Cici shook her head. “It’s you. It comes from inside you. Take a look, and you’ll see for yourself.”
Lily turned around. She told herself she wouldn’t, but now it seemed right. The moment came, and she faced her destiny. There stood the princess Lily only imagined. Sam’s dress surrounded her in magnificent beauty, but Cici was right.
An inner light in Lily’s eyes shone out from behind the veil. It cast a glimmering halo of heavenly bliss around her that Lily never saw in herself before. She didn’t recognize herself.
She wasn’t a New York lady anymore. She was Doctor Noah Kearney’s wife, Brimstone’s doctor’s wife. She took her own place on this wild Frontier. She rose out of the ashes of hopeless despair to put the pieces of this broken world back together.
She did that. No one did it for her. That blessing came from within her. No one could ever take that away from her. She already became that in the depths of her soul. The ceremony waiting for her at the church only completed the transformation. It gave everyone in Brimstone the signal to treat her as such.
Just then, the clatter of wheels sounded outside the room. Cici murmured in Lily’s ear. “They’re here. I better go. See you there.”
Lily said nothing. Cici left the room, and a moment later, her footsteps drummed out of earshot. Lily inhaled a shuddering breath. This was the moment she was waiting for. She glided out of the room, down the stairs, and turned left at the bottom to the house door behind the parlor.
She found a buggy parked at the doorstep, and Jed Wilcox waited for her dressed in an immaculate black suit. He offered her his hand. “Ma’am?”
Lily beamed at him. “Thank you, kind Sir.”
He handed her into the buggy, and he laid a robe across her lap. He wrapped another shawl around her shoulders to keep the dust off and took his seat. He drove her to the church and helped her to the ground.
Dozens of people crowded around the doorway in their best clothes. They all turned around to stare, and they parted to let Jed and Lily through. A local cowboy took the horse by the bridle, and Jed took Lily on his arm and escorted her up the steps into the vestry.
More people packed the church. They all whispered and stared at Lily when Jed removed her wraps to reveal her dress. One more time, her awareness shrank to a speck directly in front of her. She lost all consciousness of everything and everyone except Jed at her side.
His big presence broke a path through the onlookers to the church door, but Lily couldn’t see anything but more and more people blocking the way. All at once, the crowd separated, and she found herself staring down the aisle toward the altar.
Kelvin, Sam, and Noah all stood in a row at the far end. They wore identical black suits and frock coats. From a great distance, Lily remarked how handsome Kelvin and Sam looked dressed up like this.
Betsy and Cici stood on the other side of the altar in their fanciest dresses. On either side, the townspeople packed the church to the walls. They filled every pew and stood in the empty spaces on every side.
Lily didn’t recognize any of them. She locked her eyes on Noah. Nothing else mattered but getting to him. She leaned on Jed’s arm and walked with steady, determined tread to meet her fate.
She couldn’t distinguish the moment when Jed let go of her arm and Noah took her hand. He filled her mind and heart and soul to overflowing.
The minister began his usual speech about a wife serving her husband and two people joining together to become one. What could he know about what went on in Lily’s soul at that moment? What did he really know about two people joining to become one?
She got married once before, and she didn’t know anything about it herself. No one could know who hadn’t passed through the transformation she underwent since coming to this town. No one could understand who hadn’t found the other half of their being after searching for it for so long.
She gazed up at the other side of her now. His black hair and mustache framed his serious eyes and his reserved, steady face. He didn’t have to say he knew what he did to her. She read it there, in his features. She worked the same magic alchemy on him to turn two people into one flesh.
Finally, the minister said, “Do you, Lily Marie Dawson, take this man, Noah Frances Kearney, to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love, honor, and obey, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”
She squared her shoulders to meet the bright possibility open before her. She saw it all: the sickness, the joy, the pain, the hardship, the worry, the never-ending change of life grinding one year after another.
As the doctor’s wife, she would see it all. She would see people born and die. She would see them bleed and rot and wither. She would bear witness to a century of history unfold on this Frontier. The words spoke themselves out of that vision. “I do.”
The minister faced Noah. “And do you, Noah Frances Kearney, take this woman, Lily Marie Dawson, to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love, honor, and cherish, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”
Noah’s voice quavered ever so slightly. His hand tightened around Lily’s fingers, and he replied in his firm baritone, “I do.”
“Do you have the ring?” the minister asked.
Noah turned around, and Jed handed him something. He faced Lily one more time, and the minister told him, “Repeat after me. ‘With this ring, I thee wed’.”
Noah slipped the ring onto her finger. “With this ring, I thee wed.”
Lily’s hands shook at the touch of that cold metal, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his face to look at it. The minister said, “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Noah froze, and he and Lily stared at each other in astonishment. Kiss the bride—now, with all these people watching? They came close to kissing more than once, but never like this.
A jolt shot through Noah, and he slipped one arm around her waist. He hugged her against his firm body, and she melted to the inevitable. His eyes held her in their hypnotic sway. Nothing could go wrong as long as she dwelt in those bottomless pools.
