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

by Laura Fletcher

  She collapsed crying happy tears on his shoulder. Lily couldn’t stop laughing. She seized Betsy by the shoulders. “It’s true, Betsy! He’s right outside. Go take a look. His deputies are surrounding the forge to protect us from Merrill and from the Sheriff. They’re gonna investigate and maybe relieve the Sheriff of his duties.”

  “I heard him,” Jed muttered. “I heard him.”

  Betsy’s eyes flew from one face to the other. She stared into Lily’s excited eyes while the truth dawned on her. Then, all at once, her eyes welled up with tears and she burst out laughing. She whooped to the skies. “Hallelujah! Marshall Faulk from Omaha!”

  She raced around the room hugging and kissing everybody. Lily jumped up and down in excitement.

  Betsy hugged Lily and shoved her back gasping for breath. “This is amazing! How did it happen? Tell me everything.”

  “We ran straight into them,” Noah replied. “I thought we were finished. Then he strolled up to us as pretty as you please with that smile on his face. It took me a minute to realize he wasn’t the town Sheriff.”

  “You never saw a man more different from the Sheriff,” Lily exclaimed. “He looks like Santa Claus.”

  “I know!” Betsy whooped again. Then she settled down to laughing hysterically. “I met him when I filed that report about the Sheriff and Wendell Fox killing Martha.”

  “He’s a good man,” Noah remarked.

  “He’s more than good,” Jed replied. “I trust him with my life.”

  “He saved both our hides once before,” Kelvin reminded him. “He’s my idea of a lawman.”

  Just then, Sam’s head rolled to one side and he groaned. He lifted his head off the table, and his eyelids slid open. “What’s going on? Give me a gun.”

  Lily hurried to his side. “It’s okay, Sam. Everything’s okay. You can rest. You don’t need to fight anymore.”

  She cradled his neck to ease his head back down, and he drifted off into unconsciousness again. Lily couldn’t get her heart to stop racing. The battle was all over. As difficult as she found it to believe that the Federal Marshalls stood outside to defend the forge, she clutched the knowledge to her heart in fervent gratitude.

  Like the others, she hardly dared believe it was all true. Would she wake up to find this was all a bad dream? Would she wake up in Merrill’s house again? No, these people standing around hugging each other couldn’t be more real.

  Cici’s cheeks shone with her delighted smile, and Kelvin circled her waist with one arm. Jed overcame his shock and chuckled. “And to think I threatened to blow him full of buckshot! Thank the stars he’s the forgiving type.”

  Talk broke out all over the room. Everyone wanted to say something at once, and the party kept hugging each other.

  All at once, Noah boomed over the racket. “Excuse me!”

  Everyone stopped talking and spun around to face him.

  Noah drew himself up, tall and straight and serious. “I’ve got something to say.”

  “You okay, Doc?” Jed asked.

  Noah squared his shoulders. “I’d like all of you to act as witnesses for a moment while I do something I would have done a long time ago if things hadn’t turned out the way they had.” He turned around to confront Lily. “I never thought things would work out this way, but since they have, I’ll just have to make up for lost time.” He went down on one knee and took Lily’s hand. “Lily Dawson, will you make me the happiest man in the world by becoming my wife?”

  She gazed down on his earnest face, and her vision blurred with tears. “Yes! The honor would be all mine.”

  The room erupted in cheers and shouts. Jed put his arm around Betsy, and Cici burst into fresh tears. Noah got to his feet. He towered over Lily, but she didn’t care to see anything beyond his face. She could spend forever just looking at him and getting lost in the depths of his eyes.

  He raised her hand to his lips, and his mustache tickled her skin when he kissed it. “You know how it is. These people will want to keep us apart until the wedding.”

  “That’s okay.” She sniffed. “As long as it’s going to happen, I don’t care how long it takes.”

  “It’ll happen,” he murmured. “Don’t you worry about that.”

  Sam muttered under his breath from the table. “Good thing I’ve got your measurements taken.”

