appealing to him.
“Faith, the sooner you realize your situation, the better. We can accomplish a great deal together. I believe that with your help, I can get what I need from your aunt and uncle.”
“You don’t know them at all if you think that. They are both passionate about their work. I was hoping to join them as a fully certified medical doctor. Now, I’ll simply go as an educated healer. I don’t need your piece of paper to help others. It would have been nice, but it’s certainly not necessary. I was acting as a doctor to people long before I attended school, and I’ll go on doing the same.”
“Hardly. I won’t have my mistress involved in such matters.”
“And I won’t be your mistress.” She got to her feet, and Lakewood felt her slipping away.
“Then you will be responsible for a great many deaths. I’ll start with Mr. Carpenter, and just as his wife’s grief makes her life unbearable, I’ll see to her infant’s death . . . and then hers, but not until the pain is so great that she’s ready to end her own life. Perhaps I’ll even allow her to do so. Next I’ll start on your family in Oregon City.”
“Stop!” Faith pointed her finger at him. “I will kill you myself before I’d allow that to happen. You may think you have me backed into a corner, but I am not easily commanded. And as you would say, I’m part ‘savage.’”
She seemed strangely at ease, and for a moment a ripple of fear coursed through Lakewood. She stormed for the door.
“Faith, I wouldn’t underestimate what I can do. I’ve had people watching your loved ones for well over a year.”
She stopped at the door and turned. Her confidence seemed to wane. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again as if she’d thought better of crossing him.
“Take a day to consider everything,” he said. “Think it through carefully. You have in your hands the power to cause a great deal of heartache.”
She shook her head. “It won’t be me causing the heartache. You’ve already done plenty of that.”
“Nevertheless, think carefully. I’ll be in touch soon.”
She huffed and left the library, soundly slamming the door behind her.
Lakewood walked to the window. It was raining, and the light appeared muted. Everything had a dream-like quality, like it wasn’t quite real. He was sure Faith was hoping his threats weren’t real—that he was just an old man grasping for things he could never achieve. But if she thought that, she was wrong. He had always acquired what he wanted. He had always been successful. No man, and certainly no woman, was going to stop him.
After a few minutes, Faith appeared with her umbrella raised. He had known she would walk rather than take his carriage. She was very predictable, and that was why he knew she would yield to his demands rather than see her family suffer greater harm. She would help him accomplish what he needed with the Indians, and she would be his mistress. It was all too simple.
Faith hadn’t planned to go to the docks to see if the Morning Star was in port. She had intended to visit the hospital to be with her family and see what Seth’s condition might be. However, after what she’d gone through with Lakewood, seeing Andrew was all she could think about.
She knew she would do whatever was required to keep her family safe, but becoming Lakewood’s mistress and helping him cause an Indian war was asking too much. Instead of pondering how she could bear those things, Faith was given to an entirely different direction of thought. She had to find a way to stop Lakewood—even if it meant killing him herself.
She’d never before thought about killing someone. Murder was illegal, but it also went against God. How could she take the life of another just because they were threatening to harm her? But Lakewood wasn’t only threatening to harm her. He had already harmed Seth by ordering it to be done. He’d made it clear that he had no problem killing others in her family. Grief, the man had no trouble planning an entire war that would no doubt kill hundreds. He had to be stopped.
Faith tried to imagine shooting Samuel Lakewood. She remembered a story her father had told her of when he first met her mother. Hope Flanagan had gone to the jail where the Cayuse man who’d raped her was being