His lips came to rest on hers, and she smelled his scent one more time. His mustache tickled her nose. Underneath it, his soft lips sent sparkles of delicious softness through her skin to the bottom of her being, and she kissed him back.
A gasp went through the crowd, and Noah started back. He cracked a wild grin. The sight of gleeful mirth on this serious countenance electrified Lily in a way she never could have imagined. She couldn’t hold back, and they both burst out laughing in excited delight.
The crowd erupted in laughter and cheers. The sound reverberated back and forth against the walls. Lily looked around her for the first time and saw her friends standing on either side. Jed, Kelvin, and Sam laughed and clapped, and Jed blinked back tears. Betsy wiped tears off her cheeks with a handkerchief, and Cici embraced Lily.
Noah took Lily by the hand, and they started down the aisle. People threw flower petals and rice and confetti over them until they broke through the mob into the blazing sunshine outside.
The crowd followed the newlyweds around the church. Streamers hung between the trunks of a stand of cottonwood trees behind the church, and tables loaded with food lined up in the shade. In a few minutes, the festivities began with happy laughter, talk, and food and drink enjoyed by all.
Lily lost sight of her friends in the throng of people blocking her in on all sides. They congratulated her and poured out their stories of all the wonderful things Noah Kearney had done for them and their loved ones. On and on it went, hour after hour.
Sam Dolan emerged from the swirling mass of dresses and suits and running, playing children. He took Lily’s hand and bowed to kiss it. “You certainly outdid yourself advertising my wears. Thank you.”
Lily’s cheeks burned. “I didn’t do anything. Your wears speak for themselves. I can see that in their faces w
hen they look at me. You’re a big success.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” he replied. “I’ve gotten ten orders in the last hour. I’m going to have to hire me a bunch of seamstresses—if I can find them—and probably a few more tailors. What with this dress and Cici’s, I might have to switch to doing only wedding dresses.”
“That’s wonderful, Sam,” she exclaimed. “You deserve every success. Your lady friend Back East will almost certainly accept your proposal now.”
He turned sideways to survey the party going on all around them. “She already did.”
Lily’s mouth fell open. “Really? Congratulations! I’m so happy for you.”
He shrugged, but a smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. “I guess my life is about to change. I was in two minds about the whole marriage business, but now that Marshall Faulk is here to clean things up, I can look forward to starting a family on the Frontier.”
He drifted away, and Lily found herself gazing into the crowd. Marshall Faulk mingled with the townsfolk. He greeted everyone and shook their hands with that same comforting smile on this face. He attended everyone from old men to little children. They recognized him and welcomed him like their long-lost grandfather.
He spotted Lily watching at him, and he sauntered to her side. “Well, young lady, it looks like you got your doctor after all.”
Lily beamed at him. “Yes, I did, thanks to you.”
He closed his eyes. “I didn’t have anything to do with it. You would have gotten him, one way or the other. I have no doubt of that.”
“Come on, Marshall,” she chided. “Look at this place. None of this would be possible without you and your deputies. Noah and I and our friends would be dead right now if you hadn’t showed up when you did, and we wouldn’t be having this celebration, either. This is as much a celebration of your coming as it is of our wedding.”
As she spoke, old Abigail the washerwoman passed in front of them. She approached one of the Marshall’s deputies, threw her arms around him, and embraced him overflowing with tears.
The man glanced around in embarrassment, but when he saw Marshall Faulk grinning at him, he submitted to the old lady’s treatment until she let him go. All over the yard, people embraced the deputies with tears in their eyes.
Marshall Faulk chuckled. “They’ve never been heroes to people they’ve never met before.”
“This is the greatest day Brimstone has seen in a long time,” Lily murmured. “The shadow of Merrill Fox’s tyranny has lifted, and it’s all thanks to you.”
“I didn’t do it,” he whispered. “It was Jed and Betsy Wilcox’s report that did it. If they and their friends hadn’t stood up to Merrill in the first place, none of this would have happened. The world never changed without good people standing up to evil. You and your friends held this town against all odds until the law caught up with you. That’s saying something. You made my job easy. I can waltz in here and clean up the mess, but it’s you and your friends who defeated Merrill and the Sheriff. Don’t ever let anybody tell you otherwise.”
14
Lily pinned her hat to her hair and checked her appearance in the looking glass of her bedroom over Noah’s surgery. She took up her handbag and went out into the main room.
She gave the room an expert appraisal to make sure every stick of furniture was in the place she wanted it. She put everything in the apartment where she wanted it, and she left it satisfied.
She turned to the door when she spotted Noah coming up the stairs. “Darling! What are you doing up here? I thought you were in your office seeing patients.”
“I was,” he replied. “I only came up here to tell you I’m leaving.”
“Leaving!” she exclaimed. “Where are you going?”
“Kelvin Kirk just sent me word. One of his men was thrown from a horse out at the Rocking Horse Ranch. I have to drive out there and take a look at him. I just canceled all my office visits for the morning. I’ll see them this afternoon or tomorrow.”
