LovingDragon

LOVING DRAGON

T LEE GARLAND

Loving Dragon

Copyright © 2015

Published by Dark Hollows Press

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Sweet Hearts

Copyright © 2015 T Lee Garland

ISBN 10: 1942176597

ISBN 13: 978-1-942176-59-6

Author: T Lee Garland

Editor: Ashley Kain

Original Publication Date: February 2015

All cover art and logo copyright © 2015 by Dark Hollows Press

Cover Design by 3 Rusted Spoons

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

Because everyone needs a hero sometimes

I dedicate this story to mine

Daddy, Carl and Aunt C

Gone but never forgotten

Chapter One

“You can’t really expect to get away with this!” Catherine screamed as her stepfather, Howard, pushed her into her bedroom.

“Your mother and I feel it’s for the best, just until you come to your senses and agree to marry Douglas. I just don’t understand you, Catherine. Your mother and I have always treated you like our little princess, we have given you everything you have ever wanted and needed, and all we ask in return is for you to make wise choices in life.”

Catherine snorted. “All you’re asking in return is for me to give up
my
life and marry some old crony that you have personally handpicked for me!”

Howard sighed. “Douglas Washburn is one of the wealthiest and most respected men in this state. He comes from a very influential family. Is it too much to ask that our only child marry well? We only want the best for you, princess. We just want you to live the rest of your life in the custom that your mother and I have always maintained for you. Catherine, you’re a very beautiful girl. Marrying Douglas, who by the way is crazy about you, will ensure your place in society.”

“You mean it will ensure
your
place in society. I care nothing about all that. I’m young! I just want to have some fun. Marrying someone who is almost thirty years older than me is
not
going to happen! Besides, he’s creepy. I don’t like the way he looks at me.” Catherine shuddered.

Howard frowned. “Then you leave me no options. You will stay locked in your bedroom until you come to your senses and agree to the wedding.”

“I will never agree to this sham of a wedding! If I were to wed anyone, it would be someone young and handsome and not someone old enough to be my father!” Catherine screamed. She was starting to panic, suspecting she wasn’t going to be able to talk him out of this harebrained scheme of his. And it hurt more than she would ever admit that her mother didn’t care enough to sober up and fight for her only daughter’s happiness.

Howard’s face reddened. “Then you will stay locked inside of your gilded tower until you agree or until that handsome prince you are waiting for swoops in to save you!” With that he gathered up her laptop and phone and slammed and locked her bedroom door. Catherine launched herself at the closed door and beat on it until her hands were bruised. Her screams echoed around the cavernous bedroom. She whirled, storming across the room to fling open the double doors that led to the Juliette balcony overlooking the paved driveway. It would be dangerous, but damned if she wasn’t desperate enough to try to scale it. This was going to take some planning. She would wait a couple of hours, and give them time to settle for the night. Then she could make her move. Catherine stretched out across the bed. She just needed to be patient. Within minutes she had fallen into an exhausted sleep.

Catherine’s green eyes opened and scanned her bedroom. The large room was in shadows now, illuminated only by the small Tiffany lamp on her bedside table. The room had been decorated in teal and snowy white. Her four-poster bed was built up on a pedestal and draped with billowing silk. It was a
bed built for a princess
thought Catherine. “What a joke,” she said out loud as she sat up in the middle of the bed. Her nearby desk sat empty of both her phone and her laptop courtesy of Howard.

“Damn him,” she muttered as she began yanking the bedcovers off and tying them together. She was getting out of here even if it killed her. There was no way in hell she was marrying creepy Douglas Washburn, with his watery blue eyes, fake smile, and wandering hands.

“Pssst.”

Catherine tilted her head toward the door. Had she heard something? Or was it just wishful thinking on her part?

“Pssst,” the sound came again, and this time it was followed by a scratching at her bedroom door. Catherine walked across the room and pressed her cheek to the smooth wood surface.

“Who’s there?” she whispered.

“Princess, it’s Mary. I’m trying to help you get out.” Mary, her old nanny who now worked as a maid for the family, picked diligently at the lock with a bobby pin.

“Oh, thank God, Mary, please hurry…please,” pleaded Catherine. It seemed to take forever, but finally the lock gave way and the door was opened. Catherine flew into Mary’s arms hugging her former nanny tightly. “Thank you, Mary, thank you so much.”

“It’s okay, child, it’s going to be all okay. It’s a shame what they’re trying to do to my baby girl, and I’ll not stand by and let it happen. I’m helping you out of here right now. Gather up a bag with some clothes in it. My daughter Mia is waiting outside in her car to take you to Maxville County where she lives. She has a job for you if you want it. They won’t be able to find you so easily there, but you can’t take much with you. Now come on and hurry up!”

