About this story
If I teach through another term, the practice can keep its doors open and Dot can keep her nurse. You step into this one-chapter preview with Olivia Luttrell at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. Open the door, Marcus; we can decide the future after we have helped the person waiting. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
How it opens
Olivia and Marcus Luttrell had married for love and opened a small practice, but the corner house was full of unpaid bills, tired servants, and a baby called Dot.
If I teach through another term, the practice can keep its doors open and Dot can keep her nurse.
Marcus LuttrellYou are already fainting, Olivia; a doctor's wife cannot become his first patient by refusing rest.
Aunt Madge offered calