"Doctor Mathews dear, can you hear me?"
The voice was soft and kind, but Charlie wanted it to stop. Anything that sank into her mind made the pain in her head blazing up. Something cold and wet was on her forehead. Finally she gave up and slowly opened her eyes. The kind face of a middle-aged woman smiled at her: "There you are my dear. It is such a pleasure to see you although we had of course wished to see you arriving without that horrible accident. I hope your head is not too bad?"
Charlie tried to shake her head, which was obviously a mistake as a new wave of pain flooded over her. She hissed and the woman tapped her forehead with the cool washcloth again: "There, there, take it easy my dear!" "Where am I?" "Of course my dear! You shall hear everything, I just fetch Paul, he will explain. But you must promise me to stop him, if it is too much for you, there is still plenty of time to get yourself accustomed to everything here! She left the room and Charlie cautiously turned her head to get a look on the room she was in.
It was rather small, but cozy and neat. No too many pieces but everything one would need: a bed, on which she was lying fully dressed as well as an armoire, a desk with a matching chair as well as a washstand and a mirror. It knocked at her door. On the third attempt her 'Come in' was loud enough and her visitor entered. It was a kind looking man, probably in his late fifties. He placed himself on the chair and started kindly: "I am Doctor Paul Martin and despite the unfortunate circumstances I am downright glad to welcome you in Virginia City Doctor Mathews! The woman you just saw is my wife Jillian and this is a room in our house, in which you can stay as long as you like. You have got a concussion from the coach's crush, which is rather fortunate in light of what could have happened!"
"My luggage?" "We have brought everything here. Luckily the only trunk that was busted contained just some books and clothing, which are a bit dusty now, but at least not much has been broken and I assume you will find everything in good condition when you will have recovered."
"And the coach driver? He seemed quite alright." "That guy was really lucky; he got away with just some bruises. And finally there was the dislocated shoulder, which had already been treated perfectly by you! Your first patient here in Virginia City was full of praise for your abilities!" "This is probably why that first patient went straight to the first male doctor he could find!" Charlie tried to frown to show her discontent, but decided the resulting pain was not worth it.
"No no, do not take him wrong" Paul Martin smiled "He did not let me let have a look at that shoulder, he just came here together with our Sheriff to inform me and send me to the crash site. He even wanted to return with us to see whether everything was alright with you, but I sent him home to the Ponderosa, as he was completely torn out. The Sheriff had to threaten him with a night in jail in case he would not ride home. But what ever doctors orders are, most probably he will work as usual on the ranch at latest by the day after tomorrow, as far as I know those Cartwrights. You will surely see that yourself soon enough." During his last sentences Doctor Paul Martin realized that the new colleague he had hired from San Francisco to take some of the workload in his practice from him had dozed off. Careful he covered her with a quilt and quietly left the room.
During the next days Charlie recovered quite well. To her delight her luggage had survived the accident a bit dusted but in a generally good shape. She got used to her hosts and really started to like them. Soon they were on a first names basis. On the third day Paul allowed her to read and Charlie returned to the "Wuthering Heights" she had been forced to leave so abruptly. To her surprise the reading did not give her the comfort, books usually did, but made her quite the contrary uneasy and concerned. She realized the reason shortly before she dozed off again: Heathcliff, the dark and unruly protagonist of her novel had a face now - the face of a dark and unruly cowboy, which she had badly longed to forgot as soon as possible.
Exactly one week after the accident Hoss and Little Joe Cartwright had come to Virginia City for some errands. "Damn Joe, our cart is here, what are you heading for again? Just give me a hand in loading that stuff and don't you prance around all the time. We should see to get home; supper will be ready for ages by then! Hoss succeeded just in time to catch his younger brothers collar, before the same managed to escape his grip. "Come on Hoss, don't Adam me around all day, there's plenty of time left to get home for supper, let us go for just one beer to the saloon! I promise you won't starve because of that. The day is ways to lovely not to celebrate it!"
"Sure thing, a beer would really be fine after that muddy way here, but let us finish first the loading. Wait for me, hey wait - can you here me?" But Joe went already missing for the saloon. Hoss just wanted to catch him at his collar again but was distracted by a well known voice: "Howdy Hoss! Glad to see you!" Virginia City's physician Doctor Paul Martin approached, accompanied by a young woman, Hoss had never seen before. "Come here Hoss, I want you to meet Charlotte Mathews, my new partner!" Before Hoss could do a thing, Joe jumped into the small space between him and the young woman. Apparently his need for a beer was not that strong as the need for meeting the newest belle in town.
