Disclaimer:  This story was written for entertainment purposes only.  The characters
were created by Catherine Marshall in her novel ‘Christy’.  I am seeking no profit for
this story.  I have used some excerpts from the novel ‘Christy’ to help tie together
the novel, the series and this story.  


Title: A New Road
Author:  Anne B. 
E-Mail: momscountry@lycos.com

Summary:  I know this is probably considered a little late by most standards, but I
just saw the CBS Episode: ‘The Road Home’ for the first time May 30, 2001.  This is
how I picture the story line continuing from the final picture of Neil, Christy and
David standing in the schoolyard waiting for Christy to make her final decision.  
This is one of first attempts at FanFiction.  Please be patient with me!  If you have
any suggestions I would sure appreciate the help!  Thanks!
Disclaimer:  This story was written for entertainment purposes only.  Catherine
Marshall created the characters in her novel ‘Christy’.  I am seeking no profit for
this story.  I have used some excerpts from the novel ‘Christy’ to help tie together
the novel, the series and this story.  

A New Road
Chapter One

   I stood in the schoolyard staring at the ring David had given me.  Painfully aware
that both he and Neil were watching me as well as the children.  They wanted to know
my answer, and they wanted it right now.  I stared at the ring…Fairlight’s questions
kept running through my mind, over and over, and, over and over again!!     
   ‘Who is the first person you think of when you wake up in the morning?’…’Who is the
last person you think of when you go to sleep at night?’…‘Who do count on the come
through in a pinch?’…’Who makes you laugh?’…‘Who makes your blood boil they make you
*so* mad?…’Who is your best friend?’…’Who do you tell your deepest thoughts to?’…
   I looked up at the children standing on the porch.  Then I looked back at Neil…he
looked at me with desperation on his face, but love in his eyes.  But I just saw him
by the stream…in Margaret’s arms.  Then I looked at David, but his expression didn’t
look so much like love as it did triumph or victory.  Why was that?  He looked as
though he had won a prize…and I suppose I’m the ‘trophy’.  
   Fairlight’s questions tumbled through my mind again.  Two of them always stood out
from the rest…‘Who is your best friend?’  And ‘Who do you tell your deepest thoughts
to?’  In both cases the answer was Neil.  I turned to him in my times of struggle even
when I knew we’d argue about it.  But even the argument felt good when I was with him.
He always had a way of making me view things more clearly.  I would never be allowed
to turn to my best friend if I married David.  He didn’t want to hear my deepest
thoughts, he wanted to kiss me, not talk to me…on the other hand, Neil had never
kissed me.  Did he just see me as a friend?  Or maybe as a little sister?…Then what
was he doing here now?  The answer was clear, thanks once again to Fairlight and her
wisdom.
   I closed the ring case.  Holding it in my extended hand I walk toward David.  He
took it from my hand, he looked crest fallen.  But I knew he would get over it.  “I’m
sorry David, but something Fairlight told me this morning has convinced me that I just
can’t marry you.  I’m sorry I hurt you.  But I have to do what I think is right.”
David walked away.
   I looked at the children on the schoolhouse steps.  “Rob, would you dismiss the
class for the day.  There have been some unforeseen circumstances, which are beyond my
control.  I won’t be able to finish out the day.”  Rob Allen nodded his head.
“Thank-you Rob.”
  I turned toward Neil, who looked as though he were wondering what I was going to
tell him next.  I walked over to him.  (I remembered what I had told Margaret just
this morning, ’Let me tell you this about Dr. MacNeill, he is worth fighting for.’
Well if I thought he was worth Margaret fighting for I was going to join in the fight.
She had given Neil nothing but grief; I could make him happy if I were only given the
chance.)  “Can we go for a ride?”  A broad smile spread across his face!  He lifted me
onto Charlie.  It always felt good to ride behind Neil.  
   “Where do you want to go?”  Neil asked.
   “Somewhere far away!”  I told him.  I knew I was putting my reputation on the line,
but I just didn’t care anymore!!  If they ran me out of Cutter Gap, then let them!  If
I hadn’t proven anything about myself by now then I was ready to leave.  I love the
children, but I had a life to live as well.   I couldn’t go on walking this tightrope
between Neil and David any longer.
   So we took off slowly at first then picked up speed as we went along.  We rode in
silence.  I didn’t feel much like talking at the moment anyway.  I closed my eyes.  I
let myself lean into Neil’s back and I held on tighter than ever.  I just wanted to
enjoy the ride.  After some time of riding I looked around and I didn’t recognize
where we were.  “Where are we?”  I asked. 
   “We’re in Ingles Cove near an old hunting cabin.  I thought I’d show it to you.”
Neil answered.  
   As long as I was far away from the mission for now I didn’t care.  I worried about
the children and what they would tell their parents when they got home.
   Neil stopped Charlie in front of an old cabin.  He dismounted and then helped me
down.  Only this time I think he held me a little closer, a little more firmly, and a
little longer than ever before.  He stared into my eyes with that beautiful smile and
sparkling eyes of his.  
   “This is where Doctors I told you about would sometimes come hunting when I was a
boy.  This is where they stayed at night.  I would carry their hunting gear for them.
This is where I decided to go off to Scotland to become a Doctor.”  He threw his head
back taking a deep, deep breath, seemingly remembering the times that he had spent
here as a boy.  “I’ve kept up the outside, but I haven’t done much on the inside.  I
just don’t have the time.  I always hoped that someday I could make this into a place
to get-away-from-it-all!  Maybe a place where I could take my wife, and maybe our
children, and leave my practice in someone else’s hands and get away for a time of
refreshing!
   “I’m sorry Christy.  I didn’t mean to go on so.  I wasn’t trying to insinuate
anything!  But don‘t tell anyone.  Can you leave this be our little secret?  I find it
so easy to tell you my secrets.  I can tell you things that I have never told anyone
else…”  He looked down at his boots.  “I’m sorry Christy, you wanted to go for a ride.
What did you want to do?”
   “This is wonderful.  May I see the inside of the cabin also?”  I asked.  Neil’s
face brightened a little again as he took hold of my arm and led me up the stairs to
the porch.  He had a lock on the door.
   “If I don’t lock it, I’m afraid with it being vacant and such, moon shiners or
someone will decide that it’s a good place to hide out.  I keep the lock on to make it
look as if it is at least owned by someone.”  Neil confided.  
   “Safety first I always say.”  I said.
   Neil opened the door, with a squeak the door moved slowly open.  I looked inside to
make sure nothing was going to surprise me as I entered.  There was a bed, and some
chairs, a fireplace, but not much else.  “Rustic isn’t it?”  I teased.  Neil just
smiled, or was he smiling all the while?  I hadn’t noticed him stop smiling since I
asked him to take me for a ride!  “This place has possibilities,” I said.
   “Really like what?”  Neil asked anxiously.  
   “Well, with some curtains, flowers, *a table* (I giggled), this could be a really
nice little cabin to…as you said…get-away-from-it-all!  I like it.  It’s cozy!”  I
think I detected a note of relief in Neil’s face as I said that.  
   “Would you like to walk around outside and see the rest of the property?”  Neil
inquired.
   “That would be very nice.”  I confessed.
   Neil and I never really had to try and think of things to say to each other.  There
were always innermost thoughts that we never told anyone else that we were continually
happy to share with each other.  Neil told me about things he had done up at this
cabin when he was boy.  I wanted to ask him about his family, but that had always been
a subject that he tried to avoid, so I decided to let him bring up that subject if, in
fact he ever wanted to speak of it.  He was telling me things about himself now that
he had never told me before.  
   I tried to picture him as he spoke of his boyhood.  Trying to picture that little
sandy-red haired boy climbing these trees, swimming in that stream, playing games with
his Grandfather, going hunting with him…Oh, to have seen him when he was a boy, to see
him carrying hunting gear for his mentors.
   “Were you a good boy?”  I asked him.
   He had an even bigger yet mischievous smile on his face now.  “No…I must admit it.
I was not!  I loved to be rebellious, I guess that’s why I…”  his voice trailed off
and the smile disappeared.  I was instantly sorry that I had asked that question.
   We found a huge mound of autumn leaves piled against a ridge.  I looked playfully
at Neil, and then I proceeded to jump in!  He laughed, but just stood there.  “Come
join me Neil!”  I called.  Reaching out my hand to him.  Finally he came closer, and
catching him off guard I pulled him down into the pile.  He threw leaves on me and I
on him.  We rolled around in the leaves, covered ourselves with them, laughing and
having a wonderful time.  Finally we were tuckered out!  I shouted, “I give up you
win!”  Neil smiled at me.  We sat catching our breath.  I hadn’t had this much fun in
years!  I could be myself with Neil, even when I didn’t want to be, he insisted that I
should…like when he would challenge something I said, usually it was because he wanted
me to think for myself, to think my own thoughts and not just mouth platitudes, as
Neil told me.  
   “Neil.”  I said solemnly after we had caught our breath.  “We really need to talk.”
He nodded his head, but said nothing.  I looked down at a leaf in my hand and talked
as I ‘studied’ it, not looking at Neil.  I didn‘t want to see his reaction until I had
said everything that I needed to say.  
   “Today Fairlight and I went for a walk, to her ‘secret’ spot.  I was asking her
questions about her and Jeb.  Trying to find out how she knew Jeb was ‘The One’ for
her.  But instead of answering that question she gave me a list of questions to
answer.  She said:  ‘Who is the first person you think about when you get up in the
morning?’  I said, David, because he’s usually hammering or something, but what I
didn’t tell her was that I had probably just awakened from a dream about you, so you
were the first person on my mind.  Then she said, ‘Who’s the last person you think
about before you go to sleep at night?’  I said, usually one of the children, although
I don’t think she believed me, and neither did I.  The truth is, I usually dream about
you first, so I suppose I’m thinking about you as I fall asleep…” I paused, still
‘studying’ the leaf in my hand.  Neil said nothing and didn’t seem to need to say
anything.  So I went on…
   “Then she said, ‘who makes your blood boil they make you *so* mad?’ to which I
replied, Neil MacNeill!”  Neil chuckled.  “Then she asked, ‘Who do you count on to
come through in a pinch?’  I said David, but after thinking about it I realized that
it’s you I count on to come through in a pinch.  You helped with Dan Scott, you stayed
by me when I was sick, and you came through and operated on Becky O’Teale’s Trachoma
even when you were afraid it might make her worse!  You help me with science classes,
you help me with Mathematics, you help with Physical Education, I turned to you when I
needed advise on the Tea House in El Pano…the list goes on and on!!
   “Then she asked me the two most important questions…’Who is your best friend?’ And
‘Who do you tell your deepest thoughts to?’  The answer was and still is, *you* on
both counts.  David and I hardly ever talk, but you and I talk about things that I
*have* never, and probably *will* never tell anyone else!  You know things about me
that no one else does, not even my mother or Fairlight!  How could I marry David and
never be allowed to speak to my best friend ever again!?!  The truth is, I’d miss you
too much.  I can’t live with the thought of never being able to talk with you!  Never
being able to tell you the things that are in my heart!  To never be able to look into
those eyes that see right through to my innermost being.  I couldn’t do that!  It’s
you I love Neil!  Not David.”
   I looked up into those incredible blue eyes, they were sparkling so brightly!  Neil
looked a little rosy as though he were blushing, but I didn’t say anything.  I think
he had a tear in his eye.  He smiled that special smile that I think he saved just for
me.  He moved closer and started to remove leaves from my hair.  For the first time I
noticed that he had leaves in his hair as well.  So I reached up to remove them.  Neil
had recently started to comfort me by placing the back of his fingers against my
cheek.  He did it again now.  It felt wonderful.  But this time he also opened his
hand and held the palm of his hand against my cheek and chin.  “Christy?”  He asked.
“May I kiss you?”  I was wondering if he ever would, hoping he would, but now that he
asked I was surprised!  I nodded, hoping the shock didn’t register on my face.  He
leaned forward, at first looking into my eyes.  Those unbelievable eyes of his!!  He
slowly moved his hand along my neck to the back of my h!
!
e
ad.  As he came closer he closed his eyes as I did mine.  The kiss was not long, but
it was extraordinary!  I had dreamed of this moment, but had never thought it would be
this wonderful!  
   As Neil pulled back from me, I moaned softly, without realizing that I was going
to!!  I felt a bit embarrassed and hoped that I hadn’t disappointed him.  But the
smile on his face told me that I had not.  Part of me hoped that he would do it again,
but another part told me that I had, had enough for now.  
   I didn’t know what to say.  I didn’t know what to do.  I sat there looking intently
into his eyes.  He was looking right through me again, I knew it!  But somehow now I
didn’t care.  There was nothing that I was ashamed of; he would see nothing that I
didn’t want him to see.  If he could truly read my mind he would kiss me again!
Instead he removed his hand from my neck and took hold of my hands.  “I’ve got a
problem…”  Neil started to say.  “Margaret says she wants to come back to me?”  Now I
was the one who was crest-fallen.  What was he trying to tell me?  Why had he kissed
ME if he wanted to go back with Margaret?
   Neil looked pensive.  He always sought solitude when he had a problem.  At those
times I felt so dejected as though I weren’t good enough to help.  But this particular
problem involved me…or at least I thought it did.  Suddenly I felt a giggle rising up
from within!  Neil looked at me with confusion on his face.  “Just this morning I had
to choose between my best friend and a man that I would have felt comfortable with.
Now you’re trying to decide between two women.”
   “Yes, but you weren’t *married* to the *wrong one*.”  Neil said sadly.  “I wish she
had just died in that flood years ago and then my life would not have to be miserable
after her return.”  I could see the tears in his eye.  No I guess my decision was much
easier.  Did Neil even have a choice?  He was, after all, *married* to Margaret.  Even
Fairlight’s questions would not apply here.  There were laws, both morally and
spiritually that had to be dealt with in this instance.  It wasn’t just a matter of
who made you feel the best or who was the best listener.  No, these questions went
much deeper.  To the point of where does God stands on this issue…
   That was a problem for me as well, the Bible tells us to not be unequally yoked
with unbelievers.  If Neil were free would I be allowed to marry him?  Would my heart,
or the Lord, tell me NO!?!  Neil was my best friend and my confidant, but, is that
where I had to draw the line?  I knew I would never marry David, that was not an
option to me anymore, I had decided that much, but where was I going now?  
   Neil rose from his spot on the ground.  He reached down his hands to lift me up.
As I grew to my full height I saw Neil looking down at me.  He placed his fingers
against my cheek again.  Oh how good that felt!  This time I laid my hand on his cheek
as well.  He looked surprised, but he seemed to enjoy it.  He opened his hand again
and placed his hand against the side of my cheek.  Then he took his other hand and did
the same.  He drew my face up toward his as he bent down toward me.  This time he
kissed me for a longer time, still gently, but firmly.  He held my head in his hands,
and then he let go of my head one hand at a time and pulled me closer to him, still
kissing me.  I slowly slid my arms around his neck and entwined my fingers through his
hair!  We stood for a long time.  I couldn’t believe how alive I felt!  When Neil
pulled his lips away from me he pulled me even closer to him.  I placed my head on his
chest; I could hear his heart racing.  It sounded nearly a!
!
s
 fast as my own.  I never realized how much I would love being in his embrace!
   Without saying anything more, Neil slid one arm around me and started to walk
again.  He still didn’t seem to want to go home and neither did I.  I didn’t want to
go back to the mission.  I didn’t want to see David.  I had hurt him, I knew that, but
what was I to do? 
   We walked silently for a long while.  Listening to the sound of the birds, the
stream and the occasional chipmunk chattering at us for treading on his property!  I
just wanted to remain in Neil’s embrace forever.  When we reached the bend in the path
Neil said, “Now we’ve come to MY ‘secret’ spot.  One of my most favorite places on
earth…then he pulled back the branches of a bush to reveal for me a magnificent
waterfall!  The clear cascading water fell gracefully down into the stream below.
“OH!  It’s wonderful!”  I said.  Neil was smiling from ear to ear.  There was even a
plateau that over-looked the falls and where we could sit or stand and take in the
marvelous view before us!  “This would be the perfect place to have picnics when we
come up here to ‘get-away-from-it-all’!”  I said, not realizing at first what I had
just said!  ‘When WE…get-away-from-it-all’?  “I’m sorry Neil!  I didn’t mean to sound
so familiar!  I just got carried away!”
   “No need to apologize Lass!”  He called me ‘Lass’?  That sounded so good!
   “I like that.”  I told Neil.
   “You like what?”  Neil queried.
   “I like it when you call me ‘Lass‘!”  I said.  Neil smiled and laid his head on top
of mine.  We sat down on the Plateau and enjoyed the sight.  I don’t think I could
ever get enough of this spot, or the man I was with…
   As the sun began to fall farther in the west we knew we had to be on our way home.
Oh how I hated to go!  
  As we turned to leave Neil confided, “You are the first person I have ever taken to
my ‘Secret‘ place.  Even Margaret doesn’t know about it.  We never got along well
enough for me to even want to bring her here.  But with you I feel like a whole man,
like a new person.  You are the one that I found this spot for.  I knew it the first
time I saw you.  I dreamed that one day I would bring you here.”
   I smiled broadly at him!  I was so impressed with this man!  How could I have been
blinded to him for so long?  If only he were a Christian I could love him with my
whole being, but as it was I had to keep some distance between us.  

