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He grabbed her by the hand. “You are making me so happy,” he said. “I have never been as lonely as I have been since my wife’s passing. M
y one regret is that I must send you on to Boston so soon. But I must, for it was I who set up the rules that no women would be allowed to live at the fort. I must not be the one to break my own rules.”
“I’m so looking forward to going to Boston,” she murmured, wondering about how good she was getting at lying. She had never been one to lie. She had always been straightforward and honest. But circumstances had made her do what she must in order to survive.
“Your home sounds like something from a storybook,” she said. “Thank you, William.”
Oh, how she hated calling him by his first name. It made it seem as if she cared for the arrogant, cruel man, when in truth she loathed him so much she could hardly stand being in the same room with him.
“My house and everything about it is even better than I have described,” he said, chuckling. “My dear, you will not want for a thing. I will have servants, maids, and anyone else you ask for, at your convenience. You won’t even have to brush your own hair any longer. It will be done for you.”
“It does sound like heaven,” she said, lying through her teeth with every word she spoke. “Tomorrow, you say? We’ll be wed tomorrow?”
“I hope you can put from your mind any guilt about marrying so soon after your husband’s death,” he said huskily. “I can hardly wait to—”
He stopped before saying anything about making love. He had seen her stiffen and realized that it still might be too soon for her.
But nevertheless, she would marry him tomorrow. He could not wait any longer.
“There is one thing that I want in order to make our marriage ceremony perfect,” Mary Beth said, putting her plan in motion.
“And, my dear, what is that?” he asked, clasping his hands behind him. “Anything you want will be yours.”
“I want flowers,” she said breathlessly.
She watched him to see if he thought there was anything odd about her request.
“I want a lot of flowers,” she quickly added.
“But there is no way to have flowers here, so far from any city with florists,” he said.
“I see something in your eyes—perhaps a way to have flowers?” He chuckled. “Alright, tell me what you have cooked up in that pretty head of yours. Where do you plan to get those flowers?”
“On my way here, not far from the fort, I saw a field of wildflowers,” she said. “I could go and pick many of them. They would suffice, don’t you think, for a wedding bouquet for me to carry, and for one huge vase to sit amid the candles during the ceremony?”
His eyes widened. He smiled. “Why, my dear, you are looking forward to our nuptials, aren’t you?” he said, taking one of her hands and kissing its palm. He held it to his heart. “Yes, flowers. We shall go and pick many, many flowers.”
“We?” she said, feeling her hope waning. “I don’t need an escort just to pick flowers. In fact, I look forward to doing it all by myself. I don’t want you to see the flowers until after I have arranged them prettily for our ceremony.”
She stepped closer to him and placed a gentle hand on his cheek. “William, dear, I am doing this for us, for our wedding,” she murmured. “Allow me to do this. I want to make the flower arrangement so beautiful. I want to surprise you.”
He quietly took her hand away. “I would never allow you to ride through those gates alone and risk losing you to a renegade,” he said thickly. “I, myself, will escort you. Then if you need some private moments alone to pick what you want, to be a surprise for me, I will turn my back.”
Mary Beth’s hopes of getting a chance to escape fell apart even as her heart felt like it was breaking.
She was beginning to realize that she couldn’t tell Colonel Downing she wouldn’t marry him. He was dead set on marrying her, tomorrow, and if she suddenly refused, who was to say what he would do with her? He most certainly would not allow her to leave for any reason, except to go to Boston after their marriage.
“William, do you promise to let me have some moments alone to pick the flowers?” she asked, hoping that perhaps she could ride off on the powerful steed Brave Wolf had given her.
If she could just get far away enough to hide, so that Colonel Downing couldn’t find her, then she might find a way out of this nightmare.
“Absolutely,” he said, smiling. “And we shall leave on our little outing soon, my dear. First I have to attend to some business. I shall send one of my soldiers with a large gunny sack from the kitchen to transport the flowers to the fort.”
“Thank you,” she murmured as she walked him to the door. “I can hardly wait to start picking.”
He gave her a soft kiss on her cheek, then walked away with light steps, his mood obviously buoyant.
Sighing, Mary Beth went back into the bedroom, closed the door, then leaned her back against it. “What am I to do?” she whispered, tears filling her eyes.
