Chapter 11
Sassy
Why the hell are you still defending that lying whore?
I stood frozen on the side of the house, heart pounding and tears welling, Clive’s vicious question echoing in my head.
I’d been in the garden and had come back to the house when I’d heard raised voices.
When I got to the back of the house, I’d recognized Clive’s and William’s voices and heard what they were saying.
Knew they knew.
Knew William either didn’t care or was hiding it from himself that he did.
Knew Clive cared deeply. That he felt betrayed. Lied to. And he should. I had done both, hadn’t I? Now, I’d set them against each other, without even meaning to, and I could hear them fighting. Hear the grunts of pain, fists slamming against flesh.
I should have run out there and tried to stop them. I should have accepted whatever castigation Clive wanted to heap on me. I should have told them I wasn’t worth fighting over, and Clive was right.
But I couldn’t face them.
Couldn’t bear to see Clive turn away from me.
Couldn’t bear to see if William looked at me differently, despite his words.
Couldn’t bear to see them fighting because of me.
So, I did what came naturally—I turned tail and ran. Ran past the henhouse and the vegetable garden, past the well, and over the hill, until I couldn’t hear them anymore, then fell to my knees, sobbing as though my heart was breaking… because it was.
Had I really thought I would be able to hide my past from them forever?
Had I really thought they would accept my past?
William didn’t seem bothered, a little voice whispered in my head.
It didn’t matter, though. It clearly bothered Clive, and he and William were partners.
They’d been partners for far longer than they’d known me.
I would never expect William to choose me over Clive, wouldn’t even want him to.
The two of them needed each other, balanced each other.
I had just hoped I could be part of that balance, had thought maybe they would come to love me the way I already loved them.
But it was too soon, far too soon to hope any feelings they did have for me could last in the face of my past.
Thief.
Whore.
I could not deny the charges. I was both.
I was also a woman who had fallen in love. It didn’t matter I had not known them long, I’d fallen in love with both of them. Had thought I might have even found happiness with them.
I should have known better.
Since when had any part of my life ended happily?
Slowly, my tears ran out, leaving me drained. Empty. Hopeless.
My knees were beginning to hurt, the ground hard and rocky under my skirts, but I had not noticed until now. I slowly got to my feet, staring off into the distance, the endless fields…
I could keep running.
It wasn’t Lord Carmichael I wanted to run from, though, it was my husbands. My husbands who deserved an apology from me, at the very least, even if they were unlikely to remain my husbands for much longer. They should know I was sorry for deceiving them.
Sorry for coming between them.
I did not expect it to change how Clive felt about me, but he still deserved to hear it. And William… my sweet, gentle William, my defender, even when he shouldn’t have. I didn’t know how to make it up to him, but I could at least try to explain. They deserved to hear the truth from me.
What happened after that… well, it didn’t matter. Nothing felt like it mattered now. I would do whatever they wished of me.
Weary but resolute, I turned around.
A man was standing there, one I had never seen before, and my eyes widened when he grinned at me. It was not a nice grin.
“There ye are,” he said, his accent clearly British.
I screamed and turned to run, but it was too late. Something slammed into the back of my head, and everything went dark.
Clive
When had William become so brawny?
I’d wanted to be careful not to hurt him, but within seconds, I was fighting in earnest, the only way to keep him from walloping me.
My jaw was aching from his first punch, my gut from his second, but I’d managed to dodge the third and give him a good one in his side.
He was faster, though, and I quickly realized I wasn’t going to be able to lay him out the way I’d thought.
My best chance was to take him to the ground and use my heavier bulk to keep him there.
Launching myself at him, I slammed my shoulder into his middle, tackling him to the ground. William shouted his outrage as he went down, twisting and taking me with him. We rolled along the ground, kicking up dust as we grappled for supremacy.
“Stay down!” I growled, bracing my arm across his chest, but he didn’t listen.
He threw me off and dove for me, then we rolled again, dangerously close to the horses, who started to dance, hooves flashing.
That brought us both back to our senses.
It was one thing to wrestle with each other, but if we spooked the horses, we were both liable to be trampled, then where would we be?
Panting, we broke apart, scrambling back from Blaze and Thunder, who eyed us nervously, still shifting their weight. We eyed each other. I rubbed my jaw, wincing when I hit a sore spot. William probed his ribs, hissing when he touched where I’d landed a punch.
A lot of the anger I’d carried with me all the way home was gone. Instead of being a ball of rage, it had dropped to a low simmer, and I was already starting to feel ashamed of some of the things I said. I had a temper and knew it, but it always ran hot and was over with just as quickly.
I was grateful Sassy hadn’t been around to hear it. I glanced at the house, which wasn’t that far away from us. At least, I hoped she hadn’t heard me. I wasn’t sure how loud I’d been. I’d been so worked up…
“Feeling better now?” William asked, rolling his head around his neck and clapping his hands against his chaps to get some of the dust off.
“A bit,” I admitted. “I still want to know why she lied to us, though.” I didn’t like lies.
Once someone started lying about little things, it was easier to lie about big things.
That was one of the reasons I’d partnered up with William—the man was honest as the day was long and utterly incapable of subterfuge.
