Mack's Care (Grooms With Honor Book 4)

by Linda K. Hubalek

  Mack’s Care

  Grooms with Honor Series, Book 4

  Copyright © 2018 by Linda K. Hubalek

  Published by Butterfield Books Inc.

  Printed Book ISBN--978-1545231098

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017905563

  Kindle Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the retailer and purchase your copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Except for the history of Kansas mentioned in the book, the names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  A sweet historical romance set in 1887.

  Mack Reagan’s been building things since he was old enough to hold a hammer. Designing and building a block of new storefronts for Clear Creek’s council’s Main Street project makes him a happy carpenter.

  But carpentry is forgotten when the new doctor arrives in Clear Creek, Kansas...because the doctor is a big and tall woman, matching his gigantic stature.

  Pansy Walline is right out of medical school and anxious to start her first job as a doctor for a Kansas frontier town. Of course, the town council who hired Doctor P.F. Walline doesn’t realize she’s a woman, but she’s confident she’ll earn their trust right away if the love-sick carpenter doesn't get in her way.

  What happens when the town draws a line between needs and wants, right and wrong, and Mack and Pansy get boxed in the middle of this construction mess? More than sawdust could ignite in the sparks which fly between these two normally calm people.

  Mack and Pansy

  I always picture my characters, either imaginary or from real images, when I write my books. For the Grooms with Honor series I’m using couples, I found in my great-grandparent’s photo album, dating back to the early 1880s to early 1900s period. My great-grandparents were born in Sweden, moved to Kansas, and married in 1892.

  There are no names written on the back of these photographs, and I don’t recognize them as any of my relatives. This photo, plus others I will be using for other books in the series, features the wedding portrait of some of their friends. (There was no need to write their names on the photos since my great-grandparents knew them, and I’m sure they didn’t think their great-granddaughter would be trying to identify them more than a hundred years later.)

  These couples don’t look like our modern-day cover models (men with rippling muscles and women with flawless makeup), but they show real couples starting their new life together as husband and wife during the same period as the couples in my Grooms with Honor series.

  While you’re reading Mack’s Care, you can pretend this wedding portrait is of Mack Reagan and Doctor Pansy Walline in 1887. Hopefully, I’ve given them a good start in their married life.

  Chapter 1

  Late Spring, 1887

  Train Depot, Clear Creek, Kansas

  "I am in love," Mack Reagan murmured as he watched the woman of his dreams step off the train in Clear Creek, Kansas.

  "What did you say?" his brother, Cullen, absently said as they stood with the crowd of townspeople on the depot platform.

  "I just saw the woman I'm going to marry," Mack said with more conviction. She was beautiful, stunning, and hopefully unwed.

  "Who are you talking about?" Cullen had to stand up on his toes to scan the crowd since he was a good half foot shorter than Mack. At six-foot, four inches tall, Mack could see over the group of people, directly at the tall woman now standing beside the train car.

  "The woman who just stepped off the train. Curly hair the color of the freshly shaved walnut wood. Pretty brown hat and matching outfit."

  Mack waited for Cullen to spy her, knowing he'd be pleased with her appearance too.

  "Who? That tall moose?" Cullen turned to look at Mack like he was nuts.

  Mack whacked his brother on the back of his head, pushing his hat forward. "Don't call my future bride a moose!"

  "Ow! Okay, sorry." Cullen set his hat back straight on his head. "How did you order a mail-order bride without me seeing your letters?" Cullen was the town's postmaster and took his job seriously.

  "I didn't send for a bride. I never even laid eyes on that woman before now, but I swear she'll be my wife as soon as I ask her." Mack felt such a pull toward the woman, he just knew it had to mean something.

  “Keep your mind on business, Mack. We’re here to welcome the new doctor, not gawk at the train passengers.”

  “Well, let’s get it done then so I can meet my future bride,” Mack answered while watching the woman. She was so pretty it made his heart flutter.

