“I did, too. Maybe there’s hope, Doc.” Mrs. McRay at his side, Connor knelt beside the man. His neck was twisted to an impossible angle. Connor had nearly left a man to die with his sloppy doctoring.
They soon had the poor man on his way.
Connor then went to the driver’s side. He felt for a heartbeat. The man’s body had already begun to cool. “I’m taking him in anyway,” he told Mrs. McRay.
Another door was brought over and they sent this one on, too.
“I’m a fool. I almost—what was I—”
“No time for that now.” Nurse McRay caught his arm and almost dragged him forward. God had sent this woman for a fact.
“Thank you, Mrs. McRay.”
“I’ll go with you to the doctor’s office. I might be able to help. We sent word out and found two other doctors, and the medical college sent their students over. The last man who came back with the stretcher said the first of them were showing up when he left. He told them to work on the injured because we were as good as done here.”
Connor nodded, exhausted as he thought of all the harm he might’ve done. He’d only kept up his fast pace because Nurse McRay was right there helping him, and somehow that goaded him into finding the strength.
When he and the nurse reached the doctor’s office, he saw two bandaged men walking slowly away, helped along by others. He had to give way when a team with a stretcher bearing a man came out the front door. The man following carried a doctor’s bag.
He stepped into mayhem. But no, for after a minute he saw it was in fact orderly, just fast-moving and loud. He spotted at least five patients, including two sitting up, being tended by women so young they had to be students.
Maggie and Dr. Radcliffe were here—Radcliffe working on the terribly broken arm, Maggie with the woman. The little boy was still unconscious, cradled in a man’s arms. There were no empty beds.
“Connor, Maggie could use some help with that hurt woman,” Dr. Radcliffe said. “Multiple breaks. She might have rib injuries. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Thank the good Lord in heaven, someone else was in charge. Connor was so relieved he would’ve collapsed if he’d had the time. “I brought Mrs. McRay with me. She’s a trained nurse.”
The doctor glanced over his shoulder. “Mrs. McRay, you’re a nurse? Come over here, please.”
She rushed to his side.
Connor shifted his attention to Maggie and did as he was told, as fast as he could, thrilled to be able to help—more thrilled that no one expected him to be a doctor. It was someone else’s responsibility now.
Chapter
9
Never had such a badly injured patient been Maggie’s sole responsibility.
She second-guessed nearly every decision. Even when she knew what to do, like plastering a broken bone, she wasn’t sure if she did things in the right order. How to know what the woman needed first?
“Nothing I can see is a deadly wound.” Maggie’s back cracked as she straightened. Her voice was hoarse from all the orders she’d called out. “There are so many broken bones.” She glanced up at Connor, who’d run, fetched, lifted anything she asked for and as fast as she’d asked it. “And who knows about what I can’t see?”
Connor shook his head helplessly. “What about the shoulder? You’ve got a cast on her arm and leg, her ribs are wrapped, and her head’s stitched up and bandaged. But resetting that shoulder—”
Dr. Radcliffe approached at that moment. He had a streak of blood on his face and neck. His eyes were red-rimmed, his hair in disarray. But his hands were clean and his sleeves rolled up—a man who meant business. “You’ve done wonderful work here, both of you. I can reset the shoulder.”
“What do you need?” Maggie dropped back and became the assistant.
“Connor, Maggie and I can handle this. Go see if the boy shows any sign of waking up.”
Maggie’s head came up, and she tried not to reveal her distress. It struck her again that Connor was being sent off to tend a patient on his own while she was kept nearby for supervision by Dr. Radcliffe.
“Because this is more serious and you need better hands here?” Connor asked. He met Maggie’s eyes, and she knew he’d understood her thoughts.
“Yes, of course,” Doc Radcliffe replied impatiently. “Maggie is possibly the finest pupil I’ve ever had. She’s the first woman I’ve worked with, and I’m determined she’ll be ready for anything.” Radcliffe bent over the shoulder and examined it as he talked. “I’ve been meticulous in watching her bring her skills to the highest level. I’m afraid she’ll face doubts among those she treats. The boy just needs a simple check. He got knocked cold and he’ll wake up when he’s ready. I need Maggie here with me so I can advance her training. I’d let you stay too, Connor, but I need someone with that boy.”
Connor hurried away, but not before Maggie saw the smile on his face. Considering the difficult day, finding a smile took some effort.
“Now,” Doc Radcliffe began, “normally with an injury of this type . . .”
Maggie snapped her attention back to the task in front of her. Yes. She was on her way to becoming a real doctor.
Maggie stumbled to a halt as she left the doctor’s office. “It’s still daylight.” She glanced behind her at Connor. “Unless we worked overnight and it’s actually tomorrow.”
“No, it’s definitely today. Although today would be today even if it were tomorrow.”
Maggie arched a brow. “What does that mean?”
Connor shrugged. “I think it means we’re both exhausted.” He rested his hand on her back, maybe to steady her, but it felt so nice she decided to believe he was just touching her because he wanted to be close.
Connor guided her with his strong hand, and Maggie noticed they were taking the meandering path through the park again. Last night had gone badly there, and she wished Connor hadn’t come this way.
