Twin of Fire (Montgomery/Taggert 7)

“From what I hear, it’s been that way since the first night you went out.”

“Now who’s being underhanded?”

“No more than he is,” Alan shot back. “Blair, I’m tired of looking like a fool. I’m a student doctor competing in an operating room with a man with years of experience. I grew up in a city, but I’m competing in a canoe and on horseback. There’s no possible way that I can look good against him.”

“But you don’t understand. Leander isn’t competing. He no longer wants to marry me. I’m staying in Chandler until my sister gets married, and then you and I will leave together. I still have hopes that Houston will marry Leander.”

He watched her for a moment. “I believe that some part of you actually believes what you’re saying. Let me tell you something: Westfield has not left the race. The poor man is competing so hard it’s a wonder he has any breath left. And if you believe you’re not getting married on Monday, why haven’t you put a stop to all the wedding plans your sister is making? Do you plan to sit in the front row and watch your sister get married while you’re surrounded by two of everything? What are you going to do with all those presents?”

He put his hands on the arms of the chair and leaned his face into hers. “As for Houston marrying your beloved doctor, I don’t think you could sit there and watch that.”

“That’ll be enough, Hunter,” came Leander’s voice from the doorway.

“It’s not nearly enough,” Alan said, advancing on Leander.

“If it’s a fight you want—.”

Lee stopped when Blair placed herself between the two men.

“Blair,” Alan said, “it’s time you made a decision. I will be on the four o’clock train out of this town today. If you’re not there, I’ll leave alone.” With that, he left the room.

Blair stood there alone with Lee for a moment and neither said anything, then Lee put his hand on her arm.

“Blair,” he began, but she moved away.

“I think Alan’s right. It’s time I made my decision and stopped playing childish games.” With that she swept past him and walked the two miles to her house.

When she got home, she very calmly took a pen and paper and began to make a list of the pros and cons of leaving with Alan. There were five good, strong reasons that she could come up with of why she should leave with him. They ranged from being able to get out of this bigoted town to allowing Houston to no longer feel pressured to marry her millionaire.

The only reason she could think of for not leaving with Alan was that she’d never get to see Leander again. She’d not be able to work with him on that new infirmary of his—of course, if what Alan had said was true, maybe Leander had shown her his plans just as a ruse to win the competition.

She stood. If she didn’t get to work on the clinic here, in Pennsylvania, St. Joseph’s Hospital was waiting for her.

She glanced down at her uniform and knew that that one garment was the only thing that she’d take with her. She couldn’t walk out the door carrying a bag other than her medical bag, or there’d be questions. All she could take was what she was wearing. She crumbled the list in her hand and kept it there. She might need it to remind her why she was doing this.

Downstairs, her mother was arranging gifts, and Houston was out. Blair tried to say a few words to her mother, to say good-bye without saying the exact words, but Opal was too busy counting pieces of silver.

With her chin in the air, Blair went out the door and walked the long way to the train station. As she walked, she looked at the bustling little town with different eyes. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as she’d originally thought. It wasn’t Philadelphia, but it had its compensations. Three carriages rattled by carrying people who called out to her, “Hello, Blair-Houston,” and the double name for once didn’t seem so bad.

As she neared the train station, she wondered what would happen after she’d gone; if Houston would marry Lee, if her mother would understand Blair’s disappearance, if Gates would hate her more than he did already.

She arrived at the train station at three forty-five and quickly saw that Alan wasn’t there yet. She stood on the platform, her medical bag beside her, fiddled with the list in her hand, and thought about how this could be her last few minutes in the town named for her father. After the scandal she’d caused—stealing her sister’s fia

ncé, then running off with another man four days before the wedding—she doubted whether she could come back before she was about ninety years old.

“Ahem,” came a voice that she recognized, and she turned abruptly to see Leander sitting on a bench behind her.

“I thought I’d come to say good-bye,” he said, and Blair went to stand in front of him. The list fell from her hand and, before she could pick it up, Leander took it and read it.

“I see I lost out to Uncle Henry and to your guilt over Houston.”

She snatched the list from his hands. “I have done something unforgivable to my sister, and if I can remedy what I’ve done, I will.”

“She didn’t look too unhappy to me the last time I saw her. She was looking at Taggert like he hung the moon.”

“Houston likes his money.”

Lee snorted. “I may not know much about that woman, but I know she isn’t in love with money. I think what she likes is a little more, ah…personal.”