He steered her to the doorway. Fatigue and uncertainty robbed her of the ability to think. At the last moment, she struggled to pull her thoughts together. “What about my note? You said you would deliver it.”
“I will.” He guided her to the stairs. “Go upstairs now. You can put your faith in me.”
He started to turn away when she rallied all her resources. She dragged herself alert. “I really must insist, Merrill. Let me see you give it to your emissary to deliver. That will settle my mind on the subject, and I won’t bother you about it again.”
He only smiled broader. “Very well. If you must, you can come with me now. She’s in the house right now.”
He led her past the staircase, past the dining room, down a dark, narrow passage to the very rear of the house. She caught sight of the kitchen with the servant’s quarters adjoining. Merrill halted at the kitchen door and waited until a dumpy grey-haired woman emerged from the pantry. She wore a threadbare cotton print dress with a smudged, tattered apron. A floppy, disheveled bonnet covered her head and left her wizened face peeking out.
She carried an enormous bundle of laundry on her back. She drew back in alarm when she confronted Merrill blocking the kitchen door, and her eyes flew open at the sight of Lily.
Merrill held out the note to her. “Would you be so kind as to deliver this note to Doctor Noah Kearney? I appreciate it. Thank you.”
He handed her the letter and turned away. The woman cast a startled glance back and forth between him and Lily. For a fleeting instant, she and Lily exchange a moment of charged silent communication. Conflicting emotion battled in the woman’s face, but she said nothing.
Lily stared down into the wrinkled old face. This woman knew something, but she never got a chance to ask what it was before Merrill spun around to confront the laundrywoman. “Is there anything wrong?”
The woman snapped her mouth and hustled past Lily, down the hallway, to the back door. It stood open to the glaring sunlight outside, and the washerwoman vanished in a heartbeat.
Lily turned around to find Merrill regarding her with a satisfied smile on his face. “Now will you please go upstairs before you collapse? I would carry you there, but somehow I don’t think you would appreciate the attention.”
Lily blushed to the roots of her hair. “I’m sorry, Merrill. I really am ungrateful. You’ve been so kind and gracious. I must be very tired to let my manners slip like this.”
He took her hand again. His countenance glowed while he conducted her to the stairs. “I’m sure you’ll be as fresh and lovely as ever after you have a chance to catch up on your sleep. Ring the bell if you need anything at all.”
Her wooden legs carried her halfway up the grand staircase before she thought to look back. There he was, in the foyer. He beamed up at her with such a triumphant expression she immediately spun away. His features unsettled her in a way she couldn’t explain, and she hurried on her way to her room.
She was never so glad to close her door and lock herself in. At least she could think her own thoughts in here without Merrill weaseling into her head. What was going on around here? Was he trying to manipulate the situation somehow?
How was that possible? He hadn’t done anything but invite her to lunch and give her a wonderful place to relax until she went to the Hotel. What could be wrong with that?
The minute she sat down on the bed, fatigue and emotional exhaustion overpowered her. She couldn’t keep her eyes open, and she toppled onto the pillow. The bed swaddled her in comfort. The room surrounded her with beauty. The entire estate soothed every worry and strain.
A gentle breeze fluttered the gauzy curtains. Greenery and flowering bushes flashed their colors beyond. A thick row of cottonwood trees rustled their leaves around the estate. Beauty and luxury welcomed her sight everywhere she turned.
Why should she question Merrill’s kindness and attentions? He never did her any harm—quite the opposite. He attended to her every need and went out of his way to give her everything she wanted. Only the shock of her sudden abandonment on his doorstep sparked these misgivings. They would fade as soon as she rested her fevered head and saw the situation for what it really was.
She fell into a black slumber and woke late in the afternoon. She lay still for a long time, just enjoying the relaxation of her position. Gentle contentment eased all the trying cares and bothersome trouble of the long road.
When she finally got to her feet, she migrated to the window to gaze out on the sweeping grounds. Her senses thirsted for that aesthetic rapture at seeing dignified environs once again.
She pushed aside the gauzy inner curtains and suddenly drew back behind the wall. She stole a surreptitious glance around the casement to peek out.
Down on the ground in front of the house, several dozen horsemen crowded around Merrill. They all wore guns, and most of them held rifles and shotguns propped against their hips. A tin star shone on one’s chest. What was the town Sheriff doing here?
Merrill shouted up at the men in a very different voice Lily had never heard. The sound sent a chill through her heart. She couldn’t make out the words at this distance, but she could never mistake the timber of that voice.
He never spoke that way in front of her. She hadn’t known the man more than a day, but still, a man who spoke like that couldn’t be the mild-mannered gentleman he painted himself to be.
Her blood ran cold listening to him. The gunmen nodded in response. She gazed down on a man she never would have recognized, and she didn’t like what she saw. She didn’t like it at all.
She spun away from the window. What could she do? She had to get out of here. She never intended to come here in the first place, and she already overstayed her welcome. She knew when she entered this house and this room something about it didn’t sit right with her. She shouldn’t have stayed so long in a single man’s house, no matter how dignified and mannerly he seemed on the surface.
