Boxed Set: Innocent Immigrant (10 page)

“Don’t touch the lady, Watson, or you’ll be dealing with two of us.” His voice was low and terrifying.

I felt braver now that I could be certain of the protection of Griff and Ari. “If you would just show me the registration document or the receipt from the Pastor, Mr Watson, then everything will be clearer.”

I saw his hesitation and felt sure I had confounded him.

“You, Miss Masefield, with your licentious behaviour, are in no position to make demands. You gave up your rights in the eyes of God when you fornicated with these men. However, I’m a reasonable man so I will tell you about the papers you are so keen to see. They are safely locked away in my strongbox at home.”

“I see,” remarked Griff before I had the opportunity to continue. “I hope they were signed by Pastor Mackay rather than one of his Elders.”

Watson pulled himself straighter. “They most certainly were.”

“When, exactly, did this signing take place?”

“Why, this morning, of course.” He shuffled his feet. “Just after ten o’clock; the Pastor met me himself...in his office.”

“Fascinating, and a complete lie. Pastor Mackay is away in Coromandel. There wasn’t a single person qualified to sign papers at the Mission this morning. Now, get out of my house before we throw you out. And don’t think of troubling Miss Masefield again. I think we know where her affections lie.”

Griff was gone for some minutes, and with the raised voices that came across the yard, he was obviously making sure Mr Watson completely understood my position and that he was well clear of the property before returning to the house.

When he marched back inside, Griff’s raised ire was evident in his demeanour.

“Come here, Katie,” he said, gripping my hand as he passed me in the kitchen and led me into the sitting room. He sat me in the chair he’d occupied the previous evening when he’d spanked me and a ripple of anxiety not altogether unwelcome, excited me.

By the look on his face, it seemed the prospect of another spanking was very real although for the life of me I couldn’t understand why. I pressed my thighs together, testing the fortitude of the throb residing there. Would it intensify if I pressed harder? These feelings were so new that I wasn’t certain what to do with them, how to make them go away or how to intensify them. And why had they been aroused now after the fright I’d had at Mr Watson’s unexpected arrival and demands?

The stern look on Griff’s face certainly made the feelings stronger, especially as he pulled a wooden rocking chair closer to where I was and seated himself before he spoke. “I think you can see now how difficult things will be for you in this town, as a single woman.”

At his words, my ire was raised. “Particularly now that my honour has been ruined, by you, no less,” I countered.

“Your honour will be restored if you marry me.”

“Why would I marry a man who clearly has no respect for my reputation or his own? I wish to leave this house, now.”

“And go where, exactly?” Ari asked in a moderate voice.

I studied the floor in an attempt to gather my wits. The boards were a rich honey colour, made from the wood of the native kauri tree. In a short time, I’d already learned so much about the house and farm. With dread I thought about the camps where many of the miners lived in the one-roomed makeshift huts or tents; how they endured the thick mud in the rains, the disease, the shared water pump and outhouses. Maraea had told me of these things when we had worked together today.

“I don’t know,” I said quietly. I was in such turmoil with my reputation in tatters, and I couldn’t think of what to do.

“Then I would be honoured if you would marry me, Katie.” This time Griff’s words were spoken kindly.

I met his gaze, and his handsome face seemed troubled so that I wanted to reach out and stroke his cheek. “But...but what of the Pastor? What of the purification and punishment Mr Watson described? I surely would not survive that.”

“Nor will you have to, my love. Your virtue, of course, remains intact, and I will find a Justice of the Peace to marry us. I am sorry I had to sully your reputation in front of Watson, but it was the only way to be quit of him for good. If we plead your case to Pastor Mackay, we run the risk that he may very well not rule in our favour. He can still order that you marry Watson, as per the terms of your contract. The last thing he will want made public is his inability to completely control the women he brings to this country.”

“I see.” I hadn’t thought for a minute that the Pastor had any sort of hold over me. He had his money; surely that was all he wanted. But, of course, he wanted more than that. He wanted repeat business, other men in the district to engage him to broker a bride.