  For the past year, the town council had been working with the prominent area families to make improvements to the town. Local cattleman, Isaac Connely, financed the building of two blocks on Main Street for future businesses. Mack and his new construction partner, Jasper Kerns, built the stores, with apartments above them for the business owners to live in.

  That afternoon, several Clear Creak residents were gathered around the train to meet the new physician, Doctor P.F. Walline, who would open his office in one of the new buildings. The council had decided to offer a young doctor an office and living arrangements free of charge in exchange for promising to practice in town for the next five years.

  So far, the new businesses Mack had built included Tolbert's barbershop, Mary Jenkin's dress shop, Mack's sister-in-law—Daisy Reagan's—pharmacy, and his brother, Fergus', photography studio. The new doctor’s office was next in line to the studio and shared the stairwell to the upstairs apartments.

  The Elisons of Boston, parents of the town's lawyer, Lyle Elison, and Cora Hamner, of the Bar E Ranch, sponsored the new doctor while he attended medical school in Boston. The Elisons originally owned the Bar E Ranch back in the early 1870s before Cora married Dagmar Hamner.

  "Only five people got off the train, and three of them are locals arriving home from a trip," Cullen pointed out as their older brother, Angus, the depot master, handed a bag from the baggage cart to an area rancher's son.

  Mack glanced at the mystery woman again as the president of the town council moved toward the young man standing by himself. But why was Cora Hamner and her sister-in-law, Lorna Elison, talking to the lady? Maybe she was a friend of their family? All the easier to meet the mystery woman then.

  "Come on, you’re a part of the doctor's greeting committee since you built his place. Stop gawking at the moose and get up there." Cullen jabbed Mack in the side.

  "Do not call her a 'moose'!"

  "Well, her hat bow reminds me of the wide antlers on a moose. Plus, she’s dressed in all brown and she’s as gigantic as you are."

  "Maybe that's why I like the looks of her. I wouldn't have to bend in half to kiss her like most women."

  "And you should know since you've kissed every woman in town," Cullen grumbled as they pushed through the crowd.

  "Hey, everyone deserves a kiss now and then, especially at special events like last year's New Year's Eve party."

  And Mack wanted to add kissing that tall woman to his list right quick.

  "Doctor Walline, I presume?" Mr. Taylor, the mercantile owner, and town council president, asked the young man as he held out his hand.

  "Uh, no. I'm Joe Bilker.
Here to visit a friend." The young man looked around for whoever was supposed to meet him instead of shaking Mr. Taylor's hand.

  "Well, I wonder what happened to our new doctor. I received a telegraph he'd be arriving today," Mr. Taylor turned to scan the crowd again.

  Mack's attention flashed back to the woman, now surrounded by his mother, Kaitlyn Reagan, and several other women from town. Their excited chatter caused the welcoming committee of men to look their direction.

  "See what I see, Mack?" Cullen whispered out of the side of his mouth.

  "What?"

  "Your moose is holding a doctor's bag."

  ***

  Pansy Walline cringed when she saw a shorter man across the crowd point to her and then hold his hands out on either side of his head. At least the man beside him, who was very tall and burly built, didn't laugh at his remark but rather scowled at the talker.

  Oh dear. Pansy had worried this hat would make her look taller and wider, but she’d hoped to look professional and fashionable at the same time. Mrs. Elizabeth Elison, her sponsor from Boston, had assured Pansy the outfit she wore for today's meeting with the town council was appropriate, but her nerves, and that man’s gesturing, were telling her otherwise.

  She glanced back at the pair of men in the crowd. The tall man, with a lop-sided smile, was openly staring at her again. He wore simple clothing: a tan cotton shirt, dusty black trousers, and a vest instead of a coat. Sticking out of his right vest pocket was a pencil. His brown slouch hat had fingerprints on the side, as though he’d touched something light colored and dusty, then put on his hat without washing his hands.

