Pearl's Possession (The Red Petticoat Saloon) Read online

  "We did not do it though," Brock said to me. "And the overseer's death was an accident. But we knew they would not see it that way, so we ran."

  "And that is the story of how we came west," Cash said. "Now you know it all."

  Brock went to silence the kettle.

  "But… can't you just tell them it was an accident?"

  "They would stand trial, and the only reliable witness would be the mine assistant. With enough of a payoff, he'll claim he saw us kill the overseer."

  "We ran. Came west, then heard of gold. We claimed this land and built the house, finishing it while we courted you."

  "So we were thieves."

  "We stole the money we were owed," Orion corrected.

  I swallowed hard.

  "We're sorry we didn't share it until now," Brock said.

  "I understand. It's all right. I believe you." I asked the question that filled me with fear. "But now what will you do?"

  The men all looked at each other. "The mine owner has been trying to track us. He needs someone to blame for the mine's collapse. Probably offer to have our sentence reduced to life, if we admit to weakening the supports at the mine."

  "We've been seen in town," Cash said. "The men you beat up today will probably bring witness, and put the marshals on our trail."

  "We must go," Brock said sadly. "The four of us will leave. Cash will take care of you, Pearl."

  "No," I cried in horror. "You can't leave. I will go with you."

  "It's not safe, lass. We don't know where we're going, and it'll be hard living until we get there."

  "Perhaps it will be safe for us one day to return," Samson said.

  I gasped as if I was in pain. "No, don't leave me! Please, I will go with you."

  Jonas turned and drove his fist into the door frame. He hit it hard, cursed, and walked out without looking at me. Orion went after him.

  "It's too dangerous, sweetheart," Cash tried to soothe me. "They will be on the run for days."

  "Then tell me where you're going, and once it's safe we'll come to you," I begged.

  "We can't tell you where we're going, lass." Brock stood. "It's better this way."

  I felt like my heart was breaking into five pieces. "Please."

  They packed quickly. They saddled their horses and were gone before my tea cooled. I realized then that they truly lived ready to run at any time. The only evidence were the four extra pegs on the wall and long bench where they'd put their boots.

  I knelt on the porch and sobbed until Cash put his arms around me and pulled me inside.

  "Do not grieve, Pearl. They will return."

  "But when?"

  "A day, a week, a year or ten. I don't know." He looked at me sadly. "It doesn't matter. We will wait."

  I didn't sleep that night, but stayed on the porch, staring out over the plain.

  Cash sat with me, bundling me into a blanket when the temperature dropped. I didn't care if I froze to death; I was already numb inside.

  "It's my fault," he said.

  I raised my head.

  "I'm sorry, Pearl. We knew this might happen. That's one of the reasons they didn't want to take more than one wife, when we might have to leave. In our joy at finding you, I forgot.

  "I was not there, and was never accused of the crime. That is why I can stay with you. When the marshals come, we must act as husband and wife, so they will believe the two of us live together without the others."

  "Marshals?"

  "They will come question us, Pearl. And when they ask, we will say that the men were here, but they quarreled with us and they left."

  The next few days were torture. I dragged around the house, standing often at the windows. Cash finally set me to work. I swept until my hands were numb. He did not let me use my needles, afraid I might hurt myself, as if I might try to stab through the sadness.

  The marshals came, along with Sheriff Justice, and a bounty hunter sent by the mine owner.

  Cash saw them riding up from far away, and reminded me of our roles. He had spent long hours hiding his brothers' tracks, putting away the bedding on the bunks to make them look unused, and burning some of the extra clothes. I panicked when he threw things into the bonfire, crying and fighting until he sent me away. I salvaged one of Samson's big shirts and curled up with it and the scarves that Jonas had given me which he'd left beside his bed.

  By the time the marshals arrived at the ranch, it looked like it was only us, the hogs, a few extra horses, and the expansive garden and grounds.

  They asked many questions. I wanted to hide in the bedroom, but forced myself to make refreshments while Cash hosted.

