Chapter 9
February 25th, 1898, Eagle Creek, Montana
The saloon was not a suitable place for a man with a broken leg, so rather than meeting there as they usually would, Tom and Matthew decided to go up the mountain to cheer Aidan up for the evening. With a basket full of beer and tasty treats from the bakery, Matthew borrowed a mount from the public stable and made his way up the mountain once his shift at the clinic was done. With so many of their patients doing well, and with numbers of influenza cases starting to fall, Matthew would have to start thinking about where he would go, and what he might do next.
In a recent letter, Dr. Hartshorn had assured him that there were four hospitals that would be glad of his services, should he wish to move on, two of which would be more than happy to offer him a permanent position. But if he wished to remain in one place for a time, then he also had the offer Andrew had made him, and continued to make hints about almost every day. He couldn’t deny that he had become a little attached to the town and its friendly inhabitants and had, from time to time, found himself considering staying, much to his own surprise. But he was sure that the right thing to do was to move on. Eagle Creek needed someone who would stay here for the rest of their life, as Andrew had chosen to – and Matthew wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment.
When he arrived at the rambling farmhouse, Aidan was sitting on the porch, bundled up in furs. “Good evening to you, doctor,” he called out, as Matthew dismounted and hitched his horse to the porch railings.
“And how is the patient this evening?” Matthew asked as he climbed up onto the porch and took the seat beside him.
“Glad of a little fresh air. I know you said I shouldn’t move too much, but Merry and Michael took most of my weight and I hopped out here on the good leg.”
“A little fresh air will definitely do you good, though I’m not sure about the cold,” Matthew said with a grin, pulling his own coat more tightly around him.
“We’ll just wait for Tom, then the two of you can get me back inside in front of a fire. You doctors, you have no capacity for a bit of bracing air,” Aidan teased.
“We spend too much time in overheated rooms, keeping patients warm or poring over medical books,” Matthew agreed, and handed Aidan a bottle of beer from his basket.
“Good man,” Aidan said opening it and then taking a long drink. “Not many doctor’s come calling with beer.”
“I like to provide what my patients need.” They both laughed.
Tom arrived only moments later. He looked a little pink in the cheeks from his ride. “Sorry I’m late. Had a cow get stuck in a fence. Silly animals, the lot of them.”
“They aren’t too bright,” Aidan agreed. “But we mustn’t grumble, they’re the life we both chose.”
“I’ll grumble all I like,” Tom said good-naturedly. “But, you’re right that I wouldn’t change any of it.”
Aidan threw off some of his blankets and Tom and Matthew positioned themselves on either side of him, putting their shoulders under his arms, then helped him up and inside the house. Meredith and the children were in the front parlor playing games, so the men went into the kitchen and settled Aidan down in the armchair by the fire, propping his leg up with Meredith’s sewing box, which was just the right height. While Matthew fetched their beers and his basket from the porch, Tom pulled up chairs from the table and sat down beside Aidan.
“I’ll be so glad when you let me walk again,” Aidan admitted as Matthew returned, reaching down and absent-mindedly scratching inside the top of the heavy bandaging. Looking down, he realized what he was doing and grimaced. “And when we can leave these things off. I don’t think I’ve ever been so itchy in all my life.”
“Won’t be long. Another month at most,” Matthew assured him as he handed him his beer, then got a fresh bottle from the basket for Tom.
“Yes, Rachel said that you wanted to be certain the bone had knitted well,” Aidan said nodding.
“What could happen if it hasn’t?” Tom asked.
“It would break again, and we’d possibly have to open up the wound and reset it. More chance of infection, more risk that the bone just won’t heal right. It’s definitely better to be patient now, rather than go through it all over again,” Matthew explained.
“I’m not going through this again,” Aidan said. “I’ll wait it out, though it’s driving me half-mad.” He glanced at the basket between Matthew’s feet. “Now, is there anything else of interest in that basket, my friend?”
“I brought some pies,” Matthew said.
“You know he didn’t mean that,” Tom said with a grin.
Matthew sighed and reached into the basket and pulled out a neatly tied pile of letters. “You mean you want to know about these?”
“Hand them over,” Aidan demanded.
