“Ah ha! You like women as long as they’re in their place and not in your hospital.”
“I believe you said that, not me.”
“You said that I wasn’t a ‘real’ doctor and couldn’t make rounds with you.”
“I said that I thought the Hospital Board wouldn’t accept you. You get their permission and I’ll show you all the bloody dressings you want to see.”
“Isn’t your father on the board?”
“I don’t control him any more now than I did when I was five—maybe less so.”
“I’m sure he’s just like you and doesn’t believe that women should be doctors.”
“As far as I remember, I haven’t made a statement as to my personal beliefs concerning women in medicine.”
Blair felt as if she were about to scream. “You’re talking in circles. What do you think about women in medicine?”
“I think that would depend on my patient. If I had a patient who said he’d rather die than be treated by a woman, I wouldn’t let a female doctor near the man. But if I had a I patient who begged me to find a lady physician, I guess I’d scour the earth if I had to.”
Blair could think of nothing else to say. So far, Leander had managed to turn around every word she’d said.
“That’s Houston’s dream house,” Leander said when the trolley car had passed, making an obvious attempt to change the subject. “If Houston didn’t have me, I think she’d have joined the line of women fighting for Taggert and that house of his.”
“I would like to see the inside,” Houston said in a faraway voice, then asked Lee to let her off at Wilson’s Mercantile.
When Houston had gone, Blair felt no need to even speak to Leander, and he didn’t seem to feel that it was necessary to make conversation, either. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him more questions about the hospital, but she didn’t want more of his clever little retorts.
He let her out at the Chandler Chronicle office and she stopped to talk to some of the people she’d known all her life, all of whom called her Blair-Houston because they couldn’t tell the twins apart. She hadn’t heard the name
in years and wondered how Houston felt about always being a part of a whole, never quite her own person.
She picked up her new medical journal at the newspaper office and started down Third Street on the wide wooden boardwalk toward Farrell’s Hardware, where she was to meet Houston and Leander.
Lee was there alone, leaning against the railing, the carriage drawn by that big black and white spotted horse of his nearby. There was no sign of Houston, and Blair thought of waiting in the shoe shop across the street until her sister showed up. But Lee saw her and shouted loud enough for the entire town to hear, “Planning to turn tail and run?”
Blair straightened her spine, crossed the dusty street and went to meet him.
He was grinning at her in a smirking way that made her wish she were a man and could challenge him to a duel.
“I don’t think that what you’re thinking is very ladylike. What would Mr. Gates say?”
“Nothing that he hasn’t already said to me, I’m sure.”
Lee’s expression changed instantly. “Houston told me he was being pretty rough on you. If there’s anything that I can do to help, let me know.”
For a moment, Blair was bewildered, both at his change in attitude and at his offer of help. She thought he despised her. Before she could speak, Houston appeared, her face flushed and distracted looking.
“I’m glad you showed up now because you just saved your sister from a fate worse than death. She was about to have to say something pleasant to me.”
“I beg your pardon,” Houston said.
Lee took her elbow and escorted her to the carriage. “I said that you’d better get home now so you can start getting ready for the governor’s reception tonight.”
He helped Houston into the carriage, then reached for Blair.
With a glance at her sister, Blair knew that she had to try again to show her what Leander was really like.
“No doubt you’re a believer in Dr. Clark’s theory concerning the overuse of a woman’s brain, too,” she said loudly.