by Ava Sinclair
“It was either take my chances with an unknown fate here or endure a known one there.” Now Nigel removed his hat once more, tossed his sandy hair from his face and rubbed the sleeve of his shirt across his sweaty brow. “I’ve always wanted to see the world, and I’m seeing it—or at least this part. And I could hardly go back now if I wanted to, what with my disgracing my family.”
Cody smiled. He’d found the differences between their upbringing intriguing. Where he’d been told to carve out the life he’d wanted, Nigel had been raised to settle into an orderly niche of his family’s making.
The sun was starting to sink behind the mountains. As Cody and Nigel began walking back toward their cabin, they could hear raised voices just over the rise. Two men were arguing. Right away, Cody recognized one of the voices as belonging to the man who’d tried to jump his claim.
Dan Forbes was standing with his arms crossed facing three other men. One was a miner named Roger; the other two, he knew by sight but not by name.
“Ain’t right, Dan. And you know it. I saw that boy stake a claim here yesterday. And I saw you pull the sign up.”
“And I told you there weren’t no claim staked. You callin’ me a liar?”
“We both are,” said one of the other men. “It wouldn’t be the first time you jumped a claim, or tried to. Why don’t you just tend to your own?”
“Don’t matter what you say,” Dan Forbes spat.
By now Cody and Nigel were level with the trio, and the cowboy put a hand on his friend’s shoulder, indicating he was interested in stopping to see where this would go.
“Weren’t no stakes,” Forbes spat. “Weren’t no sign. Unless you can prove it.”
“As a matter of fact, we can.” Roger reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “Jim there saw you pull up the stakes and tear down the sign last night. He saw you throw it in the stream, but he fished it out when it got down his way.” He held the paper up. “See? Says right here the claim was staked by a William Franklin Beaumont III.”
“What?” Cody rushed forward now, snatching the paper out of the surprised man’s hand.
“Hey!” Roger began, but Cody stopped him.
“I know this man!” He tapped at the paper. “Son of a bitch! He’s made it!” Then he turned toward Dan Forbes. “I think I told you once before, you bastard, to leave well enough alone. You might be big, but don’t think this kind of thing will set well with the law or the rest of us. If William Beaumont staked this claim, you sure as hell aren’t going to take it.”
Dan Forbes smirked. “Fine,” he said, spitting on the ground. “But I’ll have it soon enough. He ain’t mined it so far, and if he don’t mine it in ten days I can jump it. That’s the law!”
“It hasn’t been ten days,” Cody said.
“Don’t matter.” The bearded face split into an ugly smile. “You think a boy who don’t come up to the middle of my chest is going to be able to do this kind of work?”
“What the hell you talking about?” Cody scoffed. “Like I said, William Beaumont is my best friend. And he’s as tall as me. Quit your lyin’. And get on out of here before we settle this right here.”
Dan Forbes said nothing, only glanced meanly once at each man before shambling himself off. Roger and the other men watched him go before turning to wander off as well.
Nigel turned to his friend. “You think maybe it’s a different William Beaumont?”
Cody shook his head. “Can’t be any other William Franklin Beaumonts, especially not thirds. Besides, everybody looks short to that animal.” Picking up a stick, he put it back in the ground and tacked the sign onto it.
“So where you think he is, then?” Nigel asked.
“Date on this says he just staked it yesterday. My guess is the boardinghouse.” Cody secured the parameters of the claim with a piece of string as he talked. When he was finished, he looked at his English friend. “I can’t wait for you to meet Will,” he said.
As they headed for the boardinghouse, Cody told Nigel of the young man he’d gone to school with. Will had not had an easy life, he said. His mother had died when he was ten and his father had shipped him off to school. When Will came home, his father had remarried. Cody never got to know Will’s younger sister very well. Jenny had been eleven years younger than her brother, and fourteen years younger than Cody. Her own mother had died shortly after birthing her and she’d spend much of her childhood with relatives, only coming home occasionally. When she was home, she kept to herself, or would take off on her horse whenever he showed up. He wondered now that Will was here who he’d gotten to take over the farm since their father died. Jenny would be eighteen now; maybe she was married off. Maybe her husband ran it.
