Million-Dollar Bride Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Excerpt

  Dear Reader

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Copyright

  Mack kissed her abruptly…

  …and Eliza went absolutely still, her heart taking over the rapid rhythm of her nervous chatter. He was kissing her to shut her up. She knew that. But the feel of his mouth on hers was magical, and her breath caught in helpless wonder.

  When his lips moved against hers, it took a moment for her to realize he was whispering. “Don’t panic, but he’s got a gun. We’re being kidnapped.”

  His words had to battle upstream against a riot of impulses slugging it out in her brain. Kiss him back. Don’t panic. Kiss…Kidnapped? She struggled to sit up, but he wouldn’t budge.

  “Did you hear me?” His dark eyes stared into hers, frustration, fear, and angry determination shining clearly from their depths. “We’re being kidnapped.”

  She realized the limo was in motion. “Why?” she whispered back. “Why kidnap us?”

  He gave her a look of skeptical and utter disbelief. “It’s the dress, Eliza. Chuck wants the million-dollar dress.”

  Dear Reader,

  Magic, like love, is in the eye of the beholder. So who’s to say that magic, along with love, can’t be stitched into the seams of a wedding dress…an antique gown that changes the lives of three special brides and their unsuspecting bridegrooms. I imagined just such a dress and the mischief that might occur if someone other than the intended bride put it on. In Million-Dollar Bride, mischief is exactly what happens when Eliza Richardson tries on the magic wedding dress and her destiny collides with that of MacKenzie Cortland.

  Daydreamer that I am, I believe it could happen, and as you read Eliza and Mack’s story, I hope you will believe it, too. After all, isn’t there a touch of magic, a gentle twist of fate, anytime a man and woman fall in love?

  Sincerely,

  Million-Dollar Bride

  Karen Toller Whittenburg

  Chapter 1

  The garment bag contained a million dollars, and Eliza could hardly wait to get her hands on it. So the moment Mrs. Pageatt walked, stiff as a starched crinoline, around the corner and out of sight, Eliza locked the door of the Marry We Go Bridal Boutique and flipped the sign in the window to Closed.

  Desperate situations called for desperate measures, and Eliza figured she had thirty minutes, probably more, before Mrs. Pageatt returned from her appointment. Even if she came back earlier than expected and found the door locked, Eliza was sure she could explain. She was very good with explanations.

  She wasn’t so good at picking locks, however, and getting into the storage room took ten precious minutes. But finally she faced the garment bag, her pulse thundering. She’d never seen a million dollars. Never been this close to anything worth even half that much money. Her fingers trembled a little as she reached for the zipper.

  “You have got to be kidding,” she said aloud, pushing aside the garment bag and getting her first full view of the wedding gown it had held. She frowned. She stepped close and squinted. Stepped back and stared. Walked in a slow circle around the dress and then squinted some more. But her initial impression remained a flat disappointment. She wouldn’t have paid ten dollars for this dress, much less a million, plus tax.

  And to think she’d schemed, plotted and connived for a chance to see it. She was risking her job just being in the same room with it. And for what? There was nothing special about this bridal gown, nothing remotely exciting. Nothing that sparked her imagination or fired her creative zeal. She had thought that seeing the dress would enkindle ideas for her own designs. She had thought if she could just touch a dress that was actually worth a fortune, then somehow her own future as a designer would be assured. From the first moment she’d heard about it, she’d imbued the dress with magical properties, spun a dozen romantic fables around its mysterious past, wasted more than one evening doing sketches of what it might look like.

  But as usual, her imagination had run amok, and now she was faced with this disappointing reality. No wonder Mrs. Pageatt hadn’t wanted anyone to go near the storage room. No wonder she’d gone out of her way to protect the illusion that this dress was more valuable than any other.

