The Forgotten Bride (Brides 0f Brimstone Book 2)

by Laura Fletcher

She wanted to say something more. She wanted to say so many things, but instead, she simply said, “Good night,” again.

  He stood in the hall and watched her ascend the stairs. She lost sight of him when she turned down the hall toward her room.

  8

  Cici set off into the town of Brimstone the next morning. She headed up the sidewalk toward the laundry Betsy told her about when Doctor Kearney came out of the tailor’s shop. He tipped his hat. “Why, hello again.”

  “Good morning, Doctor,” she replied. “I trust you and all your patients are well this morning.”

  He laughed. “If they were well, they wouldn’t be my patients, would I? I, on the other hand, am superb. Thank you for asking. Since you bring up my patients, I might as well tell you that Kelvin Kirk’s back is mending nicely and he’ll make a full recovery.”

  Cici looked away. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  “Your mouth said one thing, and the rest of you said another,” the doctor remarked. “You’re not glad to hear it. Why? I understood from your visit to the forge yesterday that you two were friendly toward each other.”

  “We are, and I am glad to hear that Kelvin is going to be fine,” Cici replied. “I would be devastated if he were permanently damaged on my account.”

  “Your account!” the doctor exclaimed. “What do you mean?”

  “He got injured defending me against that scoundrel of a Sheriff that prowls the streets of this town,” Cici snarled. “I thought Kelvin would have told you that.”

  The doctor scratched his chin. “Well, he didn’t tell me the exact details. I knew he had a run-in with the Sheriff. He didn’t tell me he got whipped defending a lady.”

  “Well, he did,” Cici snapped. “I already feel bad enough about everything that’s happened to Kelvin because of me.”

  The doctor frowned. “I’m sorry to touch on such a painful subject.”

  “You don’t have to be sorry,” she replied. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t think I’ll be staying in this town much longer, anyway.”

  “What do you mean by that?” he asked.

  “I’ll be leaving,” she replied. “It’s the best thing for Kelvin, and it’s the best thing for me.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “When did you decide that? Didn’t you get along with him yesterday? You sure looked like you were getting along with him when you came to the forge together.”

  “Sure, I got along with him,” Cici replied. “I got along with him like a house on fire, but there’s more to the story. We both agree it might be better if we don’t go through with the arrangement.”

  “Might be,” the doctor repeated. “Then again, it might be better if you did.”

  She shrugged and refused to look at him. “Might be.”

  “Do you like him?”

  “Sure. I like him a lot,” she admitted. “There’s more to the story, though, and if I’m not going to marry him, I better hit the dusty trail before I get into something I can’t handle. That would make my life unlivable in this town.”

  “What in the world could that be?”

  “For a start, being at odds with the local Sheriff,” she replied. “Second, being at odds with Kelvin’s employer.”

  “And third?” the doctor asked.

  “Nothing. There is no third. I like Kelvin, but it couldn’t work. I was thinking about it after we had supper together last night. It couldn’t work, so I better break it off now before I feel anything more for him than I already do.”

  The doctor gazed across the street at nothing. “After seeing you two together, I’ve made up my mind to get a mail order bride.”

  Cici whipped around fast. “What?”

  “Yep,” the doctor chirped. “After Martha, I pretty much decided to live my life a lonely bachelor. I changed my mind after I met you and Kelvin right over there in front of the General Store. After I took him back to my office, he told me you were a mail order bride—or at least that you might be one. That made me think, and when I saw you together at the forge, I knew it had to be true.”

  “What was true?” she asked. “That I was a mail order bride, or that you wanted to get one?”

  “Both,” he replied. “I saw in a flash how you two looked at each other, how you talked to each other, and how you acted when you walked into a room after spending the day together.”

  “How did we act?” she asked.

  “You acted like you’d known each other all your lives,” he replied. “You acted like you’d already gotten married. Something happened out there when you were alone together, and the deal was sealed.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cici grumbled.

