summed up in such short order. I like them both, I think.”

  “I only asked because I saw the way they both were looking at you.”

  Amanda could tell, just by Sarah’s expression, that she wanted to say more. Since she understood the nuances, she said, “You mean they were looking at me the way they only usually look at each other?”

  Sarah sighed, then nodded. “Caleb and Joshua have assured me that both men have kept company with women. I know this sounds funny under the circumstances, but I find this entire relationship thing awfully confusing. Everyone just ought to be able to love who they want, with it being nobody else’s never mind and that be that.”

  Amanda decided that such a bold opinion earned honesty. “My mother worked as a courtesan before she had me. For the last few months before I was conceived, she kept herself exclusive to one man. My father—that would be your Uncle William—never doubted that he’d gotten her with child, though he never claimed me as his daughter. He agreed to buy her a small house and provide her with an income until I came of age. She didn’t want me to be raised in a brothel, you see. Once I was born, my father never came back, so she resumed making her living in the way she knew how, able, because of my father’s generosity to be selective with regard to her clientele. So because of who she is and who she knows, I’ve grown up with what the rest of society would consider unusual attitudes.”

  “And Uncle William never acknowledged you as his daughter?”

  Amanda could see the outrage on Sarah’s face. “That’s normal, Sarah. Once I became old enough to understand the circumstances of my birth, I never would have expected him to. After he died, I discovered he left me a legacy and a letter in which he called me daughter.”

  “None of it seems fair. Grandfather turned his back on my mother just because she followed her heart.” Sarah frowned. “What is it about some men that make them think that women are things and not people?”

  “It’s just the way it’s always been. Maybe, to a certain extent, things are as they are because we’ve let them be that way.”

  “I guess it’s silly talking about what we can’t change.”

  “Well, we can’t change the world. But we can live our own lives on our own terms. That’s something which you’ve done. And so have I, in a way.”

  “You don’t have two husbands, too, do you?” Sarah asked.

  Amanda laughed. Her cousin had a quick wit and an obvious love of teasing. “No, I have something nearly as unusual. I have a business. I’m a private investigator.”

  “That sounds exciting.” Sarah opened her mouth to say more but snapped it shut when Joshua came out bearing a tray with a pot and a couple of cups.

  “Rita said she can delay dinner a while if you want her to.” He set the tray down and poured a cup of tea for each of them.

  “Tell her no thanks. I’m hungry,” Sarah said.

  Joshua bent low and gave Sarah a fast, thorough kiss. “You have twenty minutes, then.” He straightened, winked at Amanda, and went back into the house.

  Sarah blushed. “If there has been a negative aspect to this life I live, it’s that I’ve been unable to talk or share my feelings or my situation with another woman,” she confessed quietly. “Don’t get me wrong. Caleb and Joshua are not only my husbands, they’re my best friends, too. We can talk about anything and everything and do.” She took a sip from her cup, then set it gently on the saucer.

  “But it’s not the same as having another woman to talk to,” Amanda finished for her.

  “No, it’s not.”

  “Well, I’ll be happy to oblige your need—and mine—for female conversation for as long as I’m here.”

  “For as long as you’re here? I kind of hoped you’d stay for a nice long visit!”

  Amanda could read the disappointment on Sarah’s face and hear it in her tone. “Oh, I’ll visit for a long time once I get back. But there’s something I need to do first. It’s really the main reason I came.”

  “Perhaps that topic would make excellent dinner conversation.”

  Amanda looked up into Adam Kendall’s eyes. She hadn’t heard the man come out onto the verandah.

  He moves like a wraith.

  She’d file that away for future reference. For now, she simply smiled and said, “I can guarantee it will be an interesting discussion.”

  * * * *

  Adam loved watching people. He’d been accused of having some Shaman sixth sense in him, supposedly passed down from an ancestor. He didn’t know if he could dispute the claim or not. The less eerie truth was that people often revealed themselves—their thoughts and intentions—in small ways. All one had to do was learn how to read them.

  Sarah was completely taken with her newfound cousin, and her happiness found its way into Caleb and Joshua. Neither of those men were pushovers. If there’d been something off about Amanda Dupree, they’d have picked up on it. Adam would bet on that.

