The Doctor Takes a Wife by Laurie Kingery Page A

mercantile and sell it. Yes. That’s what she’d do, and then return to the doctor’s office and have him check her wound, as she had agreed.
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    â€œWell, good morning, Miss Sarah,” Dr. Walker said, opening his door. Through the window, he’d seen her coming up his walk right after he’d just closed the door on Ada Spencer. Surely Sarah’s coming was his reward for being patient and kind during Ada’s unexpected visit, made under the pretext that she’d felt something was wrong with the baby. It had taken him an hour to calm her and send her on her way, and now here was Sarah Matthews, looking lovely in her loden green shawl and navy holly-sprigged wool dress. And bearing a gift, he thought, spotting the covered plate she carried. Well, well.
    He saw her start. Clearly, she hadn’t been expecting him to open the door before she’d even had the chance to knock.
    â€œG-good morning, Dr. Walker. I…I’ve come to have you check my arm, if you have the time.”
    â€œPlease, call me Nolan,” he said, guessing she called him “doctor” to maintain a distance between them. “And of course I have time. It will only take a minute. Come in,” he said, opening the door and gesturing for her to enter. “And what is that you’re carrying?”
    Two spots of pink bloomed on her cheeks. “I brought you a cake, to thank you for your kindness the other day when I fell—as well as the dollar I owe you for the doctor visits,” she said, pointing to the placard thatindicated his prices. She set the cake on a chair next to his inner office door and began to fish about in her reticule.
    â€œPlease forget about the fee.” He put out a staying hand. “I’m sure this cake will be quite enough in the way of payment, and how thoughtful of you to bring it. May I?” he said, putting his hand on the lid of the cake plate.
    â€œOf course. But I’ve been told you’ve been receiving quite a lot of such things,” she said, “so it won’t be all that special.” Her tone strove to be unconcerned, but he heard the disappointment underneath.
    His hand stilled and he gazed at the entrance door. He’d seen Ada and Sarah exchange a few words on the walk, and hadn’t missed the quickly suppressed dismay which had flashed across Sarah’s features. What had the other woman said to her?
    â€œNonsense,” he said, going ahead and lifting the top and staring at the delicious-looking confection it had concealed. “This looks wonderful, Miss Sarah. I’ve been told you’re quite a cook—and now I’ll be able to discover that for myself.”
    She looked at him as if she wondered where he could have heard such a thing or if he was trying to flatter her, but said only, “Well. I hope you enjoy it. But I don’t want to waste your time, Dr. Walker. Why don’t you have a look at my wound and then I’ll be going?”
    He followed her into the office, closed the door behind him, then gestured for her to sit in the chair. He began to unwrap the linen roll, noting with satisfaction that as he had instructed, the bandage had obviously been changed from the one he had applied, andonce he had completely removed it, the wound itself proved to be free of redness, swelling and drainage. His sutures had held. He pressed a finger into either side of the wound, and was pleased to see that she did not flinch.
    â€œIt’s no longer painful?”
    She shook her head.
    â€œIt appears to be healing well,” he said. “I want you to continue to keep it clean and dry, and change the bandage every day, and by, say, New Year’s Day, you can leave the wrapping off, get it wet and so forth.” He saw a flush of color rise in her cheeks again and realized he no longer needed to hold her forearm. He released it.
    â€œOh, that reminds me,” she said, once again reaching for her