  “The gown is a Worth, my dear,” Mrs. P. had said in her tight, highborn tone. “He designed it at the turn of this century, and through a series of fortuitous circumstances, it has come to me in perfect—absolutely mint—condition. I’d wager my diamond bracelet that the dress has never even been worn. In fact, I would not be at all surprised to learn that it was placed in that bank vault the very day it arrived in this country from France. You, Eliza, being a member of the younger generation, cannot fully appreciate the quality of craftsmanship, the simplicity of design, and as to having a sincere regard for its value… Well, I’m afraid I have to tell you, my dear, a gown like that is simply above your touch.”

  Eliza narrowed her gaze on the wedding dress and decided that if this dress was above her touch, there wasn’t much point in reaching any higher. In the cool shadows of the storage room, the Worth gown didn’t look valuable. It looked old, faded and rather drab.

  Maybe if she brought it out into the light, she could figure out what had prompted a rich California movie producer to purchase it for his daughter. If he had wanted the dress for a movie, as a costume piece, she could have understood. But if he thought a modern California girl was actually going to wear this dress for her wedding, he was several frames short of a full reel.

  With a shake of her head, Eliza lifted the dual hangers and carried the dress into the well-lit and multimirrored dressing room. She stripped away the protective paper that clung to the hem and stood back to examine the dress once more. Carefully, she studied the blend of smooth satin and textured lace. She evaluated the hint of ivory in the material, inventoried the detail in the beadwork and absorbed the overall effect of the dress. Better, she thought. But still hardly worth a cool million.

  Eliza stepped onto the platform before the wide, triple mirror and held the dress against her body, turning from side to side, trying to find the elusive quality that made this wedding gown such a prize. But no matter which way she turned, the dress looked disappointingly ordinary. She hoped Mrs. Pageatt had already cashed and deposited the check in a secret Swiss bank account, because when this gown arrived in California…

  She fluffed the skirt and checked the result in the mirror. Dismal. In the interest of being fair, she supposed she ought to try it on.

  Often a gown on a hanger would be sorted over, passed by, deemed pretty, but not special. Then a bride-to-be tried it on and somehow, in some inexplicable manner, all the parts became something more than the whole and the effect was altogether stunning. She had seen it happen dozens of times during her tenure as Mrs. Pageatt’s underpaid and overworked apprentice.

  On the other hand, if that same apprentice got caught with the dress on…

  Pursing her lips in indecision, Eliza drew the satin skirt to her waist and held it in place with her arm. She cocked one hip and then the other, setting the gown in motion, watching as the fabric shifted into deep, ivory folds, revealing a glimpse—merely an enticing hint— of hidden attractions. Temptation floated around the room like a bit of lint, landed on Eliza’s shoulder and stuck fast.

  The storage room
was already open. The dress was already out of the bag and in her hands. She was a dead duck in or out of the dress, anyway, so she might as well put it on. As her Auntie Gem would say, “In for a penny, in for a pound.”

  Before her next thought—that Auntie Gem’s wisdom was often flawed—could stop her, Eliza was already stripping off her serviceable cotton jumper and stepping out of her Old Maine Trotters. The buttons tacked every quarter of an inch down the back of the wedding gown slipped efficiently and easily from the satin-fabric loops, and Eliza had to admire the construction of the gown even as she slipped it over her head and gently worked her hands through the delicate lace tunnels that formed the sleeves. Someone had spent hours making this dress, stitching every seam by hand, sewing by gaslight or candlelight or maybe only by sunlight. There was love in this dress, and pride, and more than a thread of someone’s hopes and dreams.

  All right, she thought. So the gown was worth a few thousand…even if it wasn’t exactly breathtaking. It felt good—sleek, slippery and cool against her skin. The lace was an airy network of silk encircling her arms, and the satin skirt rustled, making a whispering sound that was soft and lush and satisfying.