  He trusted the Benedict brothers’ instinct
s as much as he trusted his own, which in this case was a good thing. The only thing he’d picked up on where Amanda was concerned was that he wanted to fuck her. Very, very badly.

  He saw Warren look at her with lust in his eyes and he knew his lover felt the same way. While they’d each, from time to time, been known to enjoy carnal pleasures with a woman, they’d never shared one.

  The idea had never occurred to either of them until Caleb and Joshua Benedict had taken on Sarah. Of course, in the case of himself and Warren, any potential third in their relationship would have to be amenable to not only taking two men into her body, but accepting the fact those men loved and made love with each other, too.

  He’d never considered whether or not there could be such a woman on the face of this earth until recently. He thought now that there was and maybe that woman was Amanda Dupree.

  “You have to tell me about being a private investigator,” Sarah said now. “However did you come by such a choice?”

  Amanda sat back from having finished her soup. Rita, the Benedict’s cook, made quick work of removing the bowls.

  “You have to understand that from the time I was able to perceive such things, I understood my prospects in life would be limited. Being the daughter of a kept woman has its drawbacks. Many in society consider me no better than a light-skirt, and the fact of my…” Amanda trailed off as she seemed to just now realize there were four men around the table listening avidly to her speak. Adam noticed not only the pink that colored her cheeks, but the fine tremor in her hand as she reached for her wine glass and took a delicate sip. “The fact of my lack of experience in that area has no influence on their opinion at all. I was already the object of gossip and speculation. I thought I might as well be doing something to deserve all the attention.”

  “I imagine you’d want to provide for yourself as well,” Joshua said.

  “That was my prime motive, of course. There aren’t many opportunities for women, as you know. None of the ordinary avenues open to me interested me in the slightest. So I made a path of my own.”

  Adam sat back as Rita brought in a tray piled with plates of food. He took his attention off the succulent roast beef and put it back on Amanda.

  “I imagine you found a ready supply of clients through your mother?” He noted the confused look Sarah gave him. To her, he said, “Gentlemen who would appreciate discretion and be guaranteed it by using Amanda to look into delicate matters on their behalf.”

  “You’re absolutely right,” Amanda agreed. She smiled at him as if her prize pupil had just exceeded her expectations. “And not all delicate matters concerned, shall we say, affairs of the heart.”

  “Likely any mess a man got himself into he’d be embarrassed to admit,” Warren said. “We’re strange creatures. We don’t like to admit we’ve been taken advantage of or cheated.”

  “I’ll let you in on a secret, Warren. Women don’t like to, either.” Sarah nodded as she said that, then turned back to Amanda. “Is it dangerous, what you do?”

  “I would have said no a month ago. But the last case I handled has proven to be different. One of my mother’s more socially prominent clients had invested in a business opportunity, and then he had second thoughts. He asked me to look in to the matter and the principals. I discovered he had reason to worry. Once I had all the facts in hand, I alerted the police. One culprit was apprehended, but the other escaped.”

  “And threatened to kill you, you said.” Adam helped himself to some roast beef and potatoes, passing the platters in turn. “I can understand your need for independence, but your chosen line of work can be dangerous, as you now know.”

  “My mother knew I’d have to take care of myself in this life, Captain Kendall. She saw to it I knew how to do that.”

  “Someone threatened to kill you? Something has to be done!” Sarah shot an accusing glare at Adam, and he had to resist the urge to squirm under her stare.

  Sighing, he nodded. “If Miss Dupree will furnish me with the name of the culprit, I’ll look into the matter. Officially.”

  “I thought you were going to call me Amanda,” the woman said. Damn if she didn’t look amused that Sarah frowned at him.

  “No, I was pretty certain we agreed to call you Mandy,” Warren said. “And since we’re all friends here, let’s all dispense with formal address.”

  Soft-spoken, Warren could make his points when he needed to.

  “Now, it isn’t only the desire to get away from a threat or the urge to connect with family that brings you here. Is it, Mandy?” Adam didn’t feel the least bit guilty putting the woman on the spot. In his estimation, she could more than handle herself.

  In response to his goading, she sat back, folded her hands in her lap, and locked her gaze with his. He felt her on his skin, an almost physical presence. He’d never had this connection with a woman before. It seemed to him as if the others in the room, even Warren, faded into the background as she took his measure.