“Don’t forget our lunch date,” she reminded him. “Will you be home in time for that?”
“I’m certain of it.” He drew her into his arms and kissed her. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
She relaxed into his embrace, and his intoxicating aroma of tobacco and antiseptic soap flooded her brain. His lips reminded her of the softness of their time together in the privacy of their own home above the surgery.
Those delirious moments dissolved her to a puddle of warmth she never experienced with a man before. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach at odd moments during the day when she remembered the everlasting sweetness of his skin covering her and their souls mingling in heaven.
He let her go all too soon, but that knowing look still glistened in his eyes. He remembered, too. He would remember for the rest of the day until they came together again this evening. “Do you have the medicine I gave you?”
She straightened up and adjusted her hat. “I have it right here, and I remember all the instructions you gave me. I’m sure Abigail is following your orders to the letter. She worships you.”
“Don’t be so certain.” He headed for the stairs. “She can be very determined when she gets a rebellious idea into her head, and she doesn’t like doctors, no matter what you say.”
Lily grinned at him. “Then it’s a good thing I’m visiting her and not you. She’ll do what I tell her to.”
“Don’t tell her to do anything,” he replied. “Just check she’s following the directions for the medicine and let me know so I can monitor her progress.”
“Of course, dear. I remember everything you told me.”
He stopped with one hand resting on the doorknob. He glanced back at her, and she experienced that curious vertigo of falling into the endless expanse of his eyes. “You know, I never could do as much good for as many people on my own. This practice has really taken off since you got involved.”
Lily’s hand flew to her heart, and she gasped out loud. “Darling! You know this practice means as much to me as it does to you.”
“You said that before we got married,” he remarked. “I never thought you would really do it. I mean, I never thought you would do it like this. It’s….well, it’s very humbling.”
She rushed into his arms. “Darling! I never would have married you if I hadn’t intended to put everything I have into this. You know you mean more than anything to me, and this practice is part of you. It means as much to me as it does to you. I wouldn’t be much good if I sat back and let you do all the work.”
He swallowed hard. “That’s what you say. It’s another thing to see you actually doing it, day in and day out. The patients think the world of you. You’re as much the doctor in this town as I am.”
She stood back and smoothed her skirts. “Nonsense, darling. You were the doctor in this town long before I turned up. If I can be of some use to you, then that’s all I ask. Now come along. You have an injured man to attend, and I’m off to see Abigail. I’ll see you back here for lunch.”
He gave her one last kiss. “Thank you, darling. I love you more than ever.”
She blushed, and they both left the apartment. He stopped on the front porch to lock the door behind him, and they exchanged another secret smile. Then he squeezed her hand, and they walked away in opposite directions.
Lily’s heart soared on her way through town. In the weeks since their wedding, she settled into Brimstone as never before. The nightmare of her arrival faded to a distant memory, and she threw her tremendous energy into Noah’s practice.
All day, she visited his sick patients and helped him in his surgery when he needed her. In the evenings, they retired to their own apartment upstairs. She cooked his meals, and they relaxed by the fire in the sitting room. They shared the details of their day’s work, and they made plans for the future.
She cherished those plans in the mysterious corners of her heart. She dared not share them with her closest friends, but they gave her a priva
te thrill. Her heart exploded with love for him and every minute detail of their lives together.
She crossed Main Street to the Post Office and dropped off two letters, one to her brother in Williamsburg, and one to Noah’s mother in New Hampshire. From there, she continued on her way up the street toward Abigail’s laundry. She never doubted the old lady would be hard at work in spite of her ailment and Noah’s orders to rest from her endless labors.
Lily recognized almost everyone she passed on the street. Men tipped their hats to her and greeted her on her way past. This was her town. She was as much a part of it as anybody who’d been here for years. These were her people. She cared about everything they did and suffered and enjoyed, and they sensed her caring attention.
No one in this town treated her like a stranger or an outsider. They welcomed her into their homes. They poured out their souls and their secrets and their worries to her. She was their angel of mercy. She offered them the gentle hand Noah couldn’t give them. She was the other side of the same coin, the second skin of one body taking care of these people in the trackless wilderness of the Frontier.
She passed Catherine’s house and reminded her to stop in to visit that lady if she didn’t find her at the laundry. The small knot of women in this town formed a close-knit family who never went more than a day without checking in with each other and sharing all the happenings of their lives.
She climbed onto the sidewalk in front of the boardinghouse. She got almost to the alley leading to the laundry when a tall figure stepped out of the Jail beyond.
Lily only laid eyes on the Sheriff from a distance. She never confronted him this close before. Now her blood ran cold at the sight of him, and his beady eyes bored into her. He strutted down the sidewalk and planted his feet in front of the alley to block her way.
She halted, uncertain what to do next. She didn’t want to approach him, but she dared not turn her back on him, either. She had a mission to complete. Abigail waited for her in the laundry, and Lily couldn’t reach her without walking past the Sheriff.
The Doctor's Bride (Brides 0f Brimstone Book 3) Page 9
