by Bryn Donovan
* * *
“Alright. I’ll go talk to her.”
* * *
“Thank you. We’ll be waiting.”
* * *
Liam called his name as he turned to the front door. “How are things at work?”
* * *
Robert hesitated, his hand still on the doorknob. “They let me go,” he replied quietly and left before Liam could respond.
“You have done quite a bit of work in a short time, Roy.” Liam looked around the additional room
. It wasn’t completed, but the Goodall’s had already found a couch and table to place inside.
* * *
“I wanted it under roof at least before winter.” Roy gave Eva a pained look
. He needed to be back to the barn to check on the work he had given Dennis. Plus, he had no interest in hearing a shouting match, or whatever was about to happen between Dr. Parsons and his sister-in-law. He stood and held out his hand. “Good to see you, Liam, but I need to get back to the barn.”
* * *
Liam stood as well and shook the offered hand. “Of course. I don’t want to hold you up.”
* * *
Eva stood as well. “Let me try again. Maybe she’s ready to come down now.” Eva smiled thinly
. She popped her head into her bedroom to check on the sleeping Roy Jr. before climbing the newly installed steps to the loft. Liam sighed when he heard the whispering begin.
* * *
Eva stared down at her sister who was currently sitting on the edge of her bed with her arms tightly crossed. She looked like she was about twelve years old.
* * *
“You’re being a child.”
* * *
Ellie turned her face upward, her mouth hanging open.
* * *
“It’s true,” Eva said without apology. “You need to talk to that man. He came all the way out here, and he said it’s urgent.”
* * *
“Why should I?”
* * *
“Because it’s the right thing to do, Ellie.”
* * *
When Ellie wouldn’t respond or even look at her sister again, Eva threw her hands up and went back down the stairs. She took her seat again as Liam stood and pinned him with a stern look.
* * *
“She’s not coming?” he asked, his arms opening slightly, his hat held tightly in one hand.
* * *
“Liam, let’s talk about a few things.”
* * *
“Alright.” Liam swallowed and sat down slowly.
* * *
“First of all, Ellie has had more going on than the horrors of what happened at the Schmitt household.”
* * *
Liam’s brows came together. “I didn’t know.”
* * *
“Of course you didn’t. Ellie isn’t one to just tell everything.”
* * *
“Is it medical?”
* * *
“Let’s start with the fact that she’s far from home and struggling with where her future may take her. You see, she had her future all figured out - or so she thought.”
* * *
Ellie could only hear bits and pieces of what her sister was saying and crept closer to the stairs to better hear.
* * *
Eva continued. “She was going to marry a man named Donald and be a midwife. That was it.”
* * *
Ellie closed her eyes and cringed. Why did she have to bring him up?
* * *
Liam lowered his eyes and turned his hat in his hands. “She had mentioned she thought she was going to marry someone, but he chose someone else.”
* * *
“The story is that his family made him marry into a…more prominent and wealthy family.”
* * *
Liam blew air between his teeth. “That’s terrible.”
* * *
“Yes. We aren’t sure it’s true, but judging from what we know about him and his family, it most likely is.”
* * *
“Your family…I mean to say…” he
stammered.
* * *
“Is our family wealthy or poor?”
* * *
Liam gave an embarrassed shrug.
* * *
Eva smiled lightly. “We are what you would call middle ground.”
* * *
Ellie stood from where she had been crouching. It was time to go downstairs before her sister spilled any more information she would prefer to keep private.
* * *
“I also believe she could be having a crisis of faith.”
* * *
Liam nodded. “Yes, I have…” He stopped and stood abruptly as Ellie came down the stairs of the loft
.
* * *
Eva turned slightly, relief washing over her. She stood just as Roy Jr. began to cry. “If you will both excuse me.” She touched Ellie’s arm as she passed by
. A touch of courage, she hoped.
* * *
“Hello, Ellie.”