She snatched her handbag off the table and hurried downstairs. She arrived in the foyer at the same instant Merrill reentered the house through the front door.
She rushed up to him out of breath. “Thank you very much for your gracious hospitality, Merrill. It’s time I went to the Hotel, so if you’ll please call your man with the wagon, I would appreciate it. I’ve stayed too long, and I don’t feel right staying any longer. Thank you for a delightful lunch. I just had a very refreshing nap upstairs, and now I’m ready to go.”
He switched to his smooth, genteel manner and laid a hand on her arm. “We still haven’t heard Noah’s response. You might as well sit tight and wait until he contacts you. You sent him that note, so he’s bound to send word in no time. Come into the parlor with me.”
She tried to draw away. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ll wait for him down at the Hotel.”
“You told him you were here,” he countered. “He’ll contact you here, not at the Hotel. You might as well wait, my dear. It won’t take more than a few hours at the most. He might be tending patients, for all you know. He has to travel far out of town to deliver babies and examine people sick in bed sometimes, you know. He should be back anytime.”
She hesitated. Noah told her all of this in his letters, so she already expected it. When she looked at Merrill, she saw the attentive man she first met. The image of him bellowing orders to those gunmen outside faded. Maybe she misunderstood what she saw through the window. After all, she didn’t hear exactly what he said.
He made so much sense that, when he waved to a side door, she followed him into the parlor. She would just wait a little while longer, just until she heard from Noah.
She paused on the threshold and glanced over her shoulder toward the front door. Were those gunmen still outside? What was he telling them to do? Was he up to no good?
His voice broke in on her thoughts. “Come along, my dear. I’ll pour you a glass of sherry while you wait.”
She wilted. “All right, but I really should send my luggage ahead to the
Hotel.”
“Very well.” He strolled into the room and took two glasses off the sideboard. He poured cherry liquor into them and handed one to her. “Take a seat here, and I’ll go give orders to my man to take it down for you.”
3
When Merrill got back, he draped his sturdy form into an armchair near Lily’s couch. He sipped his sherry. “Now you know all about me and my life on the ranges. It’s your turn to tell me something about you. What possessed you to consider becoming a mail order bride? I’m sure there were plenty of rich, young, attractive gentlemen in New York who would love to marry a lovely widow such as yourself.”
“There were,” she admitted, “but they didn’t interest me. I wanted something different.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Different how?”
“I don’t know exactly. I spent three years married to a rich, attractive man in New York. He wasn’t as young as I am, but he was hale and hearty and very capable. He gave me everything. I never lacked for anything while he was alive. I lived in high society.”
“And so you should,” he countered. “That’s where you belong.”
“That’s what I thought, but when the time came that I considered remarrying, I realized I didn’t want another marriage like that one. I wanted something different.”
He let out a loud laugh that filled the whole room. “You still haven’t explained what you mean by different. You certainly can’t expect to find happiness as a country doctor’s wife in this wilderness.”
She colored and swirled her sherry in the bottom of the glass. “I don’t know. I guess that’s what I came out here to find out.”
“My dear!” he chided. “Take a look around you. This is a lawless, comfortless, heathen land. Women don’t survive for long out here, and the men turn into raving brutes. This is no place for a cultured flower like yourself.”
“I’m not convinced of that,” she returned. “You haven’t turned into a raving brute, have you? Maybe I’m not the cultured flower you think I am. Maybe I could find a good life out here.”
He shook his head, but he never stopped smiling. “When you’ve spent a short time with Doctor Kearney and seen the sort of people you would associate with if you did become his wife, you’ll realize your mistake. You’ll go back to New York and find yourself a man like your late husband. I’m convinced of that.”
She murmured into her glass. “Maybe. Anyway, it’s almost five o’clock. I better get down to the Hotel now.”
“I’ll go find my man and tell him to hitch up the wagon.”
He strolled out of the room and left her sitting there. She listened to the clock ticking until he returned. His superior smile annoyed her, and her natural spirit revolted against his prediction that she would leave Brimstone and go Back East.
She refused to accept his assessment of the town. He must be wrong. The letters she exchanged with Noah Kearney didn’t give her the impression of a raving brute. He couldn’t be the only man on the Frontier who kept his head up in spite of the hardship.
Merrill came back smiling as usual. “I’m sorry. Henry just went down to the forge to fetch a mare that came up lame yesterday. He’ll be back in a few minutes.” He took his seat again. “Tell me about your upbringing. Did you grow up in New York?”
“Actually, I was going to ask you the same question,” she returned. “You told me all about your operation out here, but you never said anything about your family life before that.”
He waved her question away. “I never had much family until I came out here. I met my wife in Philadelphia when I went there on a business trip. She gave me two fine sons, and they both grew up out here. They were my pride and joy. They still are.”
“Where are they now?” she asked.
“One became a politician and moved Back East. The other died a few months ago in a gunfight on the streets of Brimstone.” He clenched his jaw and glared into his drink. “That’s what this wretched country does to good men like him. It chews them up and spits them out. It doesn’t care who it kills or destroys.”
