She didn’t offer anything else after that, gripping the hem of her dress tightly with both fists. Peter could tell that there was more to the story, but Melanie didn’t seem like she was going to offer him anything else. “Say, Melanie, there was one more thing I wanted to tell you.”
Iris destroyed any chance of him getting to finish, the sizable woman bursting out of the back door with a triangle held in her fist, ringing it merrily to signal that it was time to eat. “Peter, John told me that you were here. I figured you and Darwin wouldn’t mind joining us for dinner. I made something truly special today to celebrate the fact that Melanie will be getting her new house soon. I hear that it is only going to take a few more days for them to finish building it,” Iris said cheerfully.
“That’s right,” John piped up. “Me and a bunch of other townsmen have been hard at work on it, and it is finally reaching completion. I really hope that you find it is to your liking, Melanie. We’re hoping that you’ll stay there for quite a long time.”
“I hope you stay here for quite a long time, too,” Peter said softly, blushing when Melanie turned her head in his direction like she’d heard him. She smiled widely at him but said nothing else, rising slowly from her seat. “Shall we go get something to eat, Peter?” she asked, holding out her hand to him.
“That sounds like a wonderful plan to me,” he breathed out in reply, slowly pushing himself to his feet while reaching out to try and take her hand, only for her to pull it away at the last moment. Then the two of them laughed, temporarily allowing themselves to forget about their various troubles. Or at the very least try to.
Chapter 31
If Melanie had felt reservations about Edward’s presence in town before, the knowledge that she would soon be living all alone and relatively defenseless did not do much to improve her mood. As she’d gone about packing up her belongings, she felt constant twinges of sadness deep inside of her. There was no way that Edward was going to allow her to stay there. But she hadn’t had the heart to disappoint John and the others after the hard work they had put into building it.
In any other circumstance, she would have been overjoyed about moving into her own place. It was the proof she’d long been craving that she was capable of taking care of herself. More importantly, that she was free to make her own decisions, and that she would follow through on her plan despite what others might say.
Edward would no doubt know that the new house was meant for her, and that meant she’d have to deal with him attempting to call on her at all hours of the day. It was exactly what he’d done when she’d been living with her aunt, and she only imagined it would be worse when she lived alone. He could come to her house at any time of night, and no one would know. He could watch her when she was sleeping just by climbing up onto her balcony, which was easily accessible thanks to a sizable tree that grew directly beside her home. John said they had left it there to offer shade for her room, but she knew that anything could be used for evil if a person wanted to.
Now that she would have her own home, it was also more likely that Edward would start trying to rush these marriage plans that he kept telling everyone about. She could already see him looming above her in her mind, his evil laughter echoing until she snapped herself out of her daze and brought her mind back to her present predicament. “I need to make sure that I find some measure of defense against him,” she mumbled.
“Defense against who?” came the icy reply from behind her, causing her blood to chill in an instant. She slowly glanced over her shoulder, swallowing nervously when she caught sight of him looming in the doorway. She felt like she was facing a ravenous beast, her heartbeat quickening. “You wouldn’t be talking about innocent ol’ me, would you?”
“Edward, you surprised me,” Melanie said, doing her best not to let her fear slip into her voice. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“I saw the rest of your beloved Brough family eating in town and found it strange that you hadn’t chosen to accompany them. Fearing that you might not be feeling well or that some unfortunate tragedy had befallen you, I made my way here to check on you. You can thank me for my selflessness at any time,” he said smugly, taking a menacing step forward.
“You really shouldn’t be here while the rest of the family is gone,” Melanie said timidly, her voice barely more than a squeak. “John and Iris don’t like it when people come over when they are gone to town.”
“Is that right? Well, it is a good thing that I don’t plan to still be here when they return,” Edward said softly, his voice just loud enough for her to hear as he took another step forward, the clap of his shoe on the wooden floor resounding in her head. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.”
“Tell me why you are really here, Edward,” Melanie demanded, her heart hammering so powerfully in her chest that she could practically hear the blood rushing through her ears, the dull roar impeding her vision. She felt like she could faint at any moment but willed herself not to. There was no telling what he’d try to do to her if he ever got the upper hand like that.
“I simply came by to give you a couple of warnings,” he added, his hands now resting on her shoulders. The oppressive weight felt like it would push her down into the floor, every fiber of her being telling her to yank away and run as far as she could. “Just to make sure you won’t consider trying to pull a fast one on me.”
“What are you talking about?” Melanie asked cautiously, doing her best not to shudder.
