The Doctor’s Last Battle (Preview)

Chapter One

The winter had been the cruelest anyone could remember.

The snow had fallen often, causing large drifts to pile high, and the cold had been just as relentless, resulting in three new headstones being added the little town’s cemetery. Those stones had been only recently placed, as the oppressive season had eventually given way to spring and the ground had softened enough to dig the graves.

The small, quiet town nestled in the Utah territory was just coming to life despite it being midmorning, but that wasn’t unusual for Pine Bluff. The bell rang gaily in the crisp air as the teacher beckoned to the children, who seemingly appeared right out of the trees surrounding the one-room building.

Dr. Jacob Butler touched the brim of his hat toward the teacher as he passed. She was a lovely young lady who had recently moved to Pine Bluff out of New York City. She’d come to the town with bright blue eyes and a teaching certificate in hand, which had amused Jacob.

But he certainly wasn’t going to take it upon himself to fill her in on any of the details of the past winter. It was a treat to have such a woman come into town to teach the children, and far be it from Jacob to be the reason she packed up her things and headed home.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time the town lost a new teacher because of the difficult way of life, though Jacob still had no interest in being involved.

He had his own life to worry about. And it was a busy one at that.

Jacob Butler was the town’s doctor—the one and only physician in the area. Utah had other doctors in bigger settlements, but Pine Bluff only had Jacob.

“Morning, Doc!” Mr. Vinson, who owned the lumber mill, called out. “And how’re you doing today?”

“I’m alright,” Jacob told him. “Thankful to finally have some decent weather in town. You ought to see the wildflowers blooming near the house! I knew once the snow melted, we’d have the sort of spring to make us forget about winter!”

“I don’t know about that.” Mr. Vinson laughed. “That was one of the hardest I’ve seen since moving here some forty years ago. But no matter. Here we are on the other side of it, and perhaps the good Lord will spare us the same trials next year!”

“So long as we band together, we can get through whatever the weather throws at us,” Jacob replied encouragingly.

Of course, losing three patients over the winter had shown him that no amount of support from the other people in town could save a sick or dying person, but that didn’t change his attitude.

He was ever the optimist, which drew others to him the most.

Jacob knew he wasn’t anything remarkable. He was of average height with an average build, and he’d argue that he had an average temperament as well. His mother often told him he was very handsome and not to shortchange himself, but he wasn’t so sure.

The only part of his life that he considered to be above average was his medical career. He knew he was a good doctor, and there wasn’t anyone around who could argue that fact.

“I like that attitude,” Mr. Vinson said. “Say, where’s your ma? She told me the other day she was going to be in town yesterday, but I haven’t seen her.”

“Hunting,” Jacob replied. “I think she was just as eager as the rest of us to be out of doors, and you know my ma. Once she’s out in the woods, it’s hard to bring her back inside. I’m sure she’ll show up in a day or two with something on the back of her horse.”

“She’s a remarkable woman,” Mr. Vinson said, and Jacob could hear the awe in his voice.

“That she is,” Jacob agreed with Mr. Vinson.

He knew the other man had an interest in his mother, but he didn’t give the situation much attention. He had too many other things on his mind to worry about whether his mother was courting.

From what she’d told him, Jacob didn’t think his mother was especially interested in settling down with another man. His father had passed when he was a boy, so for as long as he could remember, it had only been him and his mother.

She’d brought him to Pine Bluff with the hope of starting a new life, and while the two of them had managed to establish themselves in the town, Jacob still felt his mother didn’t think she quite belonged.

It was because of that she would spend so much time out in the wilderness. Jacob knew she was able to handle herself, so he didn’t worry too much about her when she was gone. She’d never left for more than a few days at most.

“I suppose I best get down to the office, so you have a nice day.”

Mr. Vinson wished him a good day in return, and after Jacob touched the brim of his hat once more, he continued down the street toward his practice.

He only had two rooms in his little office, but it was the best the town had to offer when he set up shop. He made do with the space, using the front half as a waiting room and place to handle the financial side of things, while he’d set up the back room to be his examination and treatment space.

A dark blue curtain separated the space, giving privacy to anyone who was being treated while allowing others who might need his care to come into the building and wait for their turn with him.

When he reached the building, he unlocked the door and flipped the sign that hung outside.

Everyone in town knew if the office was closed, they could easily find him out at the cabin he shared with his mother. If the sign indicated that the office was open, then he was inside.

