“The first giggle I hear in regard to my riding ability, I’ll write you out of my will,” Truda warned as she clambered aboard a horse they called Dickens. She just hoped it wasn’t named that because the animal was in the habit of scaring the dickens out of his riders.
Piper and Jamie were already aboard their horses. Aboard wasn’t the right word. Were Truda to say that, both youngsters would laugh so hard they’d fall off their horses. Mounted. That was the word. But aboard seemed more correct for Truda, who felt a little at sea. Not only had it been a while since she was on a horse, she had never sat easy in any saddle.
People always assumed she would be a fine horsewoman, but she only rode a four-legged creature if she had absolutely no other choice. She’d never warmed up to horses. At least not riding them. She loved stroking their velvet noses and feeding them apples. That was fine. So was riding in a carriage pulled by a spirited team of horses, although she much preferred the horseless carriages of modern times.
Cars with wheels. That was the thing. Except here in these mountains, cars with wheels lacked accessible roads up into the hills. Piper said the creeks were often used as roads. As if that made any sense at all, but Piper claimed Truda would understand once she saw the terrain.
She saw cars in Hyden. Trucks too. She’d ridden from Hazard to Hyden in a kind of bus made out of a long car. But Suze, one of the couriers, had met her in Hyden with a horse for the ride to Wendover. Suze had been wonderful, not hurrying Truda, and when they forded the river, she’d taken Truda’s reins and led the horse across. All Truda had to do was not fall off in the river. She did manage to keep her seat then. She wasn’t sure she’d manage it again, but nothing for it except to try.
Were she to actually be unseated in the river or anywhere along the way, she would be sure to hear laughter as long as she didn’t seem injured. Perhaps she should practice some pitiful moans, just in case. Either that or laugh first. That was generally a good way to keep the psyche from being wounded by others’ smiles.
Not that she wasn’t happy to see the smiles this morning. Bright as the sun coming up over the hills. This place was as beautiful as Piper had said in her letters. Trees and flowers. A blue sky with white clouds that seemed near enough to touch. The cows and pigs wandering around wherever added to the lovely country feel while making it necessary to watch one’s step even in the yard to what they called the Big House.
Mrs. Breckinridge hadn’t been at breakfast. Aileen said she could be still recuperating from her trip, since travel was so hard for her due to fracturing her back the year before. Or that she might be out feeding her geese.
“If you see those geese, avoid them at all cost,” Aileen cautioned. “They’re mean as snakes, but Mrs. Breckinridge does love her Jack and Jill goose and gander.”
Breakfast was delightful with the couriers there, along with the rest of the staff. Lively talk of the day’s plans filled the air around the long table. Good food too. The mountain air did give one an appetite. Jamie Russell found a place at the far end of the table, probably to avoid Aileen’s evident displeasure at him being there at all. A good-looking young man in the midst of her courier girls spelled trouble to her, and with the way the girls were sliding their eyes toward Jamie, she could be right. The only girl who studiously considered the food on her plate and didn’t take one glance toward Jamie was Piper. To Truda, that proved Jamie’s face was where Piper most wanted to linger her gaze.
Jamie, on the other hand, was watching Piper every time Truda looked his way. The boy had it bad, but he wasn’t so lovesick that he had lost his appetite. He had finished off every biscuit, and a good thing. He was entirely too thin, but young people were like that. Could eat a horse without gaining the first ounce.
She stroked Dickens’s neck. “Not you,” she muttered under her breath. Around here, nobody would ever consider eating a horse. They were necessary partners with the nurse midwives to get care to the mountain people.
“Being able to work with the horses is especially important for our couriers,” Aileen had told Truda. “Your niece is well accomplished in that area. While I am in charge of the couriers and thus the horses as well, I have to depend on the girls to tell me what’s needed. And Kermit, our hired man. I can ride, but only if I have to, and I certainly have no desire to hammer loose horseshoe nails back into a hoof or comb burrs out of horses’ tails. I’m continually amazed at how eager these girls are to do whatever is needed. Sometimes they volunteer to stay with the horses in their stalls overnight when one is ill. Your niece did just that a week ago.”