“I told you that you were going to be my wife, and I have every intention of ensuring that happens. Now the way I see it, you have two options. You can either come with me peacefully and stop making such a big fuss out of things, or I’ll destroy everything that you love right in front of your eyes and then take you back home,” he said with a savage snarl, the tightening of his fingers on her shoulder causing her to cry out in pain.
“If you think that I will give into you blackmailing me, Edward Brighton, you have another thing coming,” she spat, trying to wrench herself free from his grasp only to feel his hand tighten on her shoulder. “If you think I am just going to meekly go along with whatever you want from me, think again!”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve thinking you can sass me.” His voice was low and even more menacing now, his hand moving to wrap around her throat. “What I said wasn’t a request. Your stubbornness in this situation is only going to get those people that you supposedly care about killed.”
The threat was there, plain as day. He knew where the Brough family lived, and there was nothing but his word that would prevent him from coming back and doing something drastic like burning down the house. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if anything happened to Iris and her children because of something that Melanie did.
“You can’t hurt them,” Melanie said finally, mustering up all of her courage to look him in the eye. “You have to promise me that you won’t touch a single hair on any of their heads.”
“You are in no position to make demands of me,” he hissed through clenched teeth. Then he stopped, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. “Though, if you gave me your word that you would give me a date for our wedding by this time next week, perhaps I will spare them.”
“That’s far too soon!” Melanie protested. “What happens? I give you a day, and then you hurry me out of town as quickly as possible?”
“Don’t be such a fool. It would take time to arrange for our trip back to Kansas, and I would be loath to allow the few friends you’ve made around here to put up a fuss. So, I think I will allow you to remain here for just a little while longer,” Edward said, chuckling gently. “Though I have to say, being as rich as you are and living as a schoolteacher? What a laugh.”
“What’s so wrong with wanting to be able to claim something as your own? I didn’t want to spend my days in the house while you were off gallivanting all over the neighborhood with whatever woman you set your eyes on,” Melanie snapped, flinching as
she watched his expression darken.
“Run your mouth to me one more time, and I’m afraid I’m going to have to silence you,” he growled, his hand suddenly gripping her face. “You have been insufferable from the moment I met you. If you weren’t who you were, I would have already gotten rid of you.”
She wanted to try and struggle away from him, but it would be hard to explain to the others if she managed to get her face scratched up in an altercation with him. She chose instead to simply hold still, waiting until his temper faded enough that he let go of her with a dismissive grunt.
“Let that serve as your warning,” Edward hissed, watching as Melanie gently massaged the sides of her jaw. “I won’t be nearly as forgiving the next time around.”
She watched him slowly step back from her, straightening his suit jacket. “You have exactly one week. I would suggest that you think long and hard about what your reply will be. I’d hate to see something bad befall that lovely Iris woman. The two of you seem so close.”
Melanie was almost sick as the thought of Edward going after Iris filled her mind. There was no way the pregnant woman would be able to defend herself against him, and if John tried to interfere, he would likely earn a couple of bullets to the chest for his trouble.
“Please, Edward. Just leave them out of it. I’ll do as you say,” she relented, her shoulders sagging in defeat. “You don’t need to hurt them.”
“I know that you will,” Edward replied smugly, vanishing a moment later. He left Melanie to sink onto the floor, fresh sobs escaping her as tears once again streamed down her face.
She cursed Edward silently, every fiber of her being hating him. She hated that he’d managed to track her down. She hated the feeling of powerlessness he always filled her with when he was around. And most of all, she hated herself for how weak she acted in the face of his aggression.
Her thoughts drifted to Peter and what he would think when he heard the news. Would he be crushed to know that she was being forced to marry someone else? Or would he just say that was the way things were and give her up without so much as a complaint?
Somehow, the thought of him just letting her be taken away hurt far more than anything else. She clutched a hand to her heart, her nails digging into her skin so hard that she could feel small scratches forming on her chest. She winced from the pain and pulled her nails away, but the damage was done.
Melanie would have never believed that it was possible for a person who had never given thought to their own death to feel it encroaching on them. As she gazed at herself in the mirror, she thought she looked the way that she assumed someone who’d just been told of their impending death would feel. The faint and hopeless face that gazed back at her was unrecognizable compared to the cheerful woman who had gazed into it only twenty minutes prior.
Chapter 32
This was why Peter hated gossip. The instant that people found a topic, they would chatter away like birds about it to the point of obnoxiousness. The attractive and charming Edward Brighton was the talk of the town, and his sudden appearance to woo Melanie had the women of the town abuzz with all sorts of scandals.
He’d been grateful when Chris had brought out the pile of mail that had accumulated at the post office for them. He hadn’t realized just how behind they’d gotten on everything. He cast his young deputy a suspicious look as he snipped open the packet of new bounty posters that had been dropped on his desk, taking a slow look through them. He was only partly paying attention, and he knew it, but he couldn’t seem to regroup his thoughts.
