The Doctor's Bride (Brides 0f Brimstone Book 3)

by Laura Fletcher

  Just for a second, she considered his offer. She could live in this house. She would certainly be comfortable here. She could get used to taking her meals in this regal dining room. She could luxuriate in that bedroom upstairs and never leave it.

  She would never have to face the hardship and brutality of life outside this house. She caught a glimpse of it on the way here through the coach window on the journey here. She couldn’t miss the harsh character of life in the West.

  At the last possible second, she resisted against the wicked temptation he offered her. “I can’t do that, Merrill. I can’t marry you. I already spent three years married to a man exactly like you, and I know now I don’t want to do that again. Now, if you would please drive me down to the Hotel like you promised, I won’t burden you with my presence any longer.”

  Merrill rose tall and terrible out of his chair. He let go of her hand, and when he faced her, he didn’t even try to hide his calculating determination behind a benign smile. “It’s too late and too dark for me to drive you to the Hotel now. We’ll have to wait until morning. Good night, my dear.”

  He marched out of the room and left her there alone in the cold. Her skin crawled all over her, and her nerves prickled with barely concealed tension. She was trapped here. If he didn’t come right out and say so, his manner and his words said it all.

  He refused to take her after he’d given his word of honor to do it. Now darkness crowded all the windows, but that could never match the darkness in her soul. She rushed from the room and charged upstairs to her own bed where she could hide from the horrible reality assaulting her from all sides.

  4

  Lily woke up the next morning and lay in bed thinking for a long time. The nightmare that haunted her from last night wouldn’t leave her any peace. She made up her mind then and there she would leave this house that day, no matter what.

  The crawling sensation of insidious poison infected her blood the minute she set foot in this house. She tried to ignore it. The luxury and magnificence cast a frail veneer over it, but they couldn’t hide it for long.

  She had to get away from it, and she dreaded meeting Merrill again. What cockamamie madness would he come up with this time? Would he turn nasty after she rebuffed his proposal?

  The voice she heard outside when he gave orders to those gunmen came back to her ear. That man was capable of anything. He was no victim of the brutal West, no matter what he led her to believe. If anything, he was the brutal West. It turned him into a raving brute, exactly the way he said it would.

  She got up and washed her hands and face and brushed her hair before she dared to peek outside. She didn’t see anybody, so she snuck downstairs. She dared not go near the front of the house where Merrill’s private parlor and office faced the driveway.

  That left the rear of the house. She explored as far as the servants’ quarters in search of a way out, but when she got to the back door, she stopped.

  Thick trees formed a solid green curtain surrounding the estate. She couldn’t see beyond it, and the reality dawned on her that robbed her of her last shred of hope. She couldn’t get away on foot and alone. Merrill would see her heading down the driveway, and she didn’t know her way around the area well enough to go overland through the woods.

  Even so, the woods presented her only avenue of escape. If she went that way, she could remain concealed, not only from Merrill but from anyone he sent to pursue her.

  He kept telling her—and himself—that she was a lady of quality. He would expect her to take the driveway. She chuckled silently inside herself. He didn’t know the half of what she was made of.

  She might be a lady, but she was a lot tougher than she looked. She’d been through worse than this, and once she made up her mind to do something, she wouldn’t let anything stop her. Merrill Fox certainly couldn’t stop her.

  He thought he could hold her in his house and bend her to his will. He would find out differently. She would escape through the woods.

  She pressed on down the dim hallway toward the open back door. The bright rectangle of light called to her. It whispered freedom into her mind, and her heart skipped a beat. Just a few more steps…

  She came to the kitchen door. When she glanced through it, the cook and a maidservant looked up from their work. They both frowned at her, and she shrank from their harsh glares. What if they reported her movements to Merrill? All the servants could be watching her for any sign of resistance to his whims.

  That whispering, entrancing pull wouldn’t let her go. It towed her to the back door where the big wide world waited to greet her in its welcoming embrace. Once she got away from this house, it would protect her and guide her to safety.