* * *
“Liam.” Ellie stood primly next to the kitchen table, her hands folded in front of her long gray skirt
. If she had entertained any idea that she may still have feelings for Donald they vanished as soon as she saw Liam. She took a step forward. “You look exhausted.”
* * *
“I am.” He extended a hand to the spot Eva had just vacated
. “Would you please sit a moment?”
* * *
Ellie agreed with one curt nod. Liam didn’t sit until she had.
* * *
“I came to see if you would come see my niece.”
* * *
Ellie’s eyes widened. This was not the apology she had expected. She crossed her arms and legs at the same time.
* * *
“No.”
* * *
“Why?”
* * *
“In case you have forgotten, I’m not a doctor.” Her eyes were dark brown fire
.
* * *
“Ellie, I was wrong. I was wrong to speak to you like that, and I was wrong to send you out of the room with Dr. Hughes. You should have delivered the Schmitt baby.” He licked his lips and implored her with his eyes
. “Please forgive me.”
* * *
Ellie felt her body relax. Her arms uncrossed as did her legs, her hands sitting limply on her thighs.
* * *
“Liam, I accept your apology, but I’m not interested in anything but midwifing.” She lowered her eyes
. “I’m not cut out to be a doctor.”
* * *
“Aww, Ellie!” Liam stood and smacked his hat against his leg as he turned a circle
. He dropped his hat on the chair and grabbed her by the hands, pulling her to her feet. He angled his head slightly, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “You are better with the patients than I am. You anticipate problems and you sit and listen better than me. You already are a doctor.” He squeezed her hands and let them go
.
* * *
Ellie’s stomach was fluttering. She smoothed her skirts and nodded, a slow smile spreading across her face. “It took you long enough to realize all this.”
* * *
Liam’s head drew back before he chuckled.
* * *
“Alright. I will come see your niece.
* * *
It was impulse that shocked Ellie and Liam as he reached forward and gave her a quick hug.
* * *
He smelled of soap and something clean that she wished was hope. Ellie could literally feel the final surrender of her heart to him. It made her sad in the utter foolishness of it. But what was she to do? Trying to control the human heart was an impossible thing
. She stepped back and stilled her face.
* * *
“I need to get my bag and shawl, then we ca
n leave.”
* * *
Yes, it was an impossible thing.
“Follow my finger, Carrie, with only your eyes.”
* * *
Carrie did exactly as Ellie requested as Ellie moved her finger slowly from the right and to the left and back again, then upward.
* * *
“Her eyes seem fine, but what you’re describing sounds like eye strain.”
* * *
“How can you tell?” Robert asked, his mouth turned down in a frown.
* * *
“Her headaches are originating at the forehead and moving backwards to the middle of the skull.”
* * *
“Carrie, do you read?”
* * *
Carried nodded slowly. Her eyes flicking nervously from one parent to the other.
* * *
“Where do you read?”
* * *
Carrie swallowed and let her head drop.
* * *
“Carrie?” Mary spoke sternly
. “You answer Miss Ellie this minute!”
* * *
“Mrs. Brooks loans me her books to read when I’m there.”
* * *
“Alright.” Mary said
. “There’s nothing wrong with that. I didn’t know such young girls could read so well so fast, but why are your eyes full of tears?”
* * *
“My stomach hurts.”
* * *
Mary shook her head as Ellie looked up at her. “It happens often.”
* * *
“Do you feel upset, Carrie?” Ellie asked quietly.
* * *
Carrie nodded.
* * *
“Your stomach hurts when you feel nervous or upset?”
* * *
“Yes.”
* * *
“And you get headaches with the stomach aches?”
* * *
Carrie nodded.
* * *
Ellie smiled gently and patted her knee. “I don’t think you’re sick at all.”
* * *
“You don’t?” Carrie asked with big eyes.