“Looks like the typical Friday night.”
Nigel’s words stirred Cody from his thoughts. The Englishman was right. The sun had just gone down but there were already roughnecks stumbling drunk in the streets. There was a line at Cora’s; Cody wondered if the madam had managed to secure any more women to meet the demands of the miners on this side of Coloma, not that he’d ever partake. He was a man who felt women should be protected, nurtured, and led; it bothered him that the women of Cora’s were nightly thrown to the wolves.
The boardinghouse was a few doors down. There was still hammering going on out back, even after dark, as the building underwent its third expansion since Cody had come to Coloma. Inside, the lobby was rank with the smell of smoke and sweat. Cody and Nigel went up to the desk.
“I’m looking for William Beaumont,” he told the corpulent man behind the desk.
“Sounds familiar,” he said. “Little feller, right?”
Cody frowned, remembering what Dan had said.
“William Franklin Beaumont III, actually,” he said.
The man looked up over the rims of his glasses. “The feller wasn’t that specific when he got his room,” he said. “Just William Beaumont. If that’s who you’re wantin’, he’s up that staircase to your right, third door from the end of the hall.”
A man was passed out at the top of the landing. Cody and Nigel stepped over him and walked down the hall, looking for the right door. When they found it, Cody grinned at his English friend as he raised his hand to knock.
“I’m looking forward to this,” he said. “After all this time, it’s going to be quite a surprise.”
Chapter Three: An Imposter’s Punishment
Jenny was already nervous. The sound of the sharp rapping on the door didn’t help. She wondered if it was Dan Forbes, or maybe someone he’d sent to do her in. After all, it had to have been Forbes who’d written the note she’d found under her door—the note warning that if she showed up to mine her claim she may have an accident. By law, she had to start mining within ten days or someone else could claim her staked plot. But now she was afraid to even step outside.
The person on the other side of the door rapped again.
“Whadya want?” she asked, lowering her voice. As she did, she tugged at the binding that still held her breasts flat against her chest. She longed to be free of the constrictive ache, but she was afraid now of doffing her disguise, even for a moment. Her mind drifted back to May, her body being used by two men. If that’s what happened to women in Coloma, she wanted no part of it.
“William!” someone called from the other side.
Jenny stared at the door. The voice sounded familiar. Her heart began to pound. She continue to stare at the door. The man on the other side was rapping harder now.
“Will! Come on! Open up! It’s me, Cody!”
Cody? Damn. She remembered—the friend who used to come around the farm sometimes when she was home from school. Tall. Hair black as coal. He’d referred to her as ‘a little girl,’ the first time he’d seen her, and she’d been so offended that she’d ridden off on her horse. After that, she made it a point to avoid Cody Drake. There was something about his bearing—something authoritative—that reminded her of the teachers she had at sc
hool. She didn’t like it; didn’t like him.
And she didn’t want to see him.
“Go away.”
The knocking stopped. Jenny stood there, holding her breath. She’d wait him out. She’d wait him out, and then when he left she’d go down to the law and give them the note and… then what? She didn’t know. All she knew was that none of this was going the way she’d envisioned, the way Will had always said it would go.
After a moment she walked over to the door. She didn’t hear anything on the other side. She cracked it and was about to hesitantly peek out when it burst open, pushing her back. She fell to the floor just as two men walked in. Her hat came off and she hurriedly put it back on as she stumbled to her feet.
Cody was taller than she remembered. His hair was longer, too. But the eyes—those piercing eyes—were the same as she remembered, the same as the first time he’d looked at her and called her a little girl. And there was a man with him, also tall, with a handsome, sharp-featured face.
