-=*=-To Austria With Love -=*=-
Chapter IV
We didn't bother to practice dancing that evening. Neither of us felt much like dancing anyway. I went up to bed before Neil, but I couldn't sleep. As anyone might well believe, I had too much on my mind to relax and fall asleep. Besides the fact that I was once again in bed alone and every little breeze frightened me…
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Neil remained downstairs for quite sometime after Christy went to bed. He knelt beside the settee and prayed. "Father God. I made a promise to my wife before we were married. I have every intention of keeping that promise. But lately there seems to be such a burden on me to break my promise. Some days it takes every ounce of my strength to keep from… Well you know the rest. I need your strength dear God to remain true to my promise and not back out on my word. Please lay upon Christy's heart the same burden that you lay upon my own. Make Your will clear to both of us. Build me up in your strength, please don't allow me to stumble and fall when I should be strong and upright in my thoughts, words and deeds. Amen."
Over and over for hours Neil poured his heart out to the Lord. Explaining how very much he loved Christy and telling the Lord exactly how he felt, even though the Lord already knew far better then Neil himself. He was waiting on Neil to face the issues himself and make himself a willing vessel God could use for His purposes.
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Neil came to bed late and seemed to fall off to sleep almost immediately. On the other hand, I tossed and turned. Though I did not make a scene. I pretended to be asleep for Neil's sake at least.
I lay in bed praying. Neil seemed to be asleep, but I couldn't be completely sure. I dozed off a few times but always woke with a start to the same thoughts and prayers. Our discussion last night distressed me. Plus the discussion with Lisle and then Mrs. Gustavson… What was I to do? The Bible was clear… Could I care for a child any more easily now then I could yesterday? There was Lisle's promise of help from the church… Neil and Mrs. Gustavson had both said I could do anything if I really wanted to… How long could Neil live with the relationship we had right now?… I got up twice during the night and went downstairs to pace the floor as I prayed.
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When I awoke in the morning, Neil was already downstairs and I could smell coffee…so Berta was here as well. It had to have been extremely late when I finally fell asleep. I felt as though someone had beat me over a rock as women used to do with their laundry! In fact I had seen women in the Cove doing that very thing--now I could sympathize with the laundry when I used to sympathize with the laundress!
I gingerly rose from the bed and slid into my slippers, then my robe. I felt cold and lonely this morning. The way I always felt when Neil wasn't beside me in bed. I felt where he had slept last night. I missed him terribly. My eyes filled with tears. Today would be a day of prayer for us or at least as often as we could. I needed to know what the Lord expected us to do next.
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I walked cautiously down the stairs. Hoping Neil wasn't angry with me for last evening and my rash--impetuous behavior.
"Good morning Sunshine! How's the most beautiful woman in all of Austria this morning?" Neil greeted me cheerily as I entered the Dining Room.
I couldn't help but smile. "I take this greeting to mean you aren't angry with me this morning, then?"
"Angry? With you? For what?" Neil asked but I didn't answer immediately for I wished him to think about this for a moment. It didn't take him long to come to the realization on his own. "Oh, that! I could never be angry with you for having my best interests at heart! You were thinking of what you thought was best for me, that's all. I'll not get angry for that!" Neil rose from his seat at the table and came to give me a hug. I wanted more then anything to cling to him and never let him go, but I forced myself to let loose of him. I didn't want to make matters worse.
"Good morning, Christy!" Berta announced as she came into the room.
"Good morning, Berta!" I called in return. "How are you this morning?"
"I am fine! Just fine! Now I want you two to sit down and enjoy your breakfast!"
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When we had finished eating, Neil cleared his throat, usually a signal he has something he wants to tell me, but he wants me to ask before he blurts it out.
"Yes, Neil. You have something to tell me?"
"As a matter of fact I do, Christy." He paused. "I was wondering if you would like to play hooky from school today?" Neil chuckled.
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is, I'm giving a lecture at the University today. I'm telling them of my findings in the Trachoma Research I did back in the Cove. I'm even including the findings from Wanda Ann's surgery. I would be honored if you would accompany me and be my moral support. I need a familiar face in the crowd to look to occasionally. Will you come with me?"