Matthew did so and waited while Aidan and Tom read the letters he’d received from the newspaper during the week. He sipped at his beer, and began to pull out the pies and pastries he’d purchased at the bakery and put them on the kitchen table behind them. Aidan and Tom pored over every word, occasionally sharing a particularly amusing or interesting thing they’d found with each other, laughing and grinning at Matthew all the while. “Go on, have your fun,” he said, shaking his head.
“No, these are actually quite good, when I think of some of the replies I got,” Tom said. “Of course, I didn’t even know that Mrs. Barrowman had placed the advertisement for me, so they came as a bit of a shock.”
“Speaking of Mrs. Barrowman, how is she?” Aidan asked.
“Staying with us until she is fully recovered,” Tom said. “A bit of a cough still and very easy to tire, but mostly doing very well – thanks to Matthew, Dr. Walker, Maud and Rachel.”
“She’s a very strong lady,” Matthew said. “We were glad she pulled through as well as she did.”
“So are we. She’s family to me,” Tom said. “I don’t know what we’d do without her.”
“Back to these letters,” Aidan reminded them, tapping on them with his finger. “I think you should write to these three.” He handed the letters over to Matthew, who glanced at them and gave a wry smile.
“I thought you’d say that,” he admitted. “They seem to be at least interested in me, not just the fact I am a doctor.”
“Yes, so let’s write something now,” Tom said, eagerly as Meredith entered the kitchen. Matthew quickly stuffed the letters in his pocket, but Aidan had not been as hasty with the ones he’d dismissed. They still lay on his lap.
“Don’t be ashamed, Dr. Inglis,” she said. “It’s how I met Aidan, and how Tom met Elise – and almost a dozen other couples in town.”
“I’m not ashamed,” Matthew protested, but he could feel his cheeks flushing even as he said it. He would rather people didn’t know, but it didn’t matter much as he was only going through with this nonsense to prove Tom wrong.
“Perhaps you could give us a woman’s eye over them,” Tom said unexpectedly. “Help Matthew choose who to write back to?”
Meredith shook her head. “I don’t think that’s any of my business,” she protested.
“No, I’d be glad of your guidance,” Matthew said, though he wasn’t sure if he wanted any more help in this endeavor to find a bride he didn’t want. He pulled the letters out of his pocket and handed them to her. She took them a little reluctantly, and read them slowly. She then held out her hand to her husband for the other letters and read those.
“I presume the letters that you gave me were the ladies you’re thinking of writing to?” she asked Matthew. He nodded cautiously. “I don’t entirely agree with you on the choices.”
“Why not? The others seemed a little trivial,” Tom said, his brow furrowing.
“Yes, I can see why you might think that,” Meredith said, taking a seat beside Matthew and holding out one of the letters. “Though you have also passed over this young lady, and I don’t understand why? She seems genuinely interested in your work. She is asking quite perceptive questions about it.”
Matthew read the letter out loud.
Dear Doctor, currently in Montana,
I hardly know what to say. I’ve never replied to an advertisement in the newspaper before, yet I wanted to write to you and learn more about you. You did not say much at all in your advertisement, and that just intrigued me.
I have traveled quite a lot in recent years. I must admit that I long to settle somewhere, to make a place my home. But I also long for adventure. I wonder if it is perhaps to have a home and yet still feel like you are moving onwards, learning and growing? But that is perhaps just silliness, for young women are not supposed to want for adventure are we?
I do a lot of work in my local community. Of course, I am no doctor, but I like to think that what I do helps others as best I can. I often wonder what it would be like to be a doctor, but wondering does me little good when there is no hope for a young lady to enter such a profession. No medical school would offer a place to a woman, and I can think of no physician who would offer to train one as they do promising young men.
But, back to you. To begin with, you say you are currently in Montana. Does that mean that you have recently moved there? Or that you have no intention of staying there too long? It is such an interesting thing to have written when trying to find a wife. Knowing where one is going to be seems rather an important fact for most people looking to find a partner in life.
You are a doctor, and I am presuming that means you are a physician. What manner of medicine do you practice? There seem to be so many types these days, and knowledge of how the body works and how it can be treated seem to be changing so much all the time. Is it not hard to keep up with it all?