  He didn't look menacing or mean-spirited, just…very curious. Or perhaps he was simply surprised to see a woman who matched him in height. Pansy had passed six feet in height—and became taller than most men—by the time she was fourteen.

  Mrs. Elison's daughter, Cora Hamner—a very short woman with chestnut brown hair—who lived on a ranch near Clear Creek, came into town to meet her and continued to introduce the women gathered around them.

  Pansy tried to concentrate, thinking of a way to remember everyone.

  Light blonde: Lorna Elison, married to Lyle, Cora's brother, and the town's lawyer.

  Dark blonde: Linnea Lundahl, wife of Elof, the town's farrier.

  Coal-black hair with Indian ancestry: Holly Clancy, married to the café owner, Nolan.

  And then there was the woman with several daughters with red or blonde hair. Oh, yes. Auburn hair and porcelain skin: Helen Paulson who managed the hotel with her husband, Ethan.

  Pansy took a deep breath, looking for the tall man as a post of stability amidst the whirl of people and names.

  "If you need anything, and I mean anything, be sure to ask Kaitlyn Reagan for help. Her husband, Patrick, is the pastor of our community church." Cora smiled as the middle-aged woman with faded red hair held out her hand to Pansy.

  "We're so pleased to have a doctor in town again." Mrs. Reagan beamed, then gave her a hug instead of a handshake.

  "Pleased to meet you, too," Pansy replied as Mrs. Reagan stepped back and pulled another woman forward.

  "Two of my six sons are married, and these are their wives."

  "Hello, I'm Daisy Reagan. I run the pharmacy, so I'll be your source of supplies. My husband, Angus, is the depot master, standing over there by the baggage cart." A toddler rode on her left hip, but she easily held out her right hand for Pansy to shake it. The dark blonde woman, heavy with probably her second child, and close to thirty years of age, gave her a reassuring smile along with the firm handshake.

  Mrs. Reagan gently pulled another woman, with curly black hair and a darker complexion, to her side.

  "Nice to meet you, Doctor Walline. I'm Iris Reagan, and my husband, Fergus, and I have the photography studio." The woman's soft voice had a reserved Southern drawl to it.

  The Elisons had told her that people moving west after the Civil War had settled the town. After being in Boston for her training, her ears had become used to the Bostonian's way of speaking, so she heard the differences in the woman's voices.

  Cora touched her arm, then pointed to the cluster of men walking toward them.

  "The town council is walking this way to meet you, Doctor Walline, but I’m afraid Mr. Taylor, the president of the group, doesn't look happy. Just remember, the women in town support you wholeheartedly." Pansy looked down at Cora, then at the women surrounding her.

  A sense of dread fell on Pansy's shoulders. Surely the Elisons had told the council they'd sponsored a female doctor. Or not—seeing how the women she'd met so far formed a tight half-circle around her as the group of men advanced.

  The women knew, but the men didn't? Oh dear, a strike against her before she even started practicing medicine here.

  "Mr. Taylor and council, I'd like you to meet our new town physician, Doctor P.F. Walline." Cora Hamner waved a hand in her direction and sweetly smiled at the scowling men.

  "We weren't informed the doctor was a woman," Mr. Taylor said gruffly.

  "My parents interviewed Doctor Walline, and decided she was the best choice for Clear Creek." Cora stood under five feet tall, but she had no problem talking to the council spokesman.

  "She is not what we asked for when offering an office and living place to a doctor," Mr. Taylor countered.

  "You asked for a doctor, right out of medical school." The little woman couldn't have been any clearer with her meaning. And I'm it, Pansy thought.

  "Gentleman, this is Doctor Pansy Walline, the newest resident of Clear Creek."

  Pansy held out her hand to the ringleader of the group. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Taylor." She smiled while waiting for him to extend his hand. When he finally did, Pansy griped his hand tightly and gave it a hard squeeze and shake, trying to convey that she wasn't a weak woman.

