They Called Her Mrs. Doc. (8 page)

“That’s my girl,” he said softly and Cassie’s smile deepened.

“I’ll be around as quickly as I can get here, day after tomorrow,” he promised, and Cassie knew it would have to do.

“Now—you get a good sleep. We have a lot of talking to do.”

With that promise he left her and Cassie moved about in a dream. Surely she had understood his meaning. Before he left for Ottawa they would have their future plans settled.

She went to bed but could not get to sleep.
If only Abigail were here to share my secret,
she mused, then dismissed the thought. She did not want to share this special joy even with her best friend. She hugged it to herself and savored the feeling. She was soon to become Mrs. Dr. Samuel Smith. Or was it Dr. Mrs. Samuel Smith? She could not untangle the name. Her mother always went by Mrs. Henry P. Winston. She finally settled on being Mrs. Samuel J. Smith. That was quite good enough.

It was almost morning before she finally settled into sleep. By then she was exhausted—but happy. She hoped the coming day would pass quickly so she could sleep through another night and bring Samuel to her side.

The day managed to drag, and because Cassie had not slept well and was already in a state of agitation, she was not good company. She fussed and fiddled and scolded the boys and criticized the household help. Her mother, sensing her frustration, suggested she visit a downtown shop.

“You need a new summer hat—why don’t you shop for one?” was the way she put her proposal to Cassie. Cassie was only too glad for an excuse to escape.

“Can I take Abigail to help with the selection?” she asked, as if she were once again a small child asking for a favor.

“By all means,” responded her mother. “Take Abigail. The walk will do you both good.”

“Walk? I thought we’d take the carriage.”

“Why don’t you walk? The day will pass more quickly if you do.”

Cassie nodded, though without real agreement, and went to ring Abigail on the phone. Soon the two of them were off toward the town shops, while Mrs. Winston heaved a sigh of relief and returned to her sewing.

It did help to fill in the day. The girls strolled into town, not hurrying, talking as they went. By the time they had visited their favorite milliners, agreed on a new hat for Cassie and returned home, the day was well spent. Abigail hurried on home so as not to be late for dinner, and Cassie climbed the stairs to freshen up for the evening meal.

That evening Cassie did not sit in the drawing room and sew with her mother. Instead, she excused herself and retired early.

She did manage to get to sleep even though she still felt agitated and restless. In her thinking, the only way to make the night pass and the new day dawn was to sleep it away.

The next morning she awakened to a drizzling sky. “I do wish God had arranged a nicer day,” she grumbled to herself and then remembered she had not thought to ask Him for one. “I’m sorry,” she whispered contritely. “I didn’t mean to complain. It seems that I’ve been doing a good deal of complaining lately.” Cassie tried to still her restless heart. “It’s just—just this ‘not knowing.’ Not being able to make definite plans. I—I can’t manage uncertainties very well. You know that.”

She paused. “I’ll be fine once Samuel gets here,” she promised God and hastened to prepare herself for her friend’s coming.

He did not keep her waiting. Just as he had promised, he arrived early in the forenoon. He had to shake rain from his hat and coat before he entered the hall, but he did not complain about the inclement weather as Cassie had done.

“Come to the parlor,” Cassie urged. “Dickerson has laid a fire. You need to dry out. I’ll fetch some coffee,” and Cassie ushered Samuel to the parlor and hurried off to the kitchen.

They would have talked right through the lunch hour had not Stephen been sent to call them. Reluctantly they joined the family at the dining table.

The afternoon was again spent in conversation. They chatted easily, but Cassie began to get agitated again. It seemed that this visit was really getting them nowhere in particular.

They joined the family for dinner, then spent the evening before the open fire. The rain had ended by the time Samuel looked at his pocket watch and took his leave. Cassie hated to see him go.
Two days,
her heart kept crying,
two days and you’ll be off to Ottawa. Shouldn’t we make our plans?

But Samuel seemed not to share her concern. The talk did not get around to settling things between them.

Samuel did not arrive again until late in the afternoon the next day. He brought Cassie up-to-date on his packing and planning. It seemed as if things were falling nicely into place for Samuel. He would soon be Dr. Smith, doing his internship at the Ottawa General. And she, Cassie, would be Cassandra Dell Winston, old maid back in Montreal.

Cassie bade Samuel a rather cool good-night when he left that evening. Tomorrow he would board his train and he still hadn’t discussed their future together.

“You will go to the train with me, won’t you?” he asked her, lifting her chin as he had a habit of doing.

Cassie nodded. She couldn’t imagine not going to see him off.

“We need to talk,” he whispered confidentially and leaned to kiss her cheek.

Cassie lingered in the hall. She didn’t understand him at all. If he needed to talk, why didn’t he talk? She had been there and she had been listening.

Reluctantly she climbed the steps to her room. Tomorrow was the final day. Tomorrow would be his last chance to ask her.

Her father suggested that she use the carriage and go around to pick up Samuel and take him to the train depot. Cassie was happy to comply with the arrangements. She called Samuel on the phone and told him that she would be there promptly at ten. That would give plenty of time for him to load his belongings and drive leisurely to the station. Any talking would have to be done in the privacy of the carriage on the way.

It wasn’t the way Cassie would have planned it. Hardly the romantic setting she had envisioned for her proposal of marriage. But she told herself that any proposal was romantic and the time and place didn’t really matter that much.

She arrived in front of Samuel’s lodgings promptly at ten, and her driver helped Samuel load his trunk and carpetbags. Then Samuel climbed in beside her and they started off for the station. He was quiet and thoughtful for the first few moments, and Cassie feared he would never find his tongue. Then he reached for her hand and pressed it to his lips. “I’m really going to miss you,” he whispered. “I pray that the days might pass quickly.”

