Beauty and the Beasts [Bride Train 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (25 page)

“Awk! Get off me. We can’t let them know—”

Oz kissed her nipple. “Angel, if they heard that scream of yours and Walt’s not in here trying to save your life, I expect they know exactly what we’ve been doing.”

She groaned and closed her eyes. A moment later a cool cloth ran up her thigh. He thoroughly washed her with the flannel.

“Take your time. I’ll bring them into the front cabin and get the kettle going.” He kissed her nipple. “Good thing we don’t have the door cut yet.”

Sarah knew her face flamed when she finally got the nerve to walk around to see their guests. The only reason she could do it, was to see Oliver. When she came around the corner the cat lay on the grass in the sun, batting at a string Lily dangled above his paws.

“Oliver!”

He flicked an ear in her direction but kept after the string.

“You’re being punished for leaving him behind, I expect,” said Lily. She laughed and dropped the string. Oliver rolled to his feet and stomped away toward the cabin. He sniffed around the door before turning to her with a disgusted expression and continuing around the back.

“Your cat is certainly male,” continued Lily. “Keep him amused and he stays near. Laugh at him, ignore him, and he pouts and runs away.” She looked Sarah over with one quick glance. “You might want to fix your buttons before Walt returns. It might embarrass the dear man even more.”

Sarah looked down. The fabric had bunched open right at the level of her breasts. She turned her back, ears and face burning, and fixed it.

“You must think—”

“Whatever you were going to say, forget it. Don’t be upset. Oz saw us a while back, though I expect he didn’t know we saw him. When he turned and raced for home, we decided to take our time and mosey along.” Her eyes sparkled. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I do hope it was worth it? Oz seemed very determined.”

She nodded, though her whole body flamed with embarrassment.

“I’m so glad. He and Gabe need a good woman such as yourself.” She held up her hand before Sarah could speak. “I wasn’t talking marriage, which is Luke’s problem. Oz and Gabe don’t need a paper to prove they care for you. And if your waistband starts swelling, they’ll support you however you wish.” She looked toward the cabin. “Oz offered me a cup of tea, and I believe the kettle should be about ready.”

Fifteen minutes later Sarah and Lily relaxed in the cool cabin. Sarah insisted Lily take the chair with the arms, while she used a bench. She avoided sitting on the spot with a faint onion odor.

“How was your honeymoon?”

“Excellent. We saw old friends and made some new ones.”

“I’m so happy for you!”

“I’ve got news. Sheriff Barstow did some investigating about the man who attacked you. He couldn’t find out much about that, but did discover why Jessie and the Double Diamond were being watched.”

“Didn’t it stop a while ago?”

“Yes, but it’s always best to find out why things happened. It looks like Smythe, who lost the Double Diamond ranch in a poker game to Jessie’s husband, wanted to force them out. Sheriff Barstow found the man who was paid to watch. He didn’t mind talking in exchange for a few drinks as he didn’t think he did anything wrong. All he did was watch and report back to a bartender in Bannack City. But, after it was discovered that the ranch hand working for them was really Jessie Elliott, the man was told to stop. We expect Smythe realized he was up against all the Elliotts and MacDougals instead of three English greenhorns, and cut his losses.”

“I suppose that’s a relief to Jessie, especially now that she’s with child.”

“But I didn’t just come to bring Oliver and some gossip,” said Lily quietly. “I want to speak to you about what really happened in Bannack City.”

Sarah choked on her tea. “I, uh, don’t know what you mean.”

“Perhaps it would help if you knew the building where you were held had an unfortunate fire.” Lily shook her head, tut-tutting. “Luckily the places on either side weren’t damaged. But the offending business is shut down until further notice. The section where you were held was totally destroyed. Such a pity.”

A weight she hadn’t realized she carried fell from Sarah’s soul.
It was gone. She’d never have to see it again.

“What happened to you was terrible,” said Lily quietly. “If the attack by Mr. Isaac, and the few nights with other men, hold you back from a life of love and pleasure, then those men have won. Don’t let the pain of the past destroy your future.” Her lips quirked up. “From the sounds I heard when we drove up, I expect you enjoy being with Gabe and Oz. But if you hide something terrible deep inside you, it can eat you away and destroy all your happiness. You can tell me anything. Get it out, and then let it go.”

