“Do ye want me to come, Ed?” Annie asked.
“If ye want, or do ye have somethin’ else in mind?”
“Liam had asked Eva and me if we wanted to come to the hospital to see where he works. Eva’s been a few times, but he thought today might be a good day to do that. The head administrator is gone until tomorrow. We’re going at dinner time.”
“Well, by all means, do what ye’d like. I’ll be fine. I’m very happy with the prospect,” Ed said. He was off to their room to get ready. Eva saw Ed give Annie a little wink as he walked past her. Annie quickly followed, smiling at Eva. Eva got the inference and smiled back as Annie left the kitchen with a little anticipatory hop in her step.
~~~
Just before noon, Annie and Eva left for the hospital to see Liam. Conor and Liisa were riding along in the pram. The slate sidewalks were clear and dry of snow. The sun had been shining for the last several days as the end of April temperatures moderated. There were rivulets of water flowing into the dirt street from melting snow. There was still a bit of a cold breeze, however, reddening everyone’s nose and cheeks. The day was brisk and stimulating.
When they arrived at the hospital, the receptionist, Lucy, was sitting at her desk in the lobby. Early on, Liam told Eva that Lucy had the ire of the nursing staff. Gossip ripped through the hospital about her attempts at enticing Drs. Dady, O’Neill, and Johnson—and who knows who else—into extramarital activities. Liam had told Eva that the only one to nibble at the bait, as far as he knew, had been Johnson, the head of the hospital.
“I suppose he was flattered at the attention at his age,” Liam had speculated as he talked to Eva in those early weeks of arriving in Helena.
Liam had let Eva know that he had been polite but curt and standoffish. Elder Sean had been downright mean to get her to back off. The stories of her had been mixed. Some had it that Lucy was married and separated, or divorced, or even happily married, but insatiable sexually.
“It’s a shame,” Liam had said about Lucy's affair with Dr. Johnson. “Johnson’s wife is such a nice lady. Her family has a lot of money. Her father and uncle were in the mining administration.”
Eva had felt immense empathy for Mrs. Johnson. She had let the subject go after the discussion with Liam, and she hadn't thought about it since.
Now, as Eva was informing Annie of Lucy and her “activities,” she looked up to see Lucy standing in the big front windows. “Sees vattsink,” Eva said with irritation.
“Don’t have one worry, Eva. Liam is not the type. He’s a one-woman man. He would not be attracted to a woman like that.”
“Liam say sees … I don’t know vord. Sees keep tryink and tryink.”
“Persistent?”
“Somptink like dat.”
Eva and Annie maneuvered the pram deftly through the double windowed wooden doors, laughing at Liisa who was singing a Finnish song Eva had taught her.
“Ye’re such a clever wee girl,” Annie cooed, as they walked in and started through the lobby.
Since Eva had been there before and knew where Liam’s office was, she was ignoring Lucy.
But Lucy piped up with indignation in her voice, “Excuse me, ladies. How may I help you?”
“Ve don’t need help,” Eva said as politely as she could. “I know vhere my husband office is. Tank you.”
Lucy gave them a black look. Eva chose to ignore it and kept on walking.
Liam came out of his office to greet them. He kissed his wife briefly and also pecked Annie on the cheek. “Welcome, my girls, and Liisa, my sweet,” he said. He picked up his daughter. She squealed in delight at seeing her father. “Conor, my wee man,” Liam said affectionately.
All this in front of Lucy, Eva noted. If looks could kill, Lucy would have her dead in the hall.
“Come in, Sean’s here,” Liam said cordially. He put Liisa down and pulled his son out of the pram.
Annie stepped into the office. Liam put his hand on Eva’s arm and looked at her with mild concern. “What’s that look on yer face,” he whispered. His back was to Lucy.
Eva whispered back, “I don’t like her. Sees vant you.”
“We’ll talk when we get home. Ye’re worryin’ about nothin’,” Liam insisted. “Will ye let it go for now, while we visit?” He leaned in and kissed her.
“Yes, I can.”
“Aye, ye will,” he corrected.
“Dat’s vhat I say. I don’t say ‘aye.’”
“Never mind.”
They both walked into the office. Eva felt safer out of Lucy’s vicious gaze, and the conversation became pleasant and jovial.