  She took the first step onto the threshold—and stopped. She blinked in disbelief at the enormous pile of her own luggage sitting there outside the door. One trunk stacked on top of the next case, but in a different order than the coach driver put them. Someone moved them here.

  Merrill must have ordered his servants to move her things here. He never sent them to the Hotel at all. Comprehension dawned on her mind. He never intended to let her go. He planned this from the beginning to keep her here against her will.

  Her soul screamed to run away, to flee for her life, but the chill creeping up her legs closed her heart in its icy fist. He would do anything to stop her, even if it meant resorting to violence. She was his prisoner.

  Her head reeled from the shock, but before she could move, bustling footsteps rushed up behind her. She wheeled around and came face to face with the washerwoman. The woman carried another enormous bundle of laundry. She pulled up short in the kitchen door and gasped out loud. “Miss!”

  Lily reacted on pure instinct. She flew at the woman and whispered in a breathless rush. “Please! You have to help me! I’m trapped here, and Mr. Fox won’t let me go.”

  “Who are you, Miss?” the washerwoman whispered back. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m Lily Dawson,” she blurted out. “I was supposed to meet Doctor Noah Kearney. Do you know him? I was going to be a mail order bride—if we liked each other, I mean—but Merrill won’t let me leave this house. Please help me.”

  “I tried to deliver your letter,” the washerwoman replied. “He sent one of his gunmen to take it away from me. I went looking for the Doctor to tell him about it, but I couldn’t find him before I had to come back up here.”

  Lily stifled a laugh of pure relief. Thank Heaven! She could count on at least one friend in this madhouse. “Oh, please help me get out of here! I’m sorry. I don’t even know your name. I only feel I can trust you. You’re the only person I can ask for help.”

  The washerwoman patted her arm. “Don’t you worry about a thing. My name’s Catherine Marsden, and I know Doctor Kearney better than anybody. I’ll go get him right now. He’ll find a way to get you out of here.”

  “How?” Lily asked.

  “I don’t know, but you just sit tight and wait. He’ll think of something.”

  “You don’t understand,” Lily exclaimed. “Merrill wants me to marry him instead of Noah. I said no, and now I’m trapped here. I think he might resort to something unpleasant if I don’t agree. He’ll try to force me to go through with it. I know he will. I have to get out of this house right away. There’s no time to lose.”

  A shadow crossed Catherine’s face. “Hmm. That puts a different cast on it, doesn’t it?”

  “I was thinking to run away through the woods, but I don’t know the way to town,” Lily went on.

  “No, no, you can’t go through the woods,” Catherine countered.

  “Why not?” Lily asked. “If I knew where I was going, I would jump at the chance.”

  Catherine drew herself up one more time. “Just stick tight a little longer. I’ll go get the Doctor, and he’ll get you out. Believe me. You won’t marry Merrill Fox if any of us have anything to say about it. Just play along and keep him quiet until you see the signal.”

  She laid
her bundle on the kitchen table and headed for the door, but Lily stopped her. “Can’t I go with you now?”

  “I walked here from town,” Catherine told her. “If you went with me now, you’d be strolling right past Merrill’s window. You don’t want that.”

  Lily retreated. “No. I don’t.”

  Catherine bustled to the back door and whispered over her shoulder. “You remember what I said. We’re gonna get you out of here. Don’t you worry about that. Just stay put. I’ll be back very soon. You be ready to run as soon as you see the signal.”

  Catherine vanished around the corner. Infectious excitement ignited Lily’s spirit. She wasn’t alone anymore. She was getting out of here, just as soon as…something happened. She had no idea what Catherine would do, but at least the word would get back to Noah what was going on.

  She whirled away from the door and hurried upstairs to her room. She paced back and forth, but she couldn’t keep her hands still. She clenched and unclenched her handkerchief in desperate anticipation. What was the signal she would receive to get out of here? What if she missed it, or was in the wrong place at the wrong time? What if she got stuck here for…forever?

