Emma handed her a potato masher and a bowl of potatoes. “Sit here and smash the potatoes while we talk.”
“Did you live in Butte?” Laurel asked. “How did you meet your men?”
“We lived outside Butte. My stepfather and mother and stepbrother. My name was Bryne, but my stepfather was Edward Seyler.”
The women glanced between one another. “Doesn’t he run the mercantile in Butte?”
“One of them,” she said.
“We stopped shopping at his store two years ago,” said Emma. “His prices were way too high. Rumors around town say he’s about to lose the business.”
How many times had she heard he price gouged people and yet money was always short? What did Edward do with the money? Years ago, she had given up trying to understand her stepfather.
“I’ve heard that before,” Mattie said. “I know money was always tight at home. My mother was very ill and insisted that I leave with Alex and Jesse.”
“Were you in danger?” Ann asked.
Mattie licked her lips, not really wanting to tell them how her stepbrother tried to force himself on her.
Rachel laid a hand on her arm. “We have no secrets in Bridgewater. We look out for one another. We protect each other and if there’s trouble, we all help one another.”
A sigh escaped from Mattie. She didn’t know these women, but she liked them and wanted to belong. “Alex and Jesse came along when my stepbrother was trying to force me to have sex with him.”
The women’s eyes widened and they nodded. “They’re honorable men. They would never accept another man doing that to a woman.”
“Especially Alex,” Emma said. “Not after what happened to his sister.”
Mattie’s ears perked up. Why in the last twenty-four hours had she not asked about their families. Gotten to know them better?
Because all they’d been doing was fucking.
“Do you think he will come after you?” Ann asked.
There was so much she needed to tell her men. She hadn’t even told them she was an heiress. There was a very good chance that Edward and Frank would come after her. Especially, since they needed her money. That was why Edward wanted Frank to marry her. Then he could get his greedy hands on her inheritance.
“I don’t know,” Mattie said. “But I fear that it’s possible.”
Ann patted her hand. “The men are outside talking. I’m sure your men are telling them if there is any danger. Like Rachel said, we are all in this together.”
Could it be that she had brought danger to this small community? She chewed her bottom lip as terror filled her. What if because of her, she had put these families in danger? What if because of her, they were harmed?
“I shouldn’t be here,” she said, rising panic growing inside her like a storm rushing toward her. “My men, I’ve endangered them. I couldn’t live if something happened to one of them.”
She rose from the chair and just then Jesse walked in the kitchen. “What’s wrong.”
Her hands were shaking, her breathing rapid as the thought of Jesse or Alex being killed because of her. Not to mention the community.
“I’ve put you and these lovely women and children in peril. They’re going to come after me and I couldn’t live with myself if someone got hurt.”
Jesse took her in his arms. He rubbed his hand down her back, saying soothing words of comfort to her. “No one will be injured.”
“You don’t know that. We haven’t talked about why they would come after me.”
The panic continued to rise and she didn’t know how to help him understand what kind of danger she had put everyone in. Frantic, she gazed at him. Edward and Frank wanted her inheritance and they would do anything, including killing her men, to get that money.
“Calm down, Mattie,” his voice was low and soothing. “If you don’t, I’ll turn you over my knee right now and spank you.”
A red flush brightened her cheeks and she knew he would.