   The ride back to the mission was wonderful, but sad.  Neither of us wanted to go.
This time Neil set me in the saddle and he rode behind me with his arms around me.  He
didn’t make Charlie go as fast this time as he had coming up to the cabin.  In fact I
think we could have walked it faster, but I didn’t want to get back any sooner than I
had to.  I would miss Neil until I saw him again.  When that would be I didn’t know.  
   
   We were back at the mission all too soon!!  Neil dismounted Charlie and then taking
me by the waist he ever so slowly set me down on the ground directly in front of him.
So close I could hear him breathing.  I just looked up into his eyes and said,
“Thank-you for the beautiful afternoon!  Thank-you for *everything*!!”  I winked at
him ever so slightly.  He winked back and said, “You’re very welcome, and thank-you as
well.”  He placed his hand on my neck again and leaned into me just as Neil was about
to kiss me Ruby Mae came running out of the mission.  
   “Miz Christy!!  Miz Christy!!  Something terrible’s happened!  Miss Alice told me
I’m supposed to send you two over to Doc MacNeill’s place immediately!!”
   “What is it Ruby Mae?  What’s happened?”  I asked her.
   “Miss Alice said I’m not supposed to say anything, I’m just supposed to tell you to
go to Doc MacNeill’s cabin.”  Ruby Mae cried.
   Neil mounted Charlie and pulled me up behind him.  He steered Charlie toward his
cabin.  We took off at a full gallop.  The Physician in Neil was now taking over.  I
knew he felt this was a medical emergency.  
   All sorts of things raced through my mind!  I didn’t want to face any of them!  I
didn’t want this to be happening.  I didn’t want ‘something terrible’ to be ruining
our day.  But it was…and just what it was and how terrible, we were about to find out…
*       *       *       *       *       *       *

Chapter Two

   The closer we got to Neil’s cabin the more my stomach churned!  I was petrified by
what the ‘something terrible’ might be!  Was there something wrong with Miss Alice?
Was one of the children injured?  I held all the tighter to Neil as we approached his
cabin.
   Dan Scott was waiting for us ‘down the road a piece’.  He stopped us there.  Neil
dismounted and helped me down, not even close to the way he had just a short while
ago, but right now I didn’t care.  
   “What’s happened Dan?”  Neil asked anxiously.
   “It’s Margaret, Doctor.”  Dan started.  “She’s killed herself.”
   I couldn’t help but gasp from this news!  Neil took off running for the cabin.  I
decided to stay back with Dan who was holding Charlie’s reins.
   “How did she…did she…?”  I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth.
   “How did she kill herself?”  Dan finished for me.  I nodded my head slowly.  “She
hanged herself.  She used her own scarf, hung it from the rafters in the cabin.”
   “How’s Miss Alice?”  I asked.
   “She’s takin’ it real bad Miss Christy.  She blames herself for this.”  Dan said.  
   “Poor Miss Alice!  I should go to her!”  I said, and started toward the cabin.  Dan
seized my arm.  “Be prepared, it’s not pretty!  Margaret nearly destroyed the Doctor’s
cabin before she did this to herself.  Looks like she tried to start the place on fire
too, but the fire put itself out before it got too far.”
   “His laboratory?”  I asked.
   Dan just shook his head.  “She did a pretty thorough job in there as well.  Looks
like years of research are gone.  She destroyed his slides and his journals.  More
than anything I think he’s going to be devastated by the loss of his laboratory.”
   “All that work!!”  I said.  Dan just nodded his head.
   Miss Alice would need me.  I hoped she wouldn’t blame me for this.  If I hadn’t
been with Neil this afternoon, if I hadn’t turned to Neil instead of David, would Neil
have gone back to Margaret and made her feel welcome?  What would have happened if I
had made a different choice?
   When I arrived at Neil’s cabin David was on the porch.  I wanted to go in to see
Miss Alice, but David stopped me.  “This is all your fault you know!  If you had made
the choice God wanted you to make none of this would ever have happened!  MacNeill
would have gone back to his wife and she wouldn’t have done this!!”  David nearly
snarled at me.  “You have a lot of nerve showing your face around here!”  He shoved me
into the wall as he stormed off down the stairs.  I didn’t know if I should turn
around and leave or if I should proceed inside!  I was completely torn about what to
do next!  I turned around and saw Dan Scott at the base of the stairs.  “What should I
do?”  I asked him.  He only shrugged his shoulders.  He couldn’t tell me any more than
anyone else what the reaction was going to be toward me now.  I knew Dan was still my
friend, but what about everyone else?  How would they view my choice?  Especially in
light of this!
   The only way for me to find out for sure was to forge ahead, so I entered the
cabin.  I found Neil sobbing on the floor in his laboratory.  Miss Alice was sitting
on the floor cradling Margaret’s body and weeping uncontrollably!  Who do I turn to
first?  
   I decided that Miss Alice would need me more at the moment.  She had lost her
daughter, her only child, who could never be replaced.   I slowly moved toward Miss
Alice.  I knelt down in front of her.  “I’m sorry Miss Alice!  I’m sorry if I caused
this to happen!”  I thought I might as well get that over with right away, if she
blamed me I wanted her to know I was at least sorry for what I had done.  
   Miss Alice looked at me as if in a trance.  I couldn’t tell if she were really
looking at me or if she were looking through me at some distant specter that only she
could see.  It was the most peculiar feeling.  “Miss Huddleston?”  Miss Alice said as
if in a dream.  “Is that you?”
   “Yes it’s me Miss Alice.  I’m sorry if I caused this!  I never meant for this to
happen!!”  I cried.
   “It is I who am to blame for this, Miss Huddleston, not you.  I said some hateful
things to her a few nights ago when she came to visit me.  I told her that there was
no longer a place in my heart for her!!  How could I say that to my own daughter?”
Alice sobbed.  “All she wanted was some money!  I would have given it to her if only I
had known she was this desperate!  I only wanted her to change her ways.  I only
wanted her to learn a lesson!  I never thought she’d do something like this!”  
   “We never know what some people might do.  You have to comfort yourself in the
thought that you did what you thought was best at the moment!  That’s all any of us
can do!  Margaret should have turned to the Lord for help but instead she decided to
try and take what looked like the easiest way out!  Don’t blame yourself Miss Alice!
Please don’t!!  If I had not gone off with Neil this afternoon, he may have come home
to Margaret and then she may not have done any of this!  But I thought I was doing the
right thing.  I thought I was doing what the Lord was leading me to do!!  It’s all my
fault!  Both your hurt and Neil’s!”
   I got up and stumbled to the laboratory door.  Neil was still on the floor.
Sitting in the middle of broken glass, shredded books, and experiments that could no
longer be finished.  All of his years of research were suddenly gone!  All of his
hopes and dreams!!  What could he do now?  I picked my way through the broken glass to
where Neil was on the floor.  
   “Neil?”  I whispered as I knelt in front of him.  “Are you alright?”  
   “It’s all gone Christy!  All my years of research are gone!  I’m sorry that
Margaret is gone…But my research!  I can’t start over where I left off!  I have to
start over at day one!  How can I do that!?!  All the experiments I had, all of the
samples I had, I can’t just pick those up at the General Store!!  I was so close to
finding a cure!  Or at least a way of preventing Trachoma from progressing, but now…”
His voice trailed off.  “Christy what do I do?”  He reached for me and pulled me into
him.  Burying his face in my neck.  Sobbing.  I wished that I had the answers, but I
didn’t.  I only held Neil and tried to console him.
   “I’m sorry”  I said.  “I’m sorry I made this happen!  If I had only made my
decision at a different time, if I had given you a chance to get to know Margaret
better again.  Maybe none of this would have happened!”  I cried.
   Neil looked at me; his incredible blue eyes were filled with pain now.  “You didn’t
cause this!  That’s…that…witch did this!  She’s never been anything more than a
rebellious, spoiled child!!  She never wanted to grow up and take responsibility for
her own actions!!  She died trying to make us pay for what she had done!!  I won’t let
you take responsibility for her actions!!  I won’t take responsibility for them and
Alice shouldn’t either!  Margaret was at fault, none of us!!!”   I held him awhile
longer.  I knew I had to get back to Miss Alice.  She needed to release Margaret’s
body.  She needed to go home.  But first Neil, “I want you to come to the mission for
few days.  Don’t stay here.  It will hurt that much more if you sit here in the middle
of this everyday!  I’ll come and help you clean up and hopefully something can be
salvaged from all of this.  Please come home with us!”  Neil said nothing; I would
leave him think about it for a while.  
   I went back out to Dan Scott.  “Where do you think we should start?”  I asked him.
   “We need to get Miss Alice home.  There has to be a funeral.  I don’t know what to
say about Dr. MacNeill.”
   “I think I’ll call my Dad in Asheville and see if he can get some people to help
donate toward the Doctor’s laboratory.  Maybe you and I could salvage some on the
pages from his books and as much as we can from the slides that are damaged.  It won’t
be the same, but at least it would be more than he has at the moment.”  
   “But he is one of the stiff-necked mountain men!  He may not take any charity.”
Dan added.
   “I’ll deal with that when the time comes.  I’m hoping he will take some time off to
recoup from this.”  I said.  
   “Miss Alice is the one that is really going to need all the help we can give her
right now.  And for quite some time to come I’m afraid!!  Shall we see if we can get
them to come back to the mission with us?”  I asked.
   “I’ll see what I can do with the Doctor and you take Miss Alice.”  Dan said.  “Good
luck!”
   “Thanks.  I’m afraid I’m going to need it.”  I said sorrowfully.  “Miss Alice is
not going to want to leave Margaret.  Where are they going to take her body?  And
whose going to take it there?”
   “David is going to take the body back to the mission.  He’ll probably take it to
the church.  Which will mean no school for a few days.  He’s gone back to get the
mission’s wagon.  Miss Alice will feel better about leaving if she can ride with
Margaret in the wagon.  I don’t think Dr. MacNeill is going to be welcomed with open
arms at the mission, at least not by the Reverend.  Do you think that’s a good idea?”
   “Where else should he go?”  I asked.  “I don’t know where else he can go for the
tonight!  I
know how David feels about me.  I can only imagine how much worse it would be for
Neil.”
   David pulled up with the mission wagon.  I approached him.  I had my dander up.  I
wasn’t going to let David’s hostility toward me get in the way of helping Miss Alice!!
“David, I made the right choice today whether or not you believe me.  I don’t care how
you feel about ME!  I want you and I to work together as a team to help Miss Alice AND
Dr. MacNeill!!  They are the one’s who have been hurt  today, your little bit of
wounded pride shouldn’t stand in the way of your helping out your fellow man and being
the spiritual leader that we all need you to be right now.  That includes Dr.
MacNeill!!  Now’s the time that we should reach out to him with the Love of God and
share the Gospel with him when he needs it’s strength more than ever!!”
   “So it’s *Doctor* MacNeill is it?  I would have thought that following the
afternoon you two had together that it would at least be Neil!!”  David said smugly.
I wanted to slap that arrogant look right off of his face!!  But I knew now was not
the time or place to make a scene.  So I turned to leave.  Miss Alice was going to
need me now.  
   Jeb Spencer, Bob Allen, and their boys had come to help.  I wanted to be in the
house with Miss Alice to tell her that they were going to take Margaret back to the
mission.  Dan was already inside talking with Neil.
   I walked up the stairs once again and into the house.  That wonderful old ancestral
cabin in ruins made my heart ache!!  But Margaret never was one to think of others or
their feelings, so why should this surprise me!?!  I had never seen a stitch of
decency in her…  I walked over to Miss Alice.
   “Miss Alice?” I said putting my arm around her shoulders.  “Miss Alice…David, Jeb,
Bob Allen and the boys are going to take you and Margaret back to the mission house.”
   “Both of us?”  Miss Alice asked.  
   “Yes, both of you.  You can ride with Margaret in the back of the wagon.  I’ll ride
your horse back.  Don’t worry about it.  Do you understand me?”
   “I think so.”  Miss Alice said slowly.  “Margaret’s coming home with me.”
   “Well not exactly Miss Alice,  David’s going to put her in the church.  We need to
have the funeral tomorrow.  It’s too warm outside to wait any longer.”  Miss Alice
looked at me with horror in her eyes!
   “You can’t bury Margaret!!  I won’t let you!!  I can’t leave my only child go!!”
Miss Alice yelled.
   “David!”  I called, I knew Miss Alice needed spiritual guidance.  David would be
better at giving Miss Alice what she needed right now.  David came running in.  “I
think Miss Alice needs spiritual guidance right now.”  I stood next to David, taking
him a few steps away I said, “She doesn’t want anyone to bury Margaret!”  David looked
at me with sympathy for Miss Alice.
   “I’ll talk to her.”  David said.