Lily shifted in her seat. She didn’t intend the conversation to turn this way, and she fumbled for some way to get out of it. “I wonder what can be keeping Henry.”
Merrill jerked out of his reverie, and his old smile spread over his face. “He’ll be along directly, I’m sure. Now it’s your turn, my dear. Tell me about your upbringing.”
She set her glass aside and got to her feet. “No, really. I really have to get going. It’s almost six o’clock. I have to check into the Hotel before it gets too late. Maybe you have some other man who could drive me down. Barring that, I could walk. I know the way, and you could send my luggage later when Henry gets back.”
He lunged into her path. “I couldn’t allow that. A lady like you—walk? Never! Come sit down. It’ll be suppertime soon. You can have another meal with me and go down to the Hotel afterward. Henry is sure to be back by then.”
She raised her hands between herself and him to hold him off. He got a little too close that last time, and this house repelled her. Every instinct told her to get out of it as fast as possible.
“No, no,” she repeated. “I couldn’t. It’s not that far. I’ll get to the Hotel, and I’ll arrange to send someone up for my luggage. That’s the best way.”
She made another dive for the door, but he dodged in front of her to block her way. “Really, my dear, I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if I let you do that. Have supper with me, and I give you my word of honor I’ll drive you to the Hotel myself afterward. Will that satisfy you?”
She eyed him up and down. “Do you promise?”
He raised his right hand, bowed his head, and closed his eyes. “My hand of God.”
The tension drained from her limbs. She couldn’t ask for more than that. It was getting close to suppertime. What could another meal hurt?
He took her hand and led her to the dining room. The place settings already waited for them in the same two places. The china and the folded napkins and the wine glasses all presented such an inviting picture that she eased into her role.
He was right about one thing. She was used to this. Did she really want to give it up to rough it on the Frontier? What was she really doing out here, anyway? Did she really think she could walk away from all this to live hard and dirty like the rest of the riffraff?
The meal eclipsed the lunch she shared with him earlier that day. The wine flooded her brain with sunshine. The succulent roast beef and tender turnips filled her mouth with juicy delicious vapors.
His suggestions wormed into her consciousness. She’d be giving all this up if she married….well, anybody on the Frontier. What was she thinking, coming out here in search of a husband who couldn’t make her happy?
It wasn’t too late to turn back. If she found the situation not to her liking, she could catch the next mail coach bound for Fort Laramie and head back to New York. She would have lost nothing. She could chalk this trip up to a glorified holiday.
Merrill regarded her over his wine glass, and his eyes sparkled. “Tell me something, my dear.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Were you born to luxury?” he asked. “Did you grow up in a fine house with servants and money and tutors and everything you could wish for?”
She laid her fork down. “Why do you ask that?”
“I just wonder if you married your first husband for love, or if circumstances arranged the match.” He leaned back in his chair. “Maybe he was a friend of your father’s. Maybe they made the arrangement without your consent. I’m just curious.”
“I don’t see what bearing that has on….”
“Did you love him?” he asked. “Did you marry him for love?”
She wiped her mouth and placed her napkin next to her plate. “I think that subject might be a little too personal for our first day of acquaintance, Merrill. Thank you for the lovely supper. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m ready to go to the Hotel like you promised.�
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Instead of getting up, he darted forward in his seat and took hold of her hand. “Sit down, Lily, my dear. I have something very serious to discuss with you.”
“If it’s about my first husband, I don’t want to….”
“It’s not about your first husband,” he interrupted. “It’s about your second husband.”
Lily froze at the mention of Noah. “What about him?”
He gazed up into her eyes from below. He breathed into her face while he stroked her hand. “Stay here and marry me instead of Noah Kearney. I’m asking you to marry me. Let me be your second husband in Noah’s place.”
“Are you insane?” she gasped. She drew back in alarm and tried to extricate her hand from his grasp. “I don’t even know you, and even if I did, I wouldn’t marry you. I’ve asked you to take me to the Hotel, and then you come out with this!”
“Please just listen to me for a second, Lily,” he breathed. “You admit your first husband was considerably older than yourself. My guess is you didn’t marry him for love. Did you?”
She didn’t answer. She shifted from one foot to the other and looked away. She didn’t want to have this conversation with anybody, especially not Merrill Fox.
“Was it the money?” he murmured. “Was it the nice house? Was it the status of seeing yourself as a society lady? What was it he gave you that induced you to marry him?”
“Listen, Merrill,” she began. “I don’t think….”
“I can give you all those things,” he went on. “Whatever it is you’re looking for in life, I can give it to you. You could call this house your own. You know you’d be comfortable here—a lot more comfortable than you would be in a country doctor’s surgery. Do you have any idea how Doctor Kearney lives? He would never be able to give you any of this. My goodness, he could never even give you a dress as nice as the one you’re wearing right now. Do you really want to fall down the social ladder that far when you belong at the top? I can give it to you. I can give you everything you want. Send word to Noah that you plan to marry me instead. He never has to get his hopes up. I’ll make sure you never meet him face to face if that’s what you want.”
The Doctor's Bride (Brides 0f Brimstone Book 3) Page 2
