The Lady Who Lived Again Read Online Free Page B

“Don’t you?”
    She pointed a bony finger.
    “You, young man, are a stranger to Misty Lake. Doctor Benjamin Filmore is one of us. For over thirty years, he took care of this town, nursing us through typhoid and cholera and the worst times of our lives. He delivered our babies into this world and eased the suffering of those he ushered out. He wouldn’t make such a mistake as this, and you’ll not tell me otherwise. Not in my house.” She rose from the table with a swiftness he hadn’t thought she could muster. She returned with the coffee pot and refilled her cup. “Doctor Filmore was as stunned by her resurrection as the rest of us.”
    “Resurrec—” Jace stopped himself before his angry disbelief got the better of him. “Is that really what Doctor Filmore called it?”
    Mrs. Tremont shrugged. “That’s what everyone called it. At first.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She picked up her fork and poked at the bits of meat on her plate. “Her leg was so badly broken Doctor Filmore said she’d never walk properly again. Doctor Reed from over in Stephentown agreed. No one saw her for months after the accident. Not even the doctor, since she refused any more treatment from him. Then one day, she comes parading into church, fit as a fiddle.”
    “She recovered?” Jace’s surprise faded as he gathered where this line of argument was leading. “And?”
    Releasing a huff of impatience, Mrs. Tremont clarified what her guest was obviously too thick to comprehend.
    “Lightning doesn’t strike twice, Doctor Merrick. Neither do miracles.” She gestured with the fork. “There’s something plain unnatural about the whole thing. Pastor Hogle even said as much when the girl first came back to service. The Lord may work in mysterious ways, he told us. But so too, does the Devil.”
    * * * *
    Jace was still furious when he returned home hours later. After asking around, he’d discovered the entire town shared Mrs. Tremont’s opinion of Madeline Sutter. And to think that Misty Lake’s esteemed pastor had encouraged the slander! The rumors of Madeline’s odd recovery were poisonous enough without Hogle’s interference. Adding religion to the mix simply polished the whole mess to a high sheen.
    The pastor’s only child was one of the girls who’d been killed in the accident—but grief was poor justification for Hogle’s actions. How could a man of faith feed his devoted flock such nonsense? Jace shook his head. If the people of Misty Lake revered Hogle half as much as they had trusted Doctor Filmore, they’d blindly opened their mouths like a nest full of baby sparrows and gulped the venom right down.
    Jace unlocked the door to the house that served as a physician’s office in the front parlor rooms and a dwelling for the live-in physician in the back. Ben Filmore had relinquished the house to Jace after he and his wife moved their belongings to the hotel. The space would be more than adequate, once everything was set to rights. Currently, however, the place was a mess.
    On Jace’s first night in Misty Lake, a tree limb had crashed through the roof of his new parlor during a nasty storm, delaying the opening of his practice indefinitely. Furniture was piled in the corner. The musty rug still hadn’t dried completely from the rain that had poured into the room, and he’d be sweeping up acorns for weeks.
    Thanks to his neighbor, Henry Whalen, repairs were almost complete, but the clutter would take many long days to organize. If Jace were half as superstitious as Mrs. Tremont and the others, he’d have taken the unfortunate incident as a sign of ugly things to come.
    Jace sidled between the crates and other debris and made his way into his office. A tall cabinet housed drawers full of files on everyone Ben had treated, which Jace assumed included every resident in town. He directed his search to Madeline Sutter’s file. Upon retrieving it, he fingered through the contents, bypassing her early history,