Denys, Jennifer - Wife for Three [Duoterra] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (2 page)

She scoffed and clenched a hand in the bedclothes. She knew from history lessons that it hadn’t started out that way. Women had had parity with men in the early days of their community and were doctors and scientists, but somehow this had been eroded away by the life they had chosen. A few women could be found in managerial roles, but generally women had become housewives, or occasionally, schoolmistresses. The life of being a homemaker, in truth, was one
12

Jennifer Denys

Brianna quite enjoyed. She just wanted the choice of whom she did it for.

On the other hand, her grandfather, who had died when she was five, had spoken about how wonderful their new world was. “Ah, Brianna, my child, you don’t appreciate what a stunning planet this is with its clean air, fresh water, and abundance of flora and fauna.” Although she adored the old man and followed him around like a pet, somehow she couldn’t quite bring herself to join in his enthusiasm—

at least not when Marcus had become her guardian and she began to resent everything her grandfather had taught her because of her uncle’s domineering ways.

Actually, the law only referred to women who had not yet married. If they were a widow, they didn’t have to find another man, but were strongly recommended to do so.

Brianna had heard a story that the only other option for women was, if no one wished to take a contract out, they could go to the main town and original landing site, Eden, where there were licensed brothels.

“Not that someone as innocent as me is supposed to know that,” she stated out loud to herself, aware how wry her comment was.

She often had conversations with herself, not really having anyone she could discuss these issues with, even if the men had allowed it.

Instead she chose to talk to Mortimer, her tattered teddy bear that her grandmother had brought from Earth. She reached out to fondly stroke him. He provided the comfort she never got elsewhere.

If the rumor was accurate, most of those were older women whose husbands had died and their homesteads had been taken over by younger family members. Well, younger
male
family members. Or women who were convicted criminals who chose that life instead of hard labor.

Shivering, she clenched her legs together compulsively. There was no way she was going to do that, particularly as she was still a virgin. She also suspected that many of those women in the brothels
Wife for Three

13

weren’t happy with the man or men they had married, but since divorce was against the law, they had few resources. Brianna also knew of several women who were unhappy with the way things were going, but there was little they could do.

It had been suggested at one stage of introducing marriage contracts for fixed terms. At the end of the chosen time, the parties could renew or go their separate ways, but this proposal had been voted down by the planet’s small elected parliament. They had been worried about those now-free women making sluts of themselves to draw the attention of the available men and all hell breaking loose.

Brianna giggled and turned her head to Mortimer. “It’s more likely that men would have lost their dominance over women in those circumstances.”

There was no one left in her small town that she was interested in, and her twenty-third birthday was in a few months. She knew her uncle wanted her to take out a contract with a man called Quinn Ford.

In fact, he insisted on it, practically taking it for granted that she would sign the contract and marry Quinn. But he was a hard, domineering man, similar to her uncle, that she steered well clear of whenever she could. But there were no other alternatives—the only other single men in her town were four older men who were widowers of varying ages from forty-five to eighty-six, one really seedy man in his late thirties with a pockmarked face and a leering expression, and two gay men who lived together. And her uncle, who needed her to marry someone of his choosing so he could continue to control her.

That and the money Quinn had agreed to pay for her. They called it her dowry, but to her, it felt like she was being sold.

She looked back again at the advert before turning on her stomach to face the bear. “You realize, of course, if I leave town to see this Curt and his brothers, I’ve no way of knowing if they are already married. Okay, so the newspaper is only six weeks old, but another girl could have jumped at the chance.” She sighed and rested her
14

Jennifer Denys

forehead against the bear. “It would be really good if you could answer me here.”

Brianna raised her head and bit her lip as something occurred to her. She could be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. The three of them could be even worse than Quinn or any of the other meager alternatives she had. For all she knew, they could be murderers and rapists. Not that either were common on this world, as anyone committing murder was sentenced to death—unless a woman and then she was put into the brothel—the same place that Brianna wasn’t supposed to know existed.