“I’m not surprised. She has always loved horses,” Truda said.
“I suppose that does help, but some of the tasks with horses are less than pleasant. However, as odd as it may sound, I do think what the girls dread most is Mrs. Breckinridge’s afternoon teas.” Aileen made a face. “I understand. I seem to lack proper tea-making skills myself. Very difficult to get it exactly right for Mrs. Breckinridge. Not only that, but when we have guests, she expects the girls to remember how they like their tea after they are served once. Sugar, no sugar, cream, no cream, and so on.”
“That must test their memory,” Truda said.
“Indeed. But the girls are generally up to the challenge of whatever they are asked to do, although some are like I was when I first came. A bit overwhelmed. Oftentimes I still am. Can’t is not a word Mrs. Breckinridge ever wants to hear from any of her staff or nurses. She is somewhat more understanding with the couriers.” Aileen smiled. “But in spite of the difficulties we face here, we all feel privileged to be part of this service. Especially the couriers, I think.”
As Piper led the way down to the river, she did look very happy to be at Wendover, but Truda suspected some of this morning’s glow had to do with the young man riding with them. If Erwin’s plan to match Piper with Braxton Crandall had ever had a chance, it could be slipping away.
Seeing Piper acting as though the sunshine was a gift sent particularly for her this day made Truda smile. She supposed she should consider the comfortable life Piper might be passing up.
But then, at times comfort could be overrated. Just look at her. While she was far from comfortable on this horse as he stepped into the river, at the same time this was exactly where she wanted to be. Even if the whole trip turned out to be an old woman’s foolishness.
She wasn’t that old, she amended. She was in good health. At forty-five she surely had many more good years ahead of her. Nobody ever said a middle-aged woman couldn’t fall in love. Or act a fool by thinking she might be in love with a man she hadn’t seen for twenty-plus years. A man she’d only seen for one brief evening.
When she thought about it in the clear light of day, she realized she was being an absolute idiot, but every person should be allowed one idiotic dream in her lifetime. She wasn’t going with the expectation that she and Jackson would do more than exchange a few pleasantries and perhaps wonder how the other one had gotten so old. She blushed when she remembered how long she’d spent in front of a mirror that morning, trying to decide how old she did look. When she twisted to the side and peered at her rear in the mirror, she had smiled. At least she hadn’t put on weight. She looked the same as she had years ago, except, of course, for the aging.
Right. Except for those wrinkles beginning around her eyes and gray hairs sneaking in among the dark brown tresses. As water splashed up around her, she could almost feel the waves she’d worked so hard to crimp in her hair wilting in midstream.
Midstream. That’s where she was in her life. While she was absolutely out of her mind with this fixation on a man she’d built up in her imagination, that didn’t mean she couldn’t change her life. She didn’t have to stay at her father’s bank as though he were still pulling all her strings. She was an independent woman with the wherewithal to take care of herself.
She could quit her job and take her turn serving food to the hungry in a soup kitchen. She could set up an easel in a park and paint landscapes. She’d always wanted to do that. The landscapes around her now, as she followed after Piper, were nice. She could set up that easel right here at Wendover. Maybe volunteer to help Aileen with the books or do some sort of fundraising work for Mrs. Breckinridge. It might be interesting to live in the hills for a while. Sometimes one should go with the current and try something new. When they were midstream. When they had the means to do so.
Poor young Russell trailing behind her had no means if the gossip about his family was to be believed, and Truda supposed it was. But he seemed to have plenty of spirit and he was so very young. Opportunities would come his way. She did hope Piper would see that and not let Erwin bully her into doing something she’d regret.
Truda really must have a talk with her brother. Another talk. But perhaps she should simply telephone him. Let him yell at her over the phone line instead of in her parlor. For sure, Erwin wouldn’t be pleased to know Jamie Russell was here in the mountains.
