WILLA SHOOK WITH ANGERas she watched the well-dressed man leave. Never in the seven years they had been traveling the country with her father’s medicines had anyone so haughtily proclaimed them to be useless. People asked skeptical questions, of course, which Papa gladly answered. And every now and then a naysayer worked his way into the crowd, claiming to have tried one of the medicines only to not have it work. But Papa then either gently explained that the person had chosen the wrong elixir or hadn’t used it properly. He was always able to satisfy an upset customer.
But this . . . thisdoctor. . . had the gall to tell everyone Papa’s remedies didn’t work without ever trying one himself, or even speaking with her father. Willa clenched her gloved hands into fists and hid them in the folds of her coat. His vocal skepticism had already caused a man and a woman to walk away. Papa’s medicines might have helped them!
She couldn’t forget that man’s words. He hadn’t even spoken to Papa or looked at his medicines, much less known about the hundreds of people Papa had helped. Perhaps he simply didn’tknow.
Suddenly, she wanted to talk to him. If she told him what a good doctor Papa was and how much good his Miracle Elixir had done people, maybe he would understand. Maybe he would even return and tell people that. She glanced in the direction he’d gone. He’d left only a few minutes ago. She could catch up to him if she left now.
She took a few steps backward until she was standing next to Leroy. “I must get some air,” she whispered. “I’m feeling faint.” He wouldn’t let her go if she told him what she planned to do. Both Leroy and Amos watched over Willa like uncles.
Even now, Leroy’s pale blue eyes scrunched up under a concerned brow. “Find a place away from these people to sit down. I’ll handle the purchases.”
She nodded and thanked him before scooting away, back around the wagons so Papa wouldn’t see her. She followed a stretch of packed dirt with traces of snow here and there around the nearest building and emerged onto the main road in the direction this doctor had gone. Willa squinted in the midday light. She couldn’t see the man, but several people made their way up and down the board sidewalks now. She hurried forward as fast as she could without running. A few people looked at her curiously, but Willa paid them no mind.
She passed a boardinghouse with an inviting-looking restaurant downstairs. Papa had put them up at the Creede Hotel, which was nice enough, but Willa loved the sound of this boardinghouse’s name—Hearth and Home. It seemed like a place where one could feel as if she belonged. Just as she passed the boardinghouse, she caught sight of the man’s fine coat billowing out from behind him. He turned the corner around the side of a business.
Willa rushed past two ladies admiring something in a shop window. Normally, she would have passed them more slowly, hoping they might speak to her.Later, she promised herself. First she had to set this man straight, and then she could hope to meet friends in this town.
As if she would be staying long enough to get to know them.
She pushed that sad thought from her mind as she rounded the corner—and ran into a wall.
Except it wasn’t a wall. It was a man. Willa gasped as a pair of strong hands grasped her upper arms to steady her. She took a step backward and looked up to find a familiar face.
It was the doctor who’d spoken out against her father.
“Are you all right?” he asked in his deep voice.
Willa swallowed. Up close, he was even more handsome. When she’d first spotted him in the audience, his expensive clothes, broad shoulders, and the piercing way in which he’d looked at her were intriguing. But here . . . with him standing this close, she couldn’t put two thoughts together. His eyes were a soft blue that reminded her of the sky over the mountains, and he was taller than she’d thought, which was quite a feat considering that Willa herself tended to be taller than some of the men she met. His jaw was strong and clean-shaven, and he smelled of pine and tobacco.
“Miss?” His dark eyebrows knitted together and he continued to hold her arms, as if he were afraid she’d topple over at any moment. “Are you hurt?”
“Oh, no, I’m . . . fine.” Willa managed to tear her gaze from those eyes, and her cheeks went warm as she realized she’d stood here, letting this man who’d disparaged her father hold on to her on a public street. She stepped backward to shake off his grip and set her face into a look that she hoped was stern. “Thank you for your concern. I was hoping to run into you. I mean . . . notruninto you, but speak with you.” She forced her mouth shut as she grew more flustered.
The doctor’s mouth turned up into a smile as if she amused him somehow. His expression only made the fire inside her grow even more indignant.
“Oh? Well, now that you’ve run into me, Miss . . .?” He trailed off, clearly waiting for her to give a name.
Willa chose to ignore his choice of words. He might like to make light of her father—and her, apparently—but she would remain above that sort of low behavior. “Rousseau. It was my father you insulted just a few minutes ago.”
“Miss Rousseau. I’m Dr. Nicholas Gatewood.” He removed his hat and inclined his head, as if this were some sort of fancy social occasion—or so Willa imagined. She’d never had the opportunity to attend anything like that. He replaced the hat as a cold wind whisked its way down the street. “Why don’t we adjourn to the main road? It appears the wind has chosen this direction to blow.” He held out an arm to escort her.
Willa lifted her head and pretended she didn’t see it. Instead, she picked up her coat and skirts and stepped ahead of the doctor toward the main street. When she rounded the corner, she stopped close to the building in order to allow others to pass down the sidewalk. Dr. Gatewood stood imposingly in front of her.
“Now, I believe you wanted to speak with me?” His eyes lingered on her in such a way that Willa felt too warm despite the cold air around them.
“Yes.” She looked toward the street, for no reason other than to break his gaze. Something about the way he looked at her made it hard to stay angry with him, and sheneededto hold on to that irritation in order to help him understand. When she returned to look at him, she kept her eyes away from his, resting them somewhere around his chin. “I don’t believe you understand the good my father does. In each town we visit, he helps hundreds of people return to health and become more vital. Why, before we left the New Mexico Territory, he had patients begging him to stay. They feared they would be unable to get the help they needed if they could no longer purchase his elixirs. He sold some to the town’s mercantile to have on hand in case people needed it. I thought you might like to know that, considering you didn’t do much investigation before you felt the need to disparage him so.” Willa smiled at the doctor as she raised her eyes, in the hopes that might soften him toward her father.
He leaned a hand against the building’s wall, his face impassive. “Tell me, did your father attend a medical college? Or perhaps apprentice with another physician? I don’t know the laws here or in Missouri, but I presume he must carry a license to practice medicine in some state?”
Willa pressed her hands into the sides of her coat. “Of course. Heisa physician.” And then she prayed he would ask for no more details, because she didn’t have the answers. Papa must’ve done all of that, or else he wouldn’t know how to help people the way he did. And why would she, his daughter, ever ask him to produce a medical license or detail his educational experience?
Dr. Gatewood made a sound under his breath, and Willa narrowed her eyes.
“You don’t believe me,” she said.
“Oh, no, I do. The person I don’t believe is your father.”
Willa shook her head. This man was utterly infuriating. “But I just told you, his medicines help people. What don’t you understand about that?”
