“Forty-five.”
Micah sighed. “Yes. You’ve told us that story many times. But you were well trained by grandfather and had his contacts. I needed training from Drew before I could do anything.”
Berwick harrumphed. “Something you should have been doing all along.”
“Perhaps. That doesn’t matter now.”
“Don’t get uppity with me, boy!”
Siobhan looked back and forth, as though between two lawn tennis teams—Mr. Berwick and Stephen against Micah and Andrew. Their words and postures betrayed the lack of affection between the men so strongly, she shivered in the coolness.
Her heart pounded, though she tried hard not to let it show. Micah and Andrew had to prevail in this battle. Otherwise, how would she survive without the love she’d come to count on in so short a time?
“Father,” Micah said in a patient tone, “you may be disappointed in me and what I did in school and after, but you have no reason to doubt Drew’s knowledge, competence, and loyalty. He’s always been just what you hoped for both of us.”
Mr. Berwick took a healthy gulp of coffee and set the cup down with a clatter. “He has until now.”
“Just what have I done to earn your distrust, except to love and support Micah?”
“You always made excuses for him and you’re doing the same now. He should have hit the job running. He wasted weeks on his journey west and—”
“I was on my honeymoon,” Micah burst out. Siobhan opened her mouth, but he reached over and squeezed her hand, asking for silence. “Had you told us your plans sooner, I could have made better arrangements.”
“Your job is to do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it. I pay you a good salary in return.”
“You pay us a reasonable salary,” Andrew corrected.
“Yes, well, one I can rescind at any time if you’re not happy.”
“And so you can. You could also show some trust. We have no power, no authority to make decisions of our own. Even thousands of miles away, it seems.”
“Nor should you before I’m ready to turn over control.”
Andrew stood and paced before the fireplace. “And to whom would you entrust your company then?”
“To me.” Stephen puffed out his chest and looked at his brothers with the arrogance of youth.
When the elder Berwick didn’t contradict his youngest son, Andrew stopped walking. His shoulders slumped. “If you’re truly considering that, then there is nothing for me to say or do. There is no way for me to prove my worth.”
What? Siobhan must have heard incorrectly. Fight him, Andrew.
“You don’t owe him anything more than what you’ve given, Drew.” Micah spoke quietly.
“It isn’t just how hard you work,” Stephen said.
Their father cleared his throat. “That’s correct. Stephen tells me that unnatural things have been going on in this house.”
The blood drained from Siobhan’s face, and she saw spots before her eyes. This was ever so much worse than she could imagine. Stephen had taken his suspicions to his father.
Micah slowly came to his feet. His hands fisted at his side, and his jaw ticked with tension.
“What exactly are you saying?”
Mr. Berwick pursed his lips and rested his chin on steepled fingers. “Is your wife sharing your marital bed with your brother? Tell me the truth, for it would be easy to discover it for myself.”
“It’s none of your damn business.” Again Micah let his quiet tone show his displeasure.
“I told you to come out here and do nothing to disgrace the name of Berwick. Instead, your brother tells me that Andrew’s bed remains untouched. Further, he says he opened the door to your wife’s room one night—”
“You what?” Micah finally exploded.
“—and saw the two of you on her like bulls in rut. Is this true or not?”
Siobhan held her breath. What damaged relationships would result from this?
“Father,” Andrew said, “Siobhan doesn’t deserve these accusations. If Stephen is bent on destroying whatever esteem remains between us, I beg you not to allow him to drag her down.”
“I must know,” Mr. Berwick said, but with much less heat.
A standoff between the men made the room as quiet as a tomb.
Micah spoke. “I will ask Martin to have your luggage taken to a hotel. Yours, too, Stephen. I will not have the two of you in my house.”
That brought the elder man to his feet. “The house I pay for!”
“The house we pay for, from that salary you just mentioned,” Andrew said. “And by the way, I quit.”
As though in slow motion, the others all turned to stare at Andrew, his father openmouthed. “What do you mean, you quit?”
Andrew shrugged. “Just what I said. I don’t want to work for you any longer, Father.”
“And just what else do you think you can do?”
“I don’t know. But I know I’m worth more than you give me credit for, and so is Micah. And Siobhan is worth a hell of a lot more than you seem to think of her.”
“Andrew spoke just before I did,” Micah said. “I don’t want to build wagons anymore, not for you.”
“Goddamn it!” The expletive exploded from Berwick’s mouth. The men all stared in shock at their father. Siobhan sank back onto her seat, unable to speak. The worst had happened, and not because Mr. Berwick did something horrible. He accused them of unspeakable deeds, yes, but deeds they were guilty of. Because of her and her unnatural desires for the twins, the Berwick men were severing their relationship. She had broken their family apart.
Berwick glared at his two oldest sons. “You two are being led around by your dicks. Divorce her,” he said to Micah, “clean your house of the undesirable and everything can go back to what it was before. But I can’t have you dragging the good name of Berwick Transport through the mud because your wife is willing to fuck every male in our family. Stephen said she even propositioned him.”