Cassie felt the tears gathering in her eyes.

“You have no idea how special the last few months have been to me,” he went on. “I only wish I hadn’t needed to keep my nose so closely in the books.”

Cassie lifted a linen hankie and blew her nose softly.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever told you how much it means to me to be able to get my medical training,” he went on. When Cassie offered no comment, he continued. “My mother always planned that I should be a doctor and she set aside a little money as she could for my education. When she died, I wasn’t sure if I still wanted to be a doctor. I guess I was just plain angry about her dying. And then I realized that if she had been where a doctor was available, she might not have died. That made me more determined than ever that I’d fulfill her dream.”

He was silent for a few moments and then went on. “I don’t know if I would have made it without the help of your father. He’s a special man, Cassandra. A very special man. I owe so much to him—and I plan to pay him back by being the best doctor I can possibly be.”

The horses had been passing through the streets at a brisk trot. Cassie glanced around her and realized they had only a few more blocks to go to reach the railway station. Panic caused her heart to begin to pound. He was talking—but not about the right things.

“Will you write me?” he was asking and Cassie could have shaken him. Of course she would write him. He need not have wasted their time asking.

“The time will pass,” he continued. “I know it will drag for me—but I’ll have my practice and you’ll have your—”

What?
she wanted to cut in.
What are you leaving for me? Your memory?

But he continued. “—your family and friends—the church. The days will pass. Before we both know it the internship will be over and we will be free to make plans—”

“We are almost there,” Cassie interrupted. The station was looming into view.

He tightened his grip on her hand.

“Your mother says that you are getting to be a fine cook,” he said in lighter mood and Cassie pulled her hand away. She wasn’t in a frame of mind to be teased.

“I might get some days off at Christmas. If I do, could I come to see you?”

“Of course,” agreed Cassie, but reminded herself that Christmas was several months away.

The driver had pulled the horses to a halt and was slowly climbing down from the carriage seat. Samuel seized her hand again and pressed a kiss into her palm. “I’m going to miss you so much,” he whispered and then he was stepping down from the carriage to help the driver with the trunk.

Cassie sat in frustration.
He is leaving.
Leaving just like that. Leaving with a promise of making plans when he completes his internship.
But that is way down the road.
What was she to do while he did his internship? What plans would she be able to make? How was she to spend her days—her hours? Waiting? Wondering?

She climbed stiffly from the carriage and walked with him into the station. She stood back and fidgeted while he purchased his ticket and checked the luggage. She fumed inwardly when he moved forward with a smile and held his hand out to her again.

“Walk with me to the platform?” he asked her.

She didn’t answer, just trudged along at his side.

The train was hissing noisily as they made their way to the steps for boarding. He turned to her then and pulled her gently into his arms. She was sure he would say something. Ask her if she would wait for him. Tell her he wanted to marry her. But he said nothing. Just looked deeply into her eyes, then leaned to kiss her softly on the lips.

“Goodbye, Cassandra,” he whispered against her hair. “I—I’m really going to miss you.”

She thought she saw tears forming in his hazel eyes. They looked dark with sorrow, dark and brooding. She reached up to clasp the hand that brushed her cheek and then her tears began to spill unashamedly. He bent to kiss one of them away and then turned from her and hastened to board the train. In a moment he appeared at the window directly above her. She heard the grinding as he lifted the framed glass that separated them.

Already the train was hissing with renewed vigor and she knew it would soon be moving him down the tracks.

He leaned out the window and said another goodbye. She saw that he was about to lower the window again.

“Just a minute,” she called into the noise about them.

He lifted the window higher and leaned out farther, cupping his hand to his ear so that he might hear her.

“Are you going to ask me to marry you or aren’t you?” she screamed as loudly as she could.

She knew he had understood her by the shocked look on his face.

“Well—?” she yelled again. “Are you?”

“We need to talk,” he hollered back at her. “We have so much to decide.”

But Cassie was not to be put off. The train began to move slowly down the tracks and Cassie walked right along beside it, looking up at the window where Samuel stretched out to hear her.

“Are you?” she insisted again. “Because if you are, I’m saying yes.”

People around them were grinning but Cassie paid no heed. She continued to walk alongside the train, her face turned upward toward Samuel.

“You’d say yes?” he called down to her, excitement showing in his face.

“Yes. I’m saying yes.”

He stretched even farther from the train. For one terrifying moment she feared he might fall.

“Cassandra Winston,” he shouted, “I love you. Will you marry me?”

Cassie forgot to walk. She stopped dead-still, her hands flying up to her face. He had said he loved her. He had proposed.

The train moved on without her, slowly gathering speed. Samuel was being borne quickly away. Suddenly she realized she had not answered him. She cupped her hands to her mouth. “Yes!” she cried as loudly as she could. “Yes, I will!” And she touched a finger to her lips to throw him a kiss and then stood with the tears streaming down her cheeks as she watched the train carry away the man she loved.

Chapter Eight

Letters

“My dearest Cassandra,

“You don’t know how happy you have made me by promising to be my wife. I haven’t been able to think of anything else since my departure from Montreal.

“I can’t begin to count the number of times that I longed to speak to you about marriage, but it seemed so unfair to ask you to wait while I finished my internship.”

Cassie flipped her red hair and said to herself,
Pawsh,
then continued reading.

“I feel there are so many things that we haven’t yet discussed. Things pertaining to our future. I always want to be totally honest with you so that you will make the decision knowing full well what you are getting yourself into.