Dickens plodded along behind Piper’s horse as if he knew the trail so well he didn’t need to keep his eyes open. But Truda’s eyes were open, and when she saw Hyden Hospital up the hill, her heart did a funny little stutter beat.
“I hope Dr. Jack is here,” Piper called back over her shoulder.
Not once since receiving Piper’s letter saying she’d met Jackson had Truda considered him not being here if she came to Hyden. As though he would be at the hospital watching out the window for her to show up. Truda almost laughed out loud. All this wondering and preparing and then he might not be there. He could have picked this week to go on a European tour or be attending a medical convention somewhere. Perhaps in Louisville. Wouldn’t that be a joke on her? Serve her right for building up this meeting as though it was going to mean something, when actually it meant nothing at all.
She sat up a little straighter on Dickens as they started up the hill toward the hospital. Time to change her thinking. She was here to tour this hospital built by a woman who did not know the word can’t. That was it.
They rode up to the front entrance and dismounted. Piper took Truda’s horse. “Wait here, Truda, while I find the horses some water and a place in the shade.” She peered over at Jamie. “You can wait here too if you want.”
“What if all three of your horses try to run in different directions?” Jamie said.
“They won’t.” Piper reached for his reins, but he didn’t give them up.
“Just in case, I better come along. If Truda doesn’t need me to keep her company.” Jamie looked at her.
“Go.” Truda waved them off. “We wouldn’t want a stampede down the mountain, now would we?”
Piper rolled her eyes at Truda before she led the two horses away. Jamie trailed along behind her. Truda smiled as they disappeared around the building. A nice little breeze was blowing, but the sun was very warm. She should have worn a hat, but not only was she afraid of losing it on the ride over, she had her carefully coiffed hair to consider. Crossing the river had taken care of that. She pushed some sweaty strands back from her face. More reason that a hat would be nice now.
She moved up onto the hospital porch out of the sun. Aileen might not be happy that she’d let Piper and Jamie go off alone, but Truda trusted Piper’s good sense. After all, she did take after Truda. Then again, on this day Truda seemed to have lost her good sense, acting like a besotted schoolgirl.
The hospital door flew open and a man came outside. “Truda Danson! Is that really you?”
Truda turned toward him. “Jackson?”
He came toward her, his hands out to take hers. He was older. Of course he was, but at the same time, she would have recognized him anywhere. Just as he must have recognized her—unless Aileen had let the hospital know she was coming. She took his hands in hers and the years fell away as she looked into those blue eyes that had watched her so intently that night they met.
“In the flesh.” A smile lit up his face.
He wore a doctor’s white coat with a stethoscope looped around his neck. His dark blond hair was thinner, with gray at the temples, and just as she had noted wrinkles on her face that morning in her mirror, he had his fair share. Smile wrinkles. Nothing bad about that.
“I’m surprised you recognized me after all this time,” she said.
“Why wouldn’t I?” His smile got wider. “You haven’t changed a bit. Still the same lovely girl I met by happenstance at a dance when we were both too young to know what life meant.”
“Oh, I don’t know. If I remember correctly, we managed to cover some life topics that night.” He still had her hands and she saw no reason to pull away.
“So we did. But at the same time, we had no idea, did we?”
“I suppose not.”
His eyes seemed to delve into the depths of hers. “I’ve always regretted not coming back through Louisville after I finished my residency in Chicago.”
“It’s too late for regrets.”
“So it is. Have you had a good life, Truda?”
“I have.” She smiled as she added, “So far.”
He laughed and squeezed her hands before turning them loose, and then as if it was the most natural thing in the world, he put his arm around her shoulders to turn her toward the door. “We can hope for a few more years, can’t we? Come, let me show you around.”
“I’m supposed to wait for my niece.”
“Danny? A fine girl. I’ve been hoping you’d come visit ever since she said you were her aunt.” He continued to walk Truda toward the door. “But come along. The hospital isn’t so big that she won’t find us.” He stopped then. “Unless you’d rather wait.”
Truda smiled. “She’ll figure it out. I’d love to have the doctor show me around.”
Some things were simply meant to be. Even if decades had to pass in between.