  “That’s when I decided I would write into the Matrimonial Times and try my luck,” he went on. “I figured I couldn’t possibly do worse than spending my life alone, and if I could find a woman I connected with the way you connected to Kelvin, I would be a lucky man indeed.”

  Cici raised his eyes to his face. Inner light shone behind his eyes. A spark infected him and animated him in a way she never noticed before. Maybe she just hadn’t known him long enough. Maybe it had been there all along, and maybe it just woke up after a long slumber.

  “I’ve been on my own a long time,” he mused. “I didn’t realize until yesterday at the forge how truly lonely I was. You inspired me to try again at love.”

  She studied him, but before she could say anything, he shook himself out of his reverie. He smiled at her. “I thought you might like to know, Kelvin and I found out something about the treasure.”

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I showed him a stack of letters Martha wrote me in the weeks before she died,” the doctor replied.

  “Martha wrote to you” Cici asked, “even when you lived in the same town?”

  He laughed again. His voice sounded rusty. He must not have laughed very much before now. “Yes, we wrote to each other. For one thing, she wrote me love letters, and I wrote back to her. For another thing, her family didn’t know about us. We couldn’t always meet, so we communicated by letter. Martha used to collect her family’s mail from the Post Office, so she could read my letters and then hide them before she went home. We communicated like that for years.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t tell me about your romance with Martha,” Cici muttered.

  The doctor didn’t hear her. “Martha found out the treasure isn’t really a big box full of gold and jewels as some people think it is. That’s what one of the letters says. I forgot about that letter until Kelvin and I found it. She says the treasure is really some secret personal information about Merrill Fox that he doesn’t want anybody to know.”

  “That could be anything,” Cici remarked. “He’s done so many evil things in his life, I’m sure there are plenty he doesn’t want anybody to know.”

  “You’re probably right, but this is a one big one. He would kill to keep hidden.”

  “What could it be?” Cici asked.

  At that moment, a band of mounted men galloped up Main Street. They pulled up in front of the Jail, and some of them went inside. Cici gasped. “Those are Merrill Fox’s men. Those are the men Kelvin and I spotted on the ranch yesterday.”

  She and the doctor watched them come out of the Jail, along with the Sheriff. He mounted up and rode away with them in the direction of Merrill Fox’s house.

  “Whatever they’re doing, they’re up to now good,” Doctor Kearney remarked. “I’m going to find out what they’re up to. Good morning to you, Miss Cope.”

  She lunged at him and caught him by the arm. “Wait a minute. If you’re going after them, I’m coming with you.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he replied. “It’s not safe. You better stay here.”

  “Not likely,” she fired back. “Whatever’s going on with the treasure and the Rocking Horse Ranch, my future depends on it. I’m going with you to find out what they’re doing.”

  “Just promise me you’ll stay out of sight,
okay?” he asked. “No heroics. Understand?”

  She beamed at him. “Doctor! Me—heroic? I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

  He humphed and walked away, but he didn’t stop her taking her place at his side on their way up Main Street toward the Jail. When they got there, the doctor stopped. He frowned in every direction.

  “They’re heading for Merrill Fox’s house,” Cici told him.

  “That’s right. It’s up that road. They’re on horseback and we’re on foot, so we’ll have to walk. They’ve got the jump on us. That’s for sure.”

  “Us walking up will make it easier to keep out of sight, won’t it?” she asked. “They would notice anybody coming in on horseback, and they would attack to drive us away or kill us.”

  “You’re right,” he replied. “We’ll use stealth to get close to the house. Come on.”

  9

  Doctor Kearney and Cici crouched in the bushes where the thick foliage hid them from view. Cici peeked out at Merrill Fox’s enormous house. A dozen horses and a clapboard wagon stood in front of the house.

  The gunmen Cici recognized on Main Street dismounted from their saddles and tied their horses to the hitching post. Three of them let down the wagon’s tailgate and lifted something out of the back. They walked around the wagon, and Cici saw them carrying a long, thin, sausage-shaped object.

