Chapter 6

Daniel West moved into a room at Matthew's house and settled in for a stay of indeterminate length. Amanda had been correct when she told her mother that he would keep Dotty from being bored; it seemed that every day they were going somewhere or doing something.

When they learned that one of the things patients in the many hospitals in Washington most needed was paper and envelopes to write letters home, Captain West went to the largest stationery store in town and bought five hundred sheets of lined paper and five hundred envelopes to go with them. From then on, he and Dotty were at some hospital or other almost every day talking to the men, giving out paper and envelopes, and sometimes writing letters for men who were either physically unable to do so because of their wounds or illness or couldn't read and write. When December came, they began taking small Christmas gifts to the men as well - a few nuts, an apple, a stick of horehound candy, or some molasses cookies that Dotty and Amanda had made.

After one such visit on Monday, December 8th, not quite two months after he and Dotty had first met in Newport and four weeks after he'd turned up on Dotty's doorstep, Daniel came out of the hospital at Armory Square and had to wipe his eyes and blow his nose on the blue bandana he carried. "They're so young, Dotty; they remind me so much of the midshipmen aboard my ship thirty years ago. So young to have lost arms and legs, and yet they're so grateful for something as simple as a sheet of paper and an envelope or an apple."

"They're even more grateful that you'll sit and talk to them, Daniel."

"And you, too, my dear. We make a great team, don't we?"

"Yes, we do, and do you know, Daniel, I haven't had a single headache since I've been back."

"I'm glad to hear it. I hope they're truly a thing of the past."

"Oh, so do I."

Daniel led her over to where Curtis Hollis was waiting with the carriage and helped her in before taking the seat beside her and taking her gloved hand in his much larger one. The carriage began to move, and as they drove north on Seventh Street toward Pennsylvania Avenue, passing the red castle of the Smithsonian on their left, Daniel said, "Warm enough?"

"Oh, yes, Daniel."

"The mail came right as I was leaving the house to call for you," he said. "There was another letter from Edmonia. I haven't read it, there wasn't time, and I have a fair idea of what she wrote anyway."

"She wants you to come back to Boston."

"Of course. Oh, she'll say that we should celebrate Christmas as a family and she'll argue that Washington is unhealthy, but the truth is she can't stand for me to be out from under her thumb."

"I know she's unhappy, Daniel, and I'm sorry that's so, but she doesn't have the right to pull you down with her."

"No, and I refuse to let her do that. The time we spent together in Newport was wonderful, Dotty, and these past weeks have been even better."

"I'm so glad you feel that way, Daniel."

"I've never been happier in all my life, my dear Dotty, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart."

"Dear Daniel."

"Dotty, I know it's been less than two months, but we've spent more time together in that time than I did with my late wife in the year before I asked her to marry me. Do you think it' s too soon to ask you to marry me?"

"Oh, no, Daniel! I love you, and I would be very honored to accept your proposal."

"That's all right, then," he said, and kissed her, not just once but several times. "Now then since we have to drive right past it, suppose we stop in at the War Department, give Matthew the news, and see if he has time to go home for dinner with us? I know Lucy Hollis packed sandwiches for him to eat at his desk, but if I know that young man's appetite, he's already eaten them and he's still hungry. We'll ask Colonel Thornton if he can be spared for an hour or so."