  Everyone exploded with laughter, and Noah cracked a grin. “You won’t be working on any wedding dress for a while, Mister.”

  “Don’t you even think about giving the job to anybody else,” Sam grumbled.

  “Who would I give it to?” Noah asked. “There is no one else to give it to. We’ll just have to wait until you’re strong enough to make it.”

  Lily’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Her throat ached from….was it tears or laughter or just the overpowering emotion of so many feelings fighting to get out at once?

  Betsy flew into action. “Come on, everyone. Help me get Sam moved to a bed so I can get supper on.”

  Cici hopped off Kelvin’s lap. “How are we going to move him? He must outweigh every one of these guys.”

  “Lily, you grab a blanket from the hall closet. You get Kelvin moved to the parlor, Cici, but mind you don’t bleed on the furniture, Kelvin, or you’ll catch it from me.”

  Kelvin bit back a grin. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Cici got Kelvin on his feet. Lily raced into the hall and came back with a blanket. Betsy hustled around the kitchen issuing orders. “You and the doctor get on that side of him. Jed and I will lift him from this side.”

  “We won’t be able to carry him upstairs.”

  “We’ll put him in Martha’s old room under the stairs,” Jed replied. “It’s not far.”

  Betsy rolled Sam onto his good shoulder and crammed the blanket under his back. He alternated between whimpering and thundering in pain when they moved him. “Take it easy, son,” Noah told him. “Just a little more, and you can lie still.”

  They inched the blanket under him and eased his shattered body onto it. Then the two couples carried him into a rustic little bedroom in the back of the house. They laid him on the bed, and Betsy covered him with quilts.

  Noah listened to his heart with a stethoscope. “I’ll have to keep a close watch over him for the next week at least. You’ll have to keep Lily locked in the attic if you want to stop me seeing her.”

  Betsy beamed at him. “I trust you, Doctor. I know you wouldn’t try anything ungentlemanly with her when I wasn’t looking.”

  He took Lily’s hand and gazed down into her eyes. “You know I wouldn’t. She’s far too fine a lady for that.”

  “You better go upstairs before he kisses you,” Jed remarked.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Lily fired back. “I’m staying here to help him take care of Sam. I wouldn’t stay locked in the attic during the attack, and I won’t go there now. I don’t care if it means I’m not a lady anymore.”

  “You’re as much a lady as you ever were,” Betsy told her.

  “More so,” Noah added.

  Lily raised her flushed face to his. She never wanted to kiss him more than right now, but she couldn’t do that with Jed and Betsy in the room.

  Noah checked Sam over one more time. “He’ll be okay for now. He just needs rest.”

  “Come on, Lily,” Betsy urged. “You can help me and Cici get supper, and we can start planning your wedding.”

  12

  Sam Dolan kicked open the door to the forge kitchen. He carried an enormous bundle that took both arms to hold it. He peeped over the top of it at the three women working at the table. “Are you ready?” Then he caught sight of Lily standing there.

  Flour covered her apron, and dough and flour coated her arms up to the elbow. Flour dusted her face and hair. Betsy stifled a giggle. Sam narrowed his eyes at Lily over his load. “I’m going upstairs. I’ll meet you up there when you’re ready.”

  He marched through the kitchen, and a moment later, they heard him heading up the stairs
on his way to Lily’s room. Betsy went back to kneading the Friday bread. “You better go get cleaned up. It’s not every day you get fitted for your wedding dress. Cici and I will finish up here.”

  Cici grabbed a towel. “You can finish up. I’m going upstairs to watch. I want to see this.”

  She followed Lily out of the kitchen. Betsy yelled after them. “Hey! You’re not leaving me to do this alone!”

  Lily peeled off her apron on her way up the stairs. She rushed into her bedroom to find Sam bent over piles of fabric laid out on the bed. “I’m so sorry about this. I didn’t expect you until this afternoon.”

  “I told Jed I would be here by ten,” Sam returned.

  “That explains it,” Lily replied. “He got called out to the Rocking Horse Ranch to shoe a horse. He sent a boy with the message. The boy must have gotten the time confused.”