Part of me began to fear that many of these women arriving alone in a country without family or friends, without the fallback of being able to return to their home country, were treated poorly. The promises fed to us back home about our husbands and their means certainly stretched the truth about the conditions here, all so that the Pastor could fill his pockets and advance his position within the community.

It dawned on me that I was little more than a chattel. Suddenly the idea that money had changed hands between two men I’d never met, so that one could have me as a wife, made my stomach churn. What on earth had I been thinking when I decided to leave England and set off for a new life?

It had always been a gamble, but at the Girls’ Home where I’d lived we had heard so many stories of people in my situation, someone’s cousin or sister, emigrating to the colonies, marrying and rising to a position of respectability. I had a life in service ahead of me, and the more I heard these stories, the more entranced I had become. In the finish, I wanted the opportunity, too.

“A number of men who use the Pastor’s services for procuring a wife think no more of her than they would a cow or a pack horse. They have paid Mackay a finder’s fee and the cost of sea passage for the woman. In return, they believe she is bound to submit to, and obey her sponsor.”

The thought of submitting to any of the Watson men made me shudder.

“My proposal will take you off the market, as it were, and we can marry quickly...tomorrow.”

Tomorrow
.

No matter what my decision right now, I knew in the end, I would finish up as personal property, regardless of who I married. The only thing to do was to make a sensible decision as to my future husband, and it didn’t appear I had a lot of choice.

Book 2, Part 4

ARI

Griff rode into town early the following morning to meet with Doctor Blandford, the regional Justice of the Peace. Although based some distance over the hills in Mercury Bay, he was the only doctor in the area. Today he would be making a visit to two injured miners and bringing some medical supplies for Mrs Carrington, who, with her husband, ran the butcher and chemist shop. At a pinch, she acted as a nurse for smaller medical incidents.

I could tell by Griff’s stiff riding posture when he returned to the stables some hours later that something troubled him.

“That was a waste of time,” he called out to me as he dismounted and handed the horse over to our stable hand, Mike, without more than a nod for a greeting. “Doctor Blandford can’t do a thing without a marriage licence, and for that I will have to travel to Auckland.”

The idea of a delay concerned me. “Pastor Mackay makes his marriages very quickly. How does he do that?”

“I have a suspicion the couples he marries live
common law
and, beyond the Pastor’s ceremony are not legally married at all. Perhaps when the husband makes a trip to Auckland he may eventually obtain a licence and marry properly, but my understanding now is that whatever Pastor Mackay is up to is a sham.”

This didn’t entirely surprise me after my experience at the hand of the Pastor. Kotuku had been a sleepy town with just one small store until gold had been discovered. That drew all kinds of men to join the rush, some from as far away as Australia and America. Since then, it had grown to have everything from public and boarding houses to a dairy for butter and cheese, and all the usual stores such as bakeries, feed and grain, mercantile, a barber, tailor and dressmaker, and the like found in any small but prospering town.

Growing so fast Kotuku had become a law unto itself. Its geographical isolation meant a certain type of person got away with things that would never have passed in the more populated regions of the country. I knew very well the way Griff’s mind worked, and I could tell he already had plans. “What do you propose?” I asked.

“I won’t have Katie living under the shame of a lie. It is difficult enough for her already to come to grips with the unusual situation she has found herself in, but we both respect her. I will go to Auckland on this afternoon’s boat to obtain a licence, and return by Monday.”

“Pastor Mackay returns tomorrow...”

“We’ll not involve ourselves with his community any longer.”

“That’s a situation that suits me very well. Maraea and I will take good care of Katie while you’re gone.”

The community Mission, for all its godliness, had no time for Maraea or me as mixed
Māori–Pākehā.
All men might well be equal in the eyes of God, but not according to Pastor Mackay and his Elders, who considered us unsuitable for their
pure
people. I kept these ideas to myself, knowing how angry it made Griff. I never spoke of the other things that went on at the Mission either because Griff seemed torn.

