ACCLAIM FOR COLLEEN COBLE
Rosemary Cottage
“Coble’s fast-paced, atmospheric, and suspenseful second entry in her new romantic suspense series (after Tidewater Inn) is a sure bet . . .”
—Library Journal
“Coble’s second Hope Beach book returns to the stunningly described Outer Banks locale. The suspenseful mystery, coupled with developing romance, creates a lively, page turning novel.”
—Romantic Times, 4-star review
“Coble provides plenty of excitement for readers who enjoy her unique combination of cozy setting and action-packed mystery.”
—Publishers Weekly
Tidewater Inn
“Coble’s atmospheric and suspenseful series launch should appeal to fans of Tracie Peterson and other authors of Christian romantic suspense.”
—Library Journal
“Coble’s mystery is intriguing and an ideal backdrop for the development of a romance. The plot moves briskly forward, providing an action-packed story along with wonderful development of the characters.”
—Romantic Times
Safe in His Arms
“A fiery redhead, a mystery man, and plot twists galore. What’s not to love? Colleen has done it again . . . created a page-turner. Don’t miss it!”
—Stephanie Grace Whitson, author of The Quilt Chronicles series
“I so enjoyed the strong heroine and enigmatic hero in Colleen Coble’s Safe in His Arms. What a fun story of learning to love, to trust, and to be safe in the arms of God, no matter the circumstances. You’ll want to keep turning the pages on this one to discover what happens next!”
—Marlo Schalesky, author of the Christy Award-winning Beyond the Night
“Colleen combines a rich, historical setting with real characters who reach out and grab ahold of you from page one. You won’t want to put Safe in His Arms down until you turn the last page. Then you’ll be sad the story ended so fast! I love Colleen’s books and look forward to the next one!”
—Lynette Eason, award-winning, best-selling author of The Women of Justice series
“Colleen Coble is an amazing storyteller who weaves stories I can’t put down. In Safe in His Arms she combines a heroine I wanted to take to tea with a misunderstood hero and placed them in a historical setting I thoroughly enjoyed. Mix in romance and a touch of suspense and it is the perfect book.”
—Cara Putman, award-winning author of Stars in the Night and A Wedding Transpires on Mackinac Island
ALSO BY COLLEEN COBLE
Novellas included in Smitten, Secretly Smitten, and Smitten Book Club
UNDER TEXAS STARS NOVELS
Blue Moon Promise
Safe in His Arms
THE HOPE BEACH NOVELS
Tidewater Inn
Rosemary Cottage
THE LONESTAR NOVELS
Lonestar Sanctuary
Lonestar Secrets
Lonestar Homecoming
Lonestar Angel
THE MERCY FALLS SERIES
The Lightkeeper’s Daughter
The Lightkeeper’s Bride
The Lightkeeper’s Ball
THE ROCK HARBOR SERIES
Without a Trace
Beyond a Doubt
Into the Deep
Cry in the Night
Silent Night (e-book only)
THE ALOHA REEF SERIES
Distant Echoes
Black Sands
Dangerous Depths
Midnight Sea
Holy Night (e-book only)
Alaska Twilight
Fire Dancer
Abomination
Anathema
© 2014 by Colleen Coble
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coble, Colleen.
Butterfly palace / Colleen Coble.
pages cm.
Summary: “Lily secures a job as maid in a grand manor in Austin, Texas. But even far from home, her past lurks around every corner. When Lily Donnelly arrives at the Cutlers’ famed Butterfly Mansion in 1899, the massive house and unfamiliar duties threaten to overwhelm her. Victorian Austin is lavish, highly political, and intimidating, but with the help of the other servants, Lily resolves to prove herself to her new employers. Then, while serving at an elegant dinner party, Lily recognizes one distinguished guest as Andrew, the love of her life who abandoned her without a word back home. He seems to have assumed a new identity and refuses to acknowledge her, leaving her confused and reeling. Before Lily can absorb this unwelcome news, she’s attacked. Could it be the sinister Servant Girl Killer who has been terrorizing Austin? Or is it someone after something more personal, someone from her past? Does she dare trust Andrew to help, or is he part of the danger threatening to draw Lily into its vortex?”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-59554-783-5 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-1-40169-007-6 (eBook)
1. Housekeepers—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.O2285B88 2014
813'.54—dc23 2013029518
Printed in the United States of America
14 15 16 17 18 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my sister of the heart Diann Hunt, who has grown more beautiful as she’s lived out the meaning of this novel—that struggle makes us stronger and more fit for heaven.
