Chapter 6
January 7th, 1898, Eagle Creek, Montana
The clinic was quiet when Matthew arrived just before dawn. He felt rested and well after an afternoon and full night off. He had known what he was needed for, but it had still been hard to get used to the almost endless needs of a town in crisis. He could see clearly just how much of an impact his arrival had made upon Maud and Andrew. Both had looked almost haggard, but now they seemed better rested, though all of them were tired. It was draining both physically and mentally, caring for so many people without any end in sight.
Maud greeted him warmly and offered him a cup of coffee. They shared it together before the ward round. “The new nurse arrived yesterday afternoon,” she told him. “Andrew said she’ll be joining us first thing this morning, so she can meet us all, before I go home for my rest.”
“Did he meet her?”
“Yes, she stopped by the clinic, he said. Said she is very pretty and seemed very sympathetic. Said she offered to start right away.”
“It is good that she is keen.”
“He was right to send her back for some rest though, to come back this morning at nine o’clock. She came from Sheridan, and though the trains make the trip much easier these days, it’s still a long way.”
“It is. So, she’s a Wyoming girl.”
“I don’t think so,” Maud said thoughtfully. “Her accent was hard to trace, but definitely not Wyoming. Perhaps a little further south.”
“Interesting,” Matthew said as a bang on the door announced Andrew’s arrival.
“Let him in, I’ll get us all another cup of coffee.”
Matthew went through the reception and opened the front door, but it wasn’t Andrew. A young woman, with strawberry blonde hair, tied back in a neat bun, stood shivering on the doorstep. “May I help you? Are you sick?” he asked her. She looked up and smiled, then she laughed. It was the most uplifting sound Matthew had heard in weeks.
“No,” she said. “I’m the new nurse, Rachel Falmer. You must be Dr. Inglis. I’m very pleased to meet you.”
“Come in, come in,” Matthew said, suddenly realizing how rude he’d been to leave her standing in the cold. “I’m sorry. I’m not always at my best so early in the morning, and we weren’t expecting you until nine o’clock.”
“Dr. Walker didn’t specify a time and morning rounds have begun at seven o’clock in every hospital I’ve ever worked in. I assumed that I should be here in time for my first one here.”
“Well, it is as sound an argument as any I’ve heard,” Matthew said, watching her take off her coat and put on one of the special aprons that Maud had custom made by the seamstress across the street for them all. He handed her a mask. “I see that Andrew, Dr. Walker, already took you through the hygiene protocols.”
“Yes, he said that Mrs. Tinsley is very particular.”
“She is,” Maud said. “I heard your voices, so came through. I am pleased to meet you, Nurse Falmer. I am Maud, and this is Matthew. We decided that while we go through this crisis, that all formalities are to be dropped.”
“Then please, you must call me Rachel. And I am pleased to meet you both.”
“Come through, we have a few minutes before Andrew arrives. There is a fresh pot of coffee, and you can tell us a little bit about yourself,” Maud said with a smile.
Rachel smiled back and followed Maud along the corridor to the little room where they could sit and get a moment’s peace when it was needed. Matthew lingered behind for a moment. He hadn’t expected the new nurse to be so young and pretty. When Dr. Hartshorn had told him of his plans, he had struggled to see what manner of women such a role might appeal to. He had not been sure that any nurses would ever sign up for such a scheme. The more he’d thought about it, he’d considered that perhaps widows coming back into nursing, or those who had never married might see it as an opportunity, but doubted any of them would want to travel far from home.
But Rachel was of marriageable age and seemed unbothered about having traveled from Sheridan to take up the position here. Was she perhaps one of those women who were completely committed to their careers? It seemed unlikely that someone so attractive and seemingly charming, though it was hard to be entirely sure of that with such a short acquaintance, should be unmarried and traveling the country wherever the work took her.
Intrigued, he followed them, knowing that if anyone could find out more about their new nurse, it would be Maud. She’d had his entire life story from him within just a few minutes of meeting him, after all – and he was famously reticent about talking of his past. He wasn’t wrong in assuming Maud would soon be interrogating Rachel, she’d already broached the subject of where Rachel came from as Matthew entered the room.
“Well, I was born and raised in Kansas,” Rachel said. “Not far from Fort Leavenworth. My Pop was a farmer. I’m one of seven. Poor Mama was run off her feet with us all.”
“Goodness, that is a lot of babies,” Maud said with a chuckle.
“The local midwife virtually lived out on our farm with us for a time,” Rachel admitted. “But Mama got sick after my baby brother, Daniel, came. She went into the hospital, and while the nurses and doctors did all they could, there was little they could do to help her. I think seeing them working so hard, being such good people, well it made me want to be like them.”
“You must have missed your Mama, how old were you when she passed?” Maud asked, reaching out a supportive hand and placing it over Rachel’s.
“I was fourteen. I’m the second eldest. Hannah’s the eldest, then me, Joseph, John, Mary, Michael and then Danny.”
“So, it fell on you and your sister to raise the rest of them, no doubt?”
“Pop did his best. He hired a lady to care for us, so we could all finish school. He always said that he didn’t want any of us to have to give up our dreams to raise his babies.”
“He sounds a good man,” Matthew said softly.
“He is. He lives with Hannah and her family now, in Topeka.”
“It must be hard being away from him.”
“It is, but we’re used to it. Even when I was working in the hospital at Fort Leavenworth, and he was barely ten miles away, I only saw him a few times a year. You don’t get much leave as a nurse in training, and then once you’re qualified there’s barely a moment to spare.”
“You worked in military hospitals? I did, too. Started and ended my career at Fort McKinney.”
