"They had to."
"Did they remove it against your will?" The sheriff eyed Garrett and Tagg, and both men stiffened at the accusation.
"No. I...I asked them to." Oh, how torrid that sounded! It wasn't as if I had been offering myself to them! He had to understand there were basic necessities that needed accommodating.
The sheriff gave a little nod of his head. "Then you belong to them."
I shook my head in disbelief. "What? Absolutely not."
"You can't go back to town unwed. These men have taken your virtue."
"But...but I'm a virgin!" I clenched my fist around the blanket while I waved my other hand in the air. Was the sheriff as daft as the others?
"I wouldn't expect otherwise. Garrett and Tagg are gentlemen and wouldn't disrespect you by taking you before marriage."
"I didn't mean--"
"Enough," Tagg said, rising to his full height. "We told you earlier that if we took off the harness that you would be under our protection. That means marriage."
"But--"
He held up his hand to silence me. The hand didn't keep me quiet, but the stern and serious look he focused on me most certainly did. "You will want for nothing. We will take care of you, protect you, cherish you. Make you ours."
"I had a plan!" I cried, upset because I knew I was going to lose this battle. Just like Devney yesterday back at the ranch. I was no match for three men. I wasn't in danger of them harming me, but I was certainly trapped into doing as they bid. "I was going to go and see the world I read about in books. Be free!"
"You want to see the world, baby?" Garrett asked. He ran a hand gently over my hair. "We'll take you. You want to be free? I promise, you'll have more freedom with us than any other husband."
Tears filled my eyes and all three men blurred.
"Think who would have found you if we hadn't, Sarah. Most men aren't like us," Tagg said, coming over to me, taking me into his arms. "He would have used you, killed you even."
Hi
s voice hardened at those possibilities.
"I can't marry two men!"
Tagg tilted my chin up, forced me to look at him. "You will marry Garrett, but you will belong to both of us. In every way."
I shook my head. "I don't...I don't know how," I admitted.
"No woman should. That's her husband's job, to teach her. For you, you get two husbands to do that."
I looked pleadingly at the sheriff. "Do I have to do this?"
I saw sympathy there in his dark eyes. "If an unmarried woman is caught kissing a man, what happens?"
"They have to marry," I answered.
"If an unmarried woman is caught alone with a man overnight, even in a snowstorm and they are trapped together against their wishes, what happens?"
"They have to marry," I repeated. I knew exactly the direction of his questioning. Two men had caught me out of my dress. Then they'd seen all of me when I fell in the water. Then they removed the harness that offered me the protection from marriage. It didn't matter that I was still a virgin. In the eyes of society, especially in Liberty, I'd been ruined.
"In your case, the list of inappropriateness is extensive," the sheriff added.
"No one knows but you." I looked at all three men. "You wouldn't tell, would you?"
All three looked appalled at the idea. "We wouldn't disrespect you in that way," the sheriff said.