Staking Their Claim (12 page)

There was a chamber pot in another room, and she was relieved to be able to have the plug removed and be allowed privacy to end the ordeal. Afterwards, Jenny felt much better, and once Nurse Mab had helped the younger woman clean herself, it was back to the exam room.

“I trust you’ll feel better now,” the doctor said. “Binding is a problem in stressful situations, and by tonight you’ll realize the full benefits.”

“She needs to be shaven now,” the nurse said, and the doctor again helped Jenny back up on the table, this time raising two braces on the end, directing her to place her legs in them.

Jenny looked at the men, and when they nodded, she complied, embarrassed but unwilling to defy them or the nurse, especially now that she’d had a taste of that awful shoe leather.

When the nurse stepped between her legs with a mug of foam, Jenny knew what was in store for her, but that did not diminish her embarrassment as the older woman coated Jenny’s pubic mound with a thick covering of foam. The boar’s-hair brush tickled, and it was all she could do not to squirm. But the sight of the straight razor had her frozen into immediate compliance. Jenny lay perfectly still as the sharp edge sliced away the hair with surprising speed. When the nurse was finished and began wiping away the foam, Jenny jumped.

“Oh!”

“Yes,” the doctor laughed. “You’ll find that she’ll be even more responsive now,” he said to the men.

As Jenny got up and dressed, the doctor continued to talk to her men. She saw him give Cody a wooden box, and tell him to use the contents gradually. She decided that they must be talking about the stretchers for her bottom hole. Her pussy clenched at the thought of her protective, handsome men using her bottom as they’d used her pussy. She almost moaned at the idea, the thought of submitting in such an intimate way.

The men gave Nurse Mab the afternoon off and told Jenny that because she’d been so good, they had a rare treat for her. They were taking her down to see her claim, to show her the sluice box they had made.

“Can I help?” she asked, excited.

“Maybe we’ll teach you how to look for nuggets if you’re a good girl,” Cody said as Nigel playfully tugged one of her braids.

It was a pleasant afternoon, and warmer than it had been previously. All along the bank, men worked flumes or sluice boxes. Some simply panned, hoping to sift some nuggets from the rushing water. One tired old man muttered to himself as he looked into the pan like an elderly wizard scrying into a bowl. The edges of his bony elbows jutted through holes in his jacket. Jenny felt pity for him, and was glad that her two men were strong and able, for this was not a weak man’s world.

They were getting closer. Jenny recognized it by the bend in the river. Her claim was almost in sight. But even before she reached it, she knew something was wrong. It was Cody who first stopped, his eyes narrowing in concern as he watched a piece of wood float down the river, and then another. Soon he was walking briskly with Jenny and Nigel at his heels.

“Oh, no…” The Englishman took his hat off and rubbed his arm across his eyes in exasperated disbelief.

The sluice box had been shattered, with only the splintered frame left intact. Broken pieces were being carried away by the water.

“It’s him, isn’t it?” Jenny asked. “It’s that awful man who threatened me, that Dan Forbes.”

“It’s nothing that concerns you,” Cody said tightly, and Jenny knew he meant to protect her and probably wish she’d not seen.

“I need to know,” she said, walking around to face him. “If he’s still trying to take my claim—our claim—isn’t there something we can do?”

“Violence is a way of life here,” Nigel said. “This is a threat. He’s hoping we’ll back down, but he should know better by now. Men like Dan Forbes always do things in an underhanded way. They’re cowards.”

“That’s right,” Cody agreed. “The best thing to do is come out here tomorrow and rebuild the sluice box as if nothing happened.”

“Why wait until tomorrow?” Jenny asked angrily. “Why not start today?

“We aren’t leaving you alone to rebuild the sluice box,” Nigel said. “Especially since whoever did this may come after you.”

“Why do I have to stay home?” she asked. Since meeting the men, Jenny’s inner fire had turned to sexual smolder, but now she felt her temper rise as she looked at the wrecked sluice box. “Does it make me any less your little one if I care? If I help? What do any of us gain if we all sit in the cabin the rest of the day?” She looked from one man to the other, and knew that neither of them had a logical reason for denying her. “Please!”

Cody nodded. “All right,” he said. “But don’t think we’re going to make this a habit, young lady. And don’t think your helping us out here means you wear the britches.” He paused. “Any britches.”

She giggled. “I don’t like wearing britches around you, anyway.”