“If you call her a lying whore again, we’re going to do this all over,” he warned, sending a flinty look my way, his blue eyes hard.
I winced. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
Not really.
“Good. I don’t care if she was a whore. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve been reaping the benefits of her experience.” A little smile kicked up on the side of his face.
That was one way of looking at it.
“What if she’s been faking her pleasure?” I didn’t like the insecurities now niggling at me, and that one was at the top of the heap. William and I had both been strutting around like roosters with our erotic prowess. What if it had all been false?
“Then she is the greatest actress in the world,” William said with a snort, not bothering to hide his contempt for the idea. “What does your gut tell you?”
That her body’s responses were honest, even if she hadn’t been. I sighed, getting to my feet and dusting myself off.
“She still lied.” I clung stubbornly to the fact that bothered me the most.
“We’ll spank her ass and tell her she’s not to do it again,” William said, following me to his feet. “I don’t think she’s lied about anything else. She’s avoided talking about it. I don’t think she likes lying to us.”
As usual, I thought William was taking a rosy view of the situation, but for the first time, my cynical self wanted to believe. I didn’t want everything we’d been building with Sassy to have been false. I wanted her…
I wanted her to care as much about us as we did about her.
I wanted her to love us—to love me, the same way I loved her.
That’s why I’d been so damn angry. I’d gone and fallen in love with my wife and couldn’t be sure she felt the same way. Couldn’t be sure she should be trusted, even if she said she did, and the uncertainty made my stomach churn.
It was easier to be angry than hurt.
“We should find her and ask some questions,” I said firmly. “Then she’s definitely getting a spanking.” William nodded his agreement, but before we could move, we heard the whinny of a horse, and movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.
Both of our heads whipped around to see a man on horseback, galloping away through the fields, something big draped over his lap.
William
“Sassy!” I called out her name before I could think, taking a step forward as if I could somehow bring her back to us with just her name.
The horseman was riding away with her over his lap—I recognized the fabric of her dress—and I doubted either of them could hear us if she was even conscious. From the way her body was flopping, I doubted it. Fear seized my heart, freezing my chest.
“Damn!” Clive spat out the curse, but unlike me, he didn’t freeze, leaping into motion. I followed him, only a moment behind. It took us precious seconds to free Thunder and Blaze from where we’d hitched them to the fence post and get them turned in the right direction.
Precious seconds to follow the unknown horseman.
Thankfully, the land was flat, and we could see him, even if he was just a tiny silhouette on the horizon. I clenched my jaw with anger as I saw the way Sassy’s legs, arms, and head were flopping. She must be unconscious. He was going to pay for that.
We’d promised to protect and cherish her, and today, we were failing on both fronts.
We followed him for several miles to a break in our fence, which had Clive and me exchanging hard looks.
That was new. I’d just walked this line last week.
It was damn lucky we hadn’t lost any cattle through it, although part of me was grateful the horseman hadn’t had to jump the fence with Sassy perched so precariously on his lap.
About a mile off our lands, near the river, we could see a campsite ahead. Smoke came from the fire, and the horseman with Sassy had slowed to a walk.
I grit my teeth, watching as two men jumped up to help lift her down from her kidnapper. They were touching our wife… none too gently either. As we came closer, I could see her head lolling.
One of the men was already backing away, holding onto her, while her kidnapper and the other man turned to face us, hands on their holsters.
I don’t know why they didn’t draw, but they were going to regret not taking us seriously as a threat.
Clive and I were damn fast with our draws, and these two didn’t look comfortable in their stances.
We got down from Blaze and Thunder, stepping in front of them. The horses snorted but didn’t move.
A fourth man, one I hadn’t noticed until we were almost upon them, stood up next to the fire as Clive and I came to a halt about fifteen feet away. The man holding Sassy had stepped back beside the man next to the fire, so he could see her face.
Dark-haired and tall, his handsome face was ruined by a vicious red scar that ran across his entire face. His eye on that side was damaged. Whoever slashed him had gotten him right across it.
“That’s her,” he said, his voice filled with anger and satisfaction. His accent was different from Sassy’s, that of an English lord rather than a commoner. This had to be Lord Carmichael, come all the way from England to find her.
Remembering what Clive had said about her assaulting the man, I could only guess she’d been the one to give him the scar across his face. He hadn’t just been hunting her because he’d wanted her… he likely wanted revenge.
“That’s our wife,” Clive said coldly, making Carmichael finally turn to look at us.
His lip curled up in a sneer as he looked us over, clearly unimpressed.
“Then you should be thanking me for taking this whore off your hands.” He barked a short laugh. “Although I shouldn’t be surprised, a harlot like her would end up with two husbands. Apparently, she could only change her ways so far.”
Anger bubbled up in my gut, roiling and seething, and if I could have done so without endangering Sassy, I would have thrown myself at him right then.
“He said, that’s our wife,” I responded, my tone lethal. “Give her back to us, and we’ll let you go quietly and forget your insults to her.”
The lord’s eyes widened with incredulity. “Are you threatening me?”
It had taken him long enough to notice.