Day, Xondra - Menage on the Prairie (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (4 page)

“This is just an in and out deal,” said Ryan, speaking up. “You won’t get much more than that around these parts. I think Emily Wayne had a small reception when she got hitched earlier this year, but even then it wasn’t much of anything.

“Preacher Dan is a decent man. He’ll see to you both getting a decent service. I’ll go see to the horses and get the wagon hitched.” In a flash, Ryan was gone.

Kate detected something wasn’t right. She may have been reading into something that wasn’t there, but Ryan had seemed a bit off to her. Shouldn’t he be happy for Joe?

“Did I say something wrong?” She motioned to the now-closed door.

“Ryan will be fine. It’s been just the two of us for so long and a woman, well,” Joe smiled, “it’s going to take some getting used to for him. But time heals all and things will be fine. So, how did you sleep? Was the bed suitable?”

She put down her fork. “It was most formidable. I slept like a baby, and with all things considered, I did quite well.”

She jerked her hand away when she felt Joe’s cover her own. Flushing scarlet, she felt the need to apologize. “Oh my, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I must be more nervous than I thought.” She returned Joe’s touch and smiled back at him. “So
,
we have an hour or so to kill, tell me more about you and Cottonwood.”

* * * *

Ryan kicked at the ground and watched as a rock flew through the air and then landed somewhere in the grass ahead of him.

It wasn’t fair to be angry with Kate or to dislike her. She’d been nothing but cordial to him since her arrival. It was obvious that Joe was taken with her. When she entered the room this morning and took her seat at the table next to him, his eyes lit up. Blast it all, blast it all to hell and back again! Why couldn’t things just remain just as they always had?

Inside the barn, he plunked himself down on a bale of hay. The two horses whinnied when they spotted him. He waved with one arm to silence them. He needed to think, to think to the future,
his
future. If he decided to stay on at Cottonwood, there would be some big changes, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle them. At this point, the open road was looking more appealing than it ever had before.

* * * *

The trio, Joe, Ryan, and Kate, stood together on the steps of the little weather-beaten church.

Joe glanced at his silver pocket watch. “He said he’d meet us here.”

The two men, dressed in their best, looked rather smart and dapper.

Kate felt her nerves grab hold. What was she doing? Was she really to marry this man, this stranger that she had traveled all those miles to meet? Struck down with a huge dose of reality, she grasped Joe’s arm as if to get a grip on life.

“Are you okay?” asked Joe. “You look a little pale. We could go over yonder and sit in the shade until it’s time.” Her eyes followed his hands when he motioned to a large tree, standing proud and tall in the churchyard, surrounded by a small cluster of headstones.

“I’m fine.” She smiled to reiterate what she had just said. When the door to the church opened up and they were beckoned to come inside by a small man and his equally petite wife, she turned, calling to Ryan, who now stood off to the side away from them, looking off into the horizon.

“Ryan.” He glanced at her and stepped forward. “I want you to be right at our side through this.” She reached and grabbed his hand and all three walked up the steps into the church, followed by the preacher and his wife.

The service was short, simple vows followed by a blessing. Then they were given a quick send-off as the preacher and his wife peppered them with their best wishes for the future.

Outside at the wagon, Joe helped her step up and onto the seat. Then, just as before, he took his place next to her.

Ryan stood at the side with one hand bracing the wagon. “You two go on back, I have some business to attend to here in town. I’ll walk back when I’m done.”

“He’s not happy with this,” said Kate, watching Ryan walk away. “It shows all over his face.”

“Naw, it’s just Ryan,” replied Joe, dismissing her statement. “And if he has a problem, he’ll just have to move past it. I’m sorry about the lack of a ring.”

Kate held herself in place as the wagon jerked forward. “It’s nothing.”

“I did go into town to look for one, but there wasn’t anything suitable. I put one on order. It should be here next month.”

A ring, a symbol to solidify their commitment to each other. It was something that Darcy had once promised her.

“That’s fine, Joe.” Her eyes flickered to the road ahead of them. This was to be her life from here on. Until death came and separated them. Of course, she didn’t feel love for Joe, not yet. But in time she hoped she would develop that feeling, the same feeling that had flooded her heart every time she had been in Darcy’s company.

Her father had been right all along. She’d been nothing more than a foolhardy girl to believe what that man had promised her.

The last time they’d been together, she’d remembered sitting in a hotel room of all places, the best in the city, listening to Darcy give her some spiel about how he couldn’t leave his wife. How quickly his love had changed for her.

“She’ll take me for everything,” he claimed, standing there, handsome as always. “She’ll ruin me, you know what she’s like. And the kids, I have to think of them. ”

She tossed her head back and laughed sarcastically. “You’ve more money than almost anyone else in this city. That’s not a viable excuse.” She shook one finger at him. “I do know your wife. Too well, in fact. I’d bet my life that she’s gotten you scared to death with her threats. Why, I bet the first thing out of her mouth was that you’ll never see the kids again if you divorce her. Am I right?