He’d still not found the perfect way to tell someone he was out making house calls, but he was working on that. He had dreams of hiring an assistant at some point—someone who’d be able to sit at the office during the day when he was tending to other patients. They’d handle the paperwork and finances, and he could focus on the treatment of his clients.

The problem was, he needed money to hire someone, and it was a rare thing for him to be paid in cash. More often than not, he was paid through farm goods or helpful services performed by the people in town,

But he was okay with that. What good did money do him when he had to spend it to buy the other necessities? If he could trade his skill for produce or other goods, he was happy to make a deal.

After he’d flipped the sign around to show he was in the office, Jacob paused before heading inside. He brushed the dust off the back of his pants while he was standing outside the door, not wanting to track any dirt inside with him.

Not only was it safer for his patients to insist on cleanliness throughout the office, it was also far more professional.

“I don’t know why you bother with that,” Mrs. Beatrice McCormick, his next-door neighbor, loudly remarked.

Though his office was entirely separate from hers, they shared a wall. The entrance to her shop was on the opposite side of the building than the entrance to his office, but they still crossed paths often as they came and went during the day.

She was a small, slender woman with angular features. She wore her hair pulled back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, and her dresses were incredibly plain, almost stuffy in style. A pair of spectacles rested on her birdlike nose, and Jacob often thought they made her narrow eyes seem smaller.

She wasn’t unattractive by any means, but her appearance and her manner both gave the message she wouldn’t put up with nonsense of any sort.

“What was that?” he asked, pretending he hadn’t heard her comment.

“Just saying that it doesn’t make any sense that you clean up your pants like that,” she yelled back.

While the two of them were never truly at odds, they certainly did their fair share of bickering. Jacob didn’t set out to cause issues with her, but he also didn’t shy away when she was critical of him.

His mother often told him to simply ignore the other woman and go about his day, and for the most part, he tried to do just that. However, when she was in the mood to loudly criticize him when he arrived at his office first thing in the morning, he wasn’t above engaging with her.

“It’s not good for health reasons to have a dirty office space,” he explained for what he felt was the hundredth time.

“Then why do you walk?”

“Because it’s easier for me to come and go when I don’t have to worry about my horse all day,” he explained. “What would I do with him if I brought him? Leave him standing out here in the elements?”

“There’s a stable just down yonder.”

“That I’d have to pay for.” He laughed. “It seems like a foolish thing to spend my funds on when I can just as easily walk myself into town.”

“Except then you have to stand outside and try to clean up,” she retorted. “And what about those who come into your office and don’t take the time to clean their clothes before they do? What do you say about that?”

“I sweep up.” He shrugged. “Just like I’m about to sweep up in front of my office.”

He disappeared inside for only a moment, grabbing his broom and heading back to the boardwalk in front of his office to start sweeping. Part of him hoped Mrs. McCormick would have gone inside her own shop while he was gone, but he had no such luck.

When he stepped back outside, he saw her feverishly sweeping the boardwalk in front of her door, as well.

Of course, Jacob knew the mature thing to do would be to keep to himself as he went about sweeping, but he couldn’t ignore the way she kept looking over at him.

“You’re doing the same as me,” he said with a grin. “You know why we do this.”

“Sure,” Mrs. McCormick retorted. “But that’s not what I was talking about. I meant your pants. You brushed off your pants, and all I’m trying to say is that no one else is going to stop to brush themselves off before entering your office”

“I do it to look professional.” He shrugged. “I don’t think many people would appreciate it if they came into my office and found the doctor covered in dirt, do you?”

“I think if I was in need of emergency care, I wouldn’t stop to assess how professional you looked before giving it to me.”

“But not everyone who comes into the office is in need of emergency care,” Jacob pointed out. “Plenty of people come in with a question or looking for treatment for something that’s not inherently life threatening.”

She muttered to herself and continued to sweep the boards. Jacob couldn’t hide the smile that spread across his face at the sight. He didn’t dislike Mrs. McCormick. Not by any means.

In fact, his own mother had had the other widow out to dinner more than once, and both times he and Mrs. McCormick had had quite the pleasant conversation. Mrs. McCormick was, however, quite a different woman when she was at work than when she was paying a visit.

He finished sweeping up the space in front of his office, and before heading inside, he turned to wish the older woman a good day. He had to laugh when he saw that she’d already gone back inside her own shop without another word to him.

Shaking his head, he stepped inside his office, continuing to sweep the floor inside. His broom was old, but it got the job done. It took him longer than it should have to get all the tracked in dust off the floor, but getting a new broom wasn’t a priority for him.