“You aren’t Will Beaumont.” Cody reached down and hauled Jenny up by the shirt collar. “So who are you, boy?”
“None of your business.” She lowered her voice to the point that it sounded ridiculously fake, even to her ears.
“I don’t think that’s a boy, Cody.” The other man stepped forward, his accent strange to her ears. An English accent. There were other Brits in the camp, so she recognized it. He reached out and tipped up her chin, but Jenny kept her eyes averted.
“Come on now, don’t be afraid,” the Englishman said.
“I’m not afraid,” she said, her voice cracking.
“No, looks like you are,” he said gently.
“Do as he says!” Cody’s voice was harsh where the Englishman’s was mild. Jenny felt herself start and then reluctantly dragged her gaze up to theirs. She closed her eyes as the Englishman carefully removed her hat.
“Her hair’s bound up,” he said, and pulled out several pins, sending dirty blond tresses cascading down her back.
“Good God.” Cody transferred his grip from her shirt collar to her arm, staring down at her with surprise. “Jenny? It is Jenny, right?” He seemed to be trying to process what was happening. “Where’s your brother? Where’s Will?”
Tears stung her eyes. “He’s dead.”
Cody let her go and stepped back. “What? How…”
“He took a fall from his horse. At first we didn’t think it was bad. He walked home but complained that his head hurt and went to bed early.” She wiped a tear away. “He didn’t wake up the next morning. The doctor said there was bleeding inside his brain.”
“God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. He’d been writing. He was going to follow me out.”
“I know,” she said.
“But wait,” the Englishman was speaking again. “So what are you doing here? You can’t be more than sixteen, wee little thing like you.”
“I’m eighteen! An adult!” She glared at him. “And it’s not right, asking a lady her age, Mr.… whoever you are.”
“Simms, my dear,” he said. “Nigel Simms.” Nigel removed his hat, stepped back, and bowed in a courtly manner as Jenny stared at him in annoyance.
“Nigel’s a friend of mine,” Cody explained. “I was looking forward to introducing him to Will. I never expected this…”
“Well, neither did I.” She looked around the room and then back at the men, her eyes registering her dismay. “Will talked about how easy it would be, coming out here and finding gold. He said you just come out and stake your claim. I knew it wasn’t a place for a woman, but after he left, I had to try. I had to come honor his dream…”
“Hold on,” Cody interrupted. “You mean to say you came out here on your own?”
“And why not?” Her blue eyes flashed with indignation. “I’m grown now. So what if I want to come in my brother’s stead? It’s what he would have wanted!”
“No,” Cody said, putting his hands on his hips. “It is not what Will would have wanted. No man would want his sister in a mining camp. How long have you been here? One, two days? You should have known this was no place for you as soon as you stepped off the stage. Have you even seen another woman here?”
Jenny thought back to May, moaning and writhing under two men. Horrible, wanton May.
“No,” she lied, rather than admit she’d been in a whorehouse.
“Right,” Cody said. “And you know why that is? Because most ladies know better than to set foot in a place like this.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jenny said stubbornly. “I’m not leaving. I staked a claim for my brother. It’s his! In his name!”
“You staked it as an imposter, Jenny!”
“I don’t care! It’s still his! And I’m going to mine it.”
“The hell you are,” Cody said. “Come tomorrow, you’re going back to Oklahoma on the train.”
“I can’t!” she said, balling her fists up. “There’s nothing for me to go back for. When Will died, the farm passed not to me, but to my aunt and uncle.” Her chest was heaving. “All they care about is money. If I go back, my aunt will make me marry Rufus Platt.”
“Fat Rufus Platt?” Cody asked. “Roy Platt’s son? Your brother hated him!”
“I do, too!” she said. “But Rufus is from a wealthy family and my aunt is hungry for the connection. She doesn’t care that Rufus is fat and already bald and mean as a bucket of rattlesnakes to boot.” She sniffled. “Will would roll over in his grave to think that I was given to that awful man. But if you send me back I’ll have no choice. So I’m staying.”