As for rapists, if caught, they were simply castrated. No, this Curt wouldn’t be a rapist. If he was, he wouldn’t be putting an advert in the newspaper! She sat up and thought about what these three brothers might be like. The age was good. The younger one not much older than her, and the eldest she could cope with. Anyway, she wouldn’t be better off with Quinn as he was thirty-six.

Lifting the newspaper, she read it once more. These brothers lived in the wild region. Twirling her hair in her fingers, she wondered what they did there—trappers maybe, or loggers? Either way, she imagined they were used to being outdoors and could imagine they were well tanned.

“Okay, so I know they are youngish and bronzed. And most likely very fit if they work outdoors. Hmm, that would be good, eh, Mortimer. Well, for me, not for you. You’d just be jealous!” She grinned at the bear and let her imagination run riot. Each of the guys would be incredibly good looking, very hunky, all oozing sex appeal just like in one of her late mother’s precious paperback books she had gotten from the community library, like the science-fiction novel where the heroine landed on a planet full of gorgeous, Vikings. She remembered seeing it lying on the table and had picked it up. She couldn’t read it at that stage but had enjoyed looking at the picture of the half-naked couple on the front.

Wife for Three

15

Of course, when they found her with it, all hell had broken loose, but she had remembered it, and when she was older, she had snuck the copy out of the library so she could read it.
Wow!

Sighing, she threw herself onto her back, resisting the need to stroke her body in response to its urging. Naturally, just like in the book, these brothers would be stunned by her beauty and make mad, passionate love to her one at a time, making it the most wonderful experience in the universe.

She snorted at her thoughts. She knew she wasn’t particularly lovely. There had been a few young men in town her own age or slightly older, but they had all chosen other girls—girls who were prettier than her. Either that or they were put off by her uncle’s scowling expression whenever they had tried speaking to her.

Groaning at her predicament, she folded the newspaper carefully and put it away in her bedside drawer. As much as she wanted to answer it, Frontier was a long, long way from Goldtown, and anyway, she wasn’t brave enough to go through with it. Of course, that meant she was back at square one. There was still no one else she wanted, and she knew she did
not
want Quinn.

16

Jennifer Denys

“
You did what?”

Curt grimaced as his brother, Adam, shouted at him. And he had every right. Curt had just admitted to putting an advert in the monthly newspaper—a very particular advert.

After pacing back and forth across the lounge like a caged wild animal, taking in the shocking news that Curt had just imparted, Adam stopped in front of Curt, who was sitting at the table. Adam’s hands were on his hips, and Curt winced wondering how he was going to get out of this one. He knew that stance. It meant he was in trouble, big trouble.

“Tell me again. I don’t think I heard you correctly the first time.

You put a notice in the newspaper requesting a what?”

“A wife.” Curt tensed as he reiterated what he had said.

Adam was not only the oldest of the brothers, but the biggest—

larger than either him or their younger brother, Eric—and so he commanded their respect and obedience. Well, Eric was stockier, but Adam’s six feet three inches dominated both of them, in particular Curt who was on the slender size compared to his brothers. In return, Curt had developed a quick, impulsive wit to get out of fights he knew he had no chance of winning over the other two.

But enough was enough, and he had taken the initiative in this matter that he had raised previously on several occasions and that had been unilaterally dismissed by Adam each time. His younger brother, in his usual role of peacemaker, had stayed out of it. Since then it had taken a lot of persuading for Curt to bring Eric onto his side, but he had done it, although he hadn’t told Eric yet that he had gone ahead
Wife for Three

17

and put the advert in without checking with their elder brother. For a very good reason—he knew Adam would have vetoed it.

“Look, Adam, we’ve discussed this before. There are lots of reasons for advertising for a wife—”

“So you say.”

