by Bryn Donovan
Liam was as proud of Ellie as if she were a child and he were the beaming parent on the front seat of the school Christmas play. He nodded appreciatively as she explained, in detail, the birth from the day before.
* * *
“It sounds like you did a bang-up job. The looks of mother and son attest to that.” He smiled
.
* * *
“Thank you. This was the first birth that I have overseen completely on my own.”
* * *
“And I’m sure it won’t be your last.” Liam reached above his head and touched a dark green leaf from the branch hanging just over his head
. After he had seen Eva and the baby, he had asked Ellie to walk with him outside. “Ellie, I have enjoyed our time together. You have proven yourself to be an adept and intelligent student, but I would like to know if we could try a different sort of arrangement.”
* * *
“Such as?” Ellie bent and plucked a dandelion from the ground, tracing its soft burst of petals along her
jawline.
* * *
“I would like to ask you to dinner.”
* * *
Ellie stilled for a moment before continuing to play with the flower. Her heart sped up and she hoped Liam wouldn’t notice the blush creeping up her face.
* * *
“That’s very kind of you, Liam, but we have a wonderful working relationship. I wouldn’t want to jeopardize that.”
* * *
Liam’s face barely registered the disappointment. “Of course. I understand. I wouldn’t want to jeopardize it either.”
* * *
Ellie dropped the flower and made a grand gesture with her arms, ending it with her hands framing her face. “I know I’m barely able to be resisted, but you must try. Think of the patients!”
* * *
Liam laughed loudly. “You’re such a humble woman.”
* * *
“Yes, it’s one of my better traits,” Ellie continued to tease. They walked back to the house together, bantering playfully back and forth. To any observer it would appear that the disappointment was forgotten.
* * *
Ellie waited for Roy to return to his work and for Eva to wake from her nap before she decided to pour out her bleeding heart.
* * *
“Liam asked me to have dinner with him,” Ellie casually commented as she walked slowly around the bedroom, lightly rocking the baby in her arms.
* * *
“That’s wonderful!” Eva smiled. “Which evening are you going?”
* * *
“We aren’t. I turned him down.”
* * *
Eva’s face fell, ending with her mouth hanging open. “Why?”
* * *
Ellie placed Roy Jr. in the little wooden crib before sitting on the edge of the bed with her sister. She kept her voice hushed.
* * *
“Don’t get me wrong. Liam is a wonderful man. He’s smart and caring. He’s handsome.” She pushed her lips to the side and looked away for a moment
. “I told him I didn’t want to jeopardize our professional relationship.”
* * *
“But that isn’t the real reason, is it?”
* * *
Ellie shook her head.
* * *
“Is it Donald?”
* * *
Ellie nodded. “Yes. I just can’t be hurt like that again.”
* * *
Eva reached forward and squeezed Ellie’s hand. “You have to just get back out there and see for yourself that there are still some good men. There are more good men than evil ones.”
* * *
“I’m not saying Donald is evil, Eva. He’s…misguided.”
* * *
Eva shook her head. “Call it whatever you like. Liam is a good Christian man. Mary told me he often comes and has devotions with her and Robert if Robert’s leg is feeling too poorly after a week of work to attend church service on Sunday.”
* * *
Ellie’s face darkened. “Does ‘good’ and ‘Christian’ always go together? I mean, Donald went to the same church as mother and father, and look at his carry on.”
* * *
Eva tilted her head to the side, regarding her sister as if she had just fit a puzzle piece that had been missing. “You’re having a faith issue again, aren’t you?”
* * *
Ellie sighed and went to the window. She hated the tears that threatened to spill. She hated feeling so uncertain about so many things. The only certain thing in her life was the fact that she loved medicine.
* * *
“Sweetheart,” Eva said quietly. “You have to reconcile this dilemma. I know you believe. You talked about Jesus almost nonstop when you were little.” She scooted up higher in the bed, a wide grin on her face
. “Do you remember tying the sticks together with twine to make a cross that you stuck in the back garden and began to preach about the resurrection in front of?”