  “Never mind. Just get cleaned up so we can get started.”

  Sam turned his back while Lily washed her face and arms at the washstand. She fixed her hair. Cici entered the room, and Sam migrated toward the door. “Change into this and let me know when you’re finished. I’ll come back and make the adjustments.”

  He left the room. Cici stared at the bed and gasped. “Wow,” she whispered.

  Lily came to her side, and they both gazed down at the shimmering vision of loveliness laid out before their eyes.

  “Are you really supposed to wear that?” Cici murmured.

  “Help me put it on.” Lily started unbuttoning her dress. “I don’t hardly dare touch it.”

  Cici shook her head. “I don’t think I can, either. He’s a magician.”

  Lily turned away and got busy taking her clothes off. “I thought you had a dress made by him.”

  “I did,” Cici replied, “but it was nothing like that. My goodness!”

  “Just don’t look at it,” Lily told her. “Close your eyes if you have to. Just help me.”

  She laid aside her own clothes. She made an effort not to look at the wedding dress while she put it on. Somehow, Cici got the buttons done up the back. Only then did Lily dare look at herself in the looking glass.

  Now she understood why Cici wondered if she was supposed to actually wear this dress. The flowing cascades of pearly shimmering satin and lace took on a mysterious life of their own. Her own head floated above the dress in a cloud of lace and ribbon. The dress twisted and turned her like the angel on top of a Christmas tree.

  Cici stuck her head through the door and called Sam. He halted in the doorway and surveyed his handiwork through the mirror. Then he chuckled low under his breath and got to work.

  He measured Lily here and there. He turned her this way and that as he saw fit, but she couldn’t stop staring at herself in the glass. Everyone always called her a lady. She even deigned to think of herself as a lady sometimes, but she was never more a lady than now.

  Marrying a country doctor on the Western Frontier might be a step down the social ladder for her, but that dress made her a queen. It made her more elegant and more regal than she could ever dream possible.

  Her first husband never gave her this. All the money in the world couldn’t give her this. Her vision cleared, and she found Sam standing behind her. He studied her face in the reflection.

  He gave her this, and the gift of her beauty couldn’t be bought with money. He gave it to her alone. He read her deepest being and made it real in the form of that dress. He worked his magic because he cared about her. He risked his life saving her from Merrill, and now this.

  While he worked, Betsy came into the room. She stopped dead on the threshold and sucked in her breath at the sight of Lily. Then she sank into a chair and stared.

  Sam stuffed his tape measure and his notebook in his pocket. “You can take it off now and change into your regular clothes. I’ll make a few adjustments, and then I’ll send it over so you can wear it on Sunday.”

  She turned around to face him. He still walked with a limp from his gunshot wounds, but the same sharp grin split his face when he smiled, and his eyes sparkled as brightly as ever. “Thank you, Sam. Thank you for everything.”

  His cheeks flushed, but his gaze didn’t waver. “Heck. It wasn’t anything.”

  “It was definitely something.” She squeezed his hand. “I just want you to know it was something, and I will never forget it. If there’s anything I can do for you, just let me know. I know Noah feels the same way.”

  He shrugged and turned to his goods on the bed. “The Doc has done enough saving my carcass from the undertaker.”

  “After you got shot defending all of us from Merrill’s men,” Lily reminded him. “After you got me out of Merrill’s house.”

  “Well, it’s like this,” he replied. “You’re acting as an advertisement for my wares, see? When people see you in that dress, maybe I’ll get some more work like it. It beats sewing work pants and handkerchiefs and long underwear for cowboys, I’d say.”

  Lily blushed. “I’m happy to be your advertisement.”

  He kissed her hand and blushed again at his own audacity. “And a very beautiful advertisement you are, too. Go on and change. Maybe one of these days, I’ll make a wedding dress for my own mail order bride. Wouldn’t that be something?”

  Lily whipped around with an astonished cry. “Sam! You wouldn’t!”