A lot of people in Pine Bluff didn’t concern themselves with their appearances, but his father had always been proud of looking good.

“It doesn’t matter how attractive you are as a person, son,” he’d said. “What matters is that you take care of yourself. Be clean. Be neat. Be tidy. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but when you maintain a clean and neat appearance, no one can deny that you look good.”

It was one of the only lessons Jacob remembered that his father had taught him, and he cherished the principle of it. He did his best to maintain his neat and trim appearance, keeping his sideburns trimmed and even, and pulling back his medium-length chestnut-brown hair much the same way the colonials did when they settled America.

With the broom back in its place, Jacob turned his attention to starting a fire in the little wood stove near the door.

He never much cared for the placement of the stove, often thinking it would have served a much better purpose back in the examination and treatment room. However, there was only one door leading into his office, and he wasn’t going to have anyone walking through the treatment room unless they were there to actually be treated.

The fire he made was small. It was getting on toward summer, and with the changing season was coming more heat. The snow was long gone, and so were many of the chilly days, thus making the fire almost too much for those who were sitting and waiting in the main part of his office.

However, he did need a source of hot water on hand, just in case. So, after he’d built the fire, he started two kettles boiling. Jacob would have to refill the water inside each kettle twice during the day, as the heat from the fire would cause the water to evaporate.

He didn’t mind. It gave him something to do on his slow days, and he was always thankful to have the hot water ready when he needed it. Sure, there were days when it was a nuisance for him to have to handle it, but he often reminded himself that he would one day have an assistant, and that person would take care of keeping the water hot at the ready.

After setting out those kettles to heat, he made himself a pot of coffee. Though it was nearly ten in the morning, he still felt he could stand for the boost that the coffee would give him.

Without his mother at the cabin, the work that had to be done around the place fell entirely to him. He didn’t mind, except that it did cause him to run behind a bit in the mornings when he had to be to work.

He barely had time to get through the chores and walk to town, so of course he didn’t have the time to make himself any coffee that morning before leaving. With the wood stove on his mind, however, he knew he’d be able to make some when he finished opening up his little office for the day.

Once he had his coffee poured into his little tin mug, Jacob wandered back outside.

Mrs. McCormick was a seamstress, and Jacob often marveled at how many people she had coming and going during the day. Pine Bluff wasn’t a large place. How did so many women pay visits to Mrs. McCormick daily?

He’d heard she also offered sewing lessons as well as seamstress work, so he imagined several of the women must be learning how to sew.

But that didn’t completely end his curiosity, as he figured there would come a time when most of the women in town knew how to work a needle and thread, and Mrs. McCormick would eventually run out of people to teach. It truly didn’t seem to him like it would be a very sustainable way of living, yet she continued to be busy day after day.

“You could always stop in and pay her a visit during the day,” his mother had suggested when he brought up his curiosity to her. “If anything, you can say hello to her and see how she’s doing.”

“We often bid each other a good morning when we open,” he assured his mother. He didn’t want her to think he was being rude to Mrs. McCormick, after all. “But I don’t think she would be very happy with me simply walking into her shop without reason.”

“You’d have reason,” his mother argued. “Being a good neighbor is reason enough these days, isn’t it?”

“I suppose that depends,” he said, “on how one perceives visitation.”

His mother nodded, though the look on her face made him think she didn’t fully understand what he meant. As he stood on the boardwalk outside his office, he briefly considered doing just what his mother had suggested and going over to see what Mrs. McCormick was doing.

What’s the harm in that? You can always brush it off as telling her you didn’t intend to be rude this morning. But then, you weren’t rude, so what’s there to apologize for?

He looked down into his tin mug before taking another sip of the dark, hot liquid.

“Doctor! Doctor!”

Immediately, Jacob’s thoughts were yanked from what his neighbor was doing and into the moment.

Someone needed help.

Chapter Two

“Doctor Butler! Doctor Butler!”

Mrs. Birch continued to call out Jacob’s name even as she reached the boardwalk.

“Yes? Mrs. Birch, I’m right here,” he assured her.

“Oh, thank the Lord!” she cried. “I’ve been nearly hysterical; you absolutely must take a look at Tim at once! At once!”

She reached behind herself and pulled her son, Tim, out from his hiding place. Jacob covered his smile, feeling sorry for the boy in the moment. He had been hiding in his mother’s skirts so deeply that Jacob hadn’t even noticed he was with Mrs. Birch until the moment she produced him.

