Chapter 7

He awoke a few hours later to find the three of them had shifted to a different position. He was now on his back with a girl resting her head on each of his shoulders. Straining to look down he saw dark blonde hair on one side and dark brown on the other. They were facing each other and very quietly whispering to each other. When they felt him move they stopped talking and looked up.

"Now this is something I could get used to," he sighed happily. "A beautiful woman on each arm ... What more could any man ask for?"

"You are such a pig," Melody giggled. "If you really had both of us to satisfy you'd be dead within a week."

"Ahhh, but what a way to go," he sighed just as his stomach let loose with a ferocious growl.

"It sounds like the top hog needs to be fed," she giggled again and rubbed his stomach.

"I'll get it," Malinda said jumping up and rolling off the bed.

"I'll help you," Melody added pushing herself up.

"What? You don't think I can do it?" Malinda frowned.

"Of course you can," Melody soothed her sister. "But you don't know where we keep everything."

"Mmm, true I suppose," Malinda's eyes narrowed. "Well, okay, you can help, but only help." Saying that she turned around and left.

"She is the worst cook in the world!" Melody whispered into Marlin's ear once her sister was out of earshot. "She can burn water without even trying. I'd better get out there or God only knows what awful stuff we might be trying to eat for dinner."

"No matter what it is I will put it in my mouth, chew and swallow with a smile," he assured her. "She's finally trying to do something around the house and that is no small thing."

"True," Melody admitted. "But still I should be getting out there before her offer of assistance becomes our sacrifice."

"You do that," he grinned and drew her down for a quick kiss. "I'll start outlining my new report. I have the feeling it's going to be magnificent!"

"That was wonderful!" Marlin exclaimed as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. Maybe wonderful had been a slight exaggeration but it certainly hadn't been the total disaster Melody had predicted. Of course he had no idea how much his lover had guided her sister in the preparation.

"Thanks," Malinda muttered even as she blushed. "I'm sure Mel would have done better."

"Possibly," he admitted. "But then Melody has a touch with food that I believe borders on the magical. We all have things we're better at that others just as others are better at certain tasks than we are. Now Melody does best at, well let's see, cooking, cleaning, laundry, planting, taking care of the animals and fixing up the house while my strengths lie in more ... shall we say, the more intellectual pursuits?"

"You liar!" Melody laughed and hit him on the chest then flopped down in his lap. "You do more around here than I do, you bag of hot air."

"I'm not sure what I'm good for," Malinda sighed. "I haven't done anything useful for years except stripping and I don't think I want to do that again."

"That probably wouldn't be a good idea," Marlin agreed.

"But maybe I can dance for you," she grinned evilly as she stood up grinding her hips and moving her torso in a sinuous weave.

"That is also probably not a good idea," Marlin gulped. "Unless after about two minutes you want to see me drag your sister back to her bedroom and have my wicked way with her."

"Oh! Oh! I want to see you dance! I want to see you dance!" Melody clapped and bounced up and down on Marlin's lap. Both Marlin and Malinda burst out laughing as Malinda collapsed back into her chair.

"You don't need me to get him all riled up," Malinda smiled sadly.

"Maybe not," Melody admitted. "But why take any chances?"

"I just wish there was something I could really do around here," Malinda sighed again. "I don't have a job now so I guess I'm just one of those parasites I'd been complaining about and it's not like anyone around here would trust me enough to hire me even if they didn't think I was a witch." Melody nodded sympathetically.

"Well, you know I was thinking," Marlin began and suddenly two sets of eyes bore down on him. "Hey, I told you my strengths were more toward the intellectual, didn't I? Anyway, this place has the potential of becoming a lot more self-sufficient and maybe even earning a few extra crowns with just a few changes. Now Melody couldn't do it all by herself and of course I'm completely useless..." This earned him another smack on the chest. "But with two of you, or maybe the three of us, it could work. That orchard back there is essentially going fallow and with a few chickens and maybe another cow or two ... I think it could work."

"You mean start having a real farm just like when daddy was with us," Melody smiled dreamily. "That would be nice."

"So I go from stripper to farmhand," Malinda snorted. "Not such a big difference, I suppose. I'd still be working with dumb animals. At least I wouldn't have to shake my tits at them."

"I don't know," Marlin began, knowing he shouldn't. "If we had a bull he might appreciate it. In fact he just might think he'd been plopped down in the milk-producing capital of the world." He ended up being pummeled by two women and just barely escaped from the kitchen with his life.