Catherine grabbed her large Louis Vuitton duffle bag, and quickly began shoving some clothes and toiletries in it. She pulled her hidden cash from a book at the back of her closet and quickly counted it out. A total of six hundred and ninety-four dollars wouldn’t go far, but it would have to do for now. She wouldn’t be able to use her credit cards because they might be traced, so she pitched them on the bed and looped her purse across her body. “I’m ready,” she announced, and Mary nodded her approval.

“Good girl. Now your mama had too much to drink as usual and went to bed hours ago, but your stepdad has only been in bed an hour or two, he was on the phone talking to that Douglas man, I heard him assure him that you would come around eventually. Make sure you’re quiet. If you wake him it will be trouble for both of us.”

Catherine frowned. “I’m worried for you, Mary. What if they find out you helped me?”

“They ain’t going to know, child.” Mary walked across the room, picked up the rope Catherine had fashioned from her bed linens, and tied it to the balcony. “It’s a two-story drop to the ground, but they won’t know you weren’t desperate enough to try it anyway. I’ll lock the door from the outside, just like I found it. Now don’t worry about me. You just go.”

Catherine felt the tears gather in her eyes. “Thank you, Mary, for everything. I love you.”

“I know that, child. Now you go and be quiet,” Mary said, brushing away her own tears.

Catherine tiptoed down the huge spiral staircase that led to the two-story foyer. She had lived in this house for the past ten years when her single mom had lucked out and caught herself a wealthy, but lonely Howard Stanley. He was a man with political ambitions and enough money to gloss over the fact that his new beautiful wife was a single mother, working as a hair stylist when he had met her. Her mother, Virginia White-Stanley, had sold out in order to marry into money and become a politician’s wife. She now drank herself to sleep most nights. Catherine loved her mother, but she was weak and would always follow Howard’s lead. Therefore they would not be able to help each other. Catherine knew she had to save herself.

Catherine winced when she stepped on the ninth step. Past experience from sneaking in and out had taught her it had a squeak. When the squeak came it seemed to echo around the house and Catherine held her breath waiting for the sound of her stepfather’s bedroom door to open. When it didn’t, she raced the rest of the way down the stairs and out the door. A small dark car sat idling with its lights off in the curved, paved drive. Catherine opened the door, pitched her bag in the back and jumped in. The girl driving floored it, keeping her headlights off until she reached the main road.

Catherine breathed a sigh of relief. She had done it. She had escaped from the castle.

A smile touched her lips. Could her prince charming be very far behind?

Chapter Two

Catherine glanced sideways at Mia. Of course she had known that her nanny had a daughter just a little older than herself, but she had never met her before tonight. She took a moment to let her gaze slide over Mia. She was beautiful, bi-racial with large, dark almond-shaped eyes and creamy colored skin. Her dark hair fell in curls to her shoulders. Catherine thought she was twenty-three, which would make her three years older than herself.

“Are you done eyeballing me, princess?” Mia asked suddenly, causing Catherine to jump at the unexpected sound of her husky voice.

“You’re very beautiful.”

Mia smiled. “Thank you.”

“I’m Catherine. Thank you for helping me, Mia. Your mom has told me so much about you through the years, and she is so proud of how you’ve been working so hard to put yourself through college.”

“I know who you are. Mom always came home from work talking about her ‘little golden-haired princess.’ For the past ten years, that’s all I’ve heard. I feel like I know you—all about you and your so-called troubles, the troubles of a poor little rich girl.”

Catherine winced. “I’m not rich. My stepfather is. I don’t care how much money you have or don’t have, Mia. Being forced to marry someone you don’t love is wrong. That Douglas Washburn is evil. I can feel it. I won’t marry him. I don’t care if I have to live in a ditch. Am I so wrong for not wanting to marry someone I don’t love? Or for wanting my own life and not one that’s chosen for me?”

Mia shook her head, sending her curls bouncing around her stunning face. “No, you’re not wrong. I’m sorry. I just finished my shift and I’m tired. Mom would never make me marry someone I didn’t love. That’s probably why she called tonight and asked for me to come and get you. No one is going to be sleeping in a ditch, by the way. I just rented a two-bedroom apartment and I could use some help with the rent, roommate.”

“I don’t have much money. I’ll need to find a job. Your mom said you may have one for me? I’m afraid I don’t know how to do much. My parents were so insistent I marry Douglas that they wouldn’t even allow me to attend college this fall. They said I wouldn’t need college or to work once I was Mrs. Washburn. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never worked before.”

“It’s okay. I work at Bubba’s as a bartender-slash-server. There’s a job there as a server, and if you like, I could get you in. You’re pretty, so with some work you should make a lot in tips.” Mia shot a quick glance across to Catherine.

“Really? That would be so awesome! I could serve…tables, right? Is Bubba’s a restaurant?”