  A million doubts and misgivings plagued her. She couldn’t breathe, and her chest ached from the tension racking her.

  Just then, the pinched-faced maid from downstairs barged into her room without knocking. “Mr. Fox wants you downstairs.”

  Lily spun around with a gasp. “What for?”

  “Lunchtime,” the maid sang out on her way back out the door.

  Lily collapsed into a chair by the door. She pressed her handkerchief to her forehead in an agony of despair. Oh, what was she going to do now? Merrill would keep demanding that she share meals with him. She shuddered in horror at the thought.

  The next minute, her natural spirit kicked in, and anger replaced her terror. So he wanted to share meals with her? Fine. She would share meals with him. She could enjoy the food and the wine, at least. That didn’t mean she would marry him.

  No court of law in the country would uphold a marriage against her will. She only had to do hold her position and keep saying, “No.” He wanted a bird in a gilded cage, but she would always watch out for a chance to fly away at the first opportunity.

  She had to be careful of one thing. She had to keep him calm, or he could turn nasty. She saw that herself. His genteel mask could disintegrate at a moment’s notice to reveal the monster hidden underneath.

  She gave another involuntary shiver. Thank the stars she never gave him any notion of considering marrying him. She knew dozens of men just like him in New York, and they all wanted to make a trophy of her. They put her off marrying another rich man.

  She drew herself up to her full height and smoothed down her dress. She inhaled a long, shaky breath to steady her nerves. Whatever challenge Merrill Fox presented, she would meet it. There wasn’t a man born yet that she couldn’t manage when she set her mind to it.

  She had to hold her nerve until people on the outside came to her aid. She wouldn’t get trapped here. She only had to lull Merrill into complacency, and he would crumble in her hands.

  She set off down the stairs for the dining room with renewed resolve. Nothing could beat her down, and she wouldn’t surrender to any tin-pot despot now.

  Merrill seated her at the table. She concentrated on putting the food in her mouth to the exclusion of all else. She had to keep her strength up, regardless of how much she hated this place.

  She gazed over Merrill’s shoulder from her dining chair. The window afforded a view across the grounds, but she didn’t look at the shrubs or lawns or flowers. She eyed the woods beyond.

  The more black and forbidding those woods appeared, the more they appealed to her. She could get lost in there. She could find places to hide where Merrill’s gunmen would never find her.

  All at once, Merrill’s voice pierced her ear. “Did you hear a word I just said to you, my dear?”

  “Hmm?” She dragged her senses to him with an effort. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I must have been thinking of something else.”

  “You really must pay attention, my dear,” he snapped. “We only have a week until the wedding, and I’ll need your input on the arrangements. I would hate to plan something, only to find out later you didn’t approve.”

  Lily’s mind blurred again. He rattled away about this imaginary wedding of his through the whole lunch. The subject bored her out of her mind, but she didn’t say anything. If he wanted to persist in believing he would marry her, let him. That would keep him complacent and docile.

  She went back to studying the woods. What would she find in there? Would wild animals start tracking her the minute she set foot off the estate? She couldn’t expect these to be the easy, domesticated woods she remembered from Back East. She was Out West now, in the untamed Frontier.

  Even so, all the stories she ever heard about bears and wildcats and mountain lions and wolves couldn’t deter her from leaving this fancy prison. Maybe she could steal a knife from the kitchen to defend herself, and maybe some food. She couldn’t plan how long she would wander the woods before she made her way to town.

  She couldn’t depend on anybody else to get her out of here. One hour after another passed, and she saw and heard nothing to indicate anybody outside this house knew she existed. Maybe Catherine fell prey to Merrill’s men, too. Maybe the Sheriff that Lily saw outside her window caught Catherine and…

  Lily pushed that thought out of her mind. She was on her own—for now, at least. Keeping up her plan to escape through the woods couldn’t hurt. At least she would be ready if no one came. If they did come, so much the better.