  Postponing the showdown between fantasy and reality, she closed her eyes as she reached behind her back and, one by one, fastened the dozens of tiny buttons that ran from her hipline to the center of her back, then skipped a wide swath of lace and held the dress at her neckline. Once the back was fastened, she had to open her eyes—just a slit, though—so she could see how to slip the satin loops over the row of tiny satin-covered buttons on each sleeve, below the elbow to the wrist. Once that was done, she squeezed her eyelids tightly shut again, gave the skirt a series of gentle twists, adjusted the fall of the train in back, and then, taking a deep breath, opened her eyes for the first, expectant look in the mirror.

  Her lips parted in surprise. She blinked once and then again. This couldn’t be the same dress. She couldn’t be that enchanted-looking woman. Something must have gotten switched somewhere, because this dress, this inspired creation of Irish lace and ivory satin, was worth every penny of a million dollars, plus every dime of luxury tax. On the hanger, the gown had looked lifeless and outdated, listless and ordinary. But now, inexplicably, something had changed….

  She raised her shoulder and the fabric shifted with an undercurrent of energy. She touched the skirt and the satin rippled like vanilla ice cream melting on a cone. She made a quarter turn and the gown flowed, catching the light, awakening like a new day. Personality shimmered in the folds of the rich, heavy satin, glistened in the lustrous pearls strung on the silver threads across the bodice, winked like a vein of gold in the delicate spidery lace.

  Unable to take her eyes off her astonishing reflection, Eliza reached for the veil, which was still draped over a hanger. Her experienced fingers automatically fluffed the netting as she set the lackluster concoction of lace and satin rosettes on her head. The transformation was instantaneous and amazing. The headpiece matched the dress, not only in style and material, but in the mystical way it completed the picture. It was lace and satin, sparkle and enchantment, a gossamer circlet around her head. She stared at her reflection, knowing that if life were a fairy tale, Prince Charming would walk into the bridal shop at this precise moment.

  The moment passed and she sighed. Even if Prince Charming arrived at the bridal shop right now, he’d find the door locked and the shop closed. Timing was the reason she, plain Eliza Richards, looked breath-takingly beautiful in a dress that no one else would ever see her wear.

  Deciding she might as well enjoy the moment, she turned slowly and admired herself from every angle, even twisting her neck so she could look over her shoulder and see the bustle and train. No matter which direction she turned, the fabric draped in flawless folds, the hem floating a bare quarter inch from the floor. It was uncanny how well the dress fit. If she had been the million-dollar bride, the gown wouldn’t have required any alteration. Not a single stitch.

  Eliza made a face in the mirror. She wasn’t the bride. She wasn’t even the bridesmaid. She was just a clerk in a bridal shop, with dreams that were bigger than her prospects and with an imagination that defied reality.

  Distant thunder rumbled, then faded, and she took it as a ten-minute warning. Mrs. Pageatt could return anytime now and she didn’t want to be caught staring at herself in the mirror. She didn’t want to be caught at all. Not that Mrs. P. would murder her or anything—at least, not while she was wearing the dress.

  As she turned to the mirror for one last look, her heart leapt in alarm. There was a man standing behind her, his image reflected as clearly in the mirror as her own. She had an instant impression of arrogance and kindness, of self-sufficiency and need, of a man who laughed easily, but not often. She knew that he was taller and older than she, but not by much on either count. She could see the lines of character in his face and the set of determination in his jaw. And she could tell, somehow, that he was as lost in his world as she was in hers.

  The knowledge held her motionless, and she could do nothing but stare into the reflection of his eyes as he stared into the reflection of hers. Captured like a wisp of smoke in a bottle, she stood for what could have been a lifetime or a heartbeat while a thousand promises broke open inside her and vanished before she could name them.

  Abruptly aware of a belated sense of danger, she spun on her heel to face the man…and met only emptiness. There was no one in the brightly lit dressing room but her. Turning again to the mirror, she saw no reflection but her own. She stared, wide-eyed and unblinking, but not even a hazy shadow could be seen in the glass. Nothing but the rather forlorn image of a bridal-shop clerk in a dress she could never hope to afford.