"Hey, there!" Marlin called out. Malinda was perched halfway up a ladder with her head in the branches of an old apple tree cussing up a storm and sawing away. Numerous dead limbs littering the ground around her testified to amount of work she'd already put into the job. "Just wondering if you needed a little help." The cursing stopped and Malinda backed down the ladder. She was sweating profusely and had on a sleeveless shirt tied at the bottom of her swinging breasts, skin tight shorts and big rubber boots that came up to almost her knees. There were a multitude of scratches on her arms and legs.

"You know, just a suggestion," he continued. "You might want to dress in work clothes instead of something you'd wear on a date Saturday night."

"You'd want your date wearing this when you take her out?" Malinda demanded.

"Heck yeah," Marlin grinned. "Those boots are sexy as hell."

"Asshole," Malinda grinned back at him.

"True," he replied. "But as much as I'll probably be thrown out of the he-man club, you should wear long sleeves and long pants if for no other reason than to protect the delectable delicacies beneath them."

"It's too fucking hot," Malinda growled.

"Then you're working too hard," he countered. "Remember slow and steady gets the job done. The quick little bunny just wears herself out and drops dead from exhaustion."

"Yeah, well, did Mr. Slow and Steady finish all his chores all ready?"

"Yep, that's why I'm out here seeing if you needed a hand," he nodded.

"Really? That was quite a list Mel gave you this morning," Malinda gaped at him in disbelief.

"Yeah she was in a bit of a mood this morning but being lazy pays dividends," he responded,

"Yeah, we Hawking women can get a bit bitchy around our time of the month. But run that one by me again. How does being lazy help get any job done?" she asked.

"That's easy," he answered. "The first thing I do is sit down and think about the job. Mostly about what would be the easiest way to get the job done. Amazingly enough it turns out the easiest way is usually the quickest way so they're done and here I am."

"And it has nothing to do with avoiding one little prickly pear back in the house..." she teased.

"Almost nothing," he said with a straight face.

"Yeah right," she scoffed and sat down on the log of an old fallen tree. "You know I've been thinking..." He started to open his mouth but her suddenly narrowed eyes caused him to clamp it shut again and smile. "Wise man," she snickered. "I may not be sleeping with you but I can make you walk funny all day if I wanted to and don't you forget it."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," he replied innocently.

"Uh-huh, I'll just bet you don't," she harrumphed. "Anyway I was thinking about those animals you talked about buying. Do you have any idea how we're going to pay for them? How much cash do we have now?"

"A small flaw in my plan, I will admit," he sighed sitting down beside her. "I put my meager pay in the jar in the living room and I think Melody does the same with what your sister and mother send. She buys what we need and when it's gone we don't buy anything until we get some more. I don't know exactly how much we have but it's probably not much."

"It's almost nothing," Malinda stated. "Certainly not enough to buy what we want. However I do have some money saved. But ... but it's in the bank in Brighton and I have to go get it in person. Marlin, I don't think I can go there alone!"

"Whoa there! To begin with you certainly don't have to spend your money..."

"What? This isn't my home too?" she demanded.

"Of course it is..."

"You and Mel aren't married yet and until you are I can still live here and if I want to put my money into the family farm I can do it if I damn well please!" she exclaimed.

"Again, whoa!" he said putting his hands up. "Melody and I haven't even talked about marriage although I suppose it's not ... beyond the realm of possibility," he gulped. "But even if that were to happen I'm sure you would be welcome here as long as you wanted to stay."

"That thinking about being married kind of stuck in your throat, didn't it?" she teased.

"It's ... a new concept I'll admit," he shivered. "But not without merit. However that's for a future discussion and not one between you and me. As for your money ... Of course you can do whatever you want with it I was just saying it wasn't expected. As for going to Brighton alone ... Well I'm sure the two of us can go with you and if not then at least I can."

"I won't be welcome there," she whispered softly.

"We can get there early in the morning and be back by the afternoon," he assured her. "You're not wanted for anything, are you?"

She hesitated for a moment. "No," she finally said. "But the last time I was there there was a fight over me, and a man was killed. I didn't really have anything to do with it but I won't be welcome. Oh, Marlin, I've been so bad!" She started sobbing and leaned against his shoulder. With one arm around her back he reached under her legs with his other arm and pulled her onto his lap where she continued to cry grabbing onto the front of his shirt fiercely. A few minutes later he heard someone walking up behind them.

"And just what is going on here?" Melody demanded. "What is my sister with her tits hanging out and painted on pants doing sitting on your lap?

"You can discuss proper working attire with her if you'd like; I already tried," Marlin replied then as an aside he whispered, "I did tell her the boots were sexy, though."

Melody frowned for a second and then smacked him in the arm, hard. "You goof! All right now what is this all about?"

"Malinda needs to return to Brighton and retrieve the money she has in the bank and I assume also what possessions she might have left. Unfortunately she is scared to go back so I told her that either we or I would go with her. She's a little distraught thinking about some of the reasons she might not be welcome back there."