He’d known he was distracted when he’d accidentally thrown eggshells into his pan this morning instead of the yolks. It was supposed to be a fast breakfast using the last of the eggs he had left from his most recent visit to one of the neighborhood farmers.
Instead, his morning had started with a stale piece of bread covered in the apricot jam Iris had made him. It wasn’t much, but it would silence the rumbling in his stomach temporarily. At least enough for him to be able to go about his day. Daisy Mae gave him a concerned look from where she sat beside her food bowl, meticulously scraping the last remnants of the raw hunk of meat he’d tossed in there for her. He’d almost felt envious of her for a moment, heading back to the rain barrel behind his house and washing his hands and face shortly after.
What right did Edward Brighton have in thinking he could just stroll in and try to take Melanie after all the hard work Peter had put in to get on her good side? And why wouldn’t she just tell him to hit the road and be done with him? Was Edward secretly threatening her, and that was why she seemed so afraid to talk to him about her supposed fiancé?
She’d mentioned that he was the kind of man who never took no for an answer, and that would be reason enough to keep an eye on him. Men who thought the world was theirs to do with as they wished were the most dangerous kind of people. Besides, Melanie was noticeably fearful of Edward, and it drove Peter mad not to know exactly what their history was.
“Peter, did you hear me?” Chris’s voice managed to break through his musings. Peter gazed up at his concerned deputy’s face, shaking his head slowly. “I asked if you were feeling okay.”
“It’s been so long since I felt okay, I don’t even know what it feels like anymore. I always have something on my mind, and I can’t seem to concentrate on anything,” Peter admitted, reclining in his chair. “I wish I could just make those feelings go away.”
“Is this about Miss Thompson?” Chris asked, a small smirk tugging at his lips briefly. “The news about her getting married really has you torn up. You’d think you wanted to marry her.”
Peter didn’t reply to that, simply looking down at the pile of paperwork before him with his fists clenched. Had that been his plan? He had never given any real thought to what he would do if he’d ever gotten Melanie to fall for him. He’d had dreams about the two of them living as a couple, but he’d never admit that to her. She’d never stop teasing him about it if she knew.
Chris must have realized he’d touched a nerve, excusing himself from the room while muttering about errands that needed to be done. Peter placed his head in his hands, closing his eyes and praying for the dull throb in his head to go away. He had a feeling that it was going to be a long day. Opening his eyes and reaching toward the pile of bounty posters, he set about sorting them according to their reward.
The pages seemed to have been bundled together sloppily, the ink on each page causing some of the posters to stick together. He quickly grew frustrated with peeling posters apart and busied himself instead with the sealed letter that sat to his left side. Chris had left it on his desk before leaving, and his curiosity about what the letter could contain quickly got the better of him.
Dear Mr. Matherson,
I hope that this letter finds you well. I am writing to warn you that I have recently received a piece of news from one of the outlets out of Kansas that I thought would be of interest to you. It seems that a couple of months ago there was an incident in Kansas City. A couple of young women turned up dead.
I mention this because the article also stated that the women in question were good friends of Victoria Thompson. Her niece mysteriously disappeared around that same time with a bunch of her belongings, and she fears the worst for her.
Peter stopped reading the letter, biting the inside of his cheek. Could Melanie be the missing niece that his correspondent was referring to? The last names were the same, and the timeframe matched Melanie’s arrival as well. He didn’t believe for an instant that she was capable of murder, but Edward was another story. The man’s eyes were those of a killer, plain and simple.
“Peter, are you busy?” Melanie’s voice was soft, and he might not have paid any attention at first were it not for the gentle tap that he soon felt on his shoulder. She’d come in through the back entrance, her hands clenching the front of her dress nervously. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Not sure what there is to say,” Peter said gruffly, unable to keep his b
itterness from his voice. “Seems like the whole town is obsessed with your marriage to Edward, and I can’t say I’m not a little miffed about the whole situation.”
“I’m sure that things have gone differently than what we might have wanted, but I assure you that I am not leaping away into his arms. I just can’t stop him. He seems to already have everyone in town on his side,” Melanie sounded worried about it, her melancholic tone causing Peter’s heart to sink.
Peter was at a loss. He didn’t want to keep repeating his advice about cutting ties with Edward. Especially not when she seemed genuinely terrified about what would happen if she tried. His hands twitched where they sat on the desk, he was doing his best not to show his agitation. He had no right to be angry with her. It wasn’t like she’d asked for any of this.
A Bride to Melt the Sheriff’s Iron Heart Page 17