   I longed to be with Neil, but Dan was in the laboratory with him already.  I
watched them talking.  Neil didn’t seem to be quite as upset as he had been before.
But he was still hurting that was plain to see.  My heart went out to him.  
   But as I watched Miss Alice!  I agonized over her plight!!  Oh, the pain of losing
your only child!  But this was not the first time that she had lost Margaret.  First
she and Neil had thought that Margaret had died in a flood when she and Neil had, had
an argument.  Suddenly she had reappeared years later.  Alice and Neil were shocked to
see her.  Neil hated her, while Alice thought it was wonderful.  Margaret had
Tuberculosis and she wanted to make her peace with them before she died.  Miss Alice
had convinced Margaret to seek treatment, but Margaret didn’t want anyone to know
where she was.  Just last Saturday Margaret had appeared suddenly at a ‘Tea House’ in
El Pano as a dancer.   Today Margaret had been here asking Neil to take her back.  And
now Miss Alice had lost her daughter again, but this time it was for good…

   David persuaded Miss Alice to allow them to take Margaret back to the mission at
least.  “We need to take this only one step at a time.  Don’t speak with her about the
final outcome, when all she can handle is the next step.  Once we get to the mission,
then we’ll worry about telling her about the casket.  But until we get to that point,
we don’t say anything more than words of comfort…do you hear me?”
   I nodded.  Miss Alice had always been so strong!  She had helped me so very much!
She was always the backbone of this mission!  I couldn’t stand to watch her like
this!!  

   When David, Jeb, Bob and the boys came to take Margaret to the wagon I just
couldn’t stand to watch!  David took Miss Alice and led her out.  I wasn’t needed by
them anymore at the moment.  I turned to the laboratory.  Neil was at least sitting in
a chair.  That was a step in the right direction.  Dan motioned for me to come over to
them.  I walked over to where they were sitting.
   “Dr. MacNeill would like to speak with you.”  Dan told me.  Then he got up and
walked outside.
   “Neil?  What can I do for you?”  I looked into his eyes that were so full of pain.
Neil reached for me.  He pulled me down into his lap.  I felt uncomfortable for some
reason.  Maybe because we weren’t officially courting.  Maybe because it was all so
new to me.  I didn’t quite know why, but that wasn’t what was the most important right
now.  
   Neil put his arms around me and held me tight.  I wanted to be a comfort for him.
He buried his face in my neck.  “I wish you didn’t have to leave Christy!”  Neil
pleaded.  
   “I don’t have to leave for a while Neil.  What would you like me to do for you?
Dan and I will be here to help when you need it.”  I told him.
   “Just hold me Christy!  Just hold me!”  Neil said.  So that is exactly what I was
going to do.  
   Neil needed the time of comforting.  I don’t know what it would have been like for
me if this same disaster had happened to me.  
   “Neil I think you should come with me to the mission tonight.  I don’t think you
should be alone.  Would you promise me that you won’t stay here alone tonight?”
   “I promise I won’t spend the night alone, but I don’t think I‘ll be welcome at the
mission.”  Neil was right, I knew that, but what other option did we have?  Dan’s
cabin had been burned by Creed Allen’s mistake while he was smoking out back of the
cabin.  
   I held Neil tighter, not sure what to say to him.  I prayed for wisdom!  I needed
it.  Because in my own mind I didn’t know what I was going to do next!  I kissed his
forehead.  “Everything will look better in the morning.”  And then I prayed that it
would.
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
*       

Chapter Three

   When Neil and I finally emerged from the cabin an hour or so later, Dan was waiting
on the porch.  Our three horses saddled and ready to go.  
   Dan looked at me and I gave him a questioning look, he said, “I’ll take care of the
Reverend.  I’ll make sure the Doctor is taken care of.  You don’t have to worry about
that.  He can sleep in my room at the mission; I’ll sleep on the floor if I have to.
I’ve slept in worse places!”  Dan laughed uneasily.
  I smiled and said, “Thank-you Dan!  I can’t tell you how much your friendship means
to me right now.  I don’t know how anyone else in this cove is going to take what I’ve
done.  But I know I can count on you.  Please keep an eye open for David.  Don’t let
Neil out of your sight.  If David gets Neil alone I don’t know what other damage will
be done.”
   “I will Miss Christy.  Don’t worry about the Doctor.  He’s safe with me.”  Dan
smiled.

   Once back at the mission.  We saw no one.  I understood that everyone was most
likely with Miss Alice somewhere.  She was devastated by the loss of Margaret.  I would
see Neil safely to Dan’s room then I would seek out Miss Alice.  She was going to need
all the help she could get in the next few days especially, and most likely for a long
time to come.  I hoped and prayed that she would be able to get up and around very
soon.  There were a lot of people on this mountain that counted on Alice Henderson to
be there for them.  If only they would be there for Miss Alice now in her time of need
that would be wonderful.  
   Dan and I took Neil directly up to the room that Dan was using at the mission.  We
knew if Miss Alice were feeling better that she would not disapprove of this.  But
David might if we asked him, so we were better off to not say a word to him.  Neil
looked exhausted and Dan said he would get him into bed right away.  I told them that I
would bring them something to eat.  
   The downstairs felt empty and lonely.  I had never seen the mission house this
deserted.  No Miss Alice, no David, no Ruby Mae, no Fairlight…no one…but me.  I busied
myself in the kitchen.  I warmed up some of the stew that Fairlight had made for
Supper.  I found cornbread, and some baked apples and coffee.  Then I set it all on a
tray and took it upstairs for Dan and Neil.  I prayed that Neil would eat
something…anything!  
  I knocked on Dan’s door.  “Come in.”  Dan answered.
  “I brought you both some Supper.”  I said.  “Stew, Cornbread, Baked Apples and
Coffee.”
  “That sure sounds good to me!”  Dan exclaimed.  He nudged Neil with his elbow and
said, “Doctor, you had better take advantage of this!  I don’t think Miss Christy is
going to bring us room service very often!  We better enjoy this while we’ve got it
wouldn’t you say?”
   “I’m not hungry.”  Was all that Neil could say.
   “But when it’s served by such a pretty little waitress how can you refuse her
hospitality like that?  That’s down-right rude!”  Dan smiled.  Then he whispered,
“Hey, Doctor, I think that waitress has her eye on you!”  
   Neil smiled a little.  Then he turned to me, then to Dan.  “She is a cute little
lass at that isn‘t she?”   
   I felt my face grow crimson with that remark.  But I was glad to see Neil playing
along with Dan’s game at least.  
   “But I doubt that a pretty little lass like that could ever be interested in an old
work horse like me!”  Neil said.  “But she sure is pretty as a shiny new penny!”
  I wanted to surprise them both.  So I summoned up all my courage.  I walked over to
Neil and leaning into his face and said, “Then pick me up, put me in your pocket, and
take me home!”  I kissed Neil on the mouth and headed for the door.  I turned to say
good night, it took every ounce of strength I had not burst out laughing when I turned
around and saw those two!  Mouths wide open in astonishment; Neil’s with a smile
playing at the corners, eyes as big as tea saucers!!  “Good Night!  I’ll see you in the
morning!”  Neither one could reply.  I opened the door and left.
   Now I needed to find Miss Alice.  I assumed that everyone was at the school, so I
would try there first.  I wrapped myself in my shawl and trudged over to the school.
It was a brisk autumn evening.  The sun was set now.  I took a lantern knowing that I
would need it later to find my way back or to light up the schoolroom.  As I neared the
school I heard voices.  David was doing most of the talking.  But I could tell by the
tone of his voice and the words of comfort that he was giving that he had to be
speaking to Miss Alice.  She most likely would not leave this building until Margaret’s
burial.  My heart ached for her.  To lose your only child, not only once but twice!
Only this time everyone knew that it was over.  Margaret would not return again.  
   I walked up the steps.  I opened the door and came inside.  Just Miss Alice and
David were in here now.  “I’m sorry I’m late.”  I apologized.  “Dan and I had a little
problem getting Dr. MacNeill to settle down for the night.  I wanted to make sure that
he ate something before I left him.”
   David glared at me, but considering everything else I had to deal with, his petty
little self-pride just didn’t seem to matter right now.  I was just angry enough about
the comment he had made earlier that I could glare him down!  He was not the man I was
to marry I knew that with all my heart now.  Maybe Neil wasn’t either especially since
he isn’t a Christian, but I knew for sure that David wasn’t.  
   I sat down next to Miss Alice.  She stared at the casket laying on the stand in the
front of the church.  She was unmoving, unblinking, she didn’t say much of anything
when spoken to.  “Miss Alice, is there anything that I can do for you?”  I asked.
   “Christy is that you?”  Miss Alice asked.
   “Yes, Miss Alice, it’s me Christy.  Is there anything that you want me to do for
you?  Can I get you anything?  Would you like me to get you your shawl?  It’s chilly in
here.”
   “No, I don’t want my shawl.  Margaret isn’t wearing a shawl either.”  Poor Miss
Alice!!  What were we going to do for her?  I looked at David.  He had the same lost
look in his eyes that I had.  He had no idea what to do right now either.  I placed my
arm around Miss Alice’s shoulders and let her know I was there for her if she needed
me.  
   
   We spent the night in the church/schoolhouse, Miss Alice and I.  I told David to get
some sleep because he would have to perform the services the next day and it wouldn’t
do any good for him to be worn out too.  Miss Alice said very little all night.  She
was hurting so deeply, in a place that I knew nothing about.  I couldn’t reach out to
her; I had never been where she was right now.  I thought of Opal McHone…Opal had lost
her only daughter.  Maybe she could come and talk with Miss Alice.  It wasn’t the same,
but only a mother who had lost a child could understand the hurt of another.  It was a
pain that was unique to only those that had experienced it.  I hoped I never would…

   I visited Opal after Breakfast to ask her to speak with Miss Alice.  Opal said she
would come.  She told me, “No man can understand what it’s like for a woman to lose her
child.  It’s pain that no one else can understand, not even a father.  When you’ve
carried that child inside of you.  Everything you do you have to think first about how
it might affect the baby.  You’ve felt every movement that it has made, you’ve gone
through birthing it, you’ve had yearnings for this child that no one else can have!!
Losing your child isn’t like losing your parents.  When you lose your parents you’re
losing your past.  When you lose your child you’re losing the future.”  She was right.
Miss Alice had lost so much each time that Margaret had left.  But this time Margaret
had taken her own life, after Miss Alice had told her that there was no place left in
her heart for Margaret.  That is what tore at Miss Alice‘s heart! 

   Opal came back to the mission with me.  I left her and Miss Alice speak privately.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to understand what they were, or had, gone through.  I could
only feel sorry for them and I didn’t think that was what Miss Alice needed right now.

   I decided to look in on Neil.  He and Dan were sitting in Dan’s room speaking.  I
knocked on the door.  Dan opened it.  “May I come in?”  I asked Dan.
   “Please do Miss Christy.”  Dan said.  “I’ll go get us something to eat and leave you
two alone.”
   “Thanks Dan.“  I said.  Neil was looking better than when I had last seen him.  But
he was just sitting and staring off at nothing in particular.  “I hope you’re feeling a
little better this morning, Neil.”   
   “A little.”  His voice still sounded expressionless and distant.  I wasn’t sure what
to say to him.  “Well…I just wanted to see how you were feeling…I don’t want to bother
you…I’m sorry if I intruded.”  I turned to leave.
   “You aren’t intruding.  Come here lass.”  Neil motioned for me to come closer.  I
took hold of his hand and I sat on the edge of the bed nearest his chair.  “I’ve been
thinking this morning about everything yesterday.”  He paused.
   I felt like I suddenly had a boulder in the pit of my stomach.  
   “I want you to know that I don’t blame anyone for what happened, this probably would
have happened the first time Margaret and I had an argument anyway.”  He paused again.
“But I think I’m going to have to take a position at St. Timothy‘s Hospital in
Baltimore.  I got another offer from them last week.  There I can conduct my research,
I’ll have everything I need and there should be plenty of opportunity for me to obtain
samples and have input from others doing the same research.  I can use the findings
from Becky O’Teale’s surgery to help others.”
   I felt a lump in my throat and a fought against it but a tear slid down my cheek
despite my best attempts at stopping it.  But why should I stop the tears?  I loved
Neil and I didn’t want to see him leave here.  
   “Christy this is my only option.  You saw my laboratory yesterday.  There’s nothing
left!”  Neil came to sit next to me on the bed and put his arm around my shoulders.
   “I know it’s your only choice.  I just don’t want you to go away.”  I couldn’t help
it, but as hard as I tried I just couldn’t hold back the tears.  Neil pulled me close
and kissed the top of my head.  I pulled away and walked to the window still weeping.
“I’ve ruined everything!  If I had made a different choice everything would probably
have turned out all right!!  You would have gone back to Margaret and she wouldn’t have
become distraught so she wouldn‘t have destroyed your laboratory!  Then you could have
remained here to help the people of the cove!  And she wouldn’t have…wouldn’t
have…done…what she did, then Miss Alice wouldn’t be sitting over in the school house so
despondent that she hardly even knows who is speaking to her!!  Maybe *I* would have
been unhappy but at least I wouldn’t have made everyone else unhappy!!!”  I stood
looking out the window.  
  “Then I suppose you don’t want to hear what else I have to say to you then?”  Neil
said sadly.
  “Why not!”  I almost yelled.  I felt bad enough already.  “What ever you have to say
couldn’t make me feel much worse then I already do!”  
   “Everything doesn’t revolve around YOU!!  If you would just stop and listen to what
you are saying you would see who is to blame for this all!!”   Neil paused.  I closed
my eyes and bite my lip.  Neil seemed calmer when he continued.  “Christy, who did you
say ruined my laboratory?”
   “You know the answer to that Neil!  It was Margaret!  But…”  He stopped me.
   “Who did you say made Alice unhappy?”  He continued.
   “Neil!  You already know the answer!!”  I yelled.  “But you don’t understand!  I
went back to the Tea House and told Margaret that you were worth fighting for!!  I’m
the one that made her come back here!!  I’m the one that turned to you yesterday and
made her miserable!!  I…”  I began to sob so hard I couldn’t continue.  
   Neil came and put his arm around my shoulders.  “You didn’t do any of this because
you wanted to hurt anyone.  I wish you had told me before you went back to the Tea
House!  I knew what Margaret’s intentions were, as did Alice!  But we had decided that
Margaret needed to learn a hard lesson.  So we had agreed to not help her out this
time.  You have good intentions, but you lack the wisdom and experience behind you to
accomplish them.”  Neil paused.  I still didn’t feel like talking.  “Besides if
Margaret came back here because she thought I was worth fighting for then she took the
coward’s way out!!  She should have stood her ground and proved to me that she could be
a good wife!  She should have been home cooking a meal, cleaning the cabin, making it a
home for us instead of destroying everything in it!!”  His voice broke with the last
words.  “You’ve told me so often to forgive Margaret.  Christy, you need to forgive
yourself as well.  Don’t flog yourself over this!!  It!
!
 