It must take so much of your time. I know our local physician works all the hours God sends, and it is hard on his wife – though she is most understanding of his calling. Do you work so hard?
I am not really sure what else to say to you, so I will simply hope that I have intrigued you enough to have you write back to me.
Yours, most hopefully
Caitlin
“I thought she was just trying to gauge how much of her life would be impacted by his work,” Aidan admitted.
“Not at all. She says very little at all about that,” Meredith said.
“If anything, she comes across as someone who would like to be a doctor herself,” Matthew admitted. “And I probably discounted her for that as much as anything. I do not wish to look for a trainee, not when I never know where I will be sent from one month to the next.”
“Perhaps it would interest her, but I don’t think she is expecting that at all,” Meredith said thoughtfully.
“But she also said that she wished to settle down somewhere,” Matthew said, pointing to it in the letter. “I am not ready to stay in one place. It wouldn’t be fair to write to someone who does not really wish to travel.”
“She also said that she would like adventure, even though young women are not expected to want it,” Tom noted.
“Yes, perhaps her saying she wishes to settle down is simply her trying to be what women are expected to be?” Aidan said.
“Perhaps, but how am I to know that from this?” Matthew said waving the letter. “At best it is ambiguous.”
“That’s women for you,” Tom said grinning.
Meredith glared at him. “I cannot decide for you, but of all these letters, she’s the one I think suits you best, Matthew. She both knows and doesn’t know what she wants – and I think that if you are honest, you care much the same.”
Meredith’s words echoed in Matthew’s head as he rode back down the mountain later that evening. She was right that he did not know what he wanted, but she did not know that he was only entertaining this mail order bride nonsense because of his bet with Tom. Would it be so terrible if he did find someone by doing this? He’d lose the bet, but he might gain happiness if he found the right person. But who was the right person? And how could he ever ask anyone to join him in his itinerant lifestyle? He had no home to offer a wife. He could not give her stability and security while he continued moving from place to place.
He shook his head and exclaimed loudly into the night. “But I’m not looking for a wife, am I?” It mattered little what he could or could not offer, when he had no intentions of sharing his life with anyone. All of this thinking about what manner of woman he should write to was pointless. There was no woman he could trust enough to open his heart to. He did not seek a life shared, as Tom and Aidan did with their wives.
So why was it that he was so confused? It did not matter who he wrote to. He could choose any of the young ladies that had written to him. He did not care to know any of them. Yet there was something nagging at him. When he had made the bet with Tom, the women he might write to had been merely hypothetical. The letters in his pocket came from real people, and was it right for him to toy with their affections? Should he not at least try to enter into the spirit of this wager, and give himself a chance to reconsider his stance on marriage?
When he got home, he re-read the letter that Meredith had brought his attention to. This young woman seemed to be curious and intelligent. She was clearly interested in medicine and wanted to know more about it. What if she did wish to find a mentor, someone who would teach her, rather than a husband? Would that suit him better than finding a wife?
Images of Rachel flashed into his mind. He often watched her as she tended to her patients, as she listened to Maud and Andrew, as she took instruction from him. She was so curious, so alert, so eager to know more. He had been lucky to work with many fine nurses over the year, but she was not like any of them. She was much more dedicated to knowing more, reading more than he did, even about the newest developments in medicine. He’d even considered that had things been different, had she been a man, that she would have made a brilliant physician.
What if this young woman was like Rachel? What if she deserved the chance to be more than just a wife, as Rachel did? He could not imagine Rachel ever giving up her career, not even if she found the love of her life. Was he the kind of man that could be happy with a woman like that? As Mr. Tinsley must have been with Maud? She was a strong and feisty lady, and could not have been easy to live with – yet everyone seemed to speak of how in love they had been. To take a wife did not mean that his wife would have to become a proud stay-at-home, raise children and keep house kind of woman a wife was expected to be.
Suddenly, he knew one thing that he did want. If he was to ever fall in love, he wanted a woman who knew her own mind and her own worth. He did not want a woman who would disappear into being his wife and the mother of his children and forget who she was outside of that. Perhaps Meredith was right, this young lady who seemed as interested in his work as she was in him, might be just the kind of woman he would wish to meet even though that wouldn’t win him the bet. But did he even care about winning the bet anyway.