Jamie's Revenge (10 page)

“Damnit, Jamie, calm down.”

Linc tried to reason with the unreasonable, but he quickly saw the futility of that when he turned to actually confront her. As fast and crazy as she was, Jamie almost did make it to Brodie before Linc just gave up any attempt to be gentle. Swooping her off her feet, he swung Jamie just like a sack of feed over his shoulder.

“Okay, little one, I think it’s time we found you some proper clothes.” He’d made it halfway toward the door by the time he finished that statement. Only then did his brother seem to realize he’d left his not-too-happy wife behind.

“Bridgette?”

Brodie admitted it. His sister-in-law scared him a little with that look in her eyes. “If I find out you harmed my sister in
any way
, Brodie MacAuley…”

Brodie didn’t know where that led to, but he surely didn’t want to go there. He would though. If that’s what it took to get Jamie under his roof, Brodie would have gone to hell for her.

Chapter 8

“I think you actually scared him, Bridgette.”

Jamie giggled at that comment as she wrung out the sponge over the dirty water bowl before dipping it back into the bowl of clean water. Bathing off the day’s dirt and grime behind the screen Bridgette’s husbands had erected for their pregnant wife, Jamie gave into her buoyant sense of victory.

Thank God for Bridgette.
Her sister had saved her hide tonight. Better yet, she’d been the backbone to get the revenge Jamie had intended on all along. Instead of being a sweaty rag doll in Brodie’s bed right now, she was loving her freedom and the sure knowledge that both Caelen and Brodie were miserable.

“You’re doomed.” Bridgette’s response held the old note of practicality that had always been at odds with Jamie’s over-the-moon aspirations. “I don’t know what game you’re playing with those boys or why, but you ain’t going to win.”

Jamie rolled her eyes as she finished wiping away the last of the suds clinging to her leg. “Trust me, Bridgette. There is no way I can lose.”

That got a laugh but not a supportive one. “I’m still waiting to hear what it is you’re trying to win.”

Tying off the robe Bridgette had leant her, Jamie came around the screen to find her sister relaxed in her big bed. “Can I tell you a secret?” Jamie asked as she came to perch next to her sister’s side.

“I don’t know.” Bridgette eyed her warily. “That smile normally means you’re going to be keeping me up with worry, and I’m too pregnant to lose any sleep.”

“But you still want to know, don’t you?” Pulling up a leg, Jamie settled in to do the one thing she’d really looked forward to the most these past five years, gossiping with Bridgette.

“Oh, go on and tell me,” Bridgette groaned, rolling her head back on the pile of pillows she had mounded up behind her. “I can tell you’re just bursting to.”

“
I never got married
.” Jamie couldn’t keep the thrill out of her voice as she leaned in to whisper that. It had Bridgette’s eyes popping open before they could even finish closing.

“
What
?”

“Yeah.” Jamie nodded, unable to contain her excitement at finally getting to tell somebody the truth. “I never married any Englishman.”

“Jamie Anne Traynor, if this is a joke, so help me God—”

“Don’t you want to know what I’ve been doing?”

“No.”

“I’ve been—”

“
No
.”

“—running a parlor house.” Jamie nodded when Bridgette’s head shook. She’d gotten her sister good this time, better than ever before. This time she’d rendered her speechless. “That’s right. You are looking at
Madame
Jamie, mistress of the best little whore house in town.”

“I don’t believe you.” Those words fell out of Bridgette’s mouth as if she didn’t even believe what she said.

“It’s true.”

“No.” Bridgette shook her head. “This is just a tasteless joke, and if you don’t stop with it, I’m going to call Brodie up here to tan your hide again.”

“But I ain’t lying, Bridgette.” Jamie tried to impart her sincerity by turning further into her sister and giving her the most earnest look she had.

“There is no way my sister has been whoring herself—”

“Oh, good God, no,” Jamie snorted. “I’m not for sale, Bridgette. It’s the women who—”

“
Jamie
, you cannot be a Madame and not be a whore.”

“Sure you can,” Jamie retorted before a shrug. “Hell, I’m a virgin and I’m a—”

“You’re a virgin?” Bridgette gaped.

“Well, I never did get married and—”

“Does Brodie know?”

Jamie didn’t respond for a second, pointedly trying to inform her sister she’d tired of being interrupted. With slow deliberation, just waiting for Bridgette to do it again, Jamie tried to explain. “That would be a stupid thing for me to let him find out, don’t you think?”

“You better tell me just what you are up to, and you can start with how you ended up running a parlor house.”

“Well,” Jamie relaxed back, letting her eyes lift as she searched for a good starting point. No place presented itself better then the beginning five years ago. “When I arrived at Uncle Henry’s house, I found him to be in very bad health…and recently married. I guess he didn’t feel the need to tell Daddy that, didn’t want him to worry. I don’t really think he expected Daddy to send me to him either. I think he just—”

“
Jamie…
” Bridgette groaned.

“Okay, okay.” Jamie groused, annoyed with Bridgette for not letting her tell the story right. “Uncle married a former Madame who figured out that I’d be good for an investment a friend of hers named Robert wanted to start up.”

“Now you’re going too fast,” Bridgette complained.

“Ah! You’re driving me crazy.”

“You’re driving me crazy.”

Jamie sucked in a deep breath and counted to ten. It helped a little, enough that she could almost offer a smile as she tried once again to appease her sister.

“When our uncle married Aunt Elaine, she closed down her very respectable parlor shop with the best girls. Since most of her former customers tended to come from a gentleman’s club located right down a back alley, it left a sort of hole that the club’s owner, Robert, wanted filled. When Elaine met me, she realized that I was just the right kind of woman for that job.”

“Are you serious that this is not a joke?”