Nigel swatted Jenny on her bottom for the cheeky comment, and for the rest of the afternoon, the three worked on rebuilding the equipment.

As they worked, a couple of other miners came by. All the men had an idea of who had destroyed the box; Dan Forbes had been running his mouth regularly, making no secret of his hatred for the pair, or his bitterness in being denied a chance to jump Jenny’s claim.

Jenny was surprised to find most of the miners who stopped by friendly enough, and decided that there were, indeed, more than two good men in the camp. But the presence of such a sinister man as Dan Forbes worried her, even into the evening when she sat curled in the chair watching the fire.

“Don’t fret, love,” Nigel said, sitting beside her.

“I can’t get my mind off of it,” Jenny said. “He’s just so… mean.”

“You know,” Cody interjected. “Perhaps you need something to concentrate on.” He looked at his English friend. “Don’t you agree, Nigel?”

“Too right,” Nigel said, standing. “I believe the good doctor gave us something today that will help to that end—so to speak.” He took Jenny’s hand. “Come here, young lady. I believe it’s time to focus on your training instead of on your worries.”

“M-m-my training?” she asked.

“Yes,” Cody replied, starting to undress her. Jenny flushed. They were in the middle of the living room and her men were stripping her naked!

“We are still going to take that sweet ass of yours,” the cowboy continued. “The sooner we start stretching it, the better. Nigel, you want to fetch the box?”

As the Englishman complied with his friend’s request, the cowboy led Jenny to the table and leaned her across it.

“But this is where we eat,” she protested.

“So it is,” he said, and knelt down, spreading her cheeks and attaching his mouth to her bare pussy. The sensation sent a blitz of starbursts before her eyes, and she climaxed immediately, drawing on the fingers that he shoved inside of her as he flicked her clit with his tongue. By the time Nigel had returned with the box, she was all but weeping with need.

“Let me,” he said, stepping over. “I’ve been wanting to taste her, anyway.”

Jenny cried out again as the point of Nigel’s tongue ran up her slit.

“Mmmm. Like honey,” he said. “So sweet.”

She was sure her knees would buckle as his hands gripped her ass cheeks, spreading her as he licked and nibbled her pussy before rimming her bottom hole with his tongue.

“Oooooh, this is wrong!” she cried, and felt a harsh smack to her bottom in response.

“Nothing your men ever do to you is wrong,” Nigel chided.

She felt the trainer slide into her pussy, slide in and out, and knew the Englishman was coating it with her slickness. When he pushed it against her rosy puckered bottom hole, she whimpered. It felt larger than the one the doctor had used, but she wanted to please the men and did as Cody instructed, relaxing as his friend pushed the plug past her resisting ring of muscles.

“You’ll wear this until we come home tomorrow night,” he said. “Nurse Mab can take it out if you need her to, but she knows how to put these things back in. We want you stretched daily.”

“Yes,” Nigel said. “We’re eager for you to take our cocks in your pretty bottom.”

She looked back to see him smiling, his cock lined up with her dripping pussy. When he rammed into her, she cried out in instant pleasure. With the plug filling her, the pressure of his cock was even more delicious. She imagined what it would be like with a larger plug and then with a cock in her pussy and her ass. Was that even possible? The idea of taking both her men at the same time brought her to orgasm, her pussy pulling and drawing on Nigel so hard that he came as well, embarrassed a bit by not being able to restrain himself.

“Don’t forget me.” She looked up to see Cody’s cock, inches from her face. She smiled as she took him in her mouth.

Chapter Twelve: Stolen Treasure

No one could account for Dan Forbes’ disappearance. One day he’d been working his claim, glowering at anyone who walked by, and the next he was gone, his tent abandoned with the belongings still inside.

“I’m not surprised,” Cody said over dinner when he told Jenny the news. “He was an unpleasant fellow.”

“What do you think happened to him?” she asked.

“If I had to guess, I’d say he picked a fight with the wrong person. He’s probably lying dead in a ravine with a bullet hole in his head.”

“Or with a broken neck after falling in drunk,” Nigel said. “Who’s to say? Either way it’s good riddance to bad rubbish if you ask me.”

“Well, I can’t say I’ll mourn him,” Jenny said. “On the other hand, were it not for Dan Forbes, I may not have met you.” She shifted in her chair, her plugged bottom a reminder of their control. She was nearly on the largest one now, the graduated trainers stretching her bottom daily. She flushed now as she recalled how Nigel had pulled on the flange of the last plug he’d inserted, working it back and forth inside her as he’d fucked her.