"Oh. Sorry," she said blushing. "Well, good. You two can go tomorrow. It will get you out of the house and keep you from being under foot. Although I will say there has been a whole lot of lap sitting going on around here that I haven't been involved with. Mandy, you do remember that you're just borrowing that lap and not homesteading it, don't you?"

"Yes," came a tiny voice from beneath Marlin's chin. "Thank you."

"Mmm," Melody huffed. "Well I suppose someone ought to take advantage of it and it might as well be you. Right now I can barely stand the sight of him let alone think about sitting on his lap.

"Good Lord, Mandy!" Melody exclaimed. "What did you do to your arms and legs? You really are an idiot. Come on; let's get those taken care of right now." Grabbing her sister's hand she pulled her upright. "I swear sometimes you act like you have more brains in your boobs than you do in your head."

"If I did then I'd be a genius," Malinda smiled and then sniffed. Melody rolled her eyes and dragged her sister off.

"It will be all right," he assured her for the tenth time as the coach pulled into the Brighton coach terminal and the hissing air brakes jarred them to a stop. She held his hand in a grip that was practically crushing. Like she was a drowning woman and he was her only lifeline.

Their first stop was the bank where she closed out her account taking two hundred crowns in cash and the remainder as a bank draft. Marlin did his best not to see how much that draft was for. Next was her apartment where she fretted about what to take.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with all this shit," she said waving at the spangled, stretchy and mostly tiny costumes from her dancing days. "I suppose I should just throw them all away."

"If you want," he shrugged. "But I'm guessing that someday there will be a man who you will want give a private showing to and he is going to be very, very appreciative. Besides, they don't take up much room and can't weight anything." Her shoes were actually the biggest problem but they managed to fit them all in. The jewelry was another problem.

"These were all 'gifts' from my admirers," she sighed. "I guess I really was a whore."

"A gift is just that, Malinda," he soothed her. "Just because a man gave you something hoping it might ... ah, make you more inclined to spend time with him, it's still just a gift."

"Well, there were times I might have inferred that this little trinket or that one might make me more amenable to his advances," she responded with a crooked grin.

"A gray area," he admitted, "but not one you should worry about now. Take them and if you don't want them you can sell them and be done with it."

After they had taken everything down to the street, she contacted the landlord. Her rent was paid up till the end of the month so that wasn't a problem and she informed him anything she had left he could have. They called a cab and hauled it all down to the coach terminal.

They were sitting on a bench talking quietly waiting for the next coach when they were interrupted by a gruff voice in front of them.

"Mandy Hawking, you bitch!" They looked up to see a large, angry man scowling down at them. "I think you owe me some one-on-one time, you little slit. I've been looking for you for a while now and I heard you were in town."

"I'm sure it must be nothing more than a misunderstanding," Marlin said standing up. Malinda tried to pull him back down but he refused to budge. He stood directly between the man and Malinda. "You see the lady and I were just getting ready to leave town..."

"Get out of my way, you little shit," the big man hissed.

Marlin looked up and cocked his head and tapped his cheek as if thinking. "No, I don't believe I will."

"And what are you going to do when I splatter you all over this sidewalk? Huh, big man?"

"Well, considering I'll be splattered I probably won't be able to do much but the constable walking up behind you might take exception," Marlin stated reasonably.

The man looked back over his shoulder quickly and indeed there was a uniformed officer standing not three feet behind him a nightstick swinging in his hand.

"And what might be going on here?" the constable asked as he walked around and stood between them.

"This gentleman thought he had some business with my lady friend but I'm sure he realized he was mistaken," Marlin answered evenly.

"Ah, Rufus," the officer tapped the big man on the chest with his stick. "It's not often we see you out this early. Maybe you should go home and hide for awhile."

"This ain't got nothing to do with the law," Rufus grunted. Suddenly the nightstick was jammed up under his chin tilting his head back.

"If I say it has to do with the law, then it has to do with the law," the officer hissed. "Now get moving before I run you in for littering."

Rufus scowled and turned around but grumbled back over his shoulder, "I'm waiting for you, bitch; you just remember that! Ouch!" he shouted when the constable smacked him hard in the kidney.

"Now unless you want me to be calling for assistance and to add resisting arrest to the beating we'll be giving you, you'd best be on your way." Rufus grumbled but quickly made his way down the street.

"Now who do we have here?" he asked turning around and firmly pushing Marlin to the side until he could see Malinda. "Ah, Malinda Hawking, and I thought it was going to be such a nice day. What are you doing back here, girl? You know you're not welcome here in Brighton."

"Officer," Marlin interrupted gently. "We just came back this morning to retrieve her belongings. We'll be leaving on the next coach."