Sarah clenched her fists. She looked down, face flaming even more. “I wasn’t raped.”

She looked up to see Lily’s reaction. The one-time madam of the most exclusive sporting house in the West lifted an elegant eyebrow.

“You didn’t scream and fight back when the men touched you?”

“No.” She whispered the word.

Lily’s deep sigh filled the room. “Perhaps one day a woman will have the right to control who touches her body,” she said quietly. “Though no judge would find those men guilty of rape, it doesn’t change the fact that you were violated. You did what you had to do. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Though the same thing was said to her when she first arrived in Tanner’s Ford last fall, she couldn’t hear it then. She was too deep in shame for being taken in by a pretty face and promises. It was different this time. She not only understood love, she was loved in return.

She pressed her lips tightly together. Her stomach clenched. She crossed her arms over the ache and bent forward, tears forming. Her whole body shook. She drew in a shuddering breath.

“I didn’t want them touching me.” She pushed the words past the knot in her throat. “But I didn’t want to die.”

Lily crossed the few feet that separated them and rested her hand on Sarah’s shoulder. Her scent soothed Sarah, a reminder of her mother’s love.

“I know,” said Lily quietly.

The comfort of a woman who’d spent her life in the arms of men she detested, just to stay alive, broke the barrier holding Sarah from releasing her tears. She rocked back and forth as she keened, mourning the loss of her innocence, and trust. Lily stayed near until her sobs cleared and she could once again breathe. She inhaled, her chest no longer tight from unacknowledged grief, horror, and pain. Lily refreshed their tea while she washed her face. She sipped, letting the warm liquid soothe her throat.

“That first night, I thought he was my husband.” Sarah paused. “I thought it was so romantic when he insisted we marry only hours after arriving in town. He took me to supper and filled my wine glass again and again. I giggled when he helped me to what I thought was our hotel. He said he wanted to blindfold me, to surprise me. Of course, I went along with it. He helped me up to our room. Though the wedding was nothing like I had dreamed, I was so happy to be a bride. I remember being slowly undressed. I’d never felt a man’s hands on my flesh, or his mouth. He made me feel things I’d never imagined. I loved how he pleasured me, though he never spoke.” She paused, uncertain how to explain her ignorance.

“But the man who seduced you wasn’t your husband.”

Sarah shook her head. “No, though I didn’t realize it until morning. Even after I took off the blindfold the second time we…” She shoved the memories of blossoming pleasure away and forced herself to continue. “The room was dark. It was only in the morning, when my head was clear and the room filled with light, that I realized I’d given myself to a stranger. Worse, I enjoyed it.”

“You were ashamed that you enjoyed his touch.”

“Yes. I immediately screamed and fought to escape. He covered my mouth and held me down. I fought even more when he said the wedding was false, that Tierson had sold me to a brothel. But if I did whatever he wanted for two more nights, he’d take me away and set me free.” She shook her head. “Like a fool, I believed him.”

“You weren’t a fool. He’s a master at this.” Lily leaned back. “Big Nose Tess knows of a man who pays well to teach innocent young women about pleasure. He tells them he’ll take them away if they follow everything he says. The first night the girl is drugged, just enough to make her relax. He pleasures her many times before taking his own. He tells her beautiful lies, anything that will give him what he wants.” Lily paused for a moment. “You thought he was your husband so, with help of the wine, you allowed yourself to be pleasured. You did nothing wrong.”

Lily’s words soothed wounds she hadn’t known were still raw. When the sheriff gave her a bag of gold as a reward for helping to catch Tierson, he’d said other women had killed themselves after being duped the same way. She’d only had a few men, one per night, until her monthlies started. She didn’t know what she would have done if she hadn’t been rescued. Lily cleared her throat. Sarah brushed away her thoughts and listened once more.

“Thinking she will soon be free, the second night the girl’s eager to see him, especially as he says he cares for her. The third night the girl thinks she only has one more night and he’ll take her away. But he takes her to a different, well-lit room. She doesn’t know it, but many men have paid money to watch through holes in the walls. The man has her perform, showing off how he has trained this innocent young girl to be a top-quality whore who loves her work. Many men fantasize about taking a virginal woman and making her cry out in passion because of the way they wield their cocks.”

