Once out of surgery, they went back to the wards and, late in the day, attended a child who had been scalded. And as the day wore on, Blair and Leander seemed tireless, but Alan followed them feeling more and more as if he were completely unneeded. Twice, he tried to talk to Blair about going home, but she’d hear none of it. She stayed next to Leander’s side every minute. By ten that night, Alan was drooping.
“Come into my office,” Lee said at eleven. “I have some beer and sandwiches there, and I want to show you something.”
Alan sat in a chair and hungrily ate his sandwich while Lee unrolled plans and spread them across his desk. “These are my plans for the women’s infirmary, a place where a woman can go for any ailment and get competent treatment. I’d like a training center, too, for women to be taught how to look after their children’s health.” He stopped and smiled at Blair. “No horse manure or cancer plasters.”
She smiled back at him and realized that his face was inches from hers and that he was moving toward her with an expression on his face that she’d seen only once before—that night. Before she knew what she was doing, she was leaning toward him in a way that seemed very natural to her, and it seemed perfectly normal that he should kiss her.
But, only a breath away from her lips, he pulled back abruptly and began to roll the plans. “It’s late and I’d better get you home. It looks like we’ve worn Alan out. Besides, it’s useless for me to show you these plans. You won’t even be here. You’ll be in a big city in an established hospital, and you won’t have the nuisance of having to build a place from scratch, of having to plan where you’ll put the equipment, of whom you’ll hire, of planning just what you’ll teach and whom you’ll treat.” He stopped and sighed. “No, in your city hospital, you’ll have everything already planned. It won’t be hectic like this new clinic will be.”
“But that doesn’t sound bad. I mean, it might be fun to decide how you want things. I’d like to have a burn clinic or maybe a special isolation ward or—.”
He cut her off. “That’s kind of you to say but at a big city hospital, the people pay their bills.”
“If a big hospital is so good, then why didn’t you stay in one? Why did you leave?” she asked indignantly.
With a show of great reverence, he put the plans back into the safe. “I guess I like feeling needed more than I like security,” he said, turning back to her. “There are more than enough doctors in the East, but out here it’s a challenge to keep up with all the work. The people here need a doctor more than they do there. I feel as if I’m doing some good here, and I didn’t there.”
“Is that why you think I want to return East? For security? You don’t think that I’m up to all the work here?”
“Blair, please, I didn’t mean to offend you. You asked me why I didn’t want to work at a big, safe, orderly, comfortable hospital in the East, and I told you, that’s all. It has nothing to do with you. We’re colleagues, remember? I’d never dream of telling you what you should or shouldn’t do. In fact, if I remember correctly, I’m the one who’s taking obstacles out of your path. I gave up my intention of marrying you so you could return East, marry Alan, and work in your hospital just like you say you want to. What else can I do to support you?”
Blair had no answer for him, but she felt unsettled inside. At this moment, the thought of working in St. Joseph’s Hospital seemed selfish, as if she were seeking glory instead of trying to help people as she should be doing.
“Speaking of Alan,” Lee was saying, “I think we’d better get him home.”
Blair had completely forgotten Alan and now turned to see him slumped forward in his chair, dozing. “Yes, I guess we’d better,” she said absently. She was thinking too hard about what Leander had said. Maybe a big hospital was “safe,” but the people there got just as sick as they did in the West. Of course, there were more people to treat them there, and here they didn’t even have a decent hospital for women. In Philadelphia, they had at least four infirmaries for women and children, and of course there were women doctors in practice there, and everyone knew that women would sometimes suffer a disease for years before they’d let a man examine them.
“Ready?” Lee asked, after he’d wakened Alan.
Blair thought about what Lee’d said all the way home, and she lay awake in bed for a while and thought about it, too. Chandler certainly needed a female doctor, and she could train with Leander and help run that new clinic of his, all at the same time.
“No, no, no!” she said aloud, as she hit the pillow with her fist. “I am not going to stay in Chandler! I am going to marry Alan, tram at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and I am going to set up practice in Philadelphia!”
She settled down to go to sleep but as she drifted off, she thought of the many women in Chandler who had no female doctor to tend to them. She had a restless night.
On Wednesday morning, Lee came to the house to visit her, and Blair found that she was very glad to see him.
“I don’t have to be at the hospital until late this afternoon, and I thought you might want to go riding with me. I stopped by the hotel and asked Alan to go with us, but he said he was tired after yesterday and he didn’t like to ride anyway. I don’t imagine you’d like to go with me alone, would you?”
Before Blair could say a word, Leander continued. “Of course you wouldn’t,” he said quickly, looking down at his hat in his hands. “You can’t go out with me alone, since you’re engaged to another man. It’s just that the whole town thinks that I’m to marry you in five days, and no other young lady will go out with me.” He turned to
leave. “I didn’t mean to burden you with my problems. My loneliness isn’t your concern.”
“Lee,” she said, grabbing his arm to keep him from leaving the room. “I…I did want to discuss that blood poisoning case with you, maybe—.”
Leander didn’t give her a chance to finish. “That’s great of you, Blair, you’re a real friend,” he said, as his face split into a grin that made Blair’s knees weak. The next moment, he had his hand on the small of her back and he half pushed her out the door to the side yard where two saddled horses waited.
“But I can’t wear this,” she protested, looking down at her long skirt. “I need a divided skirt and—.”
“You look fine to me, and so what if you show a little ankle? I’m the only one who’ll be there, and I’ve seen all of you, remember?”
Blair didn’t get a chance to say another word before he lifted her and put her on top of the horse, and she was busy trying to arrange her skirts so she had some modesty left. She prayed that Houston wouldn’t see her like this. Houston might one day forgive her sister for stealing the man she was to marry, but she’d never, never forgive her for being seen in public wearing the wrong clothes.
Leander grinned back at her and she forgot all about her sister and that she was with a man she shouldn’t be with.
He led her far out into the country. They rode side by side for a while, and Blair got him to talk more about the women’s infirmary and tell her some of his plans. And she told him some of her ideas. Only once did he say, wistfully, that he wished he had someone to work with him. Cautiously, Blair asked him if he’d consider a woman doctor. Lee said he’d more than consider her, and for the next half hour he did nothing but tell her how they’d work together on this new infirmary if she stayed in Chandler. Before long, Blair was caught up in the fantasy, and she was talking about how they could work together and all the miracles they could accomplish. Together, they’d wipe out all illness in the state of Colorado.
“And then the three of us could move to California and cure that state,” Leander laughed.