Thanks a lot to all the readers who took the trouble giving me a review. I very much tried to heed the advices and updated all chapters and shortened both sentences as well as paragraphs. I very much hope the text is easier to follow now, which I am unfortunately not completely sure about, because with every upload it seemes that half my punctuation marks are 'swallowed'.
However thank you very much for your kind patience!
The stagecoach bolted through the landscape as fast as the driver could manage, which gave the passengers inside the usual good amount of shaking. There were just two of them: A young woman, which had buried her face deeply in an extensive book. She wore a light grey dress, which appeared despite some mud stains, the lower parts of the skirt were covered with, quite elegant. On the opposite side sat a man, who was probably in his thirties. He was dressed like a cowboy whereby all his clothes were completely black. His also black hat was drawn deep over his forehead, which did not keep him from trying to get a glimpse at the young women through his lashes under almost closed eyes. She had already been sitting in the coach when he entered it in Placerville, so all he had seen of her so far was the title of her book "Wuthering Heights" - he had read about it, there had been some sort of scandal connected with it, as the author had turned out to be a woman.
Before the cowboy had an idea whether or how to start a conversation, she lowered the book to look for something in her bag and a really striking face became visible. She seemed to be in her twenties, whereby it was not easy to guess whether in the early or late twenties. There was something very dainty and juvenile about her, but a vigorous chin, promising quite some energy within the slender person, and her stern expression let her appear as if she had passed the first youth already. Most people would probably not have described her as a raving beauty as everything in her face seemed to be too big: the eyes, the chin, the nose as well as the mouth. However her mouth was deliciously red with full, beautifully swung lips, the chin was straight and the nose even and not too spiky. Her eyes however made everything even, which might had to be criticized about her features: Above high cheekbones big, bright golden eyes with green sparkles looked at her observer who felt caught watching her and drew his hat deeper over the forehead, however not that deep that he wouldn t have been able to continue looking at her. So he was still able to appreciate the lot of messy curls in a kind of reddish blond that surrounded her face in quite an attractive way. All in all she was a downright looker.
The cowboys interest was now definitely piqued and he considered how to make contact with his beautiful fellow passenger when a coincidence supported him. The coach wobbled again in a quite questionable way so that the book that had rested on her lap slid to the floor. The cowboy picked it up and handed it over to its owner with the remark "Miss, may I ask whether you would you recommend this book, I mean is it worth reading? I have heard some quite controversial opinions about it." She looked at him rather indifferently and replied: "Missa etiam Socrates opinionem ingerit quibus filios spectris.*" Before she could continue to translate the phrase she heard the cowboy say "Yes of course I know that Marc Aurel made this Socrates quotation about the opinion of the mass being ghosts, with which one frightens the children. Of course one should only take care for ones own verdict, but I really had appreciated your advice." Before she had digested the surprise that the cowboy was not only very well understanding Latin, but also precisely knew the quotation, something unexpected happened: A loud crack cut the air and the coach halfway toppled sideways. In this position it was still drawn for a while until the spooked horses calmed down and came to a rest, also because the load they had to draw was now considerably harder to pull. The first of the passengers, who moved, was the young woman.
She tried to orientate herself within the coach that now was in a slanted position. The impact had thrown her just towards the dark cowhand, on which she was now literally laying. She rose, whereby she had to support herself on his chest. At least it was firm enough to be of support, she noticed despite the unfortunate situation, which made her blushing a bit embarrassed. Now she tended towards the upper door, which she was able to open but it was too high for her to get through it. Now the cowboy seemed to awake. After a short groan she heard his deep voice behind her: "Let me try, I am taller!" He started to lift himself from the mess at the subjacent corner of the coach, into which the accident had thrown him. In the middle of a movement he cringed and screamed, apparently in great pain.
"What is it, are you hurt?" she asked, but when he managed to rise, the source of his pain became evident: "Your left shoulder is dislocated!" "I already figured that out myself, thank you" he groaned again. "Let me fix it!"
He backed off as far this was possible in the tightness of the coach and looked at her in disbelief and a kind of fear: "Wait a minute, although I very much appreciate your offering, no thanks. I'd have this rather examined by a doctor!" "I AM a doctor! Do you think I make such proposals out of fun or boredom?" As he starred rather bewildered at her upon this disclosure without any reply, she went on louder - maybe he had a shock: "Can you hear me? Can we go on trying to escape this unfortunate situation or do I have to slap you to get you back to your senses? I will not be able to get out of the coach alone and you cannot make it with that shoulder. The horses could bolt any minute, we should be out of this mousetrap by then!"
This speech had been sufficient to get him out of his state of freezing. "I will lift you up a bit, so that you can climb out of the door, one arm should be sufficient for that and then you look outside for something I can stand on in here, as I cannot pull myself up with one arm only." She nodded: "Yes that should work, let's go for it."
He knelt down a bit, embraced her upper legs with his right arm and rose with lifting her up. Some soft parts of her anatomy - probably her buttocks - touched his right cheek, something he had surely appreciated much more in another situation. A little to his astonishment she easily lifted her butt on the walls of the coach and nodded back in thanks. A few moments later she gave him some boards. "I think these are remains of the coachmen's seat, can you use them?" "Let's see!" He placed the planks so that they supported each other and climbed upon them with gritted teeth and visibly in violent pain. Finally he managed to crawl outside and jumped down to the ground. To his surprise the young woman had meanwhile successfully unharnessed the horses from the coach and was just tying them to a nearby tree.