Joe took her hand and bent down his head to press a kiss on it: "At your service Miss Mathews. Please let me welcome you in Virginia City, our lovely little town which has just now become even lovelier by the pure presence of your beauty. My name is Joe Cartwright and I am running a ranch nearby. Me and my brother here will do everything to make you comfortable here in our neighborhood, just let me know what I can let my brother do for you!"
"I am very pleased to meet you Mr. Cartwright and thank you so much for your kind welcoming words." She softly pulled her hand from Joes grip, and turned towards Hoss. "You are brothers I understood, so you are a Mr. Cartwright as well?" Hoss flushed into a deep shade of pink and answered shyly: "Sure thing Ma'am, my name s Hoss, I mean real name's Eric, but everybody calls me Hoss."
"Yes, and you need to call me Joe, because Mr. Cartwright is just our father." "Then I would like to be called Charlie!" She reached out her hand to Hoss and then to Joe. "There seem to be quite a number of Mr. Cartwrights in these parts; I hope I will be able to distinguish one from another." Joe sighed and gave her his cutest puppy look: "You have no idea, it is in fact a burden! But it will not be too hard to keep the bunch of us apart, just remember that I am the good-looking and helpful one, whatever you might need, confide in me!" "I will surely remember that, Joe!" she replied while her eyes seemed to sparkle amused in a kind of greenish gold. Joe could not help the thought that she took him not that serious as he had meant his words.
"Did you say Miss Mathews; I mean Miss Charlie was your new partner ... I mean what kind of partner?" Hoss asked startled. "A long desired partner" the doctor replied "I'm badly in need for this young woman, and am mighty glad that she did me the favor to come here!" Both Joe and Hoss seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with this statement.
"Badly in need?" Even for Joe, for whom it was rather usual to feel a badly need to throw himself to the feet of the current love of his life and to declare his everlasting affection, that statement felt to be made rather bluntly. "What about ..I mean ... Hoss stuttered visibly embarrassed "Mrs. Martin?"
The doctor and his beautiful companion looked amazed at each other and burst into laughter "It was actually Jillian's idea!" Doc Martin answered the inquiring gazes after a pause for effect: "Boys really, I need her for my office. This is Miss Mathews M.D., one of the top graduates of the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia, where she earned her medical degree already a couple of years ago and who now kindly agreed to enter into my practice in order to let Jillian see a bit more of me than she did during the last years."
"You are a doctor?" Joe was that perplexed that this voice reached the high-pitched tune, he hated so much. "With syringes and such kind of stuff?" "Precisely! And with a stethoscope, scalpels, microscopes, bitter prescriptions and all the other things, you would expect a male doctor to have, yes! Is this frightening you or would you be still at my service?" she asked with amused sparkles in her eyes.
"Doctor Mathews will start next Monday to work in our practice. At the moment she still needs to rest a little because there was that coach accident on her journey here. You surely remember that! Today we started a little stroll through town to get her accustomed to the new neighborhood." Paul Martin explained.
"Oh I have a brilliant idea!" Joe was quickly his old self again: "Come for a visit for Sunday lunch to the Ponderosa. Thus you will see quite a chunk of your new neighborhood. Come along after church service. Pa will be thrilled I am sure!" Charlie looked questioning at her elder colleague, who nodded and blinked at the Cartwright brothers: "We will be delighted, but only if I may bring along Jillian as well!"
When Hoss and Joe left Virginia City with the supplies for the Ponderosa Paul Martin informed his colleague: "The Cartwrights are a kind of local gentry here in these parts, if you can convince them of your abilities you will surely win over the whole Territory! And you made quite a start in winning them over!" "You mean because this charming boy and the sweet, big guy were that kind to me? Thank you very much Paul, but this was probably pure politeness, of course I am looking for some professional acceptance." "Of course you do my dear, but don't you remember ..?" Paul Martin hesitated, probably this was a consequence of her recent concussion, it was better not to trouble or embarrass her about it. "What?" "Never mind, it is not important. But look over there; here we have another notable of our little town. Hey Roy, wait a minute!" and they moved on to introduce Charlie to the Sheriff of Virginia City.