  Cici gasped when she realized that sausage was actually a human body tied around and around with rope. A shock of dark hair fell over the face. It was Kelvin. A length of white cloth covered his mouth and tied behind his head.

  He struggled against his captors, but he couldn’t move with his bound arms and legs. They hauled him up the steps and disappeared into the house. Ten men spread out around the house with shotguns on their hips. They scanned the grounds with sharp eyes.

  Cici lunged to her feet. She would have rocketed into the open if Doctor Kearney hadn’t yanked her down hard. “Are you out of your mind?” he hissed. “You’re not going out there.”

  “They’ve got Kelvin!” she gasped. “We have to get him out of there.”

  “You’re not getting anybody anywhere with a dozen armed characters guarding the place. Sit down this minute before I have to get tough with you.”

  She shrank down behind the bushes.

  Doctor Kearney softened. “We’ll get him out. I promise, but right now, we have to think. We have to figure out how exactly to do it without getting our heads shot off or captured ourselves. Understand?”

  Cici hung her head. “Okay. You’re right. It was stupid.”

  “It wasn’t stupid. I know you want to help him, and you will.” Doctor Kearney peered between the leaves. “Something must have happened since yesterday. Merrill must have gotten wind of what we were up to.”

  “What are we going to do?” Cici asked.

  “We can’t do this alone,” he replied. “We need help.”

  “Who would help us?” she asked. “There’s no one in this town who will stand up to Merrill Fox and the Sheriff.”

  Doctor Kearney let the branches flip back into their places and leaned back with a very different expression on his face. “There is one person in this town who would stand up to Merrill Fox. He already has.”

  “Who?” she cried.

  “Jed Wilcox,” Doctor Kearney replied. “He’ll help us. Kelvin helped him the last time. He’ll help Kelvin now.”

  “We have to get him!” Cici screamed. “We have to get him now!”

  “You go get him,” Doctor Kearney told her. “I’ll stay here and keep watch.”

  Cici froze. “I don’t want to leave Kelvin. What if something happens?”

  Doctor Kearney pointed into her face. “I’ll go, then, but only if you promise to stay out of sight and not try anything heroic.”

  Cici nodded. She couldn’t even laugh at the joke. She couldn’t stop thinking about Kelvin bound and gagged in that house. The doctor’s eyes flashed. Then he compressed his lips. “All right. I’ll go. I’ll get back as soon as I can.”

  He slipped off into the bushes, and Cici lost sight of him. She squatted among the leaves for a while. The guards never moved except to turn their heads right and left to study the surroundings.

  This wasn’t accomplishing anything, and the doctor didn’t return. How long had he been gone? Cici checked the position of the sun, but since she hadn’t checked it when the doctor left, it didn’t do her much good.

  She couldn’t sit here doing nothing with Kelvin in danger. She crept through the woods to her right. At least she could check the situation on the other sides of the house. That didn’t involve any heroics, as Doctor Kearney called them.

  She made her way to the south side of the house. Two men guarded that side of the house. She wasn’t getting near the place on that side. She crawled her way back to where she started and kept going to the north side. To her relief, she didn’t find any armed men there. The sun shone on the windows.

  Cici snuck forward to the edge of the undergrowth and checked both ways. She couldn’t see anyone, so that must mean no one could see her, either. She would just dash up and see what was happening through the windows. There was nothing heroic about that.

  She tiptoed into the open and ran for it. She cowered under a window and held her breath, but no one came. The sky didn’t fall. She just might get some useful information about where in the house they were keeping Kelvin. Then she would run back to meet Jed and the doctor.

  She poked her head up to look through the window. She caught one glimpse of Merrill Fox and Sheriff Rupert standing in a room. The Sheriff stood still while Merrill paced back and forth.