  One by one the reluctant members of the town council came forward to shake Pansy's hand.

  "I'm Marshal Adam Wilerson, and this is my wife, Millie. Between accidents in town and the shenanigans of our brood, I'll be sending causalities your way."

  Pansy laughed for the first time since arriving in town. "Nice to meet you. And I look forward to meeting your family, hopefully not always in my office though." Pansy shook the couple's hands before Mrs. Reagan edged up next with her elbow around a preacher.

  "Doctor Walline, I want you to meet my husband, Pastor Patrick Reagan. I hope you’ll join us in church this Sunday and then at our home for dinner afterward." The pastor didn't have a clerical collar on as clergy back East did, but he seemed to fit the type of ministry a frontier town like this would need.

  "Welcome, Doctor Walline. We're so happy you've moved to our town." The pastor's warm hands clamped around hers. "If you ever need anything, from cookies to a listening ear, please stop by the parsonage or church anytime, day or night."

  "Thank you, Pastor Reagan, I might be at your doorstep soon," Pansy said, thinking she might need his counsel if the men in town didn't warm up to the idea of a woman doctor.

  "And these are two more of my sons. Cullen is the postmaster in town, and Mack built—"

  "Hello, Doctor Walline. I'm Mackenzie Reagan, and I built your office and home for you. I hope you like them." The big man who had been staring at her earlier was standing so close to her she took a step back for some space. He smelled like fresh sawdust. Mr. Reagan grabbed both her hands and gently squeezed them, but didn't let go. Pansy looked up, realizing he was staring into her eyes—into, instead of up at, like most people did.

  The other brother, Cullen, jabbed his brother in the ribs with his elbow to get him to let go of her hands.

  "Hello, I'm Cullen Reagan and don't mind my besotted brother. He's harmless as a giant lovesick puppy." Pansy shook his hand trying to decipher his words.

  Lovesick? With whom?

  "Miss Walline."

  Pansy didn’t turn to Mr. Taylor since he deliberately hadn’t used her title.

  "Uh, Doctor Walline, we will be holding a
special council meeting to discuss this unfortunate situation," Taylor amended.

  "What situation, Mr. Taylor?" Cora Hamner stepped forward to address the man.

  "Well, the fact that—uh, this woman isn't the doctor we ordered."

  "You had my lawyer brother, Lyle, draw up the contract. Did it say the person we're sponsoring to be our town's doctor had to be a male?"

  "No, but—"

  "Then no buts and no need for a special meeting," Cora dismissed the man with a wave of her hand. "Doctor Walline, shall we proceed to your new home and office?" Cora smiled and pointed down the street.

  "Can I carry your bag, Doctor Walline?" Mack Reagan's bass voice whispered near her left ear.

  Was this man dim-witted or just planning to stalk her?

  "Mack, help your brother, Angus, with the doctor's trunks," Mrs. Reagan suggested to her large son.

  "I also have several crates of medical equipment and books that need to be delivered to the office," Pansy added, hoping to keep the man busy and away from her for a while.

  "Yes, ma'am, uh, Doctor Walline. I'd be happy to do it for you." Mack tipped his hat and strolled off as if he were on a mission.

  "Whatever has gotten into Mack, Kaitlyn? I've never seen him so nervous," Cora commented as the group of women walked down the boardwalk.

  Mrs. Reagan laughed. "I think he found his match today."

  His match? What had the pastor's wife meant by that? Dear lord, Mrs. Reagan couldn’t have meant that Mack was interested in her…could she?

  Chapter 2

  Clear Creek looked like most frontier towns she'd passed through since crossing the Mississippi River: hotel on the east end of Main Street, stores between it and the train depot which seemed to be set back from Main Street since they walked a short distance to reach the street's boardwalk. A new section of wooden buildings reached to the west, and she assumed her office was in that direction since Mack Reagan said he'd built it.