Life flowed back into Siobhan, and she leapt from the settee. “How dare you?” she said to Stephen, and then to Mr. Berwick, “If Stephen says that, he’s lying.”
Berwick whirled on her. “My sons feel the need to protect you,” he said, “so you tell me. Have you been whoring yourself to both of them?”
“I love them,” she shot back, and then fainted dead away at the realization of the truth.
* * * *
When she opened her eyes, Micah sighed with relief.
She smiled. “I must have hit my head because I’m seeing double.”
Andrew said, “Thank God she’s okay. Or at least she has her sense of humor intact.”
“Where is your father?”
“He and Stephen have left for a hotel.”
“You two should make peace with him. He’s your father.”
“Like hell I will.” Micah chafed her hand between his. Her words still rang in his head. She’d said she loved them. Did she mean it or say it in a fit of pique?
“Do you remember what happened before you had the vapors?”
“Micah, my darling, I didn’t have the vapors. If I had, I would have waved a hankie under my nose, made a great deal out of seeing spots, and very gracefully sunk onto a chaise. My sisters and I all learned very well how to have vapors.” He chuckled, and she reached up to caress his cheek. “I fainted, plain and simple, when I confessed to loving you. And you, too, Andrew.” She took Drew’s outstretched hand.
“Why didn’t you ever tell us?” Micah asked.
“I didn’t know it, not really, until your father stood here abusing you so horribly.”
Andrew sat opposite the settee. “Siobhan, Micah and I both left our positions. Do you remember that?”
“Of course, Andrew. I just fainted. I didn’t lose my memory.” She looked from one to the other. “What will you do?”
“I don’t know,” Andrew said. He looked so serious, so worried that Micah went to the sideboard in the dining room to
pour him a drink.
Siobhan had never hidden the fact that she had married him for his money and position. He didn’t blame her, even when he confessed his love and she didn’t respond in like fashion. Women didn’t have options in life that men had. Even if she’d never said she loved him, he happily would have remained her husband for life.
But now things were different. She’d told their father that she loved him. The pride and hope that filled his heart at those words couldn’t be expressed. He needed her love now. He no longer wanted a one-sided marriage. What he would do if she retracted her confession, he wasn’t sure. But he had to know for sure how she felt.
Micah took the drink to Drew, who emptied the glass in two gulps. Color came back into his face. Now Micah was going to ruin his recovery. He had to know if Siobhan really loved them.
Staring at Drew, he hoped his brother would understand what he had to do. He tried to send the message with his eyes. Trust me.
“Siobhan,” Micah said, “Drew and I have choices available, but leaving Father’s firm will be hard. Things are liable to be tight until we find our way again.”
Wariness filled her eyes, and then she looked away. That didn’t bode well. “This house, for instance, might have to be sold.”
She gasped. Tears filled her eyes as she cast her gaze around the room. “I love this house,” she whispered.
“Micah,” Andrew said, “it’s too much. Stop.”
“I don’t know when we will have enough money to live like this again,” he went on doggedly, watching for any sign that she would repeat her statement of love or recant it.
She took a deep breath and let it out. Staring at the floor, she said, “It won’t be so bad. You see…I own that shop Stephen told you about, and it’s doing quite well. We might not be able to stay in quite so nice a place as this, but I can support us.” She looked up then, tears in her eyes. “I love you two so much, I’d live anywhere as long as we were together.” She stepped forward to draw the men into her arms. “And the dress shop is bringing in lots of money. In a less expensive house, we’ll be fine, you’ll see. In no time you’ll find your way again, and then everything will be wonderful.”
“Oh, my darling Siobhan,” Micah said. “Things will be better than you think.”
He pulled her to sit beside him. Then he studied her beautiful face, the face he’d desired from the first time he saw her more than a year ago, and which had grown dear to him during their short marriage.
“What do you mean? Do you have something in mind?” she asked.
“You came up with the idea,” Andrew said, smiling at Micah as though he could read his brother’s mind. “I believe we’re going to build carriages.”
Chapter Seventeen
Drew sat at the breakfast table with memories of the previous night’s lovemaking filling his mind. With murmurs of love for both Micah and him, Siobhan had taken each of them in her mouth, stroking each with her tongue, caressing them with her lips. Then, with loving words of encouragement she welcomed him into her ass and Micah into her pussy. They had bathed together and then fallen into bed to touch and kiss and derive pleasure just from being with each other.
During the night, she had woken them to make love over and over as though her admission of love spurred her to prove it. Her hunger made for a sleepless but very satisfying night.
“Good morning,” she said, sailing into the dining room steps ahead of Micah whose grin covered his face.
“How did you sleep?” Drew asked, teasing.
“Not at all. Wasn’t it wonderful?”
Drew laughed. His doubt and disappointment paled to nothing now that he knew he had Micah’s support and Siobhan’s love. Strange, all of this. He had never believed he was better than Micah, but he had assumed that he had the better options in life. After all, he had studied hard and succeeded in the company. But when it came down to it, Micah had married the woman of their dreams, and Micah had been the one to view the future in a way that surprised and pleased Drew. He felt like a follower to his twin’s lead for the first time in their lives. And he wasn’t embarrassed about it. He and Micah were two halves of one whole. It didn’t matter who led, as long as one of them did. The realization came like a thunderbolt.