Cody fell silent. When he spoke again, his voice was firm. “All right. I don’t want to dishonor Will’s wish for you. You’ll stay, but only until we can figure this out,” he said. “You’ll stay with us.”
Jenny felt herself grow uneasy. “What do you mean, with us?”
“This boardinghouse is dangerous. Nigel and I have a place together. It’s not a tent, but a cabin. You’ll come stay there. We’ll protect you. If you stay here, you’ll end up raped, or forced to work at Cora’s when your money runs out.”
“You mean the whorehouse?”
“How do you know about that place, lass?” Nigel stepped over, his face concerned.
“I don’t,” she lied sheepishly. “Other than its reputation. And I know enough of that to know I don’t want to work there.”
“Damn right you don’t,” Cody said. “But that’s where you could have ended up if we hadn’t tracked you down, young lady. It was a risky, foolish thing you did, coming here. Now get your things.”
The tall cowboy’s firm resolve angered Jenny. He wasn’t asking her, but telling her—ordering her around as if she were some little girl and not a grown woman who had just braved a harrowing trip and staked a claim despite intimidation. After all this time, he still treated her like a little girl. Well, she wasn’t having it.
“Go to hell, Cody Drake!” she said. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”
She felt a moment of satisfaction when her brother’s friend turned away. For a moment, Jenny thought he was going to leave. But instead he pulled a chair away from the wall, brought it to the center of the room, and grasped her again by the arm before sitting down and pulling her over his lap.
“What are you doing?” she asked angrily.
The answer came in the form of a hard smack to her bottom.
“Let me up, you… you… bastard!”
But Cody didn’t listen. Instead he began to spank her—hard. The fabric of her trousers was thin and offered little protection against the sting of his correction. Within a few seconds, the sting had turned into a burn that Jenny didn’t think she could endure one more second.
“Stooooop!” she wailed, kicking her legs and rocking back and forth in an effort to work herself off of Cody’s lap. “Let me go!”
To her horror, she realized she was sobbing, fat tears rolling down her face and into her open mouth. And he was continuing to spank her like a nau
ghty little girl, his hand working over an entirely new area now that he’d set fire to the crest of her bottom. The blows were now landing just at the base of her upturned nates. It was a whole new level of agony for a young woman who had never been spanked in her life, and the humiliation was nearly as intense as the discomfort.
And then, finally, it was over. Cody’s hand lay on her throbbing bottom for a moment before Jenny was lifted gracelessly back to her feet, where she stamped on the floor and rubbed her backside, her sobs continuing unabated.
“There, there, love. It’s just a wee spanking. And well-deserved from where I’m standing.” The Englishman had stepped forward, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket. He put an arm around Jenny’s shoulder and held the cloth to her face. “Now blow like a good girl. Cody’s right. You can’t stay here. We’re taking you home with us, where it’s safe. And you’re going to be a good lass and not fight us.”
His words were kind in tone, but the definitive delivery sent a firm message nonetheless. It was two against one, and these men were not going to take no for an answer. Jenny’s bottom throbbed with hurt, and she was shaking as she stood there, helpless now, her capacity to decide for herself stripped by two men determined to protect her.
When Cody turned to gather her things, she spoke up.
“No,” she said. “Let me do it. These are my belongings.” As she tried to slow her breathing, Jenny walked over to the table and picked up her cloth satchel. She immediately secreted the threatening letter inside of it. There was no need to let the pushy cowboy and his fancy-talking friend know about that. Next came the few pair of trousers she’d brought, the shirts, and the extra pair of boots. There was no women’s clothing. All she’d brought was some old things that had belonged to her brother as a boy.
“Let’s go,” Cody said. “Put your hat back on and tuck your hair under it. No need to raise suspicion. We’ll be walking past the desk. Keep quiet and keep your head down. Act up and I’ll spank your backside in the lobby in front of everyone. You hear?”