Jarrod was nervous, a state his family rarely saw him in, and thus he was the absolute center of attention as he straightened and re-straightened the plates on the table, made an unsuccessful attempt to fold the napkins into swans, and mortally offended Silas by anxiously examining the silverware for spots and tarnish.
This girl must be something special, Victoria thought, leaving her torn between opposing feelings of hope and dread; because honestly, her children's success rate with the opposite sex was somewhere between bad and nonexistent.
Jarrod had found a perfectly wonderful girl, only to lose her tragically before they had been married a month.
Audra had caught the eye of close friend's son who was less interested in courting women than attempted rape. Her next potential beau had been a criminal.
Heath had been interested in one girl whose father openly despised him. Other than that he appeared to be a magnet for unstable women with criminal tendencies.
All of these were merely drops in the bucket compared to Nicks' truly dismal record: One girl who was a member of a family of mass murderers, another girl was a Mexican anarchist who arrived at the ranch solely to steal jewelry. The next was a lovely young thing if you discounted her dangerous bounty hunter spouse. Then there was Hester, who had nearly gotten Nick killed with her wandering eye…..Victoria was almost certain there were more but it was too exhausting to try to remember them all.
The only family that she knew of that seemed to have worse luck in the romance department was Ben Cartwright's boys in Nevada. She had given up keeping track years ago but was aware the potential spouses of Cartwrights had an appalling habit of dying young, particularly any girl favored by his boy Joseph, whose proximity to any girl could only be described as deadly.
Ben had once sent her a cheerful telegram telling her he and his family would be arriving on the next day's evening train and suggesting that Little Joe and Audra should meet. In a near panic, Victoria had immediately packed Audra off to San Francisco under the pretense of a shopping spree, greeted Ben with the sad news that they had just missed her daughter, guested them handsomely at the mansion for the night and watched them depart the next day with a feeling of scarcely diverted disaster.
So, when Jarrod invited Agatha for Sunday, Victoria tried to be cautiously optimistic: After all, if they threw enough potential spouses against the wall surely one had to stick. Her hopes dimmed slightly when she found out his guest was the sister of the late, lamented Doc Marten, before deciding that perhaps his untimely murder disaster proofed the relationship.
And so, with a grim determination to like this girl no matter what, Victoria awaited Agatha Martens' arrival with fists so tightly clenched with nervousness that she gouged small crescents in the palms of her hands.
As they got closer and closer to 1:00 PM with no sign of the woman's arrival Jarrod started to look as nervous as a 'long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs" to borrow a phrase from Heath. At 12:58 Jarrod abruptly leaped up and exclaimed:
"This is no damn good! Something must have happened to her!" only to be cut off the distant sound of hooves clopping up the drive. The rest of the family exhaled a sigh of relief, offset by a slight huffing noise from the still disjointed nose of the family butler.
As Jarrod hurried out the door to greet his dinner guest, Victoria took a moment to send up a heartfelt prayer to whatever deity mocked the Barkley's every attempt at romance to please, PLEASE just this once give them a break. With that the Barkley's gathered together in the seating room, awaiting introductions and determined to like Jarrod's girl no matter what. Much to their delight, no effort was involved in doing so.
Agatha and Victoria immediately developed a mutual respect, and the Doctors somewhat intense charisma soon roped Victoria into agreeing to help lobby the state for Physician licensing. Agatha greeted Audra with an offer to provide whatever medical needs the orphanage required free of charge and mentioned she could drop by next Saturday to give them all an exam and start medical files on them, much to Audra's delight. She took Heath's hand in a feminine shake that was so firm and graced him with a smile so dazzling that he found himself wistfully envying Jarrod.
The only person who was seemingly uncharmed was Nick. Not that he was unfriendly, or rude or dismissive, rather that he was essentially blank and distant. He nodded politely, took her hand and welcomed her to the ranch, didn't ask any questions, didn't take part in any conversation but retired to the dinner table with the family and pushed food around his plate.
Jarrod suspected Nick was taken aback by the idea that his older brother was courting his Doctors sister. Put that way, it did seem vaguely incestuous, and Jarrod was uneasily aware that he had simply sprung everything on Nick without giving him a chance to get used to the idea. Jarrod hadn't been certain how Nick would respond but this utter blank reaction was totally unexpected and he found himself trying to carefully steer the conversation to completely neutral topics that Nick would have little, if any interest in.
Audra was fortunately, fascinated by the fact that Agatha was a Doctor, and asked her for details on how she became one.
"The Philadelphia medical College for Women." Agatha explained. "I was always fascinated by medicine when I was a child. My doll's dresses were stained with medicines I would make for all the imaginary illness they suffered. Our barn became the local clinic for injured wildlife and pets. Jeptha and I treated everything we came across.
Then I was fortunate enough to meet Dr Elizabeth Blackwell and she gave me a letter of introduction to Geneva Medical College. Once I graduated, I was able to practice at the Philadelphia Women's Hospital. By then Jeptha and I had gone our separate ways in the field of medicine. I specialized in women, and he was studying as an Alienist. He also spent a year studying with a man in Germany who has new ideas on how to treat problems such as melancholy and hysteria."