  “Snap out of it,” she said briskly to reassure her racing pulse. There was no one else in the shop, no sound except the air conditioner’s hum and the occasional thunder roll. Her imagination had produced a Prince Charming to match the wedding gown, an image to parallel her fantasy. Already, she’d forgotten what he looked like…although if she put her mind to it…

  “Give your imagination an Academy Award and get on with your life, Eliza.” Tipping her head to one side, she cast one final, luxurious, full-length look at herself in the million-dollar bridal gown. “Get out of the dress,” she continued aloud. “If your imagination doesn’t kill you, Mrs. Pageatt most assuredly will.”

  The words had no sooner warmed her lips when she realized she had a problem. She couldn’t imagine how or when it had happened, but a button on the left sleeve had snagged the lace of the bodice, tieing her wrist to her waist. She moved her hand and felt the grip of the lace as it pulled taut. Immediately, she stopped, and the pressure on the snag eased.

  Frowning, she assessed the possibility of damage as she used her right hand to smooth the pucker of fabric around the button. She wiggled the button to no avail, picked at a thread in the lace, tugged at the tangle, and nearly had a heart attack when she heard a tiny ripping sound.

  Gulping in a deep, panicked breath, she soothed the lace with her fingertips and looked for the damage. But the only problem she could see was the button, still caught in the bodice lace. It’s all right, she thought. It hadn’t torn. There was no need to panic. She could fix this. She was very good at mending, and this was only a minor tangle… as tangles went. All it needed was a little patience, a dab of TLC, a measure of calm, clear-headed concentra—

  She froze at the unmistakable and riveting sound of the shop’s bell. As clear as a death knell, Mrs. Pa-geatt’s voice followed the cheerful jingle. “Eliza? Eliza? The door was locked. Oh, Eliza?”

  Like a barrage of advancing tanks, the sound of her own name bombarded the back room where she stood, nailed dead to rights, as guilty as sin, caught like a thief with her hand in the till. She frantically composed an explanation.

  “Eliza?” There was the irritating clamor of the bell as the front door closed and then the click, click, click of Mrs. Pageatt’s heels on the tiled entranc
e.

  To hell with explanations. She was getting out of sight as fast as possible. She scooped up the skirt, draped the satin train over her immobilized arm and ran barefoot from the room. Past the line of fitting rooms, she ran like a mouse scurrying for cover. Past rows of lustrous taffeta and textured silks in the bridesmaid’s boutique, past the alteration station and between the racks of ready-to-be-dyed shoes. Artfully dodging a box of heart-shaped potpourri, she saw the exit sign above the alley door and knew she was home free. Well, not free exactly, but if she could just get outside, just have a minute or two to think about what to do next…

  “Eliza?”

  Mrs. Pageatt was coming around the front counter toward the back. Eliza could tell by the sound of the woman’s voice, her own name moving closer and closer. She grabbed for the doorknob with her free hand, shoved back the metal bolt and slammed her hip against the door all at the same time, pushing her way outside into the alley and pulling the door behind her. It closed with a clank, and she figured she had three, maybe four minutes at most to get that pesky button—

  Plop! Plop-plop! In quick succession, raindrops splattered like small disasters all around her. She raised her frowning face to the grumbling sky and got hit in the eye by another drop of precipitation. Twenty percent chance of light showers in the Kansas City area, the weatherman had said on the noon news. Trusting soul that she was, she didn’t even own an umbrella. She didn’t have insurance, either—at least none that would cover the accidental drowning of a million-dollar gown.

  “Every cloud has a silver lining.” She quoted Auntie Gem, even though things looked pretty bleak at the moment.

  Then, like a knight on a white steed charging to her rescue, a long, silver-gray limousine turned into the alley from the connecting street. It drove straight toward her, then veered into the parking lot several yards from the doorway where she stood. The limousine stopped, its motor idling, half in, half out of the alley, its nose forward, like a thoroughbred at the starting gate.