* * *
“Nope. I think you just get nervous and it makes your stomach and head hurt. It happens to a lot of people. When you read, make sure you have plenty of light.” Ellie turned to Robert and Mary
. “She may eventually need glasses, but it’s doubtful. The eye strain can cause a bad enough headache for a nervous stomach; however, I assess this is a legitimate nervous issue.” Ellie paused
. “Please don’t think I’m prying. Is everything…alright here in the home?”
* * *
Mary and Robert exchanged a glance, causing Liam to stand straighter, his senses on alert.
* * *
“I lost my job with the lumber company. Before that I didn’t get to work much. It’s my leg, you see.”
* * *
Ellie nodded compassionately.
* * *
“We haven’t exactly had enough for bills and food. The talk may have worried Carrie. She might have noticed there isn’t as much food now,” Robert finished quietly.
* * *
Liam sharply exhaled the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Why didn’t you come to me?” he demanded. “I would have helped! I will help!”
* * *
“I couldn’t burden you, brother.”
* * *
“Come work at the office.”
* * *
“What?” Robert’s face was a mask of disbelief
. “What could I possibly do there?”
* * *
Ellie grinned. “I think you are about to become a medical student.”
* * *
“I don’t know.” Robert shook his head
. “That was never really for me.”
* * *
Mary stepped forward, her shoulders squared. “I would like to learn medicine. I would like to learn how to be a nurse.”
* * *
Ellie hugged her. “You will make a great nurse!”
* * *
Robert shrugged. “I still need a job too.”
* * *
Liam clamped him on the shoulder. “We’ll work on it. Don’t you worry.”
Chapter Thirty
Liam smiled at the plaque in his hands. It was bigger than the last one, and far nicer in his opinion than the one that used to hang on the front door. He hung it on the office door and carefully covered it with a cloth, making sure it wouldn’t fall off before the ceremony later that afternoon. Once satisfied, after trying the door several times, Liam checked his pocket watch and readied himself for Ellie to come in. The past week had been tense. He missed her playful way. He missed the flirting. When she came in to work now, it was strictly business.
* * *
“Don’t worry,” Mary said as she watched him from behind the desk. “She’ll come around.”
* * *
“I don’t know.” Liam shook his head, his lips thin
. “I hurt her terribly.”
* * *
“Yes, and you are making amends. Sometimes hurt can be forgiven quickly but takes a while to heal.”
* * *
“I suppose.”
* * *
“Trust me. I know. I’m married to a Parsons after all,” Mary winked.
* * *
The doorbell tinkled and Liam braced himself as Ellie walked in. She nodded at them and offered a good morning before hanging up her coat.
* * *
“What’s on the agenda today?”
* * *
“I have kept the day open. Aside from any emergencies, of course.”
* * *
Ellie’s face darkened. “Of course. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s the day of the ceremony. The day this office gets its official new doctor.”
* * *
“Yes, and we are revealing Levi’s old house as the first hospital of Clinton. The Hughes Hospital.” Liam smiled
. “Hopefully, we will have excited wealthy donors who will help it grow into a real hospital with more than two beds.”
* * *
“Give it time,” Mary said, lifting her eyes from the paper she was writing on. “Give all things worth waiting for the necessary time.”
* * *
Liam barely nodded, her words carrying a dual meaning he hoped only he understood.
* * *
“What are you working on?” Ellie asked.
* * *
“I’m trying to make a chart to help me remember the bones.” Mary sighed
.
* * *
Ellie came around the desk and looked at Mary’s paper. She had begun drawing the human skeleton based on a picture in one of Liam’s books.
* * *
“That’s very good, Mary!” Ellie spoke with enthusiasm
. “You draw well.” She looked closely at the paper
. “You have gone into more detail than the original diagram. How did you know to do that?”
* * *
“I looked at a different picture from another book yesterday.” She lifted a shoulder
. “I just remembered and began putting them together here.” She tapped her paper with the end of her pencil.
* * *
“Amazing.” Ellie said
. “Liam, have you looked at this? It will be helpful for us as well.”