I watched the men's bodies relax before my eyes. Their shoulders lowered, their jaws unclenched.
"But...but that's not right," I added. "I'm sorry Quinn, I find you just as...appealing, but I'm married to Porter."
He smiled and little crinkles formed at the corner of his eyes. "That's true, but whomever Porter claims, I claim as well."
I frowned, unsure if I heard him correctly. "What?"
"You're my wife, too."
It was so close, almost suffocating standing with them looming over me.
"What Mr. Matthew's said about me is not true. I did not...lay with him. I am not a hussy to be handed about."
Porter's jaw clenched once again. "Of course you're not."
"You will give me to your friend? Being married to you and given to Quinn, that makes me a hussy!" I tried to push at Porter's chest to get him to step back, to let me breathe a little bit, but he wouldn't move. It was like trying to move a mountain.
"I'm not giving you to Quinn," Porter said, his voice low as if riled. Perhaps he was, for I felt that way. "You are married to him as well. Many of the other men at Bridgewater were in the British army together and stationed in the country of Mohamir. This is their custom, more than one husband for a bride. They felt strongly enough in that country's ways
to make them their own. We would not live and work at Bridgewater if we believed otherwise. It is our way as well. Being married to two men is the Bridgewater way."
"That's ridiculous. Laurel—"
"Is married to Mason and Brody."
My mouth fell open. "Olivia—"
"Is married to Rhys, Cross and Simon."
"She's married to three men?" I paused, and then realization dawned. "Oh God, I told the women I had eyes for Mr. McPherson that day I dropped off Rebecca's trunk." I covered my face with a hand.
"Rebecca belongs to him, and MacDonald."
I was mortified, sharing my girlish feelings with Rebecca about a man she'd just wed. "They must think I'm so silly!"
Quinn took a hold of my chin. "Nonsense. Our customs are not commonly known and we keep it that way. While we consider the two of us claiming you to be normal, others would not consider it as such. Dash's attentions were on Rebecca and that was the day I escorted you home and redirected you toward me, and Porter did the same soon thereafter," he commented. "Isn't that right?"
I glanced up at him through my lashes and nodded. Any interest I'd had in Mr. McPherson had been forgotten. Mr. Quinn released my chin and the skin there felt cold.
"We both paid interest to you after that because we wanted you. We never would have vied for your attentions. We wanted them equally. We want them equally."
"I thought just that, that you would fight each other," I murmured.
Porter shook his head. "We were both courting you. Together. Looking back, can you see it?"
I thought about how they'd escorted me about town, paid particular attention to me at town functions, stopped by the boarding house to say hello when they'd come to town—together and individually. While I'd been flattered and more than mildly pleased by their attentions, I hadn't considered it to be courting.
"Yes, but I couldn't imagine either of you being serious if both of you were attentive." I placed my hands on my hips. "I assumed you both knew about the other's...focus and couldn't imagine it being anything but courteous."
"We don't want to be courteous with you, at least not all the time."
"Not right now," Porter added, his voice deeper than I'd ever heard it.
I didn't know exactly what they were speaking of, but my heart hammered in my chest at the possibilities. "What do we do now? I...I do not know what to do." How did one go about being married to two men?
Something bright and hot flared in Porter's eyes. When I glanced at Quinn, he had a similar expression. "Now," Quinn said. "We make you ours."
CHAPTER FOUR