won’t do any good, I’ve done it to myself incalculable times!  Take it from one who
knows.  Forgive yourself.
   “Christy, I thought I meant more to you then just a spur of the moment decision!”
Neil asked. 
   “You do Neil!!  I can’t live without you!!  You make me feel whole; like a complete
person; a new woman!  I didn’t choose you at the spur of the moment!  I’ve agonized
over this decision for months!!  I didn’t want to face the truth, mainly because you
aren’t a Christian.  But I love you more than life itself, Neil!!  I made the right
choice, I know in my heart of hearts that I did!!
   “But, how do I forgive myself? When I’m reminded of what I did every time I look at
Miss Alice?  How can I when the people of the cove need a physician and he’s not here?
How can I when I’m growing old all alone, because my best friend…the man I love is not
here?”  I tried hard not to sob.  The tears came, but I did my best to keep them under
control.
   “Christy, Lass, come sit with me.”  Neil took my arm and led me to the chair he had
been sitting on before.  He sat down and drew me onto his lap.  “I need you Christy.
I’ve known that for a long time.  I can’t live without you!  I see your face everywhere
I turn!  I hear your voice calling my name from every rustling leaf!  I can’t sleep at
night because thoughts of you keep flooding my mind!!  I can’t concentrate on my work
or my research!  Since you first came to the cove, all I have wanted to do is be with
you!  But lately I have been obsessed with thoughts of you!  I want to hold you, I want
to kiss you, I want to…be alone with you!  I can’t stand to be without you any longer,
Christy!  When I’m with you I feel like a whole man!  That’s a feeling that I have
never had before!  We argue and we disagree but we always come out of each battle
stronger for having faced those issues head-on.  It’s like iron sharpening iron, we
have our clashes, we make a lot of sparks, but !
!
i
n the end we are sharper and stronger because of it!!”  Then he took my face in his
hands “May I kiss you again?“  I nodded, but I was sure the pounding of my heart had
already given me away.  He looked into my eyes and then at my lips, moving slowly, and
when our lips met, he kissed me ardently!  I had never had a rush of emotions like I
did at that very moment!  
   “Christy what I want to say is that I want to marry you.  I want you to come with me
to Baltimore as my beautiful young bride!  I know I have to ask permission from your
father to court you.  I know we need to spend time together and get to know each other
in ways that we never have, we’ve never even gone on a picnic together!  We’ve only
danced one time and that ended in disaster!  So I know we have a long way to go, but I
wanted you to know my intentions.”
   “Neil, I feel the same way about you!  I thought there was something wrong with me
because all I can ever think about is you!!  I think asking Daddy if you could court me
is an excellent idea!  Please don’t wait too long!”  I said with the wink of an eye.  
   Just then Dan knocked on the door.  I rose up from my place on Neil’s lap.  Dan had
brought a tray of food up for Neil.  “Miss Christy, Mrs. Spencer is asking for you
downstairs.  Seems she needs help getting things set up for the funeral and all this
afternoon.”
   “Thank-you Dan!”  I said, and turning to Neil, “I’ll see you later, all right?  Are
you going to the funeral?  It’s probably expected isn’t it?”  Neil nodded.  “Well, I’ll
see you then.”
   “Christy,” Neil stopped me.  “At the funeral, and after, it will be better for your
reputation if you aren’t seen anywhere near me, in anything but a professional manner.
People will talk, but if they don’t see any proof of wrong doing, then the rumors will
die down, and die out faster.”
   “I understand.  Although it will be difficult!  I’ll do what I can!”  I kissed Neil
on the forehead and stood back to gaze into his handsome face and incredible eyes one
more time, because I didn’t know when I would ever be able to do this again.  Then I
finally turned to leave.
   “Miss Christy,” Dan said, nodding his head slightly toward me as he opened the door
for me.
   “Thank-you Dan, for everything.”  I said as I left the room

   I met Fairlight in the kitchen working on a pie.  “Miz Christy!  Where have you
been?”  She asked me.
   “I’ve been resting.  I stayed up all night with Miss Alice.  Is Opal still with
her?”  I asked.  
   “I think she is.  Opal is a good woman for Miss Alice to be speaking with right now.
She knows the hurt of losing a child, but she also has a gift for cheering people.
Miss Alice needs that right now.”
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
*       
   We baked pies and cakes, we made stews and casseroles.  We made just about
everything that we knew how to cook!  We knew that people would be traveling for miles
to be here for Miss Alice today.  Dr. Ferrand had been told, but was unsure weather he
would be able to get here on time.   The folks in Cataleechie, in Lyleton, Lufty
Branch, El Pano, Low Gap and all of the towns and villages that Miss Alice visited
frequently were told that Miss Alice’s daughter had died.  Only God knew how many
people would attend today.  Many of the people would be coming for many miles and would
need a good meal before returning home again.

    “Fairlight?”  I asked unable to contain this question any longer.  “How do you
think the people of the cove view me now that Margaret has died?  Do they blame me for
it?  Or do they know enough about the situation that they realize that Dr. MacNeill
couldn’t live with Margaret anymore?”
   “Well Miss Christy,” Fairlight began.  “I don’t think folks blame you so much.  I
think most folks know that there has been something between you and Dr. MacNeill for
months now.  They know how long he’s been alone.  They know what she did to him, trying
to make him think she was dead, then showing up here again and leaving without so much
as a good-bye.  Folks don’t think to kindly of her for doing that.  Dr. MacNeill is
looked up to in this cove.  And so are you!  I don’t think there’d be too many folks
who would look on what’s happening as something bad.”
   “I thank-you Fairlight.  I’ve been worried that everyone would blame Margaret’s
death on my decision to not marry David.”  I felt relieved to hear from Fairlight that
she didn’t think anyone would blame me!  Although I knew there were always a few that
would have to go against what everyone else was saying and doing.
   
   The services were set for Noon.  That way it would give people enough time to travel
to the mission and back home again.  David and Jeb Spencer were outside getting things
ready setting up tables (a board on two saw horse), preparing makeshift benches (A
board between two logs), etc.  It was a lot of work.  

   At eleven O’clock people started to arrive.  Neil stood by Miss Alice’s side.
Representing the grieving widower.  He had been true to his vows, even when Margaret
had not.  The vows he respected, it was Margaret that he could not respect.  But he was
there with his best black suit on, his hair trimmed and combed back.  He looked the
part even if he didn’t feel it.  Even Miss Alice understood the relationship between
Neil and Margaret.  
   I wanted to be there for Miss Alice, but I was told to keep my distance from Neil.
I was very confused.  So I kept myself busy with the preparations.  I helped with food
and tables all of the little details.  Trying very hard all the while to keep my mind
on the task at hand and not on the future.  Because all I could do was speculate what
the future would hold.  It scared me thoroughly!  

   When the service started we had people on benches all over the schoolyard, there
were people standing and the church was packed with people!  I was glad to see all of
the people who had come out for Miss Alice.  
   David did a superb job.  He tried to point out all of Margaret’s good features,
which was no easy task considering how few good features Margaret had! He avoided the
ever-present bad features.  He sidestepped a few issues--Margaret had returned, but he
left out that she left without saying a word to anyone--and totally ignored others--the
Tea House in El Pano!!  I silently gave thanks that none of the girls from the Tea
House showed up!!  My heart went out to both Miss Alice and Neil.  I knew that Neil had
remained true to Margaret through everything.  Even though he could not bring himself
to love her anymore he did remain faithful to her.  Even when she was working in the
Tea House or when she showed up at the mission with her *male* friend--Theodore
Harland.  Who proceeded to try to steal from--of all people--Miss Hattie Neil‘s only
living relative!!!
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
*     

    When the service was over everyone walked to the top of Persimmon Hill where a new
grave had been dug for Margaret.  I had no idea who had dug the grave, usually that was
left up to the family…I knew for a fact that Miss Alice didn’t do it!  Did Neil and Dan
come up here?  Or had David?  I guess it didn’t matter; I was just trying to keep my
mind occupied so that I would not go crazy!!  The sound of Miss Alice’s sobbing was
more than I could bear, but this is where I was meant to be, I could not turn and run
away!  Miss Alice couldn’t speak any words at the gravesite, as some others I had seen
would have done, she was in no condition to say anything.  Neil declined to speak.  He
was crying also but not uncontrollably as Miss Alice was.  He held onto Miss Alice to
comfort her.  He was all she had at the moment.  The only family she had left.  David
did his best to perform a proper funeral for Miss Alice’s sake.  Many of the people
present had never met Margaret and therefor!
!
e
 did not know what kind of person she was.  
   I stood to the back of the group.  Trying very hard to do what was right and keep my
distance.  I wasn’t sure how far of a distance was required!  I knew that by now my
afternoon with Neil was public knowledge.  But what was I to do now…I shook my head
remembering what Neil had told me this morning, ‘Everything does not revolve around
YOU!’  He was right.  I had to get my mind off of myself and onto the people, who
needed me!  Most especially Miss Alice.  
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
*
   We made sure that all were well fed before we sent them on their way.  There would
be no one that would be left out if we could help it.  Fairlight had a way with people.
A way of making them feel as if they weren’t accepting charity, but that they were
really giving something worthwhile in return.  In this case it was all very true!  Miss
Alice needed all the support she could get.  All that came were doing her a great
service by showing their support.  

   By three everyone had pretty much left the mission property.  Miss Alice was sitting
on a chair staring off in the direction of the cemetery.  Neil was speaking with Dan
Scott off to the side of the mission house porch.  I was helping Fairlight clean up, as
were Ruby Mae, Zady Spencer and Opal McHone.  It was not a joyous day; there was no
laughter, no music, and no fun.  I was a somber day.  I don’t think Miss Alice really
noticed any of what was going on around her.  But it was wonderful to see all of the
people who had come to support Miss Alice.  I had met people from Lufty Branch,
Cataleechie, Low Gap, and Lyleton.  Of course I hadn’t met nearly everyone who was
there.  I had only met some of them.  
   Neil had played his part well.  He had been the grieving widower.  Although I assume
it was not all an act.  I know only too well, how much Neil had longed for a good
marriage.  How he had hoped for peace in his home and a family of his own.  But
Margaret would have none of that.  Maybe he was grieving the kind of life that he had
always hoped to have with her.

   I went to be with Miss Alice.  She was sitting stiffly in an old rocking chair that
had been brought out here earlier in the day.  She was staring off toward Persimmon
Hill.  My heart ached for her.  I just didn’t know what to do or how to reach her!!  I
put my arm around her shoulder.  I didn’t have anything to say.  But Miss Alice looked
up at me and said, “Miss Huddleston, you are so much like Margaret.  You are the
daughter that I always wanted.  I wanted Margaret to be just like you, but she wasn‘t.
I wanted her to share my faith, but she wouldn‘t.  I wanted her to be obedient and
caring, but she wouldn’t.  I would love to take back the past few days, to turn the
hands of time back and pretend that none of this ever happened, but I cannot.  You are
a gift from God for us here Miss Huddleston, to Neil and myself.  We have both needed
you and I am so glad that you heeded the call of God to come here.  
   “Do you think that Margaret can ever forget what I did to her the other night?”
Miss Alice asked.
   “Of course she can Miss Alice!  She knew down deep inside of her that you really did
love her and that you would have done anything for her, if you were able!  There comes
a time in every persons life when they have to take responsibility for their own
actions.  It is her own fault.  She decided to take her own life, no one else did.  I
am the one that told Margaret that Neil was worth fighting for.  I could have been the
one responsible for her coming back here.  Neil said to me, ‘if she thought he was
worth fighting for then she took the cowards way out.  She should have been at home
fixing a meal, cleaning the cabin, making it a home for them instead of destroying
everything in it.  We can only do the best that we know how to do.  Sometimes it’s just
not going to be enough, other times it will be more than enough.  I’m so glad to see
you doing better Miss Alice.”  I smiled at her.
   “As I was sitting her looking up at the hill, ‘the light’ came to me.  I saw what I
was supposed to see.  I saw that Margaret was given responsibility for once in her life
and she failed at it.  She was made accountable for her own actions and she paid for
them with her life, taken by her own hands.  It was not I, nor Neil, nor you that did
any of this, but the spoiled little girl that I should have put over my knee many times
way back when she was a youngster.  I let her get away with too much.  I should have
been responsible and put her up for adoption when she was born, but I didn’t do it.
Many people suffered at the hand of my daughter!  I only hope that all of the others
who have been hurt by Margaret turn out as sweet as Neil’s story has.  He has been
given a second chance at happiness, and love, I only hope that all the other people
hurt by my daughter will get that chance as well.  Miss Huddleston I know you have been
sent here by God to help us not just as a teach!
!
e
r, but as a friend, a wife and a daughter as well.  You have helped us all so very
much!  Your presence here is greatly needed!  I hope you know that!  We, Neil and I,
could not continue on after this, if it were not for you.  You are a blessing from
God!!”  Miss Alice rose to her feet and hugged me close then she kissed my cheek.
“Thank-you Miss Huddleston.”
   “You’re welcome Miss Alice!”  I said softly through my tears.  

