She slipped to the back of the inn once more and made her way over to where Burke was. He looked up as she approached but didn’t say anything. She stood near him, set her hands on her hips, and did her best impression of Eliza’s friendly boldness. “What did you mean when you said you are re-adopting your habit of avoiding people?”
“I think the phrase is self-explanatory,” he said.
“Then why are you doing it? No one seems to be able to sort out that mystery.”
“You told me you enjoy puzzles. Perhaps I’m simply choosing to present you with one.”
“The only thing that has changed in recent days is me. You were social and enjoying your neighbors when I arrived, and now you’ve gone back to avoiding people. Did I do something?” Sophie’s temerity was surprising even her.
Burke shook his head as he resumed his work putting straw in the large flat bag. “I simply have a lot I’m working on. I don’t have a great deal of time for distractions.”
She fought a smile but wasn’t certain she was successful. “You find me distracting?”
He looked up at her once more. The surprise there gave way to a bit of amusement. “Yes. Though there are other things too.”
“I don’t have to be the entire list, I’m simply glad to be on it.”
He laughed. She chose to see that as an encouraging sign.
“Can I help you with whatever it is you’re working on?” she asked.
“It’s not particularly hard work, but if you don’t have gloves, you’ll get splinters. And I only have the pair I’m wearing.”
“I could hold the… bag”—she wasn’t certain that was the right descriptor— “while you put the straw in.”
“It’s a tick for the bed in the third room,” he explained. “If you’d be willing to hold it open, I won’t say no.”
She offered to help with something she hadn’t the least experience with, the sort of thing her friends and family in Baltimore would’ve been shocked to come across let alone participate in, and twice that evening her offer had been readily accepted.
She took up the open edge of the tick and held it up. He kept at his part of the effort, moving a bit quicker than he had before. She hoped that meant she was proving helpful.
“Why is it that the things you need to be working on have become so urgent?” she asked. “You’ve been here a couple of years now, and from what I’m told only lately have you become so earnest about fixing it.”
“It’s not so much fixing as finishing. I’ve been slowly accumulating what I needed but wasn’t quite done yet.”
“And have the unfinished bits been causing you difficulties?” she asked.
He shook his head. “But it needs to be done.”
“Why now?”
“A friend of mine is coming to visit, a fellow doctor I met while we were both students in Chicago.”
“And you are required to have a finished infirmary for him to visit?” Sophie wasn’t certain she understood.
“I’d like him to see what I’ve built here, what I’ve accomplished. Arriving to find an unfinished infirmary would be—” He searched around for the word.
“Accurate?” She suggested a bit dryly. “There are challenges to being a doctor on the frontier. You don’t have ready access to supplies. The people you take care of aren’t wealthy. Even with that, you have made tremendous progress.”
“You don’t understand,” he muttered, applying himself more readily to his efforts.
“What don’t I understand?”
“Dr. Montgomery has a practice in Chicago. His infirmary is impressive and the envy of every doctor we know. He treats important people and is doing important work. We used to talk about where we saw ourselves going as doctors, what we meant to do with our lives. He’s doing it, and I’m… here.”
“When he comes to Hope Springs, you want him to see that you’re a success and doing important work?”
“Exactly.”