Love you, Di! I’m in awe of your strength and the way you shine Jesus every day.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
READING GROUP GUIDE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AN EXCERPT FROM SAFE IN HIS ARMS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PROLOGUE
Larson, Texas, 1900
Lily Donaldson tiptoed to the front door and winced when it opened with a creak. The last thing she wanted was to awaken her mother who was sleeping down the hall. Even though Lily was over twenty years old, her mother wo
uld take a switch to her if she knew she was sneaking out like this. The lights still shone from the livery attached to their house.
She peeked in the window as she passed. Her father sat at the desk with his partner as they pored over figures for the new expansion. There was a stack of money on the desk beside them. She stared for a moment at the stack of cash. It must have been a good day for the livery. It would be hours before their meeting came to an end. The talk of a new livery in the next town over had been going on for several weeks, and both men never seemed to tire of the topic.
The night air touched her heated skin, and she shivered as she hurried along the path to the barn. Crickets chirped as if to keep time to the ragtime tune tinkling from the tavern’s piano down the street. The threat of discovery added another thump to her pulse.
The familiar scent of hay and horse greeted her when she stepped into the darkened building. “Andy?” She twisted the unfamiliar weight of the engagement ring on her finger. Her lips curved when Andy Hawkins stepped from the shadows. “I thought maybe you hadn’t been able to slip away.” She kept her voice barely above a whisper while she drank in his appearance.
He was a good head taller than most men, and his bulk made her feel tiny—and protected. His dark hair curled at the nape of his neck, and his eyes were the color of a buckeye nut.
His white teeth flashed below his perfect Roman nose. “I told Pa I wasn’t feeling well. I’d much rather be with you.” His warm hands came down on her shoulders, and he pulled her close for a kiss. “That meeting will go on for hours.”
Heat ran through her at his words. She’d tried to resist the pull of their passion—they both had—but they’d been weak, so weak. The firm press of his fingers closed around her hand, and he pulled her to a comfortable stack of hay. She fell into his arms without a protest. His lips came down on hers, and she forgot everything but his touch.
He lifted his head and sniffed. “Do you smell smoke?”
Cries of alarm began to filter into her consciousness, muddied by the feel and scent of Andy. He helped her to her feet, and they both rushed to the door to view a scene that made her shudder.
Fire shot through the roof of the livery. “Pa!” Andy restrained her when she would have rushed forward.
More shouts came from town, and a line of men burst from the saloon and ran toward the burning building. The windows of the livery exploded, spewing broken glass onto the ground, then smoke poured from open frames.
Andy grabbed her hand, and they ran toward her front door. She stopped and stared at the fire. Which direction? Her mother was in the house. Their fathers were in the livery. Lily’s chest was tight as flames consumed the livery.
Her fingers closed around the doorknob. “I’ll get my mother. You get the men.” The metal was already hot to the touch. How could the fire have grown so quickly?
She yanked open the door and plunged inside. Thick, roiling smoke choked Lily’s nose and throat as soon as she reached the top of the stairs. She threw open the bedroom door and rushed to the bed. The smoke was thick in the bedroom too. Her mother slept, unaware of the danger.
Lily shook her. “Mama, wake up! You have to get out of here.” Shouts and screams echoed from outside. What was happening to her father?
Her mother lifted her head and her eyes went wide, then cleared of confusion. She threw back the covers, then stumbled to the door with Lily. One hand around her mother’s waist, Lily led her down the steps. Her chest burned both with the hot smoke and the need to escape.
“Almost there,” she told her mother. She reached blindly for the door, and her fingers grasped the knob. She threw open the door.
The first brush of fresh air on her skin made her gasp and draw in the thick smoke. She coughed at the searing pain in her chest, then stumbled onto the porch with her mother. Lily led her mother a safe distance away before turning to see bright flames shooting into the night. A fire alarm clanged behind them, and the horses pulling the fire engine raced around the corner. As soon as it came to a stop, the firemen leaped into the yard and ran for the livery.
Her mother coughed and stared at the furiously burning structure. “Where’s your father?”
But Lily didn’t see her father’s bald head. Dread congealed in her belly, and she shook her head. “I don’t see them, but Andy went to get them out.” She stared at the throng around the building. Was that Andy?
His soot-blackened face came into view by the light of the flames. He struggled with the two men holding him. “Let go of me! I have to find them.”
“It’s too dangerous,” one of the men said. “The place is fully engulfed.”
“Stay here, Mama.” Lily hurried to Andy’s side. “You didn’t find them?” Her throat closed at the hopeless expression on his face.
She turned to stare at the inferno that had overrun both the livery and the attached house. The fire’s heat scorched her face. The breeze blew stinging cinders against her skin. Andy renewed his efforts to free himself, but the firemen propelled him back to a safer distance.