~~~
As Liam’s family settled into his office, Liam held Conor. Liisa, on the other hand, was loose and exuberant. Suddenly, the wound-up toddler busted out of the room and made her way to the hall. She was standing in front of a nearby hall closet with its door open before Liam caught up to her. Liam looked into the closet.
Lucy was standing in the closet. “What do ye think yer doin’ in here?” Liam asked, his eyes locked on her, knowing she could eavesdrop on them from there. “I don’t think ye’re fixin’ to mop the floors.”
Lucy said nothing, managing a look of affront. Her face flushed furiously as she walked past Liam and back to her desk.
Liam took Liisa’s hand, giving Lucy a you’d-better-think-twice-before-doing-that-again look as she glanced at him from her seat. He turned around and walked back to his office.
After Eva and Annie left with the children, Liam called Lucy into his office. Sean chose to remain.
“Do ye know what ye did, listenin’ in, is strong grounds for employment termination?”
Standing erect with a look of offense, Lucy attempted to stand her ground. “Dr. Johnson won’t fire me.”
“Are ye so sure, Lucy?” Sean piped in belligerently. “I’ve heard that Mrs. Johnson has threatened him with divorce and loss of usage of her hearty income. He likes his money more than you.”
“I wouldn’t talk, Dr. O’Neill—” Lucy started, but stopped.
Liam glanced at Sean and watched his face flush with fury and his eyes strain with something else. Liam didn’t know what.
Lucy started to speak again, but Liam interrupted her. “If ye want yer job here, Lucy,” he said, “fine. Start behaving a little more appropriately. We can always recommend ye for another job elsewhere.”
Lucy gazed at Liam. Her demeanor towards him changed subtly. She gave him a softer, kindly expression, compared to the one she’d turned on Sean.
Sean ended the meeting abruptly. “Ye’re dismissed,” he said.
Lucy made no further eye contact with Sean, but Liam noticed her face changed back to abject vitriol with the tone of the dismissal.
Liam watched from the doorway as Lucy made her way back to the front desk in the lobby and sat down. He turned back to Sean.
“What was she inferrin’ to, Sean?”
“Don’t fuckin’ ask, Liam,” Sean half warned, half begged.
Liam looked at him in questioning disgust.
“It happened. I told her no more, and she’s hated me ever since.”
“Jesus, Sean.”
“It happened before ye came. She’s been messin’ with Johnson ever since. I’ve had to keep quiet so she won’t rat me out to the world—or to Molly.”
~~~
A week later, Liam and Dr. Johnson were in the head administrator’s office discussing a patient’s diagnosis and treatment, when they heard a woman scream out in the hallway. They rushed out of Johnson’s office to see Lucy Jeffries with her suit jacket off, revealing a ripped blouse with a camisole-covered breast exposed. Liam saw Sean paralyzed in the doorway, a stupefied look on his face. Others in the hospital were filtering into the first-floor hall to see what the ruckus was about.
To Liam, Lucy tried to be convincing. “Dr. O’Neill tried to … rape me,” she said. She breathed heavily, pointing a finger at Sean.
“Ye’re full o’ shite, Woman!” Sean
said. “Ye walked into the office, took yer coat off, and yer blouse was already ripped.”
Johnson started to take Lucy’s side, as any gentleman from his generation would. “You may want to consider getting out of here, Sean,” Johnson said. “If this goes public, I mean.”
“I’ll do no such thing! I didn’t lay a hand on her, although that’s what she’s all about.” He glared at her. “Aren’t ye? Ye wee vixen, sinkin’ yer teeth into anythin’ that has a weddin’ ring and a member danglin’ between his legs.”
Liam watched as Lucy gave a look of disgust and horror at O’Neill’s harsh words. “Dr. Johnson, are you going to let him talk to me that way? After all, Sean—”
“Lucy!” Liam snapped.
Dr. Johnson stuttered nervously, a look of exasperation on his face.
“Wayne, allow me to speak to Sean privately,” Liam said. “Then perhaps Lucy, and then you. I may know what’s amiss here, but I need to know all sides. Do ye mind?”
“Why no, Liam, I don’t mind. I want to know, too, before I impulsively fire good doctors. A replacement physician would be months down the road.”