  Out of nowhere, Merrill slammed his fist down hard on the tabletop. The glasses rattled, and the utensils jumped out of their places. Lily startled at the sound.

  “How many times do I have to say it?” he thundered. “Pay attention. I’m talking about our wedding, and you’re daydreaming about God knows what.”

  Lily settled back into her chair with a sigh. “Do we have to keep talking about this?”

  “Yes, we have to keep talking about this,” he fired back. “I told you we only have a week before the ceremony. We have to complete all the preparations before then.”

  Lily rolled her eyes to heaven. “I already told you, Merrill. I will never marry you. You can save yourself the effort and expense of planning a wedding.”

  His face contorted in barely-suppressed rage, and his eyes hardened to two sharp flints. “You will marry me. It’s all settled.”

  For a terrible moment, the two faced each other across the table. Lily’s soul roiled against this affront. She wouldn’t marry him. She didn’t care how much money or power he had. She didn’t care if he could give her the most expensive wedding in history.

  He was a toad, a highwayman in a nice suit—nothing more. She saw straight through his high-class veneer to the stinking, rotten bandit underneath. She would rather marry an honest criminal robbing coaches on the Fort Laramie road than this slick manipulator.

  Much as she would have liked to kick him in the teeth and leave him in no doubt as to her intentions, she had to play the next few hours close to her chest. She already told him point blank she wouldn’t marry him.

  Provoking his fury would only get her into trouble and possibly killed. Instead, she turned away first. She let her gaze drift back to the window and let out another heavy sigh of feigned resignation. “I’m still very tired from my journey. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll retire to my room.”

  She climbed to her feet without waiting for permission. He got up in front of her and moved to block her path. She braced herself for another unpleasant confrontation, but he erected his suave exterior one more time and took her hand.

  He smiled down into her face and kissed her hand. “You get your rest, my dear. You’ll need it for all the arrangements we need to make.”

  He made a big show of escorting her to the foot of the stairs. She made
sure not to look back on her way up, but his eyes burned into her until she turned away down the corridor.

  She closed her bedroom door and wilted in a heap. How long would she have to stay here before she got away?

  5

  Lily spent several hours seated near the open window visualizing her escape. She breathed the rank air blowing off the woods. The bedroom didn’t offer much in the way of entertainment beyond that.

  She snapped alert when the door breezed open and a tall, well-presented woman entered. She carried a bunch of keys tied to her waist, and she smiled at Lily. “Oh, good, you’re awake. Mr. Fox said you might be asleep.”

  Lily turned away. “If I was asleep, you would have woken me up by coming in without knocking.”

  The woman laughed. “I’m Mrs. Cartwright, the housekeeper, and Mr. Fox ordered me up here to make sure you’re ready to meet the tailor.”

  Lily stiffened. “Tailor? What tailor?”

  “The tailor is downstairs. He’s here to measure you for your wedding dress.”

  “My wedding dress!” Lily launched herself out of her seat. “How dare he presume? I told him a million times I won’t marry him. What does he think he’s doing?”

  Mrs. Cartwright waved Lily’s concerns away. “Never mind, Miss. It’s Mr. Fox’s orders, so just get yourself measured, and we can send the tailor on his way. You take that up with Mr. Fox afterward. There, now. Come on. Don’t take on so. It’s only a little fitting.”

  She hustled into the room and started whizzing around putting things right. She straightened the bedclothes and tossed open the curtains. She shifted Lily’s chair an inch to one side. She occupied herself with a thousand little details better left alone.

  While she scurried every which way, footsteps trooped up the stairs outside the room and a handsome young man entered. He kept his long sandy hair tied behind his neck. He wore a simple linen shirt and plain canvas pants like any Western man, except that he carried bundles and bolts of cloth that obscured his face.