“It was a wonder watching you work today, Maggie. I’m hoping you’re feeling better about the way Doc’s been treating you.”
Maggie inched closer to Connor, and instead of his hand resting on her back, his arm slid around her waist. “I do feel better.”
“You did things today I’d never heard of, let alone seen before. That man with the injured throat—you saved his life, Maggie.”
She looked at him, confused. “What?”
“The man who came in first, before all the injured folks from the stagecoach, the one who got thrown from a bronco?”
That wiped away some of her brain fog. “Oh, of course, the tracheotomy. That seems so long ago now. I’d read about the procedure, and we also studied it in class.” Maggie went on to explain about what a tracheotomy was, how you could open an airway in a crushed throat to keep someone breathing.
Connor asked more questions as they strolled along, enjoying talking over the madness of the day.
“I think we saved every injured passenger,” he said. “Only the driver was beyond help.”
Maggie snuggled closer to him and reached across to rest her right hand on his chest. “That must’ve been an awful thing to see, Connor, that man dead. The others so badly injured. I wasn’t done with the man’s throat when the first of the injured arrived. I was desperate to come and help you, but I had to stay.”
“I understand. And while I could’ve used the help, I knew what I was sending your way.”
“I stuck that poor man with the tube still in his throat in the hospital with only his brother and father there to breathe for him. Dr. Radcliffe got back and found time at some point to go finish what I’d started. I don’t know what he did, though. I’ll have to ask him tomorrow.”
“It was a humbling experience for me, Maggie. My respect for you was already high, but now . . . I feel like a fool for not realizing all there is to know.”
She nodded her head toward the little bench where they’d sat together just last night, where they’d fought and where she’d walked away, thinking their romance was ove
r.
They sat on the bench, and he rested his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close. “After the doctor spoke to me so kindly today,” Maggie said, “an idea started boiling in my head, and it’s been percolating ever since.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“All right, Connor. Tell me what you think about this. I know you’re a hard worker. And I can see you’re a fast learner, a man who’s not afraid to take on something new. What if, instead of you following me to Cutler to build a ranch, we think about what great partners we could be? We could go to Cutler and open an office, one with two doctors.”
Connor leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands clamped together as he turned to look at her. “I honestly have never thought of myself as a doctor—even though I’m working for one and doing a lot of doctoring. But it’s hard to get the idea in my head to doctor for a living. And after today, I know how poorly trained I am. I can handle routine things, but that tractostomy . . .” He shook his head.
She shoulder-bumped him. “Tracheotomy. But I’ve never done one before today, and the doctor said he’d never done one, either. It’s very rare.”
Connor looked out across the park. Then, after a long minute, he nodded and turned back to her. “It’ll work, won’t it? I don’t know how exactly. I know I don’t need to go to school.”
“Yes, you do, but I can—”
“My friend Dare didn’t go to school. There’s something called . . . I think it’s what folks call a nontraditional doctor’s license. Or an irregular license. Something like that. He has such a license because he learned doctoring in the war. Maybe I can get that kind. I’m not sure of the rules, but I think working with a doctor, like I’m doing, is enough.”
Maggie squinted at him. “Then why do I have to go to school?”
Connor sat up straight and shrugged. “You probably don’t, but look what you’ve learned already. It’s a good idea for one of us to go, and then you can teach me all you know.”
“The people in Cutler may object, though. I doubt they’ll want to pay for two doctors. And the office they’re building for me may not be big enough for two, and—”
Connor touched her lips, and she fell silent. She stared into his sparking blue eyes.
“We’ll ask them,” he said, “the Cutler folks. You said someone is coming from there one of these days to see how you’re doing and decide if they are satisfied with your skills, right?”
“Yes.” She moved his fingers away but held on to his hand. “If they don’t want two doctors, then I’ll be the doctor and you can be my loyal nurse.” She giggled. It sounded silly, but she rather liked the idea of her being the doctor and him being the nurse.
“Well then, Doctor, you’d better stay mighty close to me in case some rare accident happens again. And you know the best way we can stay real close?”
Maggie could guess. But she didn’t jump in with an answer. She let him do the talking.
Connor leaned forward and kissed her. One quick kiss. “We need to be married. No sense figuring out how we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together and not make getting married a part of that plan.”
It was Maggie’s turn. She leaned in and kissed him back, but not a quick kiss. A kiss that was better than the warmth of sunlight. She pulled back a few inches so she could meet his eyes. “No sense at all.”
Connor’s eyes went wide. He caught her hands and raised them to his lips, kissing them, holding her. “Really, Maggie? You’re ready?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you, Connor. I’d be honored to be your wife. I can’t take a break to go home for a wedding. Not yet. Normally there’s a break at the end of the summer. But I missed too many classes because Ma was hurt, so maybe over Thanksgiving we can get—”
“Tonight.”
“Uh, we can have Thanksgiving tonight?”
Grinning, Connor shook his head. “We’re getting married tonight. Right now. The parson can marry us tonight, and then you can come and stay with me at the boardinghouse.”