Liam sensed Lucy was losing her grip on the situation.
She stuttered. “But he … he … how dare you all? He can’t get away with this. Wayne—Dr. Johnson— I demand you do something!”
She stamped her foot.
“Just hold your ponies, Miss—or Mrs.—Jefferies,” Dr. Johnson snapped.
Liam saw a look in Dr. Johnson’s eye that spoke volumes. This was certainly the end of his dalliance with the otherwise promiscuous young Miss Jefferies.
“Lucy,” Johnson said in a courteous voice, “go to the dining hall and have a cup of tea. Someone will be with you shortly.”
As Lucy put her jacket on and walked away, Liam took Sean into their office. They stood in the middle of the small space, face to face.
“Christ, Liam, I was at my desk writin’ my report on my last patient, and she burst in and flung her jacket off. The blouse was already ripped, and then she screamed and accused me of trying to rape her.”
“I want to be absolutely certain, Sean. I know how ye hate her. Ye didn’t just rip it because she tried to have her way with ye again?”
“I swear on my sweet mother’s grave. Yes, the woman vexes me, but I wouldn’t touch her with my hands again. I learned my lesson. She’s unctuous.”
Liam, surprised at Sean’s vocabulary, said, “Where’d ye learn that word?” Liam tried to stop his smile from erupting. He made it half way.
Sean smiled back. “I really don’t remember. I think me Mam called me that once after she slapped me when she heard me say somethin’ unctuous about twenty-two-year old Sadie O’Toole and her breasts. I wouldn’t have called my comment that, however. Her breasts were heavenly. God blessed her with quite a pair. I thought I was makin’ a divine statement. I was sixteen at the time and had many fantasies thinkin’ about them.”
“Christ, Sean. Ye might want to shut yer hole,” Liam said, trying not to laugh, but finding Sean impish. “This is not the appropriate situation for talkin’ about someone’s heavenly breasts and havin’ fantasies, ye wee eejit.”
Sean’s face grew serious. “All I can say is, I’m tellin’ the God’s honest truth here, Liam.”
Liam believed him. “I’ll talk to Johnson. Stay here for the moment.”
In Johnson’s office, Liam tried to convince his boss that it was time to let Lucy go. “Do ye not hear the gossip ’round the hospital about her, Wayne?” He hesitated for a few moments, and then continued gingerly. “Ye’ve had troubles with yer own wife concernin’ her as well. And now she's tryin’ to ruin Sean because he spoke harshly to her, sick of her flirtin’.” Liam was altering his story for his friend, feeling uncomfortable doing so.
“But where’s she going to go?” Dr. Johnson said. It seemed as though he still wanted to protect her—or maybe protect himself from her retaliations.
“I’m sure we can help her find something,” Liam said. “And you can give her a good recommendation and a good severance package that will keep her for a couple months while she searches for a new position. Call ’round, try the next towns over. Help her resettle. She just can’t stay here. I didn’t tell ye this, but I caught her eavesdroppin’ on our office in the closet next door just over a week ago. I think this was payback for warning her she better change her ways. But it was me who admonished her. Yet she chose Sean to mess with. I sense somethin’ the matter with her, and it could be escalatin’.”
“All right, Liam, but I can’t be the one to do it. You’ll have to. I’m afraid of retribution.” Johnson looked at Liam.
Liam thought Johnson had no backbone, but he said, “I’ll do it. She’s in the dinin’ hall, ye say?” Liam decided to be firm but gentle with her. He just wanted it to be done with.
He descended the stairs to the ground floor and walked toward the dining hall. He was pissed off that he was in this position. Why can’t married men keep their fuckin’ cocks in their trousers when it’s not their wife? Jesus Christ. He turned the corner and walked into the small dining room. He spotted Lucy sitting in the far corner alone, sipping tea. She still looked angry, and her back stiffened when he sat down across from her at the table.
“Would you have some tea with me, Liam?” she asked. She had a cup and saucer ready and was poised to pour from a teapot at the table.
He ignored her invitation. “What’s this about then, Lucy?”
“Dr. O’Neill attacked me. We’d had sex a few times, but I want you to believe it didn’t mean a thing to me.” She gave him a coy look. “Not like it would with you.”