  "Big place. Seems like a lot of work for just one man." The marshal was a smart man, but Cash spoke with confidence.

  "I had help. Business partners. But we had a falling out and they stole my share of the cattle and left."

  "You expect us to believe that?" The bounty hunter was the most suspicious.

  I served coffee silently, and Cash caught my hand and squeezed it. "You want to lie down before dinner, sweetheart?"

  I nodded and left without another glance, closing the bedroom door but for a crack and standing behind it.

  "Is something wrong with your wife?

  "She is upset, because we have been trying for children, and I believe she is barren."

  "Word in town is you married a gem from the Red Petticoat."

  One of the men choked on his coffee as Cash confirmed that was true.

  "You married a whore?"

  "Hey," Justice's voice was hard. "You will speak of the gems with respect."

  There was a long pause, and I could imagine Justice glaring at all the strangers.

  "I married the woman I love," Cash said smoothly.

  "We heard you were her regular, and that's not all. Some of your friends—business partners—also frequented Madame Jewel's place of business, and may have even lain with her."

  "I fail to see your point."

  "Your partners lay with your woman. I can see there being some jealousy over that. Is that why you parted ways?"

  "Our reason for splitting apart was purely business. But yes, I believe they coveted my wife."

  "Bring out your wife. We want to ask her."

  "Now, hold on—" Cash started, at the same time Justice burst out, "Is this necessary?"

  Not wanting to cause trouble, I walked back out.

  "Mrs. Carter." Justice stood, hat in hand, setting the tone for my interrogation. His voice and stance said it all; the strangers would treat me with respect, or pay the price.

  "Ma'am." The marshal also rose to his feet, nudging his deputies to do the same. The bounty hunter hadn't even taken off his hat, and squinted at me with suspicious eyes. "Can you tell us of your husband's business partners? How they treated you after you married?"

  Cash put his arm around me, and I leaned on him, refusing to look at any of them.

  "I don't want to talk about it," I said, and I didn't. Unbidden, tears streamed down my face.

  "That's enough," Justice growled.

  "All right, ma'am," the marshal said gently.

  "You're not going to question her—" the bounty hunter protested.

  "I've got all the information I need," the marshal said.

  "But—" the bounty hunter bounded to his feet, but Cash was already escorting me back to the bedroom, firmly closing the door.

  "Leave her alone," I heard chairs scraping as Justice defended me, probably stepping between the strangers and the bedroom door.

  "Well done," Cash whispered, and kissed my forehead once he had me safely under the blanket.

  I cuddled with Samson's shirt until Cash returned. "They're gone. You did well, Pearl. They think that you were ill-used, and that is part of why the others left."

  I turned, my face still wet with tears, and held my hand out to him. "I didn't want to lie."

  "I know, sweet wife."

  He lay down and spooned me. We lay there a long time, and
didn't sleep.

  "What if they never return?"

  "You cannot think that, Pearl."

  But I had to.

  "I feel like my heart is breaking."

  Days passed, and I felt so alone, living with just Cash and I on the mountain. My cunt ached, missing my men. I didn't eat. I didn't sleep.

  Cash took to feeding me at meals, and soothing me when I cried.

  One day, he asked if I wanted a spanking, and I said yes. The pain would be a release. When it was over, I asked him to give me one every day.

  He knelt beside my chair, taking my hand. "Would it help you if I gave you some rules, and spanked you if you don't comply?"

  I stared at him, then nodded slowly.

  He instituted rules after that. I had to eat, bathe, and do my chores, or there would be consequences. Of course, spanking led to fucking, but even this was a desperate, not joyful, joining of bodies.

  Winter came and howled around us. In the long dark hours, I sat down at the loom and began to weave. The tapestry would be large enough to cover a wall: blue sky, yellow fields, a few green trees, and five horsemen riding over the slope.

  I prayed as I wove. The shuttle ran over the thread and I could see their faces and bodies, their figures riding towards me out of the cloth I made.