"Are you sure you want *me* there? Won't I be an embarrassment to you? And a bad example for your research?"
"Never!" Neil said rather sternly. He rose from his seat and come over to where I was seated beside him. Taking my hands in his he drew me to my feet and hugged me close. "You're the love of my life! I will never be ashamed of you! Don't ever think I would be! Please!!" I was putty in his hands…
"When do you have to be at the University?" I asked.
"Not until ten. Of course that's when the lecture is set to begin, not when I need to leave."
"Very well, Neil. I'll accompany you. You need the moral support, even if I don't understand a word you say." I giggled and Neil chuckled.
"Thank-you, Sweetheart." He paused. "Now if you'll excuse me I need to pray about an important matter which I promised a lovely young woman I would pray about today."
I tried to look jealous, "You did? What is her name? I demand to know immediately!!" Neil drew me close once again.
"Her name is Christy Rudd Huddleston MacNeill and as I said before, she is the most beautiful woman in all of Austria… And Tennessee… And North Carolina… And Mass…" I silenced him as I put my hand over his mouth.
"I get the picture Neil!" I declared. He nibbled the palm of my hand which I held over his mouth. Quickly removing my hand I yelled, "Hey!"
"You interrupted me while I was speaking!" Neil teased.
"You bit me!"
"Moi? Would I do such a thing?"
"Cannibal!" I teased.
"Oh, it's not that bad. I'm a physician, let me see the teeth marks and I'll bandage it for you and treat it before any infection sets in."
I held out my hand and Neil looked it over. He drew it closer and closer to his eyes. "I don't see anything Christy."
"But it's still painful." I pretended to look hurt.
"Aww, let me kiss it." Neil teased. He put my hand to his mouth and kissed it. "All better" he said as if speaking to a child.
"Oh please Neil. I think that's quite enough of this nonsense!" I said. "I promised a handsome gentleman I would pray about an important issue as he is today, so I will do just that as I ready myself to go with said gentlemen on an excursion this morning!" Neil chuckled once again.
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As I prepared for my morning with Neil, I prayed as I had promised. I prayed for wisdom and that the Lord would show me what it was we were supposed to do about this issue. I prayed He would point out clearly to me, so I would know beyond a shadow of a doubt what we were to do.
When I finished dressing, Neil hadn't called me to come downstairs yet, so I knelt beside the bed to pray before we left. I prayed for peace of mind for both of us, most especially for Neil. He didn't need this aggravation on top of his lecture this morning. I also prayed his lecture would go well.
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Neil took me to the University. There were *so* many people and the *noise*! I was confused. I hoped there would be no emergency while we were here which would require me to find my way out of this place on my own! I felt hopelessly lost in this mass of humanity! I was clutching Neil's arm with all my might, straining to hear Neil's voice when we came to stairs or other obstacles.
Finally inside the lecture hall, Neil gave me a front row seat. He told me it was the place for honored guests and I had to laugh, for I knew he was sweet-talking me.
I could hear Neil setting up his charts and preparing his notes and so forth. This was his dream, to make a difference in the world. These students and everyone else who came to hear him speak today would each take a piece of Neil and his research along with them as they left this hall. Maybe they wouldn't even agree with him, but they had still heard and would be thinking about what he had said.
I was so proud of Neil today, as I was everyday, and happy his dream was coming true.
"Christy, pray for me, alright?" Neil said as he came over to me, before the first students arrived.
"I will Neil. I promise. In fact I already have."
"Come here." He said, helping me to my feet. "I need a little, 'physical', moral support, if that makes any sense at all!" He drew me to him and hugged me tight.
"I love you Neil." I said as I hugged him back. "I have every confidence in you and your abilities. You can do this, I know you can! I'm positive of it!"
Neil chuckled. "I hope you're right."
"I *know* I am!" I smiled up at him.
"Then seal it with a kiss that says you mean it." He whispered in my ear.
"With pleasure, Love." I whispered and did just as I was told.
Before we were finished a man cleared his throat beside us.
We backed away from each other quickly. My face turned more crimson then I had ever thought possible!
"Professor Kinnigan!!" Neil exclaimed. "What a surprise to see you here!!"