  He grinned, and his cheeks glowed. “Wouldn’t I?”

  “You said you were leaving town,” Cici remarked. “You said you didn’t want to live like this anymore.”

  “That was before Marshall Faulk came to town,” he replied. “I’ve been writing to a lady Back East for months. You didn’t know that, did you? A man can have secrets in this town without the womenfolk finding out and chattering to each other all about it.”

  Betsy threw up her hands and flung herself back in her chair. “Well, now I’ve heard everything. So who is she? Tell us everything. When are you going to ask her to marry you?”

  Sam fiddled with a fabric sample on the bed and didn’t look up. “I already asked her.”

  Lily and her friends exchanged glances. None of them could blink. Then all three women started talking at once. Lily hurried to his side, and Cici fluttered around him in a frenzy. “Is she coming out here? Where’s she from? What’s her name? Who is she? When are you getting married?”

  Sam pushed them off. “Simmer down, you three. I haven’t even gotten her answer yet. She might say no yet. You know as much as I do. Now will you let me out of here so Lily can change? I never should have told you anything.”

  He fought his way out of the room and slammed the door. Cici gasped. “Whoever would have believed it? Just wait until I tell Kelvin.”

  “Sam Dolan—a bridegroom!” Betsy hooted with laughter. “Now that’s something for the national news.”

  “I think he’ll make a wonderful husband,” Lily remarked while Cici unfastened her buttons.

  “You would,” Betsy fired back. “I swear you think as much of Sam as you do of the Doctor.”

  Lily colored and bowed her head. “No, I don’t.”

  “That’s not fair, Betsy,” Cici interrupted. “You know how she feels about Sam.”

  Betsy bustled around the room straightened things that didn’t need straightening. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I know you’re Sam’s biggest admirer, and for good reason. You know we all think the sun rises and sets on him. He’s the most talented tailor I ever met, I can tell you that.”

  “He’s a lot more than a tailor,” Cici countered. “Any woman would be lucky to get him for a husband.”

  “Not as lucky as they would be to get Noah Kearney for a husband,” Lily muttered under her breath.

  Cici squeezed her hand. “Of course not. Raise your arms and we’ll take this off.”

  13

  Lily kept her eyes closed while Cici draped a gauzy veil over her head. She stood in her old bedroom at the forge with her back to the looking glass. She didn’t want to see herself in her wedding dress
. She didn’t want to look around that room and know she would never see it again—not as a guest, at least.

  In a few hours, she would go home to Noah’s house at the other end of town. He took her to see it on Thursday last week. The lower story functioned as his office, waiting area, examination room, and surgery. A kitchen, parlor, and bedrooms upstairs served as his living quarters.

  His smooth, vibrant voice drifted into her bones while she looked the apartment over. “I won’t do anything to it. I’ll leave everything the way it is. That way, you can arrange everything the way you want it when you come home on Sunday.”

  She turned around to find him studying her with those intense black eyes of his. “Thank you. That’s very considerate.”

  “I want you should feel total freedom to make it as comfortable as you want,” he went on. “A bachelor can’t do much with a house. It takes a woman to do that. I leave it in your hands.”

  She glided toward him, into the aura of his mesmerizing presence. “I won’t do anything without consulting you. I want it to be comfortable for you, too.”

  His eyes skated away for a fraction of a second. “A wife makes a home, not the furnishings. You coming here is all I really need.”

  Without understanding how it happened, she found her slipping her hand into his. Was that really only three days ago? Her mind still wouldn’t believe her time at the forge came to an end. A new life would unfold for her now.

  Cici woke her from her memories. “You can look now.”

  Lily opened her eyes. Cici’s beloved features wavered beyond the filmy veil. The fabric already separated them, never to come together again. Lily would never face her friend again as a single woman. In a little while, they would both be wives—mail order brides.

  Lily gulped down the lump in her throat. She took Cici’s hand. “Thank you.”

  “You look incredible,” Cici rasped. “You look like a princess out of a fairy tale.”

  “That’s Sam’s doing,” Lily replied.