  It was the longest winter of my life.

  "I miss them," I told Cash one night. "So much."

  "So do I," he rasped.

  I turned to face him, realizing for the first time how deeply my serious husband was hurting.

  "I'm sorry." I ran the backs of my fingers down his jaw, feeling his prickly beard. He'd stopped shaving once the colder months came. "I haven't been here for you."

  "You're here now. It's enough."

  I vowed I would care for my one husband. Throwing myself into our games, I acted out so he could discipline me. The snows came and froze our water. I heated icicles to make a bath, and washed and shaved him.

  "Thank you, Pearl." He rubbed his smooth jaw. "We must take care of each other. We must be ready."

  I stared at him, lip trembling. "What if they never come back?" I had nightmares of the four of them wounded or killed.

  "You're not to think like that. We can't give up hope."

  "It hurts," I cried.

  "That's part of love."

  "I can't bear it. They mean so much to me."

  He squeezed me. "Me too. That's why we 'll keep their memory alive here."

  Chapter Eight

  We settled into spring. Other than our games, we were an old married couple. Cash was lean and shaggy, tired from his long days. He was doing the work of five men, even though I did my best to pitch in.

  "Come harvest, we'll have to hire some men to help me." Cash said.

  I squeezed his hand. "We'll manage."

  He looked around the lodge with tired eyes. There was a leak in one corner where a tree limb had fallen and damaged the roof, and when the wind blew hard, the whole house creaked. "I fear, if we're still alone by next autumn, we will have to leave the mountain."

  I froze. We could not leave. If my men came back, they would not be able to find us. Even if we left messages, there was no telling whether they would get them.

  Terrified, I gripped his shirt. "I won't go," I cried. "I will stay here until I die."

  "Pearl, calm yourself. We will stay." He sighed. "We won't go, unless we absolutely must."

  He had to tell me many, many times before I calmed down. I still wasn't reassured. The passing months had proved to me how much I needed all five of my men. I needed Brock's words, Orion's steady presence by my side in the afternoons, and Jonas' smirk when he made a new paddle or toy for me, and Samson's gentle touch. I wanted Cash, too, and all of them together.

  It struck me one day as I was working in the garden, tending to the new plants. I had been a wife to five husbands. All my worry and fear over whether I was good enough, and I had been all along.

  I vowed right then and there: if they ever come back, I would love them fully, without fear. I would give myself over to them, not just my body, but my everything.

  I had been so worried I wasn't enough; I hadn't realized I had been giving them what they needed all along. My love.

  My planting done, I stood and saw the cloud of dust on the road up the mountain. Shading my eyes, I tried to see. No one ever visited the ranch. Was it the marshals coming back?

  As I squinted, the dust cleared, and I watched four riders turn up the slope.

  Suddenly I was running, half skidding down the hill. My skirts whipping around my legs. My breath ragged in my throat.

  The riders looked rugged, tan, and tired after long months on the trail. Their hair was long and beards scruffy, but they were my men.

  "Pearl! Stop," Cash shouted from the barn. "Let me make sure it's safe—"

  "It's them!" I screamed, racing ahead.

  Their horses were thundering up the road when I burst out of the brush in front of them. I tripped and rolled, falling into the path.

  Before I righted myself, they had stopped their horses and started dismounting. They soon surrounded me.

  Sampson picked me right up and our mouths latched before I could even say his name. My legs wrapped around his back, hands desperately tugging at him. Strong arms pried me away from the big man, and Brock was in my face.

  "Hello, lass. Miss us?"

  I launched myself at him as well and he staggered back to take my full weight in his arms.

  Jonas pulled my hair to break mine and Brock's kiss, and I turned and gave him the same treatment.

  "Goddammit, Pearl," I heard Cash arrive. My palms were stinging from where I fell in the road, and I was covered in dirt and scrapes, but I didn't care.