Before he could share his revelation, Martin showed in Stephen and their father.
“Are you ready to come to your senses?” their father said without preamble.
“Aren’t you even going to ask how Siobhan is?” Drew asked.
“That Jezebel means nothing to me.”
“That’s too bad,” Micah said. “We will miss you, Father. And you will miss years of seeing us mature and your grandchildren grow.”
Shocked, his father cast Siobhan a searing look. “Are you telling me that she’s quickening?”
“I don’t know,” Micah said tenderly, “and you won’t know either, when it happens.”
Berwick paced from the parlor back to the dining room. Stephen went to the sideboard to prepare a plate.
“Sorry, Stephen, but you weren’t invited to break your fast. I’m sure the hotel has a dining room.”
“But—”
“What will you do?” Father came stomping back into the dining room.
“I believe we will start a new carriage business.” Micah buttered a piece of toast and took a bite.
“Carriages!” Father snorted in disdain. “What do you bring to the carriage trade?”
Drew answered, “A new suspension and braking system that will be particularly useful on these hills, to begin with.”
“You can’t use those things. Berwick Transport has those ideas patented.”
“Micah and I designed them.”
“While working for me. The patents are in Berwick Transport’s name. I hold the patents and own your ideas.”
“Not so, Father,” Micah said. “Drew worked for you, but the ideas came from our talking to each other outside the office and work. I did the design drawings, and I didn’t work for you at the time.”
For a moment, Drew thought their father would have a stroke. His breath was shallow, and his face turned crimson.
“And,” Micah continued, “I filed the patents in our names, not the company’s.”
His father’s look of disbelief couldn’t have been any greater than Drew’s own. “You did?”
Micah looked perfectly calm. “I did. We created those inventions. We talked about them and hammered out the difficulties late at night, at home, not in the factory. I was not an employee—it was during summer, remember? You were the one working. I was painting.”
“That’s against the law. I’ll have you brought up on charges!” Father proclaimed.
“It is not against the law,” Micah said, anger filling is voice. “Just try to do anything against Drew or me. I have proof that you have been using our inventions for years without paying a dime. I’m willing to let past payments go, but not future ones. We have the right to use our own inventions in our new business, and we will be charging you for them from now on.”
Berwick glared at Stephen. “How did this get by you? You have been spending months going through all of our legal papers. What the hell am I paying you for?” he roared. Then he faced Siobhan. “Don’t think I won’t write your father when I get home. He should know what kind of daughter he raised.”
“If Siobhan’s family hears one word of this,” Andrew said, strain filling his voice, “you will lose all rights to our enhancements. Without them, your wagons are no different than anyone else’s.”
“And don’t forget,” Micah added, “you have skeletons, too, and we know where most of them are hidden. You won’t be able to hold your head up in Boston if you do anything to harm my wife.”
He jabbed his finger at Micah. “You haven’t heard the last of me,” he said, and then he stormed out the door, followed by Stephen.
Drew stared at Micah. “You’re one surprise after another.”
“I never told you because frankly, I ne
ver thought there would be a need. It was pure rebellion on my part not to give the patent—and credit for our ideas and work—to Berwick Transport.” He leaned forward, excitement etched on his face. “I already have an idea for a new carriage top, one that folds halfway back on windy days or all the way back to allow sun. I don’t know the mechanics of it—that’s your area, Drew. Then I can do the drawings and we’ll have another patent under our belts, one that can’t be contested in any way.
“Micah, you’re a genius,” Siobhan said. “And Andrew, you are, too. Your father’s company is successful due directly to your ideas and talent.”
“Well, and look at you. You took an allowance and built it into a business. What other woman does that?”
She looked charmingly shy. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s fashion. I just got lucky.”
“Nonsense,” Drew said. “Micah’s right. You’re one in a million.”
She smiled. “It’s a good thing we found each other.” In moments her smile faded.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“I wish my sisters were here. I wonder if they’re half as happy as I am. But I could never invite them because they would never understand my loving two men.”
Micah took one of her hands and Drew the other. “Maybe someday you can all get together again. By then we’ll have children and a fortune and we’ll be so happy they won’t even think of how strange our relationship is.”
Another shy smile crossed her face. “Speaking of children…”
Micah’s mouth dropped open. “You mean what I said to Father is true?”
She nodded. “We’re going to be parents.”
Overcome with emotion, Drew glanced at Micah who looked just as stunned. He couldn’t remember a day so bright, a moment so clear, or ever being so happy. And he saw life going on just that way for years and years.
THE END
DEESKNIGHT.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dee S. Knight has written award-winning erotic romance for years, even branching into ménage romance. Now as Jenna Stewart, writing exclusively for Siren-Bookstrand, she is creating only ménage—stories that stretch across the centuries and which show that the only thing better than true love between a woman and a man is true love between a woman and more than one man.
Jenna Stewart Page 13