Page 108 of The Dravenhearst Brides
Margot smacked her lips when the taste hit, her mouth flooding with flavor. Spice first, off the rim. A surge of woodsmoke—predominant but hardly unpleasant—and a whispering hint of caramel on the finish.
It tastes like Merrick’s lips,she realized. A flavor she’d grown to love.
An acquired taste indeed.
Her husband withheld his own sip, watching her. A knowing grin quirked as he leaned in to whisper, “Notes of smoke and clove, upfront on your palate. With a smooth caramel finish.”
She recalled the words with crystal clarity—they were the same ones he’d uttered the night they’d first met.
Merrick raised an eyebrow. “Do you still think me a liar,Mrs. Dravenhearst?”
In response, she captured his lips with her own, letting him sample the flavor off her tongue.
“Tastes even better on you,” he murmured, pulling away to swirl his glass. He downed his bourbon in one smooth pull. He frowned at the sopping dregs of mint before delivering his verdict. “An abomination in an otherwise flawless drink, but the thought is appreciated, Evangeline.”
It was time to depart. Margot slid into the shotgun side of the roadster while Ruth crawled into the back, settling in the rumble seat. She managed the maneuver with the dignity of royalty, not a hair out of place.
Merrick revved the engine and smiled, reaching for Margot’s hand as he punched the gas. For the first time, she relished the fact that her husband drove fast.
“Margot, are we flying?”
Yes, flying. Flying far away from here.
As Merrick steered the car beneath the eaves of the magnolia-lined drive, Margot’s eyes darted to Dravenhearst Manor one final time. The French doors to the upstairs balcony were open. Eleanor stood there, veil billowing in the evening breeze, ghostly hand waving. Babette was by her side, silent and still, her eyes narrowed, fox-like, on the departing vehicle. A predator watching its quarry escape.
Her lips didn’t move, but Margot heard the woman’s whispered promise in her mind nonetheless. Loud and clear, chillingly haunting.
See you soon.
37
September 1918
Third to remember—when you find yourself with a question, Merrick, and I am not there to advise, your blood holds the key.
Whatever the question, bourbon is the answer.
—Excerpt, a letter from Richard Dravenhearst’s Last Will & Testament
ThearrivaloftheDravenhearsts at Louisville City Hall would become the stuff of Kentucky legend.
Merrick’s bachelorhood had been notorious, but it was not his arrival with a wife on his arm that society found most surprising. It was the prodigal return of Ruth Auclaire to the Louisville social circuit, a shock rippling through the crowd like a stone dropped into a placid lake. She took the room by storm. Engulfed in arms, exchanging air kisses and delighted exclamations of “Been too long!”
It was Ruth who secured Margot and Merrick two cocktail glasses within moments of arrival, a mixture of lemonade and sweettea garnished heavily with mint and blueberries. Liquid courage was her gift, even when the drys made sure there was none to be found.
She winked as she passed Merrick a glass. “Pretend there’s bourbon in it, dear.”
Before she returned to the gaggle of adoring society friends, Ruth glanced at Margot and meaningfully raised her chin, tapping it.
Margot understood, lifting her own.
Trailing in Ruth’s prodigious wake, Margot and Merrick were welcomed swiftly into the fold. Introductions swirled. The room was filled with balding, well-to-do legislators and the wealthy business elite of the state. Margot’s stomach soured just looking at them, these powerful, privileged men who’d condemned her husband and so many others to years of struggle with a single stroke of their pens. Who held the authority, even now, to reverse it just the same.
Understanding the stakes, she lifted her lips in a practiced smile. Merrick turned on his Dravenhearst charm, his trademark scowl nowhere in sight.
“Yes, my wife,” Merrick said, repeating himself when a legislator’s wife expressed muted disbelief. “We wed in early summer.”
The woman raised a pair of immaculately trimmed eyebrows and pursed her lips. “Did I miss the announcement? I don’t recall seeing it in the paper.”