He glared at his big brother for interrupting him and then continued marking the reasons off on his fingers, “One, we are so busy with the farm we don’t have time to play housekeeper. I know you do the cooking, and the cleaning is left to Eric and me—all right, Eric—but the herd has got so big that it takes up so much more of our time these days than it used to. This is great for the farm, but it would be good to have someone to do those things around the house for us, particularly items that we don’t have time for like mending clothes, baking pies, tending the herb garden—when was the last time we had moss-mint with our steak?”

Hoping that would be enough reason, he stared up expectantly at Adam, but he just got a look of “you’d better come up with a better reason that that” and no change in his domineering stance.

Ignoring Adam and continuing with his list, Curt stated, “Two, we all have ‘needs,’ and I’m getting fed up hearing Eric jerking off at night.”

That got an even bigger look of disbelief.

Gritting his teeth he threw in another, and hopefully winning, argument. “Three, with all the strict rules these days, we can’t just go to town and each of us find a girl who would marry us and come back to the farm. And four,” he got in quickly as Adam opened his mouth to respond with another of his sarcastic retorts. “Even if we could, we live so far from Frontier, the nearest inhabited place, that having a relationship with a girl prior to marriage and getting to know if she would be the ‘right’ one is damn near impossible.” He finished on a satisfied sigh, but knowing at the same time the truth of what he had just said.

18

Jennifer Denys

Adam simply leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms.

Curt hated it when his brother did that because it meant Adam was relaxed and “back in charge,” which meant Curt’s arguments were about to get knocked down. “I don’t see you having any problems sneaking off to town at every opportunity and seducing the girls there.”

Curt snorted with frustration. “Yeah, with the older women, but all the fathers in town keep their young, unmarried daughters well away from me.”

“Serves you right. You should have learned your lesson after Clark found you canoodling with his daughter around the back of the stables. Hell, I thought you’d learned your lesson after the beating you got.”

“I liked Kerry. I probably would have got around to marrying her, only they didn’t give me a chance. By the time I was fit again, he had married her off and sent her away.”

“Precisely. To keep her out of your lecherous clutches. But to answer your points, firstly, if you want a housekeeper, why don’t you just advertise for a widow or even a younger son wanting to travel to come and keep house?”

“Because of reason number two.”

Huffing, Adam continued, “Oh, I’m sure any widow will be happy to see to yours and Eric’s ‘needs.’”

Curt grimaced at Adam’s sarcastic grin. “Oh, ha-ha.”

“No? In that case, to come up with a solution for your second reason, we’ll have to make up a rule that Eric has to go out to the barn so not to disturb your ‘valuable’ sleep.” Glaring at his brother Curt declared, “Didn’t you hear me when I said we
all
have needs? Hmm, you, too, brother o’ mine. No, I don’t hear you jerking off, but I have strong suspicions about why you go off hunting so often.”

Adam narrowed his eyes but, for once in his life, Curt refused to drop his stare, not wishing to back down. He knew his elder brother
Wife for Three

19

had sexual needs just as much as his younger one, and both of them just as much as he did, even if he did take more opportunities to cavort with the ladies than they did. The problem was, when he was in town and tried to get to know a girl, she was swiftly packed off by her father. That just left the very willing Emily, the owner of the bar.

He chuckled to himself. It was a good thing Emily’s only relative, her son, Derek, was a dork. It was rare for a woman to have a profession these days, and any other man would have taken over the very profitable business, and Curt’s sexual “training” would have been minimal. He had once asked Emily to marry him, but she just laughed loudly after threatening to hit him and stated she was never getting married ever again.

Meanwhile, Adam was shaking his head, which was just as intimidating as his patronizing expression, and Curt flinched as his brother continued, “With all the regulations around now, the chances of you finding a girl even for
one
of us is remote. Oh, for God’s sake, Curt, stop giving me your wounded look. You know perfectly well I’m right. It’s going to come to it in the not-too-distant future that women are sold as a commodity, and I’m not joking.”