“Tonight?” Maggie’s breathing turned ragged.
“Yep. Unless the parson has room for us both in his house.” He stood and drew her to her feet and started walking fast toward the parson’s house, as if he couldn’t wait to marry her, which was so sweet. “But I think he’s just being kind to give you that room. He’d probably want you to find your own place once you were wed. You can write your folks and tell them the good news. If you think my room at the boardinghouse is too small, we can ask if she’s got a bigger one. Married couples stay there, too.”
Maggie swallowed hard as she hurried to keep up and Connor planned their life at top speed. Her hand tightened on his.
Connor stopped his headlong planning and turned to her. “What’s the matter?”
“You can tell something is the matter? That’s sweet.”
“But you didn’t answer me.”
Because she really didn’t want to. If she said the wrong thing, he might delay the wedding and she didn’t want that. At least not mostly.
Squaring her shoulders, determined to be honest, she said, “I’m just sorry my family couldn’t be here for my wedding. I’d like so much to talk to Ma first.”
Connor took both her hands and focused on her as no one ever had. “If this is really important to you, Maggie, we will wait. I want to be with you. I don’t want to walk away from you every night. But that won’t change if we delay getting married. I know you don’t think you can get away, but let’s ask. We can ride the train down one day and back the next.”
“It doesn’t go through daily, more like twice a week. I—” Maggie clamped her mouth shut because no more words would come.
Connor pulled her into his arms. “We’ll wait.”
She buried her face against his chest and shook her head frantically. Finally she lifted it, embarrassed because she knew she had tears running down her cheeks.
“Please don’t cry. We’ll do whatever you want.”
“Hush.” She pressed her fingers to his lips. “No, we won’t wait. Yes, I wish my ma were here, but she’s not, and I’m feeling so lonely right now I don’t think I can bear to let go of you. And most of these foolish tears—”
“They’re not foolish, Maggie. I wish my family could be here, too.”
That made her smile. “I can’t have my family right now, but I can have you. Please, Connor, let’s go get married. Tonight, if possible.”
He bent to kiss her again. She tasted the salt of her own tears as their lips met. When the kiss ended, she wrapped her arms around Connor and let him bear her weight as she wept.
When she had controlled her tears and gathered her strength, she straightened, drew a hanky from the pocket of her dress, and tidied her face. Then she shook back her hair and smiled. “It’s been a long, hard day. Let’s end it with something wonderful.”
Chapter
10
Connor couldn’t believe he was walking home with his brand-spankin’-new wife. “Life takes some mighty fine twists and turns, don’t it, Maggie?”
Maggie grinned at him. “It does indeed. Although I think we both saw this twist coming for a while now.”
She carried a satchel stuffed with clothes and her doctor’s bag in one hand, so she had a free hand to hang on to him. He had two carpetbags the parson’s wife had lent them. Maggie didn’t have much, but there were a few things she needed to collect, including a wind-up clock, heavy winter clothes, as well as a few other things. They would move them tomorrow when they returned the carpetbags. By then Connor would know if he had to find a new place to live.
They reached the boardinghouse, and Connor’s hand tightened on hers. “I’m gonna tell someone for the first time in my life that I am married.” He let go of her hand in order to sling an arm around her shoulders. In the shadow of a big tree right next to the house, he kissed her. “I can’t wait!”
Maggie laughed. “I feel slightly more awkward about it than that, but I’m honored to be your wife. I
’m glad we went ahead and got married tonight.”
“The parson seemed a little surprised.”
“That didn’t stop him from performing the ceremony,” Maggie reminded him. “And I thought his wife had a very satisfied expression on her face, as if she’d fully expected this all along.”
“She strikes me as a wise woman,” Connor agreed. He gave her a firm one-armed hug. “All right, let’s go in.”
The folks at the boardinghouse were just sitting down to supper. Connor made his announcement, and they pulled up an extra chair so Maggie could eat the evening meal with all the guests. She noticed two other couples, one with a small child, so accommodating families wasn’t something new here.
With the soft clinking of cutlery on heavy pottery plates, surrounded by kind words of congratulations, they enjoyed the crisp fried chicken and creamy mashed potatoes. Delicious apple cobbler made a fine finish to Maggie’s wedding party.
Connor spoke quietly with the boardinghouse owners, who seemed eager to have a new boarder. His rent would go up a dollar a week, and they’d give them a slightly larger room.
And then the meal was over, and folks began drifting off to their rooms. Connor took her hand and led her upstairs.
Suddenly Maggie realized exactly why she wanted her mother at her wedding.
Maggie woke the next morning with her husband’s arms around her. Her head rested on his strong shoulder, her palm open on his strong heart. She lay there quietly, thinking of the wonder of having someone of her very own.
A husband.
And they’d managed fine without her ma.
Smiling, she felt him shift a bit and raised her eyes to see that he was awake, looking at her with the most wonderful joy in his eyes.
“I was just thinking how blessed I am to have such a fine husband.”
He kissed her gently. “And I had the same thought, wife. It strikes me as a wonderful thing if a married couple both think they are the one who got the greatest blessing. That’s a good way to feel about each other.”
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