She swept the messy hair out of her face and looked gravely at him: "That should do it for the moment. Now we can have a look at your shoulder. Resetting it will be really painful, do you want to be roped to something or will you stand it?" He nodded back: "Go ahead, I'll manage!" "I need you to take off your shirt. Will you allow me to help you?" A lopsided grin appeared on his face and dimples emerged. "Are you sure you are doctor of medicine? What kind of treatment are you going to apply?" The color of her eyes seemed to change to a bilious green. "That was incredibly funny indeed! Do you really want me to search the remains of my luggage over there for my diploma or do you prefer to wait here in the middle of nowhere in your condition for a male physician? It is totally up to you!" Apparently she was really hurt by this flighty comment. "No offense, honestly I am sorry Doctor if I have offended you. Please take it as my kind of pain management" he replied ruefully, "and help yourself or rather me, please forgive my impudence!"
Hesitantly and apparently still furious she approached and took a deep breath before she touched his shirt. Standing that near, he could see that some of her strawberry-blond curls were glued with blood. "You are hurt as well, why didn't you tell?" he asked. "Because I am the doctor here and it is really nothing." Cautiously she opened the bottoms of his black shirt. Her fingers trembled and she was relieved beyond reason when she was done. "Tore the right arm out" she instructed while assisting him. Now only the hurt left arm was within the garment and she drew the shirt very careful over it. "Sit down and lean to that tree over there" she ordered and he obeyed without a word. She knelt down at his side and started very carefully to pat the shoulder, trying not to apply too much pressure on it. Despite this her patient moaned in pain. "I am sorry to cause additional pain, but I need to get an idea, where exactly the bone has slipped to." she explained. "Go on, I'm fine." When she started to pull his arm he feared to faint but after a few moments the pain faded and he slowly gained back the control about his senses. When he came around back, a pair of greenish-golden eyes looked anxious into his. "How are you, has it become worse?" He shook his head and the very moment she returned to her previous matter-of-fact behavior.
"Fine, we are nearly done, but I need you to do one more painful thing: Please try to move your shoulder in every direction. It will feel sore of course, but we need to check, whether the joint is really back in place. Do it as slowly and as careful as you like, but please try the whole scope you can manage." He raised and tried the arm. It did hurt a lot, but the pain was different now, it did not set his teeth on edge anymore. "Good job Doctor, thank you!" "We are not done yet." and carefully she pulled his shirt sleeve over the hurt left arm and helped him into the right sleeve as well. "Can you do the buttons yourself?" He could not resist "No please doctor, do your patient the favor and help me!"
She came that near that her tousled hair reached his nose and he took a deep breath of the flowery smell it was emanating. As a child he had always figured that the hair of the mermaids in his Pa's stories would be of that color. He wondered how she might look with completely loose hair but shortly realized that he better had to suppress such musings, which was not too easy with her hands that near to his skin. She buttoned the shirt, anxiously trying to avoid any contact with the black curls on his chest. Having finished the task she sighed involuntary upon her relief. Again he looked at her with that crooked smile, showing deep dimples and with eyes in the color of amber what quite unnecessarily caught her eyes. It was the best to ignore that.
"I need to fix the shoulder now." With these words she lifted her skirt and tore a long white stripe of garment from the hem of her petticoat. While examining her well shaped lower legs, that became visible by this action, he could not resist going on teasing her: "You practice really interesting cures little lady doctor!" How could that jerk dare to mock her with such an insulting, patronizing diminutive! She badly needed to ignore him or she would explode, although this was a real herculean task, standing that near to him, that she could feel the heat, his body was emanating. She made a sling with the stripe around his wrist, threw the ends to his back and tied them there, fixing the arm tightly to his chest. "This will do it for now. You should cool the joint as much as possible and need to go easy on it for the next days. Of course you are free to go for a second or third or how many you might consider necessary opinion by male doctors of your trust, giving you all the cures you deserve!" she added and turned away. Apparently he had overdone the teasing. "Please Doctor, do not take my words too serious! You did a brilliant job. I just wanted a little distraction from the situation here and I can only repeat my regrets in case I should have offended you. Kindly take for an excuse that we are not really accustomed to female doctors around here." "Don't bother yourself; I am used to that kind of reaction." Despite the peaceable words her tone remained sour.
Before he could say anything further to clear the air, they heard a call from behind along the road: "Hiya! Everything o.k. with you guys?" The coach driver, who had apparently been tossed from his seat when the coach cracked against the rock, approached them hobbling along the road. "What a mess! Glad to see you guys in one piece. Everything's fine?" The black cowboy approached him: "Let me take one of the horses and go to town for help. I am quite familiar with these parts and will find my way offside the road. Virginia City is barely 25 miles away I should get there in less than 3 hours and will send for help. Hand me my carpet bag over there please." "And what do you think I will do while you are lollygagging around with my horse?" The cowboy took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose before he replied: "You can clean up the mess, try to adjust the coach, pick up the luggage and take care for this lady while I have the incredible pleasure to go bareback for a 25 miles ride!" Tipping the brim of his hat for a good buy towards the lady doctor Adam Cartwright turned the horse and rode away.
Charlotte Virginia Mathews M.D. - calling herself usually Charlie - found it difficult to tear her eyes away from the departing figure in black. What an annoying, cocky, provocative and unpleasant guy. Her heart was pounding unusually hard and loud in her chest for fury. Better to forget this encounter - the more rigorous and sooner the better! This was her last thought before everything around her went dark and she sank to the ground.
*Marc Aurel (121 - 180), Roman Emperor and philosopher, Meditations