It wasn’t the first time the boy had been in the office. In fact, of all the people in Pine Bluff, Mrs. Birch and her family were the patients Jacob saw the most. It was the woman and her husband, with Tim being her only son.

Mrs. Birch was a kind woman who seemed to mean well, but she was a hypochondriac. In other words, she had herself convinced any symptom of any kind had to mean some sort of ill-fated disease, if not some life-threatening condition.

As a result, she often stopped by to speak with Dr. Butler. Or, just as often, she’d have her son with her and beg the doctor for some sort of treatment for whatever she believed was wrong with the boy.

He didn’t see Mr. Birch as often as he did Mrs. Birch and Tim, but that didn’t make the other man immune to Mrs. Birch’s fears. On more than one occasion, Mr. Birch had come into the office and told Jacob outright he wasn’t looking for any sort of treatment.

“The wife has it in her head that I’m dying, but I’m fine,” he said. “The only reason I’m here is because I know she’d ask Mrs. McCormick if I came in, and since that old hag is constantly sitting outside her sewing shop, I know she’d rat me out if I didn’t.”

Jacob laughed. “What seems to be the problem?”

“A wife that’s scared of her own shadow!” Mr. Birch practically shouted. “No matter. Just give me something, and I’ll take it back to her and tell her it’s headaches from all her worry.”

Jacob had laughed at the joke, then found a vitamin elixir to give the other man.

“Tell your wife you’re to take a dose of this before bed,” he instructed. “It’ll help with your sleep, which will help with the headaches.”

“But, Doctor, I’m not having issues with my sleep or my head,” Mr. Birch replied.

“That’s fine. It’s good for you even when you don’t have anything wrong, so just take it all the same. You could even give some to her if she struggles to get a good night’s sleep.”

“If I do that, you’re never going to see the end of it, and I’m afraid I can’t afford giving her this stuff all the time,” Mr. Birch said, and Jacob laughed once more.

“One bottle and you’ll be cured,” he said as he clapped the man on the shoulder and led him to the door.

So, it really hadn’t come as any surprise when he was met with Mrs. Birch and her young son that morning.

“What’s going on?” Jacob asked Tim.

He knelt down as he spoke to the child, hoping to make the boy more comfortable talking to him if they were close to the same height. If there was something truly wrong, he wanted to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible.

And he hoped that if Tim was really sick, the boy himself would speak up and tell Jacob what the problem was. Instead, Tim stared at him with large, round eyes.

“Freckles,” Mrs. Birch answered.

“Freckles?” Jacob asked, raising his eyebrows and looking at the woman to see whether she was serious.

“He’s getting more; what does that mean?” Mrs. Birch cried. “If they don’t stop, they’re going to spread everywhere, everywhere! People are going to call him names or think there’s something wrong with him!”

“There’s nothing wrong with freckles,” Jacob said, rising once again. “With skin as fair as Tim’s, he’s bound to get more than others who have a darker complexion.”

“Why? What causes it? What can we do to stop it?” Mrs. Birch asked, firing off the questions too fast for Jacob to answer any.

“There’s really not much you can do besides avoid being out in the sun,” Jacob said. “And you don’t want to keep the child inside all the time. That’s no life for anyone, Mrs. Birch.”

“He’ll be fine,” she said quickly. “If the sun is causing this, then I don’t see how it’s any better for him to be outside than indoors.”

“But it’s not harmful,” Jacob replied. “The best thing for any growing boy is to be out under the open sky and wearing himself out. If you keep him inside all the time, he’s going to go batty with boredom.”

Mrs. Birch shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Well, what can you give him that will help with this condition?” she asked.

“Freckles isn’t a condition,” Jacob explained, but Mrs. Birch wasn’t in the mood to listen.

“Doctor! He’s my son, and I’m doing the right thing by bringing him to you. I’ve noticed something wrong, and now I’m asking you to please fix it. What can you give him to help?”

Jacob hesitated. On the one hand, he wanted to put Mrs. Birch’s mind at ease. She was clearly very worried about her son, and even though Jacob knew there wasn’t anything to worry about, she didn’t seem to know that.

She truly loved her son and was just looking out for him, but Jacob didn’t know how much he could indulge the woman. He had to be fair to the boy, and he wouldn’t give her advice that would lead to Tim being trapped inside.

“I can give you some salve,” Jacob said at last. “And I’d recommend that you put a little on his cheeks before he goes into the sun, then a little more when he’s back inside. Morning and evening seem to cause fewer freckles in some than during the heat of the day, so perhaps make sure he gets plenty of time outside first thing in the morning before it gets too hot.”

