The Doctor's Lady Read Online Free Page B

missionaries we’ve sent out have ended up fornicating with the native women or marrying among them.”
    He nodded. He couldn’t fault the Board’s logic. After many long months traveling with the fur trappers, he’d seen enough abuse of the native women to realize the depths to which a man could sink when he was lonely.
    He shook the water off his hands and reached for the towel. But still, the Board could have given him the benefit of the doubt, especially after all the work he’d already put into planning for the mission.
    Frustration contracted the muscles in his chest.
    He wiped his hands and tossed the towel onto the table. He knew it would do him no good to argue about the matter any further. The American Board of Missions had made their decision. He must find a wife or he couldn’t go.
    The trouble was, he only had four weeks left before he needed to be in Pittsburgh, where he’d arranged to meet the missionary couple that would be joining him.
    “You want some help finding a wife?” Dr. Baldwin peered at him through narrowed eyes. “Or are you going to let a little pride stand in the way of your plans?”
    Eli read the kindness in the depths of the man’s gaze. “Apparently you’ve got the perfect woman picked out for me.”
    He shrugged. “Of course no one is perfect. Not even you.”
    Eli stared at the doctor, then finally sighed. “All right. Take me to meet this teacher.”
    “I’m headed to her house right now.” Dr. Baldwin sat forward in his chair. “Why don’t you come with me?”
    “It had better not be Miss White.”
    “And what exactly is wrong with Priscilla White?”
    With a growl, Eli reached for his leather roll-up surgical case. “Come on, Doctor. If I have to take a wife, I want a strong one. Not a woman who’ll blow away like tumbleweed at the first hard gust.” He wiped the blood from the scissors and stuffed them into the case. “I won’t take a woman like her—not after what happened to Dr. Newell.”
    “Priscilla White is a hard worker.” Dr. Baldwin tapped his pipe in the ashtray on the side table. “There’s no other young woman who works the way Miss White does. Every time the church opens its door for a prayer meeting or a revival, she’s the first there, helping however she can.”
    “Then let her stay here and do her part for missions on the home front.” Eli stuffed the silk thread into his surgical case and folded it together.
    Dr. Baldwin pushed himself out of his chair. “Eli Ernest, you’re exasperating me.”
    He grinned. “I’ve been told that’s one of my best qualities.”
    “You mean worst.”
    “That too.”
    Dr. Baldwin finally smiled. “Let’s go, then. We’ll speak to Priscilla together. The two of you can get married. And you’ll both be able to fulfill your callings.”
    Eli stared at his friend and wished it were that easy. Even if she’d been the right type of woman to handle the rigors of missionary life, it was obvious they were worlds apart. “Her mother already turned up her nose at me. And now you expect that woman to agree to let her precious daughter marry me once she finds out I’ve got nothing but the hard-earned shirt on my back?”
    “She’ll come around.”
    Eli could only imagine the humiliation he’d have to suffer first. “No thanks.”
    “I guarantee it.”
    Something in the doctor’s tone stopped Eli.
    Dr. Baldwin lowered his voice. “Priscilla White had a severe case of mumps a few years ago.”
    Suddenly Eli knew what the older doctor was telling him, even before the words were out.
    “She lost her monthly courses, and she’s been infertile ever since.” Dr. Baldwin’s brows drooped. “I’ve done everything I can for the poor girl. But the fact of the matter is, she very likely can’t—won’t—ever be able to have children.”
    Eli stared at his friend, surprised at the weight that pressed on his chest.
    “I’m telling you with the understanding you’ll keep this confidential, one