  I’d like her to take my measure in a more personal way.

  It was unlike Adam to let thoughts of sex interfere with his job. Right now, at this dining table, despite the fact he felt a strong attraction and desire for Amanda Dupree, he considered himself very much on the job. He’d wait until he had all the facts about her, before deciding if she could be trusted, or not.

  He saw the moment she came to a decision and wondered then if, she wasn’t truly the most vulnerable among them.

  “All right. I was contacted by the solicitor who represented my late father and informed that he’d left me a legacy. Aside from the sum of two thousand dollars, I was given a journal and a letter. I didn’t know why he’d give me such a thing until I read it. And then I knew he’d actually left me much, much more. I have that journal and that letter with me. And I have every intention of going after his real legacy, something I’d believed to be only a myth.”

  “What are you talking about, El Dorado?” Adam asked. He’d known many men who’d come to Texas on their way to Mexico, looking for the El Dorado gold mine. As far as Adam was concerned, if such a thing existed it would have been found by now.

  “Close,” Amanda said. “My father left me the location of the lost Confederate gold.”

  Chapter 4

  “William Gladstone…Lieutenant Colonel William Gladstone. My God, I didn’t put it together until now!”

  Amanda looked at Caleb Benedict, that man’s utterance bringing the table conversation to a standstill.

  Adam sat forward and pinned her with his stare. “Your father was that William Gladstone?”

  Amanda lifted her hands, palms up. “All I know is what I read in the journal I received. My father was a Confederate officer, and the last thing he was ordered to do by President Davis was to intercept a shipment of gold and hide it.”

  “Adam, Joshua, and I were in the same unit at the end of the war,” Caleb explained. “We were ordered to intercept a shipment of gold. But when we got to the farm where it was to have been, the Confederate troops there reported it stolen. We discovered that a Lieutenant Colonel Gladstone had been seen in the area with a small cadre of men, but by the time we were able to mount a chase, the trail had gone cold.”

  “Amanda, may we see the journal?” Joshua Benedict didn’t appear to be as interested as his brother or his friend. But when she looked in his eyes, the glitter of excitement was unmistakable.

  “Gentlemen, let’s allow the woman to finish her meal first.” Sarah shot each of the men a stern look. “Amanda isn’t going anywhere. We can see this journal after dinner.”

  Amanda held back her laughter. In her experience, the fact that four men could be controlled so easily by one fairly dainty woman qualified as extraordinary.

  She supposed one aspect of growing up in a female-only household run by a mother who lived outside of social convention was that she never had the image of a man as lord and master put in front of her. Not until she was a young lady of twelve and had occasion to venture out into the w
orld with her mother or Millie, their housekeeper. She recalled how shocked she’d been one time, when she’d been shopping. She’d observed a man and woman together with the man ordering the woman to return home. His tone had dripped with condescension and abuse. Her shock had doubled when she learned the woman was the man’s wife and not his servant.

  Her mother told her that while in some instances wives were not treated any better than servants, some men did treat their wives with respect—just not necessarily as equals.

  “Sweetheart,” Caleb cajoled, “do you know the story of the lost Confederate gold?”

  “Until today, I’d never even heard of it.”

  He sat back, and Amanda thought him the sort who loved to tell stories. He proved her right.

  “In the spring of 1865, we were young soldiers, temporarily assigned in Georgia under the command of General Wild. The order came down to intercept a shipment of gold remnants of the Confederate army was attempting to hide. We were a day behind the shipment. When we got to the Chennault plantation, where our informants had said the gold would be, it was to find the wagons had been stolen.”

  “About the same time, another order had come down with regard to a list of Confederate officers as yet unaccounted for—men who had been known to be in our area and who had not officially surrendered,” Joshua said.

  “That’s right,” Adam recalled, “we were ordered to search for those officers. At the top of that list were Lieutenant Colonel William Gladstone, and a Major Robert Montgomery.”

  “My mother’s best friend, before she married my father, was a young woman named Melissa Montgomery,” Sarah said. “I recall that because my momma used to talk about life when she was a girl. Before everything changed.”

  “It could very well be the Major Montgomery on our list was related to your mother’s friend,” Adam said.