   I looked up at Neil and noticed he was watching me.  Our eyes locked and it was as
if I couldn’t pull my gaze away from him.  Just the same way that Margaret’s eyes held
me the day she spoke to me at the Tea House.  We just stood there looking at each other
intently.  Fairlight broke in to my concentration.  “Miz Christy, would you mind
helping me fold this tablecloth?”  She looked me in the eye then glanced at Neil.  Then
she whispered, “You know Miz Christy.  You have to be careful about being seen with Dr.
MacNeill for a while.  He’s supposed to be in mourning.”
   I thought that was silly since Margaret hadn’t been seen in these parts more than
two weeks altogether in about seven years!!  If she had been such an important part of
Neil’s life that he had to spend months mourning her, then why wasn’t she here more
often?  These mountain customs just didn’t make any sense to me sometimes.  “How come
Dr. MacNeill has to be in mourning when his wife was someone that he hardly even knew
anymore?”
   “That’s just the way it’s done here.  Lot’s of folks carry grudges, and feuds all
their lives.  I know of a man who only comes home to make more young’uns and then they
don’t see him for over a year afterward.  But she remains faithful to him and when he
dies she’ll be expected to mourn him!”  Fairlight declared.  “There’s another couple
that haven’t spoken to one another in over 25 years!  They live together, they’ve had
young’uns together, but they don’t talk to each other.  When one dies, the other will
be expected to mourn!!”  
   I glanced back at Neil who was still watching me as he talked with Dan.  What were
we going to do now?  If he were the grieving widower, what did that make me?  What was
I or Neil allowed to do?  Could I help Neil clean up his cabin?  Could I help him in
anyway?  Could he help me out at the school with Science or Mathematics or Physical
Education or History?  What did these people allow?  
   I noticed Neil coming toward me, alone.  What was I supposed to do now?  Did people
expect me to run for cover or what?  I decided to just be cordial.
   “Miss Huddleston I wanted to thank you for all of your help today.”  Neil said
extending his hand for me to shake.  
   I shook his hand and he held on a moment and held my hand in both of his.  I didn’t
want to pull my hand away but I did.  “You’re very welcome Dr. MacNeill.”  I answered
politely.
   “Now about that medical problem that we discussed the other day, I’d like to see how
things are progressing if you don’t mind, Miss Huddleston.  Would you please step
inside so I can examine that foot of yours.”  I looked a little perplexed, I know I
did.  But Neil winked at me ever so slightly and I knew I should go along with his
charade.  
   “Yes of course, Dr. MacNeill.” I said, not sure what was expected of me.  “Would you
please excuse me Fairlight?”
   
   Once we were inside the mission’s parlor area, Neil closed the doors and turned
toward me.  “I’ve missed you so much Christy!!  It’s been torture to see you all day
long and I can’t even speak to you without someone getting suspicious!  Come here
Lass!”     I came closer and Neil pulled me in to him with his big strong arms.  I felt
like I had come home!  Then he bent down toward me, my heart began to beat faster!
When his lips brushed mine I couldn’t help but accept them with my own!  
   “Oh Neil!  I have so many questions about this mourning business of yours up here in
the mountains. How do I ever get to ask you what’s expected of me now?”  I said.  “How
are we supposed to find time alone?”
   “I guess you’re just going to have to be ill more often!  I’m a Physician.  I can be
alone with my patients in private without arousing suspicion.  But not too often!”
   “What exactly does that mean?”  I asked, dumbfounded!  
   “I don’t know!  I don’t see why I have to mourn Margaret for six months before I can
even look at another woman!”
   “Six months!?!”  Was all I could say.  
   “That’s what’s expected of me.”  Neil began.  “But if I plan to move to Baltimore I
don’t see what difference it would make if I didn’t mourn for that long!!  They could
run me out of the cove and I would think it was the best thing that ever happened to
me!”  Then he looked down at me.  “Especially if my bonnie lass came with me.”
   I couldn’t guarantee that I would, not unless he was a Christian.  My dad would
never give his permission for us to marry if Neil until he became a Christian.  Plus I
knew in my heart that unless Neil did give his life over to the Lord I could never
really be happy with him.  We would be constantly arguing and trying to tear each other
apart.  What kind of a marriage would that be?  Not a good one.  And certainly not what
Neil or I really wanted.
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
*       

Chapter Four 

   Miss Alice was resting comfortably, it had been a month now and she seemed to be
doing better since Margaret’s funeral. My heart still went out to her.  But she was
beginning to learn to forgive herself as I was learning to forgive myself.  She didn’t
seem to need me to stay with her quite as much as she had at first.  Neil was still
planning to move to Baltimore although he had not, as yet, written to St. Timothy‘s
Hospital.  I prayed for wisdom.  I wanted to do what the Lord would have me do.  Neil
was not a Christian and therefore I could not allow myself to accept his proposal,
which I was sure, would be coming soon.  He had contacted my father and Daddy had
reluctantly given him permission to court me.  But Daddy also gave me strict
instruction to look after my spiritual life and Neil’s.  I was to use every opportunity
I had to Share the Gospel with Neil.  Daddy agreed with me that I could not say yes to
Neil’s proposal unless he was a Christian.  Neil had decided that!
!
 
people were talking about us anyway and they should have know long ago that he had
given up on Margaret and their life ‘together’.  He was not going to boldly pursue me,
but he was also not going to hide either.  I knew people would talk.  That was
inevitable under the best of circumstances!!  I would do my best to be the ‘good girl’
that I should be and try not to arouse suspicions.  

*       *       *       *       *       *       *
   Today was Saturday.  I didn’t have to teach school.  Neil had left three days ago.
No one knew where he was, but I had a pretty good idea.  I planned to surprise him
today.  I was going to pack up a basket of food plus some other things that I had and
take it out to the hunting cabin.  We could have a nice afternoon together.  Jeb
Spencer said he would lend me his sled so I could take a small table along that had
been left over from the furniture and things my parent’s friends had sent as donations
from Asheville a while ago.  I had also taken a lace dress with a yellow under layer,
that I had and carefully removed the skirt.  Divided it into four sections and made
curtains for the windows of Neil’s cabin.  Maybe lace wasn’t what he wanted, but I
thought right now he needed something cheery more than he did manly.  I hoped he would
remember me whenever he looked at these.  
   After I had finished my chores I visited with Miss Alice for a while.  We spoke
briefly, but she needed time alone with God she said.  She wanted to read her Bible and
pray so I left her alone.  
   I spoke with David about borrowing Theo.  He said I could.  Although I don’t think
he was too happy with me when I wouldn’t tell him where I was planning to go.  I
realized he was concerned for my welfare, but I was afraid that if I told him that I
was going to see Neil that he might suddenly have a use for Theo.  
   I had hidden the table off in the woods near the Spencer cabin so no one would get
suspicious of me.  I knew Neil wanted to keep his hunting cabin private.  
   Before I left I stopped to speak with Dan who was working on his cabin.  He had not
seen Neil in three days and was concerned about him, as I was.
   “Dan” I said.  “My Father called me last night to tell me that there should be
several large crates being delivered to Neil’s cabin.  I was wondering if you could be
there to help Ben Pentland put them in the stable?  It’s supplies for Neil’s
laboratory.  I was hoping that having his equipment back might help him to decide where
he wants to stay.  Maybe it’s the wrong thing, but I just have to try.”
   “I understand Miss Christy.  I’ll be there.  I should stay close to his cabin in
case of emergencies.  People tend to stop by the Doctor’s cabin before they do the
mission.  Maybe I’ll work at cleaning the place up a bit while I‘m there.  I can sort
through some of his journals and put together some of the pages.  Having some of them
would be better than not having any at all.  I’ll start unpacking the crates if I get
the chance.  Sounded like the Doctor planned to be gone for at least a week.  Should
give you and I a chance to sort of ‘spruce up’ the place again!”
   “That sounds wonderful Dan!!  I should be back before dark.”  I said.  I was so
excited to start fixing up Neil’s cabin again!  I hoped that once it didn’t look so
desolate that he might feel better about staying here.  “I’ll meet you there tomorrow.
Whenever I can get away from the mission.  I never know when Miss Alice may need me or
something unexpected may arise.  I’ll do my best to be there early.  Right after
church.”  I turned to leave, but then turned back.  “Thank-you for everything Dan.”  
   He smiled and said, “You’re very welcome Miss Christy.”

   I stopped by the Spencer’s cabin and Jeb hooked Theo to the sled for me.  Then he
tied the table down as well.  “Where yah going with this here table Miz Christy?”
   “I promised it to someone.”  I said, trying to hedge around the name of the person.
   “I see.” Jeb said, smiling a somewhat knowing smile.  Although I couldn’t fathom how
he would connect Neil with this table.  
   “There yah be Miz Christy.  Shouldn’t be too much trouble for yah.  Just be careful
about steep grades and you should be fine.”
   “Thank-you Jeb!”  I smiled and offered to shake his hand.  “I plan to have the sled
back by sun-down.  You won’t be needing it before than will you?”
  “No ma’am.  I have the wagon now if in I need to move anything.”
  I turned Theo in the direction of Neil’s hunting cabin.  It would probably take quite
a while to get there pulling this sled, but I needed to see Neil today!  I just had
to!!  

   It was a pleasant day.  The ride would have been wonderful if I had only been riding
with Neil.  When I finally saw the cabin ahead of me my heart leaped for joy!!  I would
see Neil in a few moments.  As I got closer to the cabin I saw that the lock was
definitely off of the door so he was here!!  I got down off Theo’s back and took my
baskets with the food, curtains and things that I had brought with me.  I knocked on
the door, but there was no answer.  If I knew Neil MacNeill he was probably fishing.  I
opened the door slightly and called, “Neil?  Are you here?  It’s me Christy?”  Again
there was no answer.  I set the baskets down on the hearth.  I went out and unstrapped
the table from the sled.  It wasn’t heavy, just too large to carry on Theo’s back.  I
took it in and placed it by the window.  I took the two chairs and set one on either
side of the table.  I looked around and found some nails and a hammer and I tacked the
curtains to the window frame.  It brightened up!
!
 
the whole place!  There was what I think had once been a broom sitting in the corner
and I did the best I could to sweep out the accumulation of dust from the floor and got
rid of the cobwebs from the ceiling.  I had brought rags with me and Neil must have
gotten water from the stream this morning.  I washed the table, chairs, mantel,
windowsills, and any other surfaces that I could find.  Then to the new table I added a
tablecloth that I had made.  “There!” I said out loud to myself.  “It’s really
beginning to sparkle!!  I picked some wildflowers, placed them in an old jar I found
and placed them on the table as a centerpiece.”  
   Now I wanted to find Neil.  I followed the stream looking up and down to see if he
was fishing, but I didn’t see him anywhere.  Was I mistaken after all?  Was he not
really here?  I continued to walk; I wasn’t going to give up hope until I had reached
his ‘secret’ place.  If he weren’t there, then I would be on my way home.  
   I could hear the waterfall and I knew that I must be close to the spot I was looking
for.  Suddenly I saw the bushes that Neil had parted the day he had brought me here.  I
peered through the bushes and there was Neil sitting on the plateau pensively looking
into the falls, although I doubted he was actually seeing the falls.  I knew Neil would
not hear me approaching because the water was too loud.  How would I get his attention
without startling him?  
   I looked around and I found some pebbles on the ground.  One by one I picked up the
pebbles and tossed them onto the rock ledge next to Neil.  The first two he didn’t seem
to notice.  The third he looked at confused.  The fourth he turned and looked behind
him but he didn’t see anyone.  With the fifth, he was looking straight in my direction
when I threw it.  He rose from his seat with a completely bewildered look on his face
and came toward the bushes.  When he parted the bushes I stooped behind them.  As he
came out into the open, I jumped up behind him and put my hands over his eyes.  He spun
around in surprise.  “Christy!!”  He announced excitedly!  “What are you doing here?”
   “I missed you and I wanted to surprise you.”  I told him.
   “Well you did that!!  I was wondering what was happening!” Neil answered.
   “I was afraid that if I just surprised you that you might get startled, and sitting
that close to the edge of the plateau, I didn’t want you to fall in!!”  I said. Neil
came over and scooped me into his arms.  
   “I’m so glad you came!!  I missed you so much!”  Neil said.  
   “I missed you also!!  Dan told me when you left.  I knew it was best that I wasn’t
seen with you for a while.  I was glad that you came up here, because then I could come
and visit you and there would be no one who would see us.”
   “Aye Lass that they won’t!”  Neil sighed with a sly smile.  Then he set me on the
ground and wrapped his arms around me.  He held me tight.  He looked lovingly into my
eyes.  Once again he asked, “Christy, may I kiss you?”
   “Neil, you may kiss me whenever you want to!  I’ve been looking forward to the day
that you would!”
   He put his hand behind my head and pulled me close with his other hand.  He kissed
me affectionately and I felt dizzy and weak when we were finished.  I was breathing
heavily, I didn’t feel well at all.  But I thought it would pass.
   “Let’s sit down over here.”  Neil said as he led me to the plateau.  
   I sat down and Neil sat beside me.   “I can’t tell you how much your coming here
today has meant to me.”  He said.  He took my chin in his hand and lifted my face to
his.  He  kissed me again.  
    Neil sat up close to me and brushed my hair from my face and left shoulder.  He
took my chin in his hand and turned my face to look at him.  Oh those eyes-the love-and
the loneliness-that I saw there!!  “I love you more than I have ever loved anyone in my
life!  I can’t live another day without you!” He 
whispered.   
   Neil took my left hand in his.  He looked lovingly into my eyes.  “Christy Lass,
I’ve been wanting to ask you something.  I came up here to think about this; then you
showed up and it is as if you are the answer to my question.
   “Christy since the first time I was you in my cabin wearing Margaret’s dress I’ve
thought that you were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.  I fell in love with
you right then and there.  You lit up my whole cabin with your presents.  You filled
the room with the smell of rosewater!  
   “I haven’t been able to forget that day.  And lately I can’t think of anything but
you!  Christy I can’t live without you.  Would you marry me?”
    “I’m sorry Neil.  But it’s not right.  I can’t!”  I cried in despair. 
    “I truly hope that I will marry you one day Neil.  But there is a problem.  You
aren’t a Christian.  I just can’t marry someone who isn’t.  The Bible tells us in II
Corinthian 6:14a-”Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” 
   “And also, there may not be *people* around to see us, but God sees everything.  You
may not want to hear this, but *I* know it’s the truth!”
   Neil stood up.  “So what are you doing here?  I’m obviously not good enough for you!
Why did you come?  Why do you keep acting like you care…” His voice caught in his
throat. “…about *me* when you really don’t?  I can’t take this anymore Christy!  I was
telling you the truth, I can’t live without you anymore.”  He knelt down before me to
look me in the eyes.  “If I can never have you, then *please* just leave me alone!”
   I took his face in my hands and said, “I wish there was a window into my soul so you
could see the battle that’s raging inside of me also!!  It’s not you.  This is not a
rejection of you in any way!!  My whole being longs to be with you, but I know in my
heart that it’s not right.  It‘s taking every ounce of strength I have not answer ‘yes‘
to your proposal.”  I was trying to soothe Neil and be honest with him. 
   “God will bless my marriage if I wait to marry a Christian man.  And I hope and pray
that I‘m speaking of you!!  I want more than any earthly thing to be *Mrs.* Neil
MacNeill!!”
   “How can you be so sure about God?”  Neil asked.  “How can you know what He wants
and what he’ll bless and not bless?” 
   “Because the Bible-the Word of God-tells us what God does and doesn’t do, it tells
us what He expects from us and what He expects us not to do.  I know you want me to
think for myself, but as a Christian I have to follow God’s leading.  I have to read my
Bible and pray to know God’s will for me.  I’ll mess my life up every time if I do
things *my* way!!  I love you Neil and there is nothing in this world I want more than
to see you get saved and for us to be together!  I dream about that every night.  I
pray for it every minute!  I can’t think of anything besides you! But, until we can
agree on Christianity, there is no way those dreams can come true.”  I felt tears sting
my eyes I turned my face away, but I continued.  “I read my Bible and I do my best to
follow what I’m sure it’s saying for me to do and not to do.  Like the 10 Commandments,
I’m sure you’ve heard of those.  I know you live by them, even if you don’t read them.
You know you’re supposed to honor your father!
!
 
