While she wanted to go home, Alice stayed with Dorcas. The woman pleaded not to be left alone, and the epidemic still raged. Certainly, staying another week could only benefit the expectant mother and the new widow who needed help packing up her belongings to leave the parsonage.
Over the next week, Dorcas herself created the biggest piece of gossip. It almost eclipsed O’Hanlon’s dirty secrets that men and women alike stood in groups and rehashed.
Dorcas remarried within a matter of days. “Can’t pass up the offer o’ a home, now can I?” She’d smiled up at Murphy as she spoke to Alice. “And this one be plain spoke and closer to my age. Won’t be pointing out my faults.”
When Alice silently stared with her mouth open, Dorcas and the blacksmith laughed. “I be needin’ help with Milly and her brood. That’ll keep this mouthy woman too busy for gossipin’.”
As summer slipped away, peace seemed to settle over the town. Alice rounded, delighting her husband who loved to caress her growing belly. She spent less time with patients, helping only when her husband absolutely had to have another set of trained hands.
That same peace filled Alice, just like it did the town. From the moment that Milly Murphy stood up in church and apologized for her lie healing seemed to happen. Certainly, people continued to gossip, but the bitter criticism for each other was absent.
While Alice had traveled to Wisconsin to do a very different kind of healing, she was content with her role. She’d nursed both Niall and the town back into some semblance of a normal, happy existence.
On a warm day in April, Alice strained to birth her son. She and Niall both were sure it was a boy. “Angus Andrew MacKenzie, after both our fathers.”
With one last push, the baby came into the world. The father caught it in eager hands, tying off the cord as Alice reached for the infant.
“Please, let me have our little Angus.” Sweaty and exhausted, Alice found enough strength to rise up on her elbows and search to see her child for the first time.
With a chuckle, Niall lifted the baby to Alice’s chest and leaned down to kiss his wife’s wet brow. “Here you go, Mama. Meet our little Angela.”
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About this Series
A nurse's duty should come first. But what if romance gets in the way?
This new series "Nursing the Heart" explores the lives and romances of the nurses who graduate from the Harrow School of Nursing - a fictional school based upon the first nursing school founded in the United States and the short courses taught by Dr. Blackwell during the Civil War. Each of the stories in the series will be novella or novel length, for your reading pleasure and will release once a week on Thursdays.
You can find the complete series at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0881KGBVV.
Author’s Note
In 1857, Byron Kilbourne founded Kilbourne City at a spot listed on an old map as The Dalles. He also created a town on the eastern side of the state called Kilbournetown. It was one of three towns that later joined together to create Milwaukee, the state’s largest city.
A railroad owner, Kilbourne lobbied lawmakers to build the bridge across the Wisconsin River at Kilbourne City instead of the proposed site of Newport. He won, and Newport became a ghost town. As for Kilbourne City, it became a popular sightseeing destination with its name being changed to Wisconsin Dells.
Sneak Peek
Wistful in Wisconsin
Yours Truly: The Lovelorn Series
Dear Lovelorn,
I dearly love newspapers. When a box arrived with oranges from California, I found your column in a newspaper packed amongst the fruit. You’re my last hope for advice on what to do.
How do I convince a man we’re in love? I’ve seen how he looks at me. I’m sure that’s longing in his eyes. Except, he either turns away or looks right through me.
Because of his heroism, saving my life in fact, the man is convinced that I am only grateful. Deluded, he called me before I returned to my home in Chicago.
Please, how can I open his eyes to the fact that we make a perfect couple?
Sincerely,
Wistful in Wisconsin
Dear Wistful,
Are you sure he returns your love? That he only needs a nudge? Be absolutely positive about that before you act on my advice.
To help your begrudging beau to see you as a couple, you need to be a couple. So, find out where he will be and when. Appear there and, as much as possible, attach yourself to him.
Prove he needs you. Take him some of your cooking or knit him a scarf. Remaining modest, fill a practical need for him to demonstrate how fitted you are to be his wife.
Above all else, be cheerful and attentive. Encourage him to share without burdening him with any concerns.
Yours Truly,
The Lovelorn
Chapter 1
The Chase
Hair stood on the back of Sheriff Fred Sittig’s neck. He wouldn’t look up. He willed himself to keep his eyes on the wanted posters in front of him.
Shoot! He couldn’t resist. Some instinct told him to find the eyes that watched him.
A pert little nose pressed against the only window of the sheriff’s office. Hands shielded the woman’s eyes so she could see into the building. A fog