  "She's an eager lass." Brock laughed as I practically rubbed myself against him even as I attacked Jonas' lips. After I'd kissed them both, they let Orion pull me to him.

  "Did you not fuck her at all?" Brock ribbed Cash.

  "Please," I gasped. After kissing Orion like his lips gave me life, I started sinking to my knees on the rocky road, fingers working his placket.

  "Wait, Pearl," Samson picked me up and sprinted to the house. His thick muscles against my body, long hair in my hands, and mouth on mine kept me entertained until we reached the house. Even though the other men rode, we beat them inside. Samson laid me right on the bed, tsking over my skinned knees and palms.

  "Please," I begged again. My usually gentle giant tore my dress in his haste to help it off. His fingers were still on my stays when I bent and undid his pants, sucking him down.

  He grunted.

  "Easy, easy, Pearl." Hands worked to remove my corset then drifted over my breasts.

  "I missed these," Orion sighed, squeezing and plucking my nipples. I moaned around Samson's rod.

  "Don't have to bathe first for once," Jonas grinned. He knelt behind me on the bed. "No way am I spending myself in her mouth. Please tell me…"

  Arching my back, I stuck out my bottom to show him the plug in my ass. Cash had placed it there that morning. He had added the plug to my daily routine, mostly as an excuse to spank me when I pretended to put up a fuss.

  Pulling my bottom cheeks apart, Jonas fucked me with the plug before tugging it out. He stuck his finger into my hole and sighed. I moved back and forth, fucking myself on Samson's cock and Jonas' finger until the big man exploded into my mouth.

  "Here," Brock pulled me around and I sank down onto him.

  Orion guided my head to the side so I could suck him as I sat on Brock's shaft, grunting as the Scot gripped my hips and thrust up.

  "One more," Jonas smoothed his hands down my sides and I shivered. "Easy, sweetheart, you can take me."

  I could. I could take all my men.

  Brock paused his thrusts as Jonas set himself at my ass, and slid in. His cursing signaled the men to continue moving.

  "So tight," Brock grunted.

  They moved together and I was in heaven with my mouth, cunt and ass
all full. Samson below me, Brock above, Orion in my mouth, rocking in perfect sync as I shuddered with pleasure at how completely they possessed me.

  They painted me with their seed. We took a break to bathe and shave—their beards and my pussy, though Cash had kept me smooth all winter.

  When we came into the bedroom again, Cash was waiting arms crossed. I knew I would be punished later for running and acting so reckless but it was worth it. Orion spanked my ass before Cash paddled me, but then they took their places again, surrounding me as I lay ready on the bed.

  "Take me," I begged. "Fill me. I'm yours, all yours."

  "That's right, wife. You're ours, all of ours. We possess every part of you."

  They were mine. And I was theirs. Their wife, their gem, their love. Their Pearl.

  Epilogue

  "That's an amazing story, Grandma Pearl." My eldest granddaughter sat with wide eyes across from me at the table. "I knew you were close with uncle Cash and all the rest, but I didn't know you loved them."

  "It's all true."

  "Did the marshals ever come again?"

  "Never. My men led them on a merry chase, sold their cattle for a healthy profit, and waited out the winter. We still built cabins for them to hide out in case the marshals ever returned, but they never did. So the men just used them when they went hunting."

  "That's where my husband is right now, though he should be home soon." My granddaughter patted her belly. She was pregnant, and though I had never born a child, I knew the herbs and tinctures she needed to have a healthy birth. The garden Orion had tended with me still bloomed with a thousand plants, even though he had passed away in his sleep last winter.

  All my men had passed. Jonas had gone first, thrown from a horse. Samson and Brock and Cash had died over the last two decades. Orion had promised to stay with me to the end, until he went to bed beside me one night, and never woke up.

  Their graves were on the side of the mountain, a whole field of blue flowers. I planted more every year, and one day they'd cover half the mountain.

  They were gone, but they were still with me, for every night I dreamed, I dreamed of them. They were just across the way, waiting for me.