and mother, you wouldn’t kill anyone, you don’t steal, but the greatest commandment
according to Mark 12:30-31 ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all you mind, and with all your strength.  This is the first
commandment.  And the second like it is this:  You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these.’  So you see we are to
Love God first and foremost, I know you already love your neighbor as yourself, but
you’re leaving out the most important part--Loving God!!
  “You also asked me how I could be sure about God?  I take that to mean how can I be
sure there is a God.  All I have to do is look around me!!  How could everything that
we see just ‘happen’?  I try to picture evolution in my mind as a stack of logs.  How
many times would we have to blow them up before they would fall into the form of a
perfect log cabin?  That sound’s ridiculous but that’s as silly as evolution.  I want
to believe in a loving Heavenly Father who loves us so much that He created all of the
beauty around the whole world, just for us!!  There’s lots of pain and hatred in the
world, I know.  You see more of it then I do.  But there is evil at work in this world.
There always has been and there always will be until the end.  There is a devil and he
is very real.  The Bible says that he is a liar and the father of all lies.  One of the
biggest lies I think he has ever told is evolution.  Darwin believes that lie and has
put it down on paper.  
   “Jesus said He would never leave us nor forsake us even to the end of the age.  If
He won’t leave us then I can’t leave Him!!  More than anything in this world I want you
to come to an understanding of His love the way I have.  I pray all the day that you
will!!  John 3:16 says that ‘For God so *loved* the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever *believeth* in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life.”  The dizziness and weakness that I felt earlier was returning again with a
vengeance.  But I would not let it get in my way!  “I want your dreams and mine to come
to pass, but I just can’t see it the way things are now.  I can’t pressure you into
saying the words to a salvation prayer just to please me.  I want your conversion to be
from your heart.”  Then I prayed that God would put Neil into a situation where there
was nothing that his ‘gods’ ‘Science and his belief in his own abilities’ were not
enough, where the only thing he could possibly do would!
!
 
be to rely on God for the answer.  
   “I realize you’ve been taught up in the mountains that God is harsh and cruel.  I
don’t believe that!!  He’s given us so much beauty!!  There *is* a lot of hatred in the
world.  You see so much of it here.  But that hatred comes from the evil forces in this
world, not from God. Haven’t Miss Alice and I been examples of just the opposite?”  I
queried.  “I’ve tried to be an example of what God’s Love can be.  Do you think that
I’m harsh and cruel?  Do you think my love for you, and the children and the people of
the cove, is different then God’s Love for all of us?  If we as mere human beings can
have love like this, then how much more Love can God have!?!
   “God sent His only Son the die a cruel death on the cross!  You’re a doctor you must
understand what crucifixion is!!  God knew how much His only Son would suffer before He
died!  He knew that the only way to save us from our sins was for someone to die in our
place!  Before the world was created God knew that man would fall away.  Jesus
volunteered to come to earth to die for us!!  Even the people that hated Him!  John
3:16 again says:  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”!  If God were
so cruel and uncaring do you think He would have done something like that?  If you had
a son would you send him to die for people that you cared nothing about and that you
didn’t want in your life?”  I tried to hold back my emotions. “I couldn’t send my son
off to do something like that!  I don’t see how God could have.
   “I want so badly for you to understand this!  To accept it!  It’s not that hard to
do.  Just believing that Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead.  That He
did that so that you could be saved, so that you could be a child of His.  All YOU have
to do is believe it!!  But I can’t do it for you.  If you decide that you can’t, then
I’m afraid I’m saving myself for another man.  I‘m sorry Neil!  But I do *love* you so
much!”  I started to cry.
   Suddenly, I felt so bad I had to get back to the cabin.     
   “Neil, I think I’m going to be sick!  I need to lie down in the cabin if you don’t
mind!”  I stood up.  I remember taking maybe two or three steps and that was it,
everything went black as pitch.  Neil’s voice sounded like it was miles away.  I felt
myself falling, falling…falling!!  Then I heard a splash, I was in the water!  I must
have fallen over the plateau.  Neil was calling!!  I felt myself sinking!  Then
suddenly everything disappeared…
*       *       *       *       *       *       *

   The next thing I remember was waking up in the bed in the hunting cabin.  Neil was
placing cold cloths on my head, face, and arms.  “What’s going on?”  I asked.
   “You have a raging fever.”  Neil said, he was all doctor now.  “You collapsed and
fell into the river, I jumped in and pulled you out, I carried you into the cabin.
Your fever was rising as I brought you in I could actually feel it!!  I don’t know what
it is yet.  I only know that I have to get you cooled down.  I’ll need you to take your
clothes off; the heaviest outer layers so that you can get the cool breeze against your
skin to help cool you down.  If that doesn’t work I’ll have to carry you down to the
stream and immerse you in the cool water.”
   I tried to remove my clothing but it was almost impossible for me to function!  Neil
asked me if I would allow him to do it and I weakly answered, “Yes.”  I couldn’t tell
if I was sitting or lying!  I couldn’t tell which way was up and which was down!!  I
shook violently as the cool air hit my body.  I knew that Neil’s plan was working; the
breeze was doing its job.  I couldn’t tell if Neil was finished or not, all I felt was
the shivering.  I tried to concentrate on his face.  I tried to make out what he was
saying to me.  He tried to feed me a spoonful of water, I’m not sure if I got it down
or not.  I couldn’t tell.  I could hear Neil’s voice, but I couldn’t make out what he
was saying to me.  It sounded all jumbled together!
   So cold!!  I was so very cold!!  Why couldn’t Neil cover me with the blankets!!
“Cold Neil!!”  I cried.  Trying to tell him how I felt.  He answered me but once again
I couldn’t tell what he was saying.  Was it really getting dark out?  I had to get back
to the mission!  I had promised Jeb and Dan that I would be back before dark!  I was
aware enough to realize that.  But then I was noticing that every once in a while I
would seem to come-to long enough to grab some little snippet of what Neil was saying
or of what was going on around me and then I would be lost again.  I felt like I was
spinning down; down a tube, like a tornado surrounding me!  
   Neil was placing cold compresses on my face and neck plus wrapping my knees and
elbows with cold cloths, anywhere that the blood vessels were near the surface of my
skin, he was trying desperately to cool down the fever.
   “Neil I’m scared!!”  I screamed sometime during the night.  I sat bolt upright and
grabbed Neil with all of the strength that I had in me!  “Please don’t let me die!!  I
want to live a long happy life with *you*!!  Neil please help me!!!”  I knew I was
doing this but didn’t quite know how to stop myself.  Something inside of me was
telling me I was going to die!  I wasn’t afraid of death itself, but of leaving here.
Leaving Neil; there were so many plans that we were making, I wanted him to be saved!!
I hadn’t heard him give his life to the Lord yet!!  I couldn’t go until I knew he was
going to meet me in heaven one day!!  “Please God don’t let me die when Neil isn’t
saved yet!!!”  Neil was holding me tight.  Saying something to me.  But I couldn’t tell
what it was.  I could only make out the words, ‘Lass’ and ‘Love‘.  I think he was
weeping.  The rest were just a jumbled up clutter in my mind.  I knew I loved him too!
But once again I couldn’t speak.  
   The sun was in the window again.  It must be morning.  Where was Neil?  Was he here?
I couldn’t make out one shape from another in the cabin, only light from dark.  My mind
was racing; the tornado I was spinning and it was getting faster!  I was so dizzy, so
weak!  What was wrong with me? 
   Suddenly I felt terribly cold!!  I was wet!  What was happening to me!!  I was out
in the bright sunshine.  How did I get out here?  I could feel Neil’s strong arms
holding me tightly.  But why was he pouring water over my head!!  Why was I soaking
wet!!  I was so cold again!!  Even colder then before!!  I tried to form words with my
mouth but they wouldn’t come out, “Cold!” was all I could get out.  At least I think it
came out.  I’m not even sure that it did.  
   I felt Neil lift me up.  He must have put me in the stream like he said he would if
the fever didn’t go down.  I trembled so violently I’m surprised he didn’t drop me as
he carried me back to the cabin. 
   Then I remembered nothing for a long while.  When I realized what was going on
again, I could see that it was dark out.  The second night I was sick.  Poor Neil!
When was he going to get some sleep?  I could see his outline by the fireplace.  “Sleep
Neil.”  I said weakly.  He came over to the bed.  He placed his gentle hand on my
forehead.  Then replaced it with a cold cloth.  He leaned over to me and said, “I’ll
sleep when this fever is broken.  For now I want you to rest.”
   I closed my eyes.  Everything went dark.  After a while, I don’t know how long, I
felt as though I were in a tunnel not the one I had felt for the last couple of days,
this one was different…  I could see a very bright light.  I was heading toward Heaven,
I knew that!  I was going to die before Neil got saved!!  I wanted to cry for him, but
there was nothing more I could do for him.  I wasn’t in my body anymore.  I could hear
Neil crying!!  I could hear him crying out to me:  “Christy, Christy, you’ve got to
come back to me.  Christy, I love you!  Christy can you hear me?  Down in your spirit
at the depth of you, do you hear what I’m saying to you?  I love you!  You cannot leave
me now!!  I beg you Christy please don‘t leave me!!  Christy-” I looked behind me and I
could see my body lying on the bed with Neil sitting beside me!  He was checking my
pulse and listening for my heartbeat with his stethoscope.  I could see him pounding on
my chest in an attempt to restart my hea!
!
r
t.  He was crying!!
   Then I saw him kneel at the side of the bed.  My heart leapt for joy!  The tone of
his words changed.  “God, I have fought against you because I have not understood.  Not
only fought, God, but cursed You.  I did not understand why you let my son die.  I did
not understand anything about You.  I still don’t understand anything-except that
somehow I know You are love.  And that in my heart has been born so great a love for
Christy as I did not know could exist on this earth.  You, God, must be responsible.
You must have put it there.  So what do I do with it now?”  His voice broke.  The
bedclothes muffled his sobs.  I wanted to comfort him in some way.  I tried to reach
out to him but I could not.  
   His voice was hoarse with emotion.  “Lord God Almighty, Lord God of heaven and of
earth, I have been stiff-necked and proud, arrogant and stupid.  I am not worthy of-of
anything, least of all to ask any favors of You.”  He paused.  The room was very quiet.
I could hear the sharp intake of Neil’s breath.  “Lord, God, You are the Creator, I am
the created.  I am helpless, as helpless as all other men.  As a doctor, I thought I
knew something.  Now there is nothing more that I can do for Christy.   Nothing at all.
   “So I offer back to you this love you gave.  It’s all I have to give You, God.  Here
are our lives-hers and mine-I hold them out to You.  Do-with us-as You please.  
   I believe that you sent your Son to die for me and I ask you to take over my life
from this point on.  I confess my sins.  I thank-you for Your forgiveness and mercy.
And I accept the grace that you bestow.”  Neil fell silent.
   I knew now that I could freely go to Heaven.  I hated to leave Neil now, but I could
go now and I knew that one day we would be together forever and nothing would EVER
separate us again!!
   Suddenly there seemed to be a warm glow in the room.  Warmth came into me, starting
at the top of my head and flowing steadily downward, into my brain, into my face-my
eyelids fluttered open.  Familiar objects in the room came into focus.  Neil was still
there beside my bed, his head sunk on the covers, one hand stretched out on the covers.
   And still the strength and the warmth flowed-into my chest, along my arms.  I could
move my fingers now.  I realized all at once that I was no longer looking down on my
body but I was in it, and I was alive!!  Neil’s head was buried in the bedclothes he
sobbed, great heaving sobs!  It broke my heart to hear him!  His heart was ripped in
two because he thought I was dead!  I had to let him know that I was back with him!  
   I slowly moved my hand along the bedclothes.  My arm was heavy but not nearly as
heavy as it had been.  I could now move it.  The tornado was completely gone.  I felt
no more dizziness at all.  I needed to reach Neil’s hand!  I had to comfort him!  I had
to let him know that I had heard his prayer, that now all of our dreams could come
true!!  That God does love him because He answered his prayers and God allowed me to
come back to him!!  I was so excited but my arm didn’t move the way I wanted it to.  I
struggled and finally felt the big strong hand that lovingly touched my cheek when I
was troubled!  I placed my hand on top of Neil’s.  He jumped at the feel of my hand
touching his.   Startled he looked up at me, our eyes locking.  I smiled at him in the
most loving way I could.  A huge smile swept across his face!  “Christy!!  You’ve come
back to me Lass!!”  He placed one hand under my shoulders and head and the other under
my back and held me close to him!!  “You’re back!
!
!
!  I’m so glad you’re back!!  It’s a miracle Christy!  An honest to God miracle!!”  He
was so full of joy!  When he said “Thank you God for giving my Christy back to me!”  He
began to sob.  Only this time I could comfort him, God had given me enough strength now
so that I could lift my arms and place them around Neil.  He buried his face in my neck
and wept. 
   “I heard your prayer Neil!!  I’m so happy!  You’ve made me the happiest woman in the
whole wide world!”  I said.  “Thank you God for giving me Neil-saved and heading for
heaven!!  Thank-you that now he can truly be *my* Neil!!”  Then I started to weep as
well.  But for both of us they were tears of joy, not a note of sadness in either of
us!!