"I was visiting Ernst. He told me you were in Vienna. You've made quite an impression here my boy!!… I knew you would!
"I heard about this lecture of yours and thought I couldn't possibly miss it! So here I am!
"Afterward I want to take you out to eat. You have to tell me everything that is going on in your life and your career." He cleared his throat again. "But first you have to tell me who this young woman is who you seem to be so… shall I say, 'interested' in."
"I'm sorry. I've forgotten my manners. Prof. Kinnigan, meet Christy MacNeill, my wife. Christy this is Prof. Kinnigan you remember me telling you about him don't you?"
"Of course! Prof. Kinnigan, I'm so pleased to meet you! It's because of your kindness that we has had this opportunity of a lifetime! Neil has told me so much about you!" I extended my hand toward him.
"Well, don't believe everything you hear Mrs. MacNeill! It was your husband's skill and dedication which got him this position, not I. All I did was send along the information.
"I'm pleased to make your acquaintance Mrs. MacNeill. Neil is a lucky man!" He shook my hand.
That last comment made my face blush once again.
By now the lecture hall was filling up. I could hear people all around us. Professor Kinnigan sat beside me.
"How long have you and Neil been married?" He asked.
"About six months. We got married a few days before we left for Austria. We were to be married some months before but I had a riding accident which left me blinded. The Doctor's and I didn't think I could cope in the mountains. But when this offer came along we decided I would be able to do better here in Vienna. So we got married and moved here."
"I thought Neil married before he moved from Pennsylvania?"
"He did. He married Margaret Henderson. She died about five and a half to six years ago. She was expecting their child when she contracted Typhoid. She was only seven months when she went into premature labor during her bout with Typhoid. She had no will to live any longer and died the day after their son was born. Unfortunately their son only lived a few hours."
At that moment I came to realize how very important it must be for Neil to have a child… How could he live his life not knowing what it would be like to raise a child of his own? He had come so close to having one, but it had been taken from him. He needed another child to help fill the void left by the death of his son. We could never replace him of course, I knew that, but we could fill in the gap in Neil's life, left by his loss. I thought back to when Neil had told me about the death of his son. How could I have forgotten his pain? The agony I witnessed over that loss… How I ever forgot about such as I viewed that day I would never understand! Though he had tried to conceal from me the aguish he felt, I still witnessed it. The pain was there regardless of how he tried to hide it…
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Neil's lecture was well received. It was all foreign to me except when I heard him say, he had operated on a young girl… "…I began by preparing the eyes with cold compresses; the application of both nitrate of silver and copper sulfate once a day to the inside of the eyelids; Argyrols drops…" I knew what he was speaking of for I had to perform this task at the mission. "…I excised the sores and debrided the Conjunctiva below the tarsal margin to promote epidermal regeneration…" I recognized the words even if I didn't understand them completely. "Then in the ensuing months she was treated with a special preparation which I invented, it consisted of…" Now *that* I recognized as Wanda Ann's surgery, the only one of his operations I had been present for because she was terrified to undergo the procedure alone, not that I blamed her, I don't think I would have wanted to undergo surgery all alone either at her age.
The rest of Neil's lecture I didn't quite understand, which was fine. I was here as moral support and to pray. And that was exactly what I did.
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Neil enjoyed the Lunch with his mentor. I knew very little of what they discussed, so I sat back saying not a word for most of the afternoon. I had to suppress a giggle as I sat here like this and thought of what Neil had said to me at his cabin after I fell in the river, "You're a silent one, especially for a female" it certainly was correct this afternoon! I suppose it was true the first time he had said it to me also, at least at the time he said it! By the time I left that day he was probably sorry I had ever wound up at his cabin! I received glimpses into Neil's life and emotions that day in his cabin, that I would probably have received no other way. I knew far more of the mountain's and the people (and Neil MacNeill) then I did when I arrived. But I didn't know if I liked Neil or not-- then.
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The ride home was fun. Neil was talking non-stop all the way! He had had a wonderful day. One of the best he'd had since I'd known him. I was ecstatically happy for him. I prayed for many more days just like this for him.
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End of Chapter 4
Chapter 5 Coming Soon!!