Liam thought it odd that she brought him into the equation. She stared at him adoringly.
“I hope ye don’t think anyone believes he attacked ye today.” He spoke softly so no one would hear, respecting her privacy. He hoped she would understand that, but something in her face … her eyes to be exact. It was as though she was in her own world. She reached down and picked up what he thought was her teaspoon, but it wasn’t. It was a scalpel. He hadn’t seen it when he sat down. Where did she get that? he wondered as the hackles on his neck prickled.
Thinking quickly, he said, “Why don’t I get you some cake to go with your tea?”
He walked to the dessert table and picked out two pieces of cake. As he paid, he whispered to the lunch staffer, “Get Dr. O’ Neill and tell him to bring a couple of orderlies. A woman has a scalpel and is acting unpredictably. Tell him to hurry.”
“That’s Miss Jefferies,” he whispered back.
“Go now,” Liam gave him an authoritative glare.
Taking two kinds of cake back to the table, Liam put his gentle and caring face back on for Lucy Jefferies. “There, sweetheart,” he said soothingly as he sat back down. She still held the scalpel, but she looked at him adoringly. “Would ye like the chocolate or the white?”
“You choose first, my love.”
Liam proceeded to play the part she wanted him to play until someone could come to take her away.
“I’m choosing white, because I know you like chocolate, Lucy. I’ve seen ye eat it before. I know you very well.”
She smiled at his words and began to take little bites of the proffered chocolate cake with her fork in one hand, still holding the scalpel in the other. “It is my favorite. Thank you, Liam. I’ve always known you to be a gentleman.” Her eyes suddenly changed to dark hatred, “but not that horrid man Sean O’Neill.” She put her fork down on the table. “He never had cause to treat me so badly. I gave myself to him. I thought he loved me, and then he treated me with scorn.” She slammed her hand down on the table.
She’s absolutely gone, Liam thought, keeping his eye on the scalpel in her hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sean O’Neill and two male orderlies approaching. He held out his hand where she couldn’t see it, to hold them off. Then he made a circular motion with his finger for them to approach from Lucy’s rear. He reached his other hand ou
t to take the one she had just slammed down, distracting her from his hand signals.
“Ye were treated badly, and I’m sorry for that, Lucy. Ye didn’t deserve it. But now we’re eatin’ our cake together, just like ye hoped. Let’s enjoy it.” He smiled.
Out of the corner of his eye, Liam watched Sean and the two men circle around behind Lucy.
“I want something different now, Liam.” Her gaze went right through him now.
“What’s that?” He was still speaking softly and kindly. The orderlies were now about ten feet behind Lucy.
“I want to leave now, and I want you to come with me.”
With swift, exaggerated movements, Lucy stood and lunged at Liam with the scalpel, her eyes intent on his throat. With a much quicker reaction, Liam caught her wrist forcefully in mid-swing, jarring her. She screamed, apparently angry her mission was thwarted. The orderlies grabbed her by the arms. She screamed again and began to thrash and wail. Liam scrambled away. The scalpel fell safely to the floor.
“Jesus Christ,” Liam murmured, breathless in shock at nearly having his throat slashed.
“I want to die! Let me die!” Lucy emitted a primal scream, struggling violently in the grasp of the orderlies who were hauling her away. She turned her head to look at Liam, to plead with him. “Tell them let me go, Liam. I just want to die!”
Liam gave her an empathetic look, but decided not to speak to her again. Sean followed the orderlies with Lucy Jefferies firmly in their grip.
~~~
A short time after Lucy was secure and sedated, Liam sat in Dr. Johnson’s office sipping a cup of chamomile tea.
“I’m so sorry, Liam. None of us saw this coming. I’m grateful to you for how you handled … her. It was a testament to your expertise as a doctor and humanitarian. I’m … proud to have you at this hospital.”
“Thank you, Wayne.” Liam thought Johnson was being a bit histrionic and overly apologetic. “I’m just glad no one was hurt.”
They all knew what was to become of Lucy Jefferies. She would be shipped to the nearest mental facility, none of them very nice places. They would choose wisely, no matter what the cost. A hospice for women near San Francisco, run by an order of Catholic nuns, would possibly take her. Johnson would wire them before the day was through. He knew they had a locked ward.
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