   Neil slept fitfully in the chair that night and I in the bed.  In the morning I was
hungry!  Neil said that was a good sign.   He said he thought I had a severe case of
influenza, but I thought that what I had was a miracle!  My sickness was allowed by God
to force Neil MacNeill to his knees in prayer!!  I would never tell Neil, but that is
exactly what I thought!!  As long as Neil had said that prayer and had meant it with
all his heart everything I had gone through was well worth it all!!  

   “How long was I sick Neil?”  I asked.  
   “Almost three days.  I’d say more like two and a half.”  Neil answered as he started
to feed me some oatmeal.  “You had this old ‘Doc’ scratching his head!  I had no idea
what was going on.  The fever wouldn’t go down!  It kept rising no matter what I tried
it just didn’t seem to help.  Then…do you want to hear the details?”
   “You’re not OLD and yes!  I want to hear everything!!”  I said anxiously.  
   “When you first told me that you were feeling ill, you didn’t give me a chance to
help you up, and when you stood up unaided you fell backward off of the plateau.  I was
terrified!  I couldn’t catch you.  You were blessed though.  You fell into the water,
which softened your fall, but not so close to the falls that were pulled down by the
undertow from the water.  I jumped in as fast as I could.  You had sunk beneath the
water.  I prayed that I would find you and I did.  I pulled you out of the water and as
I carried you back to the cabin I could actually feel your temperature rising as I
carried you along.  After twenty-four hours and the fever had not subsided I knew
drastic measures had to be taken!  So I carried you down to the stream and set you down
in the water.  I poured water over your head to cool it down.  It didn’t seem to do any
good.  It was difficult to carry you back in here when you were shivering so badly!  I
opened all the windows and the door, I fanned y!
!
o
u, and I tried everything to cool you down.  Some hours later you went into
convulsions.  I was terrified.  I did everything I could but your heart stopped and you
stopped breathing!  That’s when I knew that I could do no more.  I remembered what you
had said about God being a good God and that he created all the beauty of the earth
just for us…“ He placed the back of his fingers against my cheek again; “to me there is
nothing more beautiful then you, Christy!!  And I believe, now, with all my heart that
God created this most beautiful woman just for me!  I had been thinking those two and a
half days about everything that you said.  Of God sending His Son to die for *me*, and
all I had to do was *believe*, I knew I could do that.  I thought about not ever having
you as my bride, of going off to Baltimore alone, of just facing the rest of my life
without you by my side!!  I knew that could have all been mine if I had just gotten
down on my knees and said that simple prayer long!
!
 
ago!!  But seeing my bonnie lass lying there with no life in her!!  I was not going to
let you go!  I couldn’t let you go!  I need you more than I’ve ever needed anything in
my whole life--except for God.  I cannot bear the thought of spending life without
you!!  So I got down on my knees and poured out everything to the Lord.  The next thing
I knew you were touching my hand!  Christy, God really does take my life personally!
He cares what happens to me!!”
   I reached up and placed my hand on Neil‘s cheek.  “I heard everything you said Neil,
only I wasn’t here in this bed, I was up there somewhere,” I said pointing at the
ceiling.  “I had gotten that far and then I turned around because I heard you calling
out to me.  You were calling my name!  I stopped as though I couldn’t come back but I
couldn’t go forward either.  I was so afraid to die without knowing that you were
saved!!  I couldn’t bear the thought of going to heaven and not knowing if you were one
day going to join me there!!  I didn’t know who would pray for your salvation?  Who
would take care of you?  Who would be there for you when you needed someone to talk to?
I agonized over those issues when I knew in my heart that I was really going to die.
   “Neil, something you said stood out in your prayer.  You said you couldn’t
understand why your son had died?  What did that mean?”
   “Margaret and I were expecting our first, and *only* child, she didn’t want it.  She
didn’t want anything that had to do with me!  She was angry and resentful that she was
going to have my child.  When she went into labor at seven months she hoped that the
baby would not survive and he did not.  I was devastated; she was ecstatic!  That’s why
we had that argument that sent her running off to God-knows-where.  On the night we
thought she had drowned.  That’s one of the reasons why I just couldn’t bring myself to
forgive her and to reach out to her when she came back the last time.”  A tear trickled
down Neil’s cheek.  I reached up to brush it away, my hand lingering on his cheek.
   “I want to have your children some day.  I want lots of children!!” I said as I
reached up and touched his curly hair.  “All with sandy-red hair and blue eyes!! Just
like you!  Of course I have to wait until you’ve asked me to marry you before I start
making too many plans!!  But like I told Margaret, you are worth fighting for!!”  I
smiled lovingly at Neil-*he* hadn’t stopped smiling since last night.  He even smiled
in his sleep!!
   
   “Everyone at the mission must be worried sick about you Christy!  I should put you
on Jeb’s sled and take you home.  They’ve probably got a search party out looking for
you!  Your clothes are over there on the back of that chair.  I’ll wait outside for you
to put them on.  If you need help, call.”  Neil said.
   It was a lot more work then I can ever remember, just to put my clothes on!  I was
still weak as a kitten and I hadn’t been up and about for nearly three days!  It was a
new experience again, just moving and standing upright!!  When I was finished I called
for Neil to help me outside.  He carried me out to the sled, which he had fixed up a
little by adding a quilt and Charlie’s saddle for a backrest for me to lean on.  He set
me down and tucked me in.  Then he took Theo’s reins and we headed off toward the
mission.  With Charlie tethered to the back of the sled.
   “Christy?”  Neil called.
  “Yes Neil, what is it?”  I asked.  Neil stopped Theo and came back and knelt beside
me.  
   “I wanted to apologize for the other afternoon.  I was totally out of line!  I
should never have done what I did!  I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive
me.”  He said as he brushed back my hair from my face.
   “Forgive you?  I was just as much to blame as you were--even more so--I should have
known better!  Plus the Bible says ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.’  If God can
put what you did in the past, then so can I!!  I was flattered!  I was touched that you
thought of me that way, you’re not the only one who has ever had thoughts like that
Neil!  I have too!  I just haven’t acted on them!  But I’m just as guilty as you are!”
I placed my hand on his cheek again.   “I love you Neil MacNeill!”
   Neil leaned forward and placed a soft, tender kiss on my lips.  “I love you too
Christy Huddleston!!”
*       *       *       *       *       *       *
   When we got closer to the mission house we could see people, men, women and children
scouring the area, I suspected that they were looking for me.  I noticed Fairlight and
Jeb.  “Neil!  I see Fairlight and Jeb over there!”  He waved and called to them.
Fairlight came running and Jeb right behind her.
   “Where have you been?”  Fairlight cried.  “Everyone in the cove in searching all
over for you!!”
   “Where she’s been mostly is ill.  She’s had a raging fever for two and a half days.
I found shelter and kept her there afraid to move her.”  Neil said.
   “He didn’t tell you the best part!  Neil prayed and gave his life to the Lord!--My
heart had stopped and I had quit breathing.  But when Neil was through praying I
reached out and touched his hand!!”  I told Fairlight and Jeb excitedly.
   “Well, congratulations!”  Jeb said shaking Neil‘s hand!  I’ll tell the preacher that
we had better expect a lot of hullabaloo at church come Sunday morning!  Doc MacNeill’s
gonna join the fold!!”
  Jeb and Neil both laughed heartily!  It was so good to see Neil joining in the
laughter instead of being on the outside looking in.  
   “Let’s get this woman to the mission before she gets chilled!”  Jeb said while
starting Theo on his way.  Neil came back and walked with me, holding my hand.
   “Will you join me for church on Sunday?”  I asked hopefully.  “We could go on a
picnic afterward?”
   “Do you think your Rev. Grantland will welcome me to his church?”  Neil said
sorrowfully.  
   I looked at Fairlight, not quite sure how to answer that question.  Fairlight said,
“If the preacher don’t welcome you that’s not the point.  The point is you got saved
and now you want to hear the Word.  If the preacher don’t welcome you I know for
certain that the rest of us will!!  Jeb and I will, Miss Christy will, Miss Alice will,
Opal and Tom will, oh…everybody will!!  I just know it!!  As we went along Jeb called
out to the other men and women that were still scouring the area.  Everyone was glad to
see us.  
   When we finally arrived back at the mission David and Miss Alice raced out to meet
me.  “Where have you been?”  Miss Alice asked with concern in her voice.  
   “She’s been ill Alice.  When she came down with a raging fever I found shelter for
her and kept her there.  I didn’t want her to get worse!  We can explain more after we
have Miss Huddleston inside and comfortable.”  Neil said.
   Neil picked me up and carried me into the house.  As I laid my head on his strong
shoulder I realized how exhausted I was!  I had fallen asleep before Neil could even
get me into the house!  He must have tucked me into bed and went back downstairs to
talk.  All I remember was him kissing me and saying he’d see me later.  
   
   I didn’t awaken until the next morning.  Miss Alice came in to check on me.  “I see
thee have finally decided to join us again!”  She said cheerfully.
   “I didn’t know I was that tired!”  I said.  “I must have been more worn-out by that
fever than I realized!
   “How are you doing?”  I asked Miss Alice.
   “I am doing decidedly better now.  Thank-thee!  I could not sit and think of myself
when I did not know where thee were!  I got down on my knees in prayer and got my mind
off of me and on to someone else for a change!!  It was, in a way, exactly what I
needed!”
   “I know what you mean!  Did Neil tell you what happened to him because of this
sickness?”
   “He told us that your heart had stopped and that you had stopped breathing.  And
that you came around again.”
   “He didn’t tell you that he got down on his knees and prayed?  He didn’t tell you
that it was as a result of that prayer that I am here speaking to you now?  He gave his
life and mine to the Lord!  It was after that prayer that I found myself back inside my
body again!  
   “I’ve asked Neil to come to church with me on Sunday.  Do you think it will be all
right with David?”
   “It does not matter what David thinks!  The church is God’s house, not David’s.  If
he holds grudges and preaches such from the pulpit, I will soon let Dr. Ferrand know
about it!!”  Miss Alice was steadfast.  “A new convert needs to be in church!  This one
especially!  I will keep him under my wing if need be to keep him walking down the
straight and narrow path.  We must continue to pray for David that his heart will open
up to Neil and that he will embrace this new convert with the Love of God!!”
   “Thank-you Miss Alice!”  I said.  “By the way where is Neil?  He hadn’t slept much
in about three days.  I’m worried about him.”
   “You needn’t worry Christy.  Neil is asleep in the next room.  He stayed up late
watching over thee last night.  I think he was afraid thee might disappear!  I finally
told him that I would stay up with thee so he could get some much-needed rest.  When he
awakens I will tell him that thee would like to see him.  Dan Scott would like to see
thee also when thee have a moment.  Would thee like to put on a bed jacket to feel more
presentable for thy visitors?”
   “Yes I would!  Thank-you Miss Alice!  I’d love to see Dan whenever he gets a
chance.”  I said.
   “He is waiting right out side the door!  I think he has news to tell thee.  He seems
very excited and happy about something!”  Miss Alice said.
   Miss Alice let Dan in.  “I will get thy breakfast Miss Huddleston.  I shall be back
shortly.”
   “Dan!  How are you?”  I asked.
   “I was about to ask you the same thing.”  Dan admitted.  “I was worried when you
didn’t come back before dark on Saturday.  But I didn’t tell anyone who you were with.
   “Miss Christy!  You won’t believe all of the laboratory equipment that your father
sent!  There are five huge crates!  I don’t think Dr. MacNeill would have any more
equipment in Baltimore than he has right here!!  I’ve been finding that a lot the
journals have been torn, but the information has not been destroyed.  If we can place
the pages together we can then copy the information in to new journals!!  Plus many of
the slides were broken, but they were broken in such a way that the specimen on top was
not destroyed!!  Things aren’t nearly as bad as they first seemed!!” 
   “Praise the Lord!!  Why don‘t you bring some of the work here and while I‘m resting
up and getting my strength back I can copy some of the pages?” Dan nodded.  I wanted to
shout, but I knew Neil was asleep in the next room and he really needed the rest.  “I
do hope that Dr. MacNeill will find that news as wonderful as I do!!”  Deep down inside
I thought that he might still want to go to Baltimore.  It would be a way for him to
finally get out of Cutter Gap for good and to make a difference in the world like he
has always wanted…
*       *       *       *       *       *       *

Chapter Five

   Dan promised to bring the journals and torn pages by that afternoon.  He would work
with me to get all of the terminology correct.  As well as placement of different
parts.  I had to remember that I was doing this for Neil.  I know part of me wanted to
do it just to try and convince him to stay in Cutter Gap, but the other part of me was
doing it for the right reasons…so he would have all of his research papers back and he
wouldn’t have to start over from scratch on all of his Trachoma research.  

