The hours of sitting on the padded seats took their toll as Alice tried to rise. She flopped downward as her bad knee refused to immediately bend. A hand shot into her line of vision, followed by a yelp.
Looking up in surprise at the sound, she glimpsed the persistent man holding his forearm as Miss Steele’s cane pulled away from it. Her rescuer threw a look of encouragement Alice’s way and advised, “Take your time, Miss Cordell. We’re just pulling into the station and will have a jolt as the train stops. You may wish to wait until after that before rising.”
Trying to hide her movement under the duster she wore to protect her traveling dress—a garment left over from the prosperous years for her father’s business—Alice surreptitiously rubbed her left thigh. Her own family had thought Alice would suffer pain in the calf or just below her knee.
Actually, knee problems always caused pain above, in the thigh. She’d learned that from years of suffering as well as from a doctor in the hospital she’d trained in back in Baltimore, nearby the Harrow School of Nursing.
The train came smoothly to a stop with very little of the jolt Miss Steele had predicted. The old schoolteacher glared at the obnoxious rake when he waited for Alice to rise.
“Ladies first.” The man bowed slightly in her direction as he taunted them with those words.
“Get off with you, you bounder. We’ll leave once you have.”
Giving him a jaundiced look, she muttered almost under her breath. Almost, but Alice still caught the woman’s words. “I can’t believe your father is so pleasant and you behave this way.”
By this time, the conductor had returned to the train car after helping other passengers out, frowning in their direction. Before reaching them, he spoke with concern lacing his voice. “Is there a problem here? I have a schedule to keep and need to have you disembark if this is your stop.”
Alice privately thanked the Lord for Miss Steele’s presence. The woman took command with an air of confidence. “Please tell this man to leave. We will disembark once the bounder has left us alone.”
The conductor turned to their fellow passenger. When the railroad employee opened his mouth to speak, the annoying man shook his head. “Don’t bother. I’m leaving.” With a huff, he jammed a low crowned hat onto his red hair and stomped away.
By this time, Alice was on her feet. She took a first tottering step and gripped Miss Steele’s nearby arm to keep from falling. The woman eyed her warily.
“I think you need this cane more than I do. Why don’t you use one, my dear?”
Alice only shook her head. She was holding her breath against the pain from that first step and couldn’t form an answer.
Another step. Less pain this time. A third step and the stiffness was at least easing, even if the pain persisted. Alice had lived with chronic pain so long that she could manage to push through it. The stiffness had been the cause of her poor balance. With it almost gone, she finally gave Miss Steele a weak smile.
“Really, I can do without a cane. I only needed to walk out some stiffness, and it’s already gone.”
The harried conductor grabbed both ladies’ carpetbags and ushered them from his train car. A toot from the train’s whistle signaled the “all aboard” for passengers on the platform, and Alice was shoved by people rushing to board.
Next to her, the old schoolmarm grumbled about “people not using the manners their mothers taught them,” but Alice understood.
They’d inconvenienced other passengers. No, really it was the horrid man who’d inconvenienced them all. And she didn’t even remember his name to avoid him in town.
Of course, a nurse or doctor couldn’t refuse treatment to a patient. If she saw him professionally, she’d have to help. But what were the chances of that in a large town or city?
With an arm looped through Alice’s, the old teacher led her from the platform and past the small, wood-framed building that housed a waiting room and the ticket window. As they approached the street, Alice suddenly stopped, nearly pulling her companion off her feet.
“My trunk and my carpetbag! They’re back on the platform!”
The other woman made a tutting sound before gruffly trying to reassure Alice. “Now, I’m sure your employer will take care of them when he arrives. We must find him first. Then it will all work out.”
In front of the depot, a young man waved enthusiastically in their direction. Miss Steele disengaged her arm from Alice’s and returned the wave.
“My nephew is here. He’s such a nice boy to not keep me waiting on him.”
As the nephew climbed down from his buggy and approached them, Alice searched the other vehicles parked on the packed earth that formed a lot in front of the depot. She saw a farm wagon and dismissed that. A doctor would hardly use that. Spying a buggy that looked right for a doctor, she took a step toward it but stopped as she saw a man help an older woman into it.
No one else waited. Where was her employer? Had an emergency kept him from greeting her arrival?
Turning to Miss Steele, she saw the woman point with her cane toward a pile of luggage. After waiting for her to finish speaking, Alice worriedly suggested, “I think I’d best check with the depot manager to find out if Doctor MacKenzie left a message for me.”
Mention of that name grabbed the young man’s attention. “I doubt if you’ll hear from the doctor, miss.” He blushed as he darted a glance