"You mean psychiatry?" Victoria asked, intrigued.
"No, the professor he studied with calls it psychology. Psychiatry involves treating the conditions of mental illness as something originating in the body that can be treated in that way. Psychology works on the theory that most mental illnesses, melancholy, hysteria and so on, spring from a person's history, experiences and perceptions. Because of how they feel, they may react or take actions which cause shame or regret, leading to further problems. It becomes a vicious cycle."
"What does a psychologist do, exactly"
"What Jeptha believed was that if he were able to help someone examine their behavior, the emotions triggered the behavior and the incidents may have in fact, led to the emotions and so on, then he could work backwards. Not 'this is what you do causes problems or shame or guilt,' but 'this is why you do something that causes problems, shame or guilt.' It's basic medicine in a way. It's important to find the cause if you want to treat the symptom."
"And he felt like he could change someone's behavior that way?" Victoria asked.
Agatha smiled. "No. A physician can't change someone's behavior. What Jeptha wanted to do was give his patients the information and tools they needed to try to change it themselves. It has to be a decision, and an effort, on the patient's part."
"It makes me wish I'd known him better. If Johnson-" Audra bit her lip, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"That's all right." Agatha gave a slightly pained smile. "I've had some time now to…absorb it. And I need to get used to thinking of how he died. The Judge is taking letters about Mr Johnson's sentence and he has asked me if I want to address the court beforehand. It's left me in a hard spot. I'm not sure what to say. Part of me objects to taking a life no matter what the reason but my New England upbringing says 'An Eye for an Eye-"
"Leaves the whole world blind." Nick said abruptly, breaking his meal long silence. Everyone turned and looked at him and he flushed. "That's something Doc Marten said once about biblical justice." He stared down at his plate again.
Agatha nodded slowly.
"He told me that once too. I understand what he meant. I think I even agree, I'm just not sure how to explain what I feel."
"Yeah. I've tried writing a letter, but I think I got it all wrong."
Agatha looked somewhat startled at this unexpected contribution.
"You wrote a letter? May I see it?"
Jarrod winced, imaging the bloodthirsty note his brother was likely to produce.
Nick looked at Agatha in surprise. "I just finished it a while ago. It's not all.." He waved his hand vaguely, groping for a term.
"That's all right. I'd like to see it, If you don't mind."
Nick blinked and pulled an envelope out of his pocket, handing it across the table to her.
"I was gonna get Jarrod to check it for me." He mumbled.
Agatha opened envelope and pulled out the letter, reading it in silence. As her eyes traveled down the page, she bit her lip but was unable to stop a quiver. Steadily her eyes filled up with tears and trickled down her face.
Oh Lord, Nick. Jarrod thought despairingly. Did you have to?
Across the table Nick flinched at the tears. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to….I won't give it to the judge."
Agatha took a deep breath. "No. I think you should. I think, my brother would want you to." She looked up and glancing around the table and taking in the looks of apprehension around her, she handed it to Jarrod. "Would you please read it?"
Surprised, Jarrod took the letter and opened it carefully, before reading it aloud.
Judge Perry,
I know Mark Jones, Harry Bishop and John Lutrick wrote a letter asking you to hang Ino Johnson They asked me to sign it, but I decided I'd rather write one of my own.
I never knew a better man than Dr Marten. He only lived here a little while, but he helped a lot of people; not just with his skill, but with his kindness. He really cared for people, and that's rare. I know why people wanna hang Johnston , especially if you compare the Doc to the man who killed him.
If you ask around Stockton I don't think you can find one person who has a good thing to say about Ino Johnston. The word most people would come up with would be 'drunk', followed by 'thief' or 'no good'. I remember him from as a kid. He always hung around the school and beat up smaller kids or stole their lunch. But I remember other stuff, too.
He always had a black eye, or a bruised face from where his father hit him. His clothes were dirty and torn, because he went through trash to get other people's cast offs. He was alway hungry, because his Da never wasted beer money on food. I remember all that and wonder if he ever had a chance to be anything but what he became.
I hate what Ino did, but I can't hate Ino Johnston. I feel sorry for him. He may have killed Doc Marten, what he can't kill is what Doc Marten believed. Doc once said that 'People have an infinite capacity to change for the better,'
Ino Johnston should be punished, maybe locked up for the rest of his life where he can harm no one else; but spare his life. If we kill him, he'll always be who he is now. He'll never have a chance to understand what he's done; to ask for or get forgiveness. We may not agree with what Doc believed, but I think we should respect it. So I'm asking you not to hang Ino Johnson. Don't take away his chance to change.
Nicholas J. Barkley
Jarrod read the letter, and carefully folded it up, neatly creasing it at the middle so it would slide smoothly into the envelope. What was it Doc Marten had said? "He's trying to change. Let him." The Doctor had been right.
"I can..I can rewrite it." Nicks voice broke into the silence around the table.
Jarrod ran light fingers over the envelope, not trusting himself to look up. "You don't need to rewrite it."
"So, It's alright?"
Jarrod handed the letter back to his younger brother.
"It's more than that," he answered. "It's compassionate."
Author's note: The quote "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" is, of course, From Ghandi. What can I say? The Doc was ahead of his time.