   Ten minutes after Dan left, Neil was already at my door.  “Come in!”  I called.  
   “How’s my bonnie blue-eyed lass this morning?”  Neil sang as he came through the
door.
   “I’m doing great!  How is the most handsome Doctor in the world this morning?”  I
asked.
   “If you’re referring to me, I’m doing wonderful, now that I see you up and about.
Any dizziness?  Fatigue?  Headache?  Nausea?”  Neil asked as he placed his hand on my
forehead to check for fever.
   “None what so ever!!”  I announced.  “You’re prayers have been answered
completely!!!”  I thought for a moment, then said, “Come to think of it Neil, so have
mine!!”
   Neil smiled and gave me a kiss.  “Have you eaten yet?”  
   “No, Miss Alice is going to bring me something up here?  Would you care to join me?”
I smiled.
   “I don’t mind if I do!  I’ll be back in two shakes of a lambs tail!!”  Neil said,
happily as he scurried out the door and down the stairs.
   I thought Neil looked euphoric these past couple of days!!  I was so glad to see him
this happy!  It had been a long time since I’d seen him like this!  Come to think of
it, I don’t think I had ever seen him this ecstatic before!!
   “Breakfast is served!!”  Miss Alice said as she returned to my room.  “Mrs. Spencer
has outdone herself this morning!!  She’s made cinnamon rolls, oatmeal, eggs, bacon,
hot tea, and apple juice.  A meal fit for a King, or I mean, Princess!!”  Miss Alice
was smiling from ear to ear.  
   Neil knocked on the door soon after.  I asked him to come in.  “Well, that’s what I
like to see!  A hearty breakfast!  Your body can use the strength to get you back into
life again!”
   “I’ll leave you two alone.  I’ll see you later, Miss Huddleston.  Dr. MacNeill?  I
do wish you would cheer-up!”  Miss Alice teased as she playfully ruffled Neil’s hair.
   “I’ll do my best Alice!”  Neil answered.
   “See that you do!  Our patient does not need thee moping around her like this all
day!”  Miss Alice laughed.  Then she set her hand on Neil’s arm and said,  “Actually
Doctor, *Neil* I am very pleased to see thee in such high spirits!!  It does my heart a
world of good to see thee this happy!  I know how long it has been since thee were
truly happy.  You deserve happiness!  And the Light inside of thee will help thee to
maintain that joy even in difficult times!”  Miss Alice paused.  “I will see the two of
thee later!”
   “So Dr. MacNeill!  What are you going to do today?”
   Neil smiled shyly.  “I need to travel to Knoxville.  I thought I’d start out today.
Will you miss me?”
   “Oh!  You know I will!!  What are you going to Knoxville for?”  I asked.  Suddenly
quite distressed by the idea of Neil going that far away.
   “I need to pick-up some supplies from the apothecary.“  Neil explained.
   “How long will you be gone?”  I asked.
   “I’ll try and be home by Sunday morning.  A cute little lass which I’ve had my eye
on has invited me to attend church with her on Sunday and join her for a picnic
afterward!”  Neil teased.
   “Well, now I’m jealous!  I demand to know her name immediately!!”  I teased him
back.
   Neil came and sat on the edge of the bed.  “Her name is Christy Huddleston,” he
whispered.  “I’ve heard tell that she’s the purtiest thang to ever hit this here cove!
I’ve heard tell she smells like flowers and she dresses fancy too!”  Then he drew me
close and kissed me.  
   “I’ll miss you terribly!  But I’ll have to get used to it.”  I paused.  “When do you
think I’ll be able to start teaching again?”
   “I think you should wait until Monday.  With a fever that high for that long, you
really need to rest and regain your strength.  And if you’re a good little girl maybe
I’ll even bring you back a surprise from Knoxville!”  Then he kissed me again.  “Is
there anything you would like me to do for you before I go?  Anything I can bring you
back from Knoxville?”
   “Only you my love!!”  I told Neil.  “Only you!!”
   “Well then, if I want to be back in time for church on Sunday morning, I had better
get going!”  Neil said, rising from the edge of the bed.  “You make sure you get plenty
of rest and *lot’s* of fluids also!  Fever dehydrates your system and you need to
replenish it.  If you feel strange in any way tell Alice immediately, or Dan Scott,
OKAY?”
   “Yes sir!!  I’ll be a good girl!!”  I teased Neil again.  Then Neil leaned over and
kissed me on the forehead.  “Of course if you think *that’s* going to leave a lasting
impression on me, you are sadly mistaken!!”
   “I certainly had better leave a lasting impression or you may forget about me while
I’m gone!!”  So Neil sat back down and gathered me in his arms and gave me a soft,
affectionate, lingering kiss!  When we parted I threw myself down and sighed, “I think
you’ve succeeded in leaving a *lasting* impression Dr. MacNeill!!”
   “Then I’ll be off to Knoxville!!  I’ll see you Sunday for sure, but I’ll try to be
back by Saturday night.”  Neil turned to leave.  “I love you Lass!!”
   “I love you too Neil!!”  I said, feeling a tear in my eye as he closed the door
behind him.  
*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
*
   Dan Scott was true to his word.  He brought the new journals and the torn ones over
that afternoon.  He and I pieced the pages together like a jigsaw puzzle.  Some of it
was more then I could understand.  Dan had brought a book along, “Gray’s Anatomy” from
which I could see the drawings of the eye more clearly for reproducing the sketches
that Neil had drawn first.  Because I could sketch, I was given the job of reproducing
the pictures, and because Dan knew the medical terminology, he had the job of
reproducing the wording for each page.  It would be a lot of work, but Neil would have
most, if not all of his journal pages back again.  I was hoping he would like them and
praying that I would draw everything correctly!!

   At the end of the first day, I showed Dan my drawings and he liked what he saw.
“They are very good!  I’m sure the doctor will be pleased with these drawings.  But I
think we’ve done enough for today.  I’ve got a few people I need to check in on and
then I’ll be back here for Supper.  Miss Christy I will most likely see you tomorrow.
I don’t suspect you’ll be joining us for the evening meal will you?”
   “I’d love to get out of this bed and walk down stairs!!  But I’m afraid Dr. MacNeill
and Miss Alice won’t allow me to.  They say I’m still too weak.”  I answered.
   “I’ll let you rest and I’ll be back tomorrow to help you some more.”  Dan put on his
hat and coat.  As he tipped his hat he said.  “Evening Miss Christy.”
  “Good evening Dan.”  I replied.
   I curled up on my bed.  I thought maybe falling asleep and dreaming of Neil would
make me less lonely for him.  I didn’t realize how tired I had become until I actually
laid down!  It wasn’t very long before I was asleep.  I dreamt about Neil, about his
reaction to his ‘new’ laboratory!  I dreamt that he was happy!  I woke with a start
when I saw Neil pick up a letter addressed to him from St. Timothy‘s Hospital in
Baltimore!  I didn’t get to see what was written in the letter.  I lie awake thinking
and praying about my dream, wondering about the letter.  I wanted to know what this was
all about.  I tried to remember if Neil was happy as he opened the letter?  Did I see
*anything* that would tell me more about that letter!!  I couldn’t remember anything!
I decided that if God wanted me to know something about a letter from Baltimore, then
he would give me a more detailed dream.  
   A knock on the door startled me from my thoughts.  “Come in!”  I called.
   “How are thee feeling?”  Miss Alice asked.
   “I miss Neil, but other then that I’m feeling much better.”  I answered.  “Miss
Alice?”  I started picking up the journal that Dan and I had worked on all afternoon.
“Dan and I have been working on copying the torn pages from Neil’s journals into new
journals!  What do you think?”
   Miss Alice picked up the journal thoughtfully.  “I think the two of thee have done
and excellent job!  I’m sure Dr. MacNeill will be very thankful for all of thy work.”
   “I only hope that we’re doing everything right!  And…”  I added.  “I hope I’m doing
it for the right reasons!  I don’t want to be doing all of this work just to try and
stop Neil from going to Baltimore!  I want to do this to help him in his work no matter
where he may be doing it.”
   “I think thee have nothing to fear!  If thee were doing this for the wrong reasons,
then thee would not care if thee were doing wrong.  Do not worry, Dr. MacNeill will be
very thankful!
   “I had an idea this afternoon.  I thought since thee are confined to thy bed, I was
wondering if thee would like to hear a story this evening?”
   “What kind of story Miss Alice?”  My curiosity was piqued!!
   “The story of the MacNeill Clan and the highlanders?”  Miss Alice smiled.
   “Oh Yes!!  I would LOVE to hear that story Miss Alice!!”  I was so excited.  I had
never heard that story before!!  
   “I thought since thee and Neil are so close thee might like to understand more about
his heritage.”  
   “That would be wonderful!!  Thank-you Miss Alice!!”  I cried.
   “I will be back after supper.  Until then I suggest that you rest some more.  Are
thee drinking plenty of fluids as Dr. MacNeill told thee?”
   “I’ve been trying to!”  I replied sheepishly.  
   “I will bring thee some juice and more water when I return.”  Miss Alice got up from
her chair to leave.
   “Thank-you Miss Alice!”  I said.
   “Thee are very welcome, Christy.  I will see thee after supper.”  Miss Alice closed
the door as she left.  I lay back down on my bed and thought about where Neil might be.
He would be in Knoxville this evening.  I tried to imagine what he could possibly be
going to Knoxville for.  I just couldn’t think of anything that was only available in
Knoxville!  Unless it had something to do with his medical practice.  There was
probably some medicine that he could only get in Knoxville.  
   I thought of him and Charlie as they trotted.  I loved the sight on Neil on his
horse.  He was an excellent horseman.  On the other hand I would much rather ride with
someone then to have to be in control of that huge beast all by myself!  I could handle
Theo the mule, but a horse scared me.  I had ridden Prince when I needed to, but only
when I NEEDED to!!
   
   A knock on my door roused me from my slumber.  I must have fallen asleep and not
even realized it!!  “Come in!”  I called.  Trying not to sound as though I just woke
up!!
   Ruby Mae came in carrying my supper tray.  “Evening Miz Christy!  How are you
feelin?”
  “I’m doing much better Ruby Mae!  How are you?  I haven’t seen you in a few days!”  I
had to admit that even Ruby Mae’s incessant prattle would be a whole lot better than
just sitting here all by myself!  “Would you happen to have the time to sit and chat
with me for awhile?  Maybe until Miss Alice comes up after Supper?  Or maybe you
haven’t eaten yet?”
   “No ma’am, I ate already!  Miss Alice told me to eat first so’s I could come up here
and set with you a spell.  She says your mighty lonely up here by yourself and that
maybe I could keep you company for while.”  Ruby Mae replied.
   “That would be wonderful Ruby Mae!  How have things been at school?  Is Rev.
Grantland a good teacher?”
   “He’s alright, I guess.  But he don’t smell as pretty as you do!  He wants us to
stick to the subjects always.  He don’t let us take none of them ‘rabbit trails’ that
we do once in a while, like when you’re a teachin’ History and you’ll all of a sudden
start telling us a story about something that happened to someone that you know about
from that time.  I always like that!  But the Reverend, he don’t allow for none a that!
Everybody misses yah Miz Christy!”
   “You can tell everyone tomorrow that I miss them too and that I will be back on
Monday.  Dr. MacNeill said I could go back to teaching on Monday.  I can hardly wait to
go back to school!!  I miss everyone so much!  How are the O’Teale’s?  And the
Spencer’s?  And the Holcombe’s?  And McHone’s?  And everyone else?  Tell me about
everyone!”
   Ruby Mae proceeded to inform me on the health of everyone in the cove as well as the
latest gossip about everyone!  Although I didn’t really let her tell me ‘gossip’ so to
speak, but she did tell me all the news about everyone.  The Holcombe’s were going to
have another baby.  Iris McHone was sitting up on her own now.  Mountie O’Teale was not
doing so well since I had been gone.  And so on!!  If you ever wanted to know the
latest scuttlebutt in the cove, just ask Ruby Mae Morrison!!  But I was enjoying every
minute of it!!  I felt as if I had been in bed for weeks, but in reality it had only
been four days!!  
   Soon Miss Alice was knocking on the door.  Ruby Mae gathered up my tray and supper
dishes and took them down to the kitchen.  
   “Well, Miss Huddleston!  Are thee ready for a story now?”  Miss Alice asked.  As she
pulled a chair up beside my bed.
   “Yes!!  I’m more than ready!!  I can hardly wait to hear it!!”  I wanted to jump up
and down in the bed, but I restrained myself.
   “It seems that Neil MacNeill, ancestor of the Doctor, born in oh, something like
1720, lived in a castle on the Island of Barra, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.  The
nearest town, I’m told, was a tiny port called Cambeltown.  That year of 1745 this Neil
had been visiting cousins and friends in New York and Philadelphia, then had gone on to
Wilmington, North Carolina, and Cape Fear.  He was over here to feel out a business
venture.  He and a friend named Baliol of the Island of Jura had gotten the idea of
forming some sort of land-holding syndicate in the New World. 
   “But while they were away, hard times fell on the Highlands:  that summer Prince
Charles Edward, great-great-grandson of Mary, Queen of Scots, had determined to try to
win back the throne of England and Scotland for the Stewarts.  He’d hired a French
frigate and landed on the Island of Eriskay.  To the highlanders, he was the “Bonnie
Prince”:  twenty-four, tall, handsome, curly hair almost gold at the ends, large brown
eyes.  It was said that he could charm anyone out of all conscience.  
   “There are numbers of songs about him sung by the mountain people to this day. I
heard Sam Houston singing one of them in a thin piping voice just last week when I
returned some candle molds to his mother:
                ‘Come o’er the stream, Charlie,
                        Dear Charlie, brave Charlie,
                Come o’er the stream, Charlie,
                        And dine with McLean.
                And though you be weary
                        We’ll make your heart cheery,
                And welcome our Charlie,
                        And his royal train.’

   “But ‘dear Charlie, brave Charlie’s’ coup had failed.  The promised French help
never came.  Many of the clans never did rise to the support of Charles Edward, and the
highlanders were defeated by the English in the bloody massacre of Culloden Moor in
April, 1746.
   “Well, when Neil MacNeill returned to Scotland in November of 1746, somehow he still
had not heard about the disaster at Culloden, nor did he know the situation he was
heading into in the Highlands.  Communication was slow in those days.
   “Details of that homecoming have been handed down in the Doctor’s family:  How Neil
strode over the ancient bridge across the moat to his beloved castle Kisimul, pausing
to look back at the tossing sea and the wild headlands that he loved.  Every detail of
his ancestral home was just as he had remembered it.  There were the desolate peat bogs
where the peewit cried, the wine-red hills beyond.  There were the Hebridean “black
houses” of his people.  Thatched roofs weighed down with stones.  There was the odor of
burning peat and the smell of the inescapable fish industry.  And inside the damp stone
castle, there was still the dee