On the one hand, he felt loyal to his parents, who had helped by donating the land for the Mission of Perpetual Divinity to settle its roots, but he had good enough sense to be suspicious of what occurred behind the facade of benevolence. The original idea for the Mission had drifted off course once the egos of the men who ran it veered towards earthly rather than heavenly gifts.

Griff looked solemn, and he clasped me to him, patting me roughly on the shoulder. “I know you’ll take as good care of Katie as I would, Ari. We’ll have this marriage business sorted in no time so that the next visit Braddock makes to Kotuku will be to hear our wedding vows.”

Although he appeared to have everything under control, his mouth remained tight. “What is it, Griff?”

“She’s flighty, Ari, and I’m not convinced she wants to stay; don’t let her run off.” He brushed his hand down my side.

We had to be careful about any display of affection for each other in front of the farm workers. Even though relationships between men went on a lot in a town with so few women, town gossip about our unnatural love could destroy us. Things might be lawless in Kotuku, but a whisper to the authorities in the region would have us arrested. Depending on the magistrate, we could well finish up behind bars. We may have had the respect of many townfolk, but I could tell that breaking away from Pastor Mackay, with the control he had on the community, would create enemies.

“Wiremu will take care of business at the warehouse and is more than capable of handling things if an unscheduled boat comes in needing assistance. I know you’ll watch out for Katie as much as I would. Touch her, often; teach her to become accustomed to being held and caressed.” He winked at me. “And, of course, there’s always your birch if she misbehaves.”

I was the gentler of Griff and me, but the thought of birching Katie certainly brought a lively pulse to my cock. I could administer it for punishment, but for those who enjoyed it, I was equally capable of turning a thrashing into great pleasure. Judging by how Griff had spanked Katie to a beautiful climax, I liked the idea of experimenting further with her reaction to erotic pain. Perhaps one day I’d have the chance of whipping her pale bottom while she rode Griff’s cock and—

“Ari?”

Griff broke into my daydream.

He glanced around the yard, making sure we were alone. “This looks painful,” he said, giving my cock a squeeze, his hot breath warming my cheek. “Tell me, what got you into this state?”

His voice, when he lowered it that way, rumbled with desire. I couldn’t help but lean into him. “I was thinking of birching Katie as she rode your cock. Imagine it, Griff, every switch across her tender buttocks making her tighten on you, her cunny gripping your prick like a man’s strong fist, her cries finding their way deep into your balls.”

Griff’s hand returned to my cock. “Mike’s seeing to my horse. Is Katie with Maraea?”

I nodded, my breath hitching in the hope that Griff was thinking the same thing as I.

“Into the barn, now.”

I was so hard it was almost too painful to walk. I entered the barn via the stables, where Mike was rubbing down Apollo, Griff’s horse. “Good work, Mike,” I said, doing my best to keep my voice steady. “We won’t need a saddle horse again today. Can you take Apollo to the river paddock, and then go to the flats and help with the fencing?”

“Sure, boss.”

I waited as he led the horse away, knowing Griff and I would be alone for some time. Two other men who worked on the farm were down fencing off a piece of land we’d cleared of scrub this winter for pasture. There was enough work there for three men until sundown, at least.

Griff whistled to me as I passed one of the stalls, and I found him inside, leaning against a wall. When I joined him, he pointed to the wrought iron hay rack. “Why don’t you bend over and take a good hold of that rack, and I’ll see what I can do about that hard cock of yours?”

I reached for my belt.

“Leave it. I’m taking care of you.”

I bent and gripped the top rail, the hay that sat in the rack tickling my knuckles.

Griff ran a hand over my buttocks as if he was checking the power of a horse’s rump. He flicked open my belt buckle and had my trousers and drawers heaped at my ankles in one quick move. My cock bobbed in the air already searching for a place to bury itself.

“That’s very nice. Let’s get you into a better position.” He tapped my shins with his boot so that I had to bend lower and move backwards. “Spread your legs as far as you can.”

My legs couldn’t open very wide, captured as they were by my trousers. I lifted a foot to free myself, but Griff stopped me.