The fire’s roar was like a dragon from a fairy tale, monstrous and all-consuming. Flames licked out of the upper windows, straining toward the roof. More glass shattered, and the stink of burning bedding rolled over the lawn. With a groan, the building began to sag. The firemen shoved them back even more, and they all turned to watch it give a final shudder before the weakened timbers collapsed. Sparks and flames shot higher as the fire fed on the night air and began to consume the last of the building.
Lily sank to her knees, and Andy fell with her. They held one another as the fire took their fathers.
Andy stiffened, then pulled away. “It’s my fault. I should have been there. I would have smelled it and gotten them out.”
“It went too fast, Andy. There was nothing any of us could do.” She tried to cup his face in her hands, but he flinched away, then jumped to his feet.
“Don’t look at me. I can’t even stand myself.” He stalked off, and the dark swallowed him up.
ONE
Austin, Texas, 1904
The train’s whistle sounded as mournful as she felt as it pulled away from the station, leaving her on the siding with her valise at her feet. Lily brushed ineffectively at the soot on her serviceable gray skirt and squinted in the October sunshine. What if her new employer had sent no one to meet her? She didn’t know how to get to her destination.
A dray pulled by two fine horses went past, and the driver stared too boldly for her taste, so she directed her gaze to her dusty black boots.
“Miss?”
She jerked her gaze back up to see a man dressed in a brown suit. A lock of reddish hair dipped below his stylish bowler. He appeared to be in his late thirties and was quite handsome.
He tipped his hat and nodded toward her luggage. “Is that all you have? You are Lily Donaldson?”
“Yes, yes, I am. You are from the Butterfly Palace?”
He picked up her valise and gave a vague nod her way. “This way.”
People flowed around her as she followed his broad back to a fine automobile at the street. She hung back when he opened the door. “You didn’t mention your name.”
Amusement lit his pale blue eyes. “I’m not the killer attacking women here if that’s what you’re worried about.”
She glanced around at the men loitering nearby. No one seemed to pay her any notice. “There’s a killer?”
He shrugged. “A city is never as safe as it looks. Are you coming or not? I don’t care either way. Mother asked me to fetch you when I objected to being forced to attend another of her boring balls, and I obliged. It’s on your own head if you’re late.”
When he started for the driver’s seat, she hoisted herself onto the plush seat. “I’m coming.”
He grinned, and heat flared in her cheeks at his bold stare. His expensive suit proclaimed him to be much more than a driver sent to collect her. He’d mentioned his mother, so she assumed he was a Marshall.
&nb
sp; The jerk of the automobile threw her against the leather seat and ended her speculation. It felt good to be away from the curious stares she’d endured on the train. Women didn’t travel alone. She took off her bonnet and swiped some loose strands back into place, then replaced her hat.
She stared eagerly out the window at Austin. The state capital. It was much grander than she’d imagined. Electric trolley cars zipped by so fast they made her woozy. Houses larger than four or five homes back in Larson turned stately faces toward the wide street. Mercantile shops, printers, meat markets, and dress shops passed in a dizzying blur. Where did one start to find needed items? There were too many shops to choose from.
The scent of lilacs blew away the stench of the train’s coal dust that lingered on her clothing. Her pulse beat hard and fast in her neck. Her new life was about to begin, and she had no idea what to expect. While she hoped to find a new life here, the recent death of her mother left her expecting only more heartache. Still, she had to support herself even if life seemed hard and dreary.
Didn’t God care? She’d never expected him to let such terrible things happen. Ever since the fire, life had spiraled down in a disheartening whirlpool of pain.
The automobile stopped in front of a grand stone mansion illuminated by electric lights. The cobblestone drive was smooth under her shoes when the man assisted her out of the back. Lily stood, absorbing the huge edifice that would have been more at home on a French mountainside. Seeing it here on Texas soil felt wrong somehow, and something about the structure was off-putting in spite of its grandeur. Maybe it was the way the windows in the mansard roof seemed to leer down at her, or perhaps it was the dark brick that made it look stern and unwelcoming. A chill shuddered down her spine, but she picked up her valise. It would surely be more attractive in the daylight.
The man shut the automobile door behind her. “Welcome to Butterfly Palace, Lily.”
His forwardness in addressing her by her Christian name made her straighten. “Why is it called that?” She craned her neck again and willed herself to admire the four-story mansion.
“My stepfather is a great collector of exotic butterflies. He employs a man to bring him the finest in the world. The sunroom is filled with them, and frescoes can be found everywhere.” He pointed. “You’ll want to go around back to the staff entrance, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of one another. The name’s Lambreth. I suppose I’ll inherit this monstrosity someday.” He winked at her.
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