* * *
A smile twitched on Ellie’s lips, her eyes still gazing from the window. “I dipped water for us and stole a biscuit that was meant for dinner.” Ellie turned from the window, her face had changed to a blank mask
. “Do you remember the slap I took across the face when I told Mother we were having communion? Do you remember my being sent to bed without dinner because I had cried that Jesus turned water into wine and maybe he would let me too?”
* * *
Eva’s smile faded as she spoke. “Yes, I remember,” she whispered.
* * *
“I’m going to start supper,” Ellie said, and marched from the room.
* * *
Eva stared at the crib with her sleeping son in it. Please, God, help me to be a good parent. Help me and Roy to love this child. Please help us to not do careless things that might tear him away from you. Amen.
* * *
Eva turned her face to the empty doorway, noises from the front room slinking in as Ellie began supper. She hurt for her sister.
* * *
Ellie was exhausted and just wanted to climb the ladder to the loft and go to sleep. She had helped deliver two babies and Liam had taken her on an emergency trip to a small accident at one of the timber clearing sites where she learned to set a broken bone. When Dr. Hughes arrived, he “taught” her how to stitch. She hadn’t had the heart to tell him that Liam had already been working with her on bettering her technique.
* * *
“Dinner is almost ready,” Eva happily announced. She stirred a pot with one hand while cooing at Roy Jr. cradled in the crook of her opposite arm. It was day three of her being up and about, and she had a glow that Ellie had never seen on new mothers. Eva had taken to it like she was meant to do nothing but be a wife and birth babies.
* * *
“Letter came for you,” Roy said, and handed Ellie a small envelope.
* * *
Ellie took it, hoping it was from one of her sisters. She frowned to see that it was from Donald. Eva’s eyes were on her, but Ellie didn’t look her way. She climbed the ladder and sat on the edge of her narrow bed. Her hands shook as she opened the letter.
* * *
My Dearest, Ellie.
* * *
I pray this letter finds you well and prospering. I was shocked to hear that you had left Chicago to go stay with your sister in Clinton and had hoped I wasn’t the cause of your departure. Once I heard you were there to help with another baby, it became crystal clear why you left. Your mother didn’t indicate you would be back anytime soon. In light of that, I would like to ask a presumptive question. May I visit you?
* * *
Please respond post haste. There is much we should discuss.
* * *
Sincerely,
* * *
Donald.
* * *
Ellie held the letter in her hand and stared straight ahead. A visit? Why? Why now? Her mind raced with
possibilities
. A part of her wished to never see him again, yet there was part (one she wasn’t pleased with) that wanted very much to see him. She had after all, at one point, felt like she loved him. Now… Now the entire situation was just a mess of confusion. At least for her it was.
* * *
“Ellie?” Eva said quietly, her head and shoulders appearing at the top of the ladder. “I have good news. Roy said he’s going to replace this terrible ladder with a little set of stairs.” She came to the bed and sat down
.
* * *
“I would appreciate that,” Ellie said, her eyes still staring straight ahead.
* * *
“I know that was from Donald. Would you like to talk about it?”
* * *
“What’s there to talk about? He wants to come here and visit.”
* * *
Eva frowned. “Why?”
* * *
Ellie shrugged. “I don’t know. He didn’t say.”
* * *
“What about the…his…”
* * *
“Fiancé?”
* * *
“I didn’t want to say it.”
* * *
Ellie sighed.
* * *
“You never really explained what happened. All you said was that he left you for someone else.”
* * *
Ellie tossed the letter to the floor. “There isn’t much to talk about. He was going to marry me, but his family forced him into some kind of arranged thing with another wealthy family.”
* * *
“So, he really didn’t leave you by his own will?” Eva asked.
* * *
Ellie turned her head sharply. “I don’t believe a word of it! Donald is a businessman
. His father is a businessman. All they see is money.”
* * *
Eva scooted over and draped her arm around Ellie. Ellie let her head lay on her sister’s shoulder.
* * *
I just don’t know what to do.”
* * *
“Nothing right now. Sleep on it for a couple days.”
* * *
“I have a surprise for you!” Liam beamed when Ellie entered the office a couple weeks later.
* * *
Ellie couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. “You do?”
* * *
“Yes!” Liam pulled a black bag from behind the examining table and handed it to her
. The bag looked just like the one Liam used.