“And what about swimming?” she asked.

“I love swimming!” Tim piped up, speaking for the first time since coming into the office.

“Hush!” Mrs. Birch told him. “I’m talking to the doctor right now.”

“But I love swimming,” Tim said again. He stared at Jacob with his large eyes, giving him the impression he’d better say it was okay for the boy to get into the water.

“If he goes swimming, won’t it wash off this salve?” Mrs. Birch asked. “It makes sense to me that the water would just get rid of it, and then what’ll happen? Should I make sure when he’s swimming that he’s keeping his face out of the water?”

Jacob wondered how the child ever got to swim with his mother so worried about his safety, but he simply shook his head in response.

“If you put this on first thing in the morning, then Tim’s skin will have the chance to absorb what it needs out of the salve before he gets in the water,” he said with a warm smile. “And if you put more on when he’s back inside, then that will replace anything the water may have washed off.”

“So you think he’s safe to be out in the water then?” Mrs. Birch asked.

“I do,” Jacob said. “And another thing you might want to note is that many children have freckles when they are young, and they grow out of them as they mature. You might see a few more pop up over the next couple of years, but with time, they’re going to fade.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, her voice gripped with a worry Jacob didn’t understand.

“I know so,” he said with a confident nod. “If I had a photo to show you of my childhood, you’d see for yourself that I had quite a few freckles of my own when I was about Tim’s age. Now you can hardly see any of them.”

“No, you’re right about that,” Mrs. Birch said after studying Jacob’s face closer than he would have preferred. “Alright.”

“Alright?” Jacob asked, this time only raising one of his eyebrows.

He had come to learn early on with Mrs. Birch that she seemed to relax when he used her own verbiage back toward her during a conversation. He didn’t want her to feel bad about bringing Tim into his office yet again, but he hoped for the chance to explain to her that Tim wasn’t going to die from the simple day-to-day symptoms he experienced.

However, as Mrs. Birch nodded, Jacob realized he wasn’t going to get the chance to have that conversation with her that morning. It was obvious her mind was already jumping from solution to solution, and he didn’t expect there was much he could say that would truly sink into her brain.

“Alright,” she said again. “Then I think that’s all we need for today. I could have you look at his tooth again, but I’m not seeing much change there.”

“Some baby teeth are stubborn, like I said,” Jacob reminded her. He’d gone over all of that with her the last visit she’d made on Friday, three days before. “Don’t worry about it too much. When the time is right, it’ll fall out on its own, I promise.”

“Sure,” she said with a nod. “I have no doubt you know what you’re talking about, Doctor. I just feel it’s best if we’re all vigilant about such things. You’re only human, after all, and can’t be there with Tim all day, every day!”

She laughed at her own joke, and Jacob politely joined in. He briefly considered telling her once again that Tim was just fine and to stop bringing him by so much, but he held back. If Mrs. Birch was satisfied in the moment, then that was good enough for Jacob.

He’d find the time to talk to her at some point. For the time being, she wasn’t doing any real harm to anyone.

“Can I just charge this to the account?” she asked as he handed her a salve.

“That’s fine,” he said. It was all he could say. He knew she wasn’t going to give him cash right then, and he wasn’t going to withhold anything over pay. The Birches were good about paying their bills eventually, and he wasn’t in any real need in the moment.

“Thank you, thank you very much,” Mrs. Birch said. “Tim, what do you tell the nice doctor?”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Tim said.

“How would you like a candy stick?” Jacob asked, and Tim’s face lit up.

“Ma, can I?”

“Oh, I suppose, this once,” she said.

Jacob gave the child a piece of candy, then walked them to the door.

“You know I’m here for you anytime you need,” he said, hating that he told every patient the same thing. “Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything.”

“Absolutely,” Mrs. Birch said. “You’re a godsend to our little town, Doctor Butler. I hope you know that.”

She left with Tim in tow, and Jacob smiled. He was grateful for her words, even if he did find her overbearing as a patient.

It still felt good to be appreciated.

He stepped back outside after Mrs. Birch and her son had left, drawing in a deep breath. The spring air felt so good after the rough winter, and seeing the way Tim had lit up with the piece of candy brought a wave of warmth over his heart.

He watched the pair as they made their way up the street, and he wondered if little Timmy was going to make it into school that day. The boy was old enough to at least start school, but with how concerned his mother was over his health, Jacob didn’t know what she’d do.