  “He controls all the cowboys,” Merrill was saying. “They obey him to the letter. He’s something like a mentor to them. They trust him a lot more than they trust me. If he tells them to do something or even to think something, they do it. They would even stop work if he told them to. I can’t have anyone working on the Rocking Horse with that kind of authority.”

  “Removing him will cause more problems than it solves,” Sheriff Rupert countered. “You need to find another manager to take his place before the whole operation collapses. Like you said, the cowboys are loyal to Kirk. They’ll ask questions.”

  “I couldn’t leave him there,” Merrill retorted. “He’s all over the place, and he pokes his nose into things that don’t concern him. He already suspects something.”

  “If I was in your place, I would have left him there,” Sheriff Rupert replied. “You could have found a way to work around him without arousing more suspicion, but it’s too late now. You already removed him, so you just have to deal with the situation as it is.”

  “He’s been working around the old manager’s cottage,” Merrill told him. “He even wanted to get married and bring his wife to live there. He was bound to find the documents sooner or later. For all I know, he may have already found them, and you know what that means.”

  “You should have secured the documents better than that,” Sheriff Rupert replied. “A case as sensitive as this belongs in the safe deposit at a bank, not hidden under the floorboards of a broken down cottage.”

  “I don’t trust banks,” Merrill snapped. “I can’t let anybody find out I don’t actually own the land the Rocking Horse Rank is on. Someone in a bank might make a mistake and come across the documents, and then it’s all over. With them hidden on the Ranch, I control who comes and who goes. If I had known Kirk was working around the cottage, I would have taken steps to stop him sooner.”

  “You have nothing to worry about,” Sheriff Rupert replied. “You’ve been ranching the place so long, no one will find out now. Everyone has long since forgotten it doesn’t belong to you.”

  “That’s what you think,” Merrill returned. “The land is still legally for sale. Anyone could step in and snatch it out from under me.”

  “Calm down and think,” the Sheriff told him. “What do you plan to do with Kirk, now that you’ve got him tied up and madder than
a hornet in your own house?”

  “I didn’t plan this,” Merrill countered. “The men found him hanging around the cottage, so they took him into custody. I had nothing to do with it.”

  “So you would have just left him there?” Sheriff Rupert asked. “You would have left him to hang around the cottage and maybe find the documents?”

  “Of course not!” Merrill thundered. “I would have…. well, I would have done something.”

  “Forget it,” Sheriff Rupert muttered. “It doesn’t matter. You have to figure out what to do with him now.”

  “Now that Kirk is out of the way, we can go after the treasure,” Merrill replied. “We’ve looked in enough places, it shouldn’t be hard to pin it down now. How many places can a wooden chest full of treasure be hiding on a cattle ranch?”

  “That doesn’t solve the problem of Kirk,” Sheriff Rupert pointed out. “You can’t keep him tied up in your attic indefinitely.”

  “I don’t plan to,” Merrill replied. “Come sundown, the men will get rid of him and dispose of the body. Then I’ll move them out to the ranch. Two of them will take over managing the cowboys. They’ll keep those ignorant cattle punchers so busy they won’t have time to ask questions. The others will start combing the place for the treasure. They won’t stop until they find it.”

  Cici’s heart pounded. That was the last straw. These crooks planned to kill Kelvin at sundown. They still thought the treasure was a big wooden box full of treasure. They didn’t know Kelvin and the doctor found out it wasn’t.

  Her mind screamed through the possibilities. So Merrill hid sensitive documents under the cottage floor. That’s why he had to move against Kelvin so fast. The documents showed Merrill didn’t own the Rocking Horse Ranch. It was for sale, even now.

  She had to find Kelvin. She had to save him from certain death, but first, she had to find out where he was as well as find a way into the house. All thought of meeting up with Jed and the doctor went right out of her head. She dashed back to the bushes.

  Once she got under the cover, she took a few ragged breaths while she thought the matter over. The doctor bringing Jed Wilcox wouldn’t do any good if they didn’t know where Kelvin was. She would find out. That way, when the men came back, she’d have something useful to tell them.