“I served almost a year at McKinney, too,” she said with a smile. “What a coincidence. When were you there?”
“From 1892 to I think it was September 1895, then again from late August last year until my discharge just before Christmas. I came straight here.”
“Ah, I was there in early 1896. My last posting was at David A. Russel.”
“So, how did you meet Dr. Hartshorn and get dragged into his crazy scheme?” Matthew asked.
“He came to do a procedure at David A. Russel, and I was part of the team assigned to him. We got on well, and he approached me when he found out that I was leaving the military. He offered me a temporary position in his hospital in Sheridan, because one of his night matrons had broken her leg. I took it, eager to work with him again, and apparently it gave him the idea to create a service of people who can go anywhere as needed.”
“How did he convince you to join him?” Maud asked. “I can’t imagine there are many young ladies who’d want to be traipsing all over the country, going anywhere at the drop of a hat.”
“No, there probably aren’t, but if he can create enough interest in particular locales, I think he’ll find a few who’d be happy to take a short contract as and when there’s a need. I think he’ll have much better luck finding young doctors, like Matthew, than he will nurses. Even I am at the end of my willingness to travel, after six years of never really being able to settle anywhere.”
“So, this is one last hurrah, to please him?”
“I must confess that I am hoping he will find me a permanent position in one of his hospitals by the time this contract is done,” Rachel admitted.
They were interrupted by Andrew’s arrival. “Well, well. You’re here bright and early and have already met everyone. Well, I hope they haven’t been putting you off being here,” he said cheerfully as Maud handed him a cup of coffee and took his coat and hat, then handed him an apron and mask.
“They’ve been asking all the secrets of my past, Dr. Walker, I only hope I’ve not worried them unduly.”
“Andrew,” he said then took a long sip of the coffee. “Ahh, nobody makes coffee like you, Maud. The only way to start the day. Now, are we all ready for the morning round, then Maud can go home, Matthew can stay here and hold the fort, and I will take you on house calls, so you can get to know some of the locals.”
“That would be wonderful,” Rachel said.
The ward round was an unusually positive one. Matthew was pleased to see that three of their most severe patients seemed to be making incremental recoveries, and Abe Watson and Helen Merryweather were well enough to go home. “Well, I know that Aston will be delighted to have you back,” Andrew said patting his old friend’s hand affectionately.
“He can’t manage without me,” Helen said with a weak smile. “But he’ll be glad not to have to visit me here any longer. I think it’s scared him more than he’d ever admit.”
“You scared us all,” Maud said. “It isn’t just Aston that needs you, Helen, the whole of Eagle Creek would be lost without you. But you’re on the mend now, though he’ll need to take good care of you as there’ll be quite some convalescence required for you now. You’re very weak.”
“I’ll do everything you tell me to,” Mrs. Merryweather promised.
With them both discharged, and everyone’s notes updated Maud made her goodbyes. Andrew called Rachel into his office from the ward, to go through their list of visits while Matthew undertook a more rigorous inspection of each patient. He had to admit that he was impressed with how calm Rachel had been during the ward rounds. The first time he’d entered that ward, small though it was, it had shocked him to see so many people so very unwell outside of an actual hospital. Her ability to adapt to new environments had already proved to be a blessing, as she’d been able to see to the little tasks required by the patients while Maud delivered her overnight reports. It was by far the quickest, and least eventful ward round since he’d been here.
Matthew quickly scanned his memory for Maud’s words about each patient and decided to examine Mrs. Barrowman first. Maud had said that she’d passed a very difficult night, with very labored breathing and had drifted in and out of consciousness, often crying out deliriously in the brief moments she was awake. He feared that she had perhaps developed an additional infection or was taking a turn for the worst. He scoured her chart, looking at the medicines that Andrew had prescribed yesterday, and everything Maud had given her overnight and decided to change a couple of things for her.
He reviewed everyone else, in order of need, changing their protocols or medications where necessary and when he returned to Mrs. Barrowman’s bedside almost two hours later, he was pleased to see that she was breathing more easily and sleeping more peacefully, though her fever was still high. When she returned, he would ask Rachel to ensure that she received regular cool compresses, to try and bring down her temperature a little further.
With everyone peaceful, for now, he made himself some coffee and sat down off the ward to drink it. He sighed heavily. It was strange, in the military he’d seen all manner of gruesome wounds, yet this seemed so much harder to bear. Soldiers were expected, to some extent, to suffer injuries and to get sick. Living in close proximity with others in not always sanitary conditions meant that sickness spread like wildfire, and accidents and warfare meant that few military men never saw the inside of a fort’s hospital. But those men were usually young and strong. They recovered quickly most of the time. Here, Matthew was treating people of all ages. Their youngest patient was just a baby, and it broke his heart seeing so many young people so badly afflicted in particular.
Rachel, from what she had said, must have had a similar experience, yet she had not even flinched at the sight of the very young lying side by side with the very old, and every age in between. She was a strong woman, that was for sure. And he had most certainly not been the only one to notice how lovely she was. She’d received a number of flirtatious comments from the men well enough to look. That they had done so filled him with confidence that they would soon be well enough to go home, too.
Even more than he had done before he met her, Matthew simply couldn’t understand why she was unmarried. He would not be surprised if she had at least half a dozen young men running after her before the week was out. She must have had suitors, any man passing her over would have to be a fool – or one who never intended to let anyone in close. He thought about how openly she’d spoken of her past and the loss she had suffered. He could only imagine how hard her life must have been – even if her father had done all he could to ensure she did not have to take on the role of parent before she’d stopped being a child. Her father must have been quite the man, to ensure she had grown up to be as she was. Matthew couldn’t help being a little envious of her.