“Soon we’ll both be inside you, just like this,” Cody had whispered. Just the thought of it had made her toes curl.

Jenny fell asleep that night with a smile on her face. Her life was getting better by the day. The men had kept it quiet from everyone else, but her claim was beginning to yield. They’d tunneled beneath the rock face to find more veins of gold, which they had begun to extract. They were now talking about buying some dynamite and blasting their way to what they were certain as a major vein. Once that happened, they’d make their fortune and could leave Coloma. Where they were headed, they did not know. Jenny longed to see Nigel’s home across the sea, but also longed for the open plains after living in the filthy, crowded mining camp. In the end, though, all that mattered was that she would be with her men, and home would be wherever that was.

The only one who knew of their good fortune was Nurse Mab and Bert Eakins, the storekeeper who said he’d help them get the dynamite. Bert was a trustworthy man, and seemed happy with their impending success.

“We should celebrate,” Jenny said to Nurse Mab the day the men were scheduled to pick up the dynamite. “They’ve definitely found that vein. If all goes well, we’ll be looking at setting up house somewhere away from here, and Cody says there will be enough money for us to live our life as we choose on a large ranch.” She took the older woman’s hands in hers. “You will go with us, won’t you?”

Nurse Mab’s usually stoic face softened. “You want me to go, lass? Don’t you want to be set up as mistress of your own home?”

“We don’t have that kind of relationship, Nurse Mab. But surely you must know that.”

The nurse nodded. “I well know what kind of relationship you have, but money may change that. Once you have a grand house…”

“It will change nothing,” she said. “We’ve talked about it, the men and I. They know I love our lif
e, and they love it, too. I feel like they are the fathers I never had. And you… well, my mother died when I was young. It’s been so nice having you here, teaching me things. Please?”

Nurse Mab patted her hand. “Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ll talk to your men and we’ll sort it out. How about that.”

Jenny grinned. It was as much as she could hope for.

A knock on the back door got their attention. Jenny jumped up.

“That’ll be Nigel. He said he was coming back for the fuses.” She rushed to the door, picking up the coil of string on the way. But as she opened the door, she gasped and dropped the string on the floor.

It was the barrel of a gun that greeted her, and the face of the man holding it was feral, mad.

“Well, well, well.” Dan Forbes pushed her back into the house and shut the door. “Look at what I found!” His eyes fell on Nurse Mab and he grabbed Jenny just as the older woman reached for the rifle over the fireplace.

“Now, you can load that,” he said. “But I’ll break this one’s neck before you can fire it.” He pulled Jenny to him in a bearlike grip and Nurse Mab backed away from the rifle. In the next instant, Jenny felt herself hauled forward. She barely had time to register how fast the large man could move before he’d used the butt of his pistol to strike her beloved nurse in the head. Jenny cried out as Mab collapsed to the floor like a sack of flour.

“You killed her, you wicked, evil man!”

“She ain’t dead. She’s breathing. See?” Forbes thrust Jenny toward the older woman, allowing her to see that Mab was, indeed, breathing. Then he hauled her back to the door.

“You won’t get away with this!” she said. “They’ll find me! No matter where you take me, they’ll find me.”

“They won’t have to,” he said. “I plan to tell them where you are. But the only way to get you back alive will be to leave. That claim should have been mine, and I aim to see it is. I heard rumors that it’s showing color.”

“It’s not!” she lied.

“Oh, really?” He picked up the string. “Then why would you have this? Your men are about to blast, ain’t they?” He looked at her, his wide eyes seeking the truth. “Ain’t they?” he asked again, shaking her so hard her teeth rattled.

“I thought you were gone,” she said quietly.

“Yeah? Then my plan’s working already. I ain’t been gone. I’ve been camping out on the ridge, watching, waiting. Dug me out a nice big hole up there, and I aim to tie you up and put you in it. In about an hour, I’m having word sent to your men. If they get on a train today for San Francisco, I’ll send you along in a week. If they try to come back and save you, then you’ll die. Ten days is all I need for them to be gone before I can jump that claim. They ain’t stupid. They know I aim to get what I want. By the time you’re back in their arms, I’ll be a rich man.” He laughed wildly. “Now come on!”