“You don’t love me. You never did. I was just a toy, a good-time girl for you to escape to. So here we are. You’ll walk away from this unharmed, while I look like the harlot, the whore who seduced another woman’s husband.”

“It’s not like that.” He moved toward her and on bended knee grabbed her hand, attempting to kiss it. But she was quick and managed to pull away before the deed was done.

“It is like that and you know it!” she yelled. “The woman always comes out looking like the evil one.

“Go, Darcy. You’ve been washed clean of all this. Go, be the family man, play husband and daddy.”

Still on bended knee, he lowered his head. “It was never supposed to be like this.”

“But it is,” her voice had turned to ice. “And now it’s over and done with. Now, I think you should go.”

She stood and, holding her skirt, walked to the hotel room’s door. She held it open, waiting for him to exit.

Just before he left, he stopped and muttered something that sounded remotely like
sorry
, but she wasn’t sure. He didn’t look at her and he didn’t look back as he walked down the hallway. She slammed the door behind him.

* * * *

Was it always going to be like this from this day forward?

Joe sat next to his bride, looking ahead. It was hard to believe that he was now a married man, a husband, and maybe at some point in the future he’d become a father. Of course, for that to happen, he’d have to have relations with a woman.

He was equally attracted to both sexes, and even before Ryan he wasn’t a virgin. He’d lost that when he was eighteen, to a saloon girl named Maggie.

She was many years older than him, all woman from head to toe. She’d been a birthday gift from his father and when he was brought there it was apparent what was to happen that night.

“Son, you just go right on in and ask the bartender to direct you to Maggie. That’s all you have to say. It’s been paid for, and she’ll be expecting you. I’ll come ’round in a couple hours to fetch you.”

Inside, a few of the saloon’s patrons flashed him a glance as he walked across the smoke-filled room.

When he saddled up to the bar, it took the bartender, a grizzled older man with a white beard, a while to notice him.

“What can I get ya?” asked the bartender.

“Maggie,” he replied, feeling like an insignificant fool. His cheeks grew hot. They’d all known what he came for. “I’m supposed to see Maggie.”

“Get this, boys,” yelled the bartender, his deep voice radiating throughout the room. “The kid’s here to get it on with our Maggie!”

A roar of laughter overtook the saloon. If Joe could have sunk down through the floor at that moment, he would have.

The bartender flashed him a devilish smile and motioned to the large staircase positioned over to the far right side of the building. “She’s upstairs, the fifth door down the hall on your left. Oh and son, go easy on her.” He let out a big roar of laughter, slamming his fist down on the bar.

“She’ll eat him alive,” he heard one say as he made his way up the stairs. “Maggie will swallow him whole.”

Joe stood in the hallway, looking down the narrow corridor stretched out before him. In the air he smelled a heady mixture of perfumes. Lemon Verbena, his mother wore that, it was familiar to him, and smoke from downstairs. But of course, his mother never once smoked, she’d always been a lady right up to her dying day.

Joe sauntered down the hallway, glancing at each closed door he passed. A loud squeal bounced from behind one shut door and a series of deep grunting noises from another, followed by a high-pitched feminine voice crying out, “Ride ’em, cowboy!”

Five on his left. He counted the doors as he walked and when arrived at the fifth one, he froze. Panic had taken over, and for a brief second, he felt like turning and running in the direction he had come. The one thing, however, that stopped him from doing so was the men downstairs, in particular the bartender who sure as heck would have laughed him off. He didn’t want that.

Should he knock? Was she really expecting him? Self-doubt crept into his mind. Then it happened, the door opened.

Maggie stood there in all her glory, looking him over from head to toe and back again, a half smile crossing her lips. “Well, hello there. You must be Joe.”

“Yes’m.” He felt out of place. What was he to do next?

“Come in.” She stepped aside and motioned to him. “I won’t bite, unless you want me to.” And there was that grin again. “I’m Maggie, but I guess you knew that already.”

“My father told me your name,” said Joe, passing her. “He set this up.”

“Your father’s a great man,” she replied. “A real gentleman.”

“You know him well?” he asked.

“Well enough. But that’s neither here nor there. Tonight’s all about you, darlin’.”

He wondered
how well
she
knew his father and how his father had known about this woman?

“Sit,” she said, directing him to the small bed in the dimly lit room.

The room itself was small, sparsely furnished with just a bed, bureau, and a washstand. One sole lamp lit the room, casting shadows across the walls.

“My, you’re just a boy.” Maggie walked to him and placed one hand under his chin, forcing him to look up at her. “Just how old are you?”

“Eighteen,” he muttered. “I’ll be nineteen come fall.”

“Then a man in many ways.” She took her place next to him on the bed, curling one arm into his. “You know why your father sent me to you.”

He nodded.

“Then let’s get it over with.”

He lay back on the bed and she undressed him, first removing his shirt and then his trousers, leaving only his boots. “I figure you’ll want to keep those on, most men who come here do.”