Jamie gave a laugh at the hopeful tone in Bridgette’s voice. “Come on, Bridgette, can’t you see how perfect this is. I got this big family of women I get to live with and get to boss men around, and the best thing is none of them dare touch me because they all think I belong to Robert.”

“Which you don’t?” Bridgette might have meant it as a statement, but it came out sounding like a question.

“Robert likes men.” Jamie leaned in to depart that bit in whisper.

“He likes what?”

“Men.” Jamie nodded when Bridgette just stared at her in confusion.

“How does that—
never mind
,” Bridgette cut across her own question the second Jamie’s lips parted to start the answer. “I don’t want to know. I think I have enough to deal with hearing that my sister runs a whore house.”

“You don’t have to make it sound like that.”

“Why not? That’s exactly how it is.”

“No it isn’t.” Jamie scowled with annoyance. “It’s actually a very fun life. I make a good wage, and all I ever really do is throw parties and handle things when they get a little rough. Thankfully, Brodie, Caelen, and you taught me how to do that just fine.”

“Well, we certainly didn’t do it so you could end up being a Madame.”

“Come on, Bridgette,” Jamie pleaded. “I want you to be all right with this.”

“And how in the world am I supposed to be that?”

“Because I am.” That drew a frustrated sigh from her sister. The one that always said she was caving. “I’m actually more than happy, Bridgette. I really love my life…the only thing is…”

“What?”

Jamie cast a look up at her sister as she confessed, “I’m just kind of tired of being the only virgin in the room.”

“Oh, God,
no
, Jamie.”

Jamie dismissed the horrified outrage of her sister’s response to continue on pitifully. “I mean, I tried some things, but…it just didn’t feel like everybody said it would.”

“Listen, Jamie, you can’t play these kinds of games with Brodie and Caelen.”

“But they’re the only ones it feels right with,” Jamie whispered back.

“Then just marry them,” Bridgette snapped, completely unsympathetic to Jamie’s plight.

“And live under Brodie’s rule for the rest of my life?” Jamie wrinkled her nose at the very idea. “I don’t think so. Besides, I’m just home for a visit. I’m not staying.”

“What?” That actually had Bridgette lift off her pillows in alarm. “You can’t mean to say you’re going
back
to that…that…”

“Parlor house,” Jamie filled in. “And of course I am.”

“That’s it.” Bridgette swung her legs off the opposite side of the bed.

“Where are you going?”

“To get Linc and put a stop to this insanity.”

“No, Bridgette.” Jamie lashed onto her sister’s arm. “You can’t. Not now. I have everything set up so perfectly.”

“Perfectly? And just what is your definition of perfect?”

“Well, Daddy thinks I’m a widow so he isn’t worried. If you tell Linc about what I’ve been doing, it’ll get back to Daddy, and just think how that will upset him.”

“Don’t you try to guilt me, Jamie Anne Traynor.”

“And just what do you think is going to happen if you tell Linc? Who do you think he’s going to go blabbing to first?” Bridgette didn’t want to answer that, and Jamie didn’t wait for her. “Brodie and Caelen. And just how do you think they’ll react?”

 
“Jamie,” Bridget sighed as she settled back on the bed. “It doesn’t matter if I tell them or not. They’re not going to let you go. Don’t you ever read what I write? You’ve come all the way back here for revenge, but you’ve already had it for five years.

“
Five years
, those boys have been miserable without you and when they found out that you’d gone and married somebody else…you might be mad about what happened down by the bathing pond and jealous that they’d been rolling around with Rebecca, but they’ve suffered for those sins already.”

“Well, I didn’t get to see it,” Jamie snapped, pulling her hand free of the placating one Bridgette had put over it.

“You’re a fool.” Bridgette shook her head. “First to think they’re going to let you walk away from them a second time and second, to even think you can trick them into taking your virginity without them realizing you’re a virgin. The whole thing is just foolish.”

“Please, Bridgette, just let me do this the way I need to,” Jamie begged.

“Fine,” Bridgette spat out with a deep sigh. Settling back into the bed, she shook her head. “It’s not like it’ll change how this is going to end. I guess if you want to make things difficult for yourself, I can’t stop you.”

Jamie smiled and stretched out beside her sister. With a nudge, Bridgette lifted her arm so Jamie could snuggle into her side. From that position there could be no ignoring the very large protrusion growing out of Bridgette’s belly. Placing a hand on her sister’s stomach, Jamie couldn’t help but give it a rub.

“You scared?” Jamie whispered, glancing up at Bridgette.

“A little.”

So was Jamie.

* * * *

“Okay,” Linc stormed through the front door of the cabin already demanding things. “I want to know what you two idiots think you’re up to.”

Brodie looked over the rim of his glass and smirked. “Getting as drunk as I need to, now that you ruined my night.”

“Shut up, Brodie.”

That came from both Caelen and Linc at the same time. Linc shot it at him as he ripped out the chair at the head of the table and plopped down. Caelen did so over his own glass. It was the one he’d been sipping while Brodie threw back four in a row. There went the fifth.

“I’m waiting, Caelen.” Linc snatched the bottle away from Brodie while he snaked a glass for himself from the center of the table.

“There ain’t a need to get all in a twist, Linc. We’re planning on doing right by Jamie,” Caelen assured him as Brodie snatched the bottle back with unnecessary force.

The rude move earned him a dark glower from Linc, but he let it slide. “Well, you can do right by starting with what she’s even doing here?”

“The way she tells the story, her husband passed, and she’s come home.” Caelen shrugged. “With everybody gone on the cattle drive, her daddy figured it might be better for her to spend some time with Bridgette, given her condition.”

“So
Sheridan
didn’t
give her to you.” Linc shook his head.