* * *
Ellie ran her hand over the leather front and opened the clasp. The sides opened, and inside was a stethoscope, thermometer, gauze bandages, and other things a regular doctor needed.
* * *
“I don’t understand.” Ellie looked up at him with wide eyes.
* * *
“When you first started accompanying me to the Smith residence, I noticed what few medical things you had were just not enough. I sent for a few things for you from a doctor friend I have in Des Moines. He’s quite interested in meeting you; I might add. Or at least the letter he sent with all of this indicated so.” His smile was utterly contagious
.
* * *
“My goodness, that was nearly two months ago, and you didn’t even know if I would stay and be your student.”
* * *
He shrugged. “I gambled on it, I suppose.”
* * *
Ellie touched the edge of the stethoscope with her fingertips. Liam was such a good man. All he ever wanted to do was help people. He had dedicated to life to it. She lifted her head.
* * *
“Thank you, Liam. This was so thoughtful.”
* * *
His smile faltered. “I do hope you will make the decision to stay long-term. I won’t scare you with the word ‘permanently’.” He reached forward slowly and touched her hand
. “You really are making an impact here.”
* * *
Ellie looked him in the eyes. What would life be like with Liam? She imagined it would be peaceful yet with a hint of adventure as she worked alongside him
. She could tell that he would always be honest and hard-working. Maybe there could be a future for them. But first she had to hear what Donald had to say. It had been a couple weeks since his letter, but if she didn’t hear him out, Liam or no Liam, she would spend the rest of her life under the shadow of what if. It was time to write him a response.
Levi Hughes stretched his left arm across his chest, pushing at the area above the elbow with his right hand and wincing. The pain didn’t ease. It was the third time that day that he’d had the pain. He was breathing fine, but he had noticed he was more winded than normal when he had walked back to the office after having a heavy lunch at the Hotel Dubois restaurant. He was famished, and perhaps he had eaten too quickly. It could explain the pain in his chest, but not the left arm.
* * *
Liam watched Dr. Hughes from the large white and glass medicine cabinet. He was preparing a cream that would maybe help Robert with some of the increasing aches he was experiencing. He needed to speak to the doctor about the concerns Liam was having concerning his health. He wasn’t a young man. He would be sixty-nine on his next birthday.
* * *
“Are you feeling alright?”
* * *
Levi glared at Liam and stopped rubbing his arm. “Yes! I’m fine! Why don’t you worry about your patients and stop trying to steal my practice right out from under me for a change!”
* * *
Liam’s eyes widened. He knew Levi suspected that of him, but he had never so rudely blurted it out. He must really be feeling bad.
* * *
“Levi, you know that’s not what I’m trying to do.”
* * *
“Oh really?” The sneer was deep and his voice whiny
. “More and more people come to you now instead of me. Ever since the Smiths had pneumonia. I think you told people I did something to hurt them, when we both know good and well that I did not!” His face crumpled in pain and he leaned forward, a fist to the center of his chest.
* * *
“Levi!” Liam rushed forward and pulled him back before his head could connect with the edge of his desk
. “Here. Just relax. Let me get you some water.”
* * *
Levi took the water and gulped the contents of the tin mug. His breathing was harsh and wheezy.
* * *
“You may be having a heart attack.”
* * *
“Nonsense! I just ate too much and too fast earlier, that’s all,” he grumbled.
* * *
Liam went to the medicine cabinet and pulled out aspirin powder. “I want you to rub a little of this on your gums and under your tongue, then go home and rest, Levi.” Liam said quietly, but with a firmness he rarely used on the older doctor.
* * *
“Why, so you can finish taking my…”
* * *
“Stop that. You know deep down that isn’t true. There aren’t any other patients scheduled today. Maybe I’ll just go home too.” Liam crossed his arms as Dr. Hughes just sat there like a stubborn child
. “Alright. Have it your way, but I think I should at least examine you.”
* * *
“No.”
* * *
Liam sighed and threw up his hands. “So, I guess going home to rest is out of the question too?”
* * *
“You just want to force me into early retirement! I need this income!”
* * *
“Early retirement? Levi, you’re…”
* * *
“I know how old I am!”
* * *
Liam held up his hands, palms facing outward. “I’m going to finish this ointment and take it to Robert. I won’t be back today.”