“Momma loves you,” she cooed to her daughter. It was a lie, but Esther didn’t know that. How could she when the most important thing in her life right now was gumming her tiny fist?
Lauren glanced up as a tall shadow fell over her. The man stood there, looking down at her.
“Why?”
She didn’t pretend to not know what he was talking about. Hollowly, she answered. “I was going to. But she has her whole life ahead of her. I couldn’t take it.”
The steel band wrapped around Christopher Spaulding’s heart eased as he saw the woman look at the babe again, rocking in that age-old maternal way, trying to calm the baby’s cries.
He’d never been so scared in all his life!
The saying was that the Lord worked in mysterious ways. What could be truer than this moment?
Christopher hadn’t intended to walk by the river that morning, but he had just assisted a horse birth a foal that hadn’t turned. There was nothing more dangerous than a breech birth, especially if the mother couldn’t pass the placenta.
How could he have known he would take part in a procedure more dangerous than a breech birth?
Saving a woman from herself?
As he watched her, he couldn’t get over the fact of how timely his appearance had been.
If he’d been one moment too late…
His lip thinned further. It didn’t bear thinking.
The day had started off as he would expect. Millie Taylor fetched him that morning. Her husband, Robert, knew not a thing about animals other than how to saddle a horse and ride. He was happy to help, even if Millie married another man.
It was difficult to believe that he had only been in Last Chance for three months. When he finally arrived in March, to meet the woman he had corresponded with, he found her already married. Which suited Christopher fine. Getting married wasn’t at the top of his list; he simply wanted an excuse to leave Richmond and go somewhere that his skills could be properly appreciated.
He was a learned doctor. Spending six years studying medicine and anatomy at one of the best schools in Virginia. He had a medical practice treating people’s maladies, but it left him unfulfilled. People could be downright cruel sometimes, complaining if he couldn’t snap his fingers and provide an immediate solution to their needs.
Most of the time, he didn’t even receive any sort of payment for his services, and keeping an office open in Richmond was draining his finances. It wasn’t until he was on his way home and he found a small child crying. The child’s dog had caught its leg in a rodent trap and couldn’t walk.
Christopher comforted the child and took the dog back to his office. After removing the trap from the dog’s leg, he fixed it up with a splint and linen strips. The dog sat quietly through the entire procedure and even rewarded Christopher with several kisses.
At that moment, he knew he didn’t want to treat people. He wanted to work with animals. They were nicer and didn’t whine.
Unfortunately, animal doctors were considered quack medicine, and no one was willing to pay a doctor to tend to their animals if they were ill or needed care. It was as if God’s creatures were a disposable commodity. It mortified his mother! What would her friends think?
His colleagues laughed at him. His mother threatened to disown him.
But Christopher knew in his heart that he was destined for something outside of Virginia. Something having to do with animals. He closed his practice and went to stay with a friend for a few months. His friend had a cattle ranch thirty miles outside of Richmond, in a little town called Goochland.
There he spent months learning about bovines, equines, and even how to take care of the dogs and cats on the farm. He even had the fortunate experience of rescuing several orphaned opossums and caring for them before returning them to the wild.
It was rewarding work, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted to branch out on his own. When he found the advertisement in the paper about the small town of Last Chance, he penned a letter and blindly mailed it to an unknown recipient. The letters were not sent to anyone specifically, rather a group of women that selected letters without knowing the contents.
It thrilled him when he received a letter from Millicent Reed. Although it didn’t work out, he was pleased to have new friends with the local schoolteacher and her husband.
After making sure that the mother and foal were recovering nicely, he accepted a quick lunch with Millie and her family before heading back to town. Since Millie came to fetch him in her buggy, he was without transportation. Robert offered to give him a ride back to town, but since it was such a beautiful day, he walked.
There was a path he discovered which ran right along the edge of the river. There were trees scattered along the shoreline for shade, and the water provided a pleasant breeze compared to the hot dry air that was found in Nebraska summers.
As he approached the back of the churchyard, he heard the faint sound of crying in the air. It appeared to be coming from a large tree leaning towards the water. He stopped and listened. The crying grew stronger. Tilting his head, he strained his ears to see if he could find where it might be coming from. It wasn’t a wildcat. He had heard the dangers of walking alone after mother cats gave birth to their young.
Perhaps it was a fox?
There were several fox dens underneath the large trees, and baby foxes sounded like small children when they cried. He shifted his doctoring bag to his other hand and continued walking. He’d simply walk around the tree as to not disturb the den.