Sarah now understood why, after she pretended to crave their touch, they would leave her bed in the morning strutting as if they’d accomplished something monumental. Everything she did with them was a lie, but it kept her from being beaten, or worse.

“His true evil,” said Lily, leaning forward, “is not that he let you believe he was your husband, or that he left you behind after promising freedom.” She shook her head. “He took the passion you should only share with men you love, and debased it. Though he left no marks on your body, he destroyed your joy in your body’s natural pleasure. Unfortunately, the law might chastise him for taking your innocence, but they would say he didn’t hurt you.”

“Because I didn’t fight him.”

Lily sat up and straightened her skirts. She pursed her lips. “The men who make laws think of women as property, like cattle. Unless she has a wealthy father to complain that her value as a wife has been degraded by the loss of her virginity, she has little claim against those who take her against her will. And once a woman has lost her innocence, she is soiled. It is a stain she can never remove. Few will believe, or care, that it wasn’t her choice.”

Sarah nodded miserably. Lily pressed her hands on Sarah’s shoulders until she looked up.

“The next night you expected him to take you away, but Mr. Isaac came instead. He hurt your body, but worse, with his brand he made sure you would never, ever, be free of him. He said if you tried to escape, he’d come back and it would be far worse. Is that right?”

Sarah nodded. “I hate that he branded me like I was an animal, one of his cattle.” She lifted her chin. “I decided I could fight and be repeatedly beaten before they took what they wanted, or I could choose to give it to them until I could escape. So I pretended to enjoy what they did in order to save myself for a better life.”

“And now you have that better life. It is time you enjoyed it fully.” Lily picked up her teacup. She looked at Sarah over the rim as she sipped. When she set it down and folded her hands Sarah realized how graceful the tiny woman was. Her movements flowed as if she’d grown up in the finest drawing rooms of an Eastern city. What Sarah endured was nothing compared to what must have happened to Lily over the years. Yet she’d found happiness with Judge Thatcher, and a family with the Elliotts. All of them knew her truth, and accepted her as she was. Could Luke and the others do the same?

“Men like Isaac crave power, control, and ownership. If he had slaves at one time, they would have been badly treated. Even his servants would suffer.” She tapped her index finger against her chin. “That’s one clue to follow. Servants can be hard to keep out here, as they think they can make more money with mining gold. I shall have my spies see who isn’t able to keep servants, and why.”

“You have spies?”

“How else do I keep on top of what is happening?” Lily flicked a piece of lint from her navy watered silk dress. A pert hat, not one created by Sarah, sat on her head. “A businesswoman isn’t invited to dinner with men of power. However, those men often talk freely in bed to women they believe are stupid. Many are not. I have a network of people who pass on tidbits of information. When added together, they provide a picture of what’s going on.”

“You mean, we might find Mr. Isaac?”

Lily raised a neatly curved eyebrow. “What do you want to happen to him,
when
we find him?”

A bubble rose in Sarah’s chest. It was joined by others, growing until it burst out of her throat in a brittle laugh. How many other women had been taken? How many of them managed to escape? Anger began to displace her shame.

“I want him to die, slowly and painfully. If possible, I want to make the final blow.”

Lily tilted her head like a sparrow, but her narrow gaze more resembled a hawk. “We shall see what we can do, my dear.” They shared a small smile. “I’ve already started in Bannack City with a visit to Tess. I brought her some gowns one of the more flamboyant girls left behind.”

“Tess is the one who killed the man who sold me.”

“Yes. She also arranged for a certain fire.”

Sarah blinked back joyful tears. “Please thank her for me.”

“Of course. It might help you to know I’ve already got the Pinkertons on the case. Their network is much farther ranging than mine. I would expect Isaac, or whoever he really is, has left a trail that an experienced mind could follow.”

“Aren’t the Pinkerton detectives dreadfully expensive?”

Lily shrugged as if gold could be found by the handful in every river for miles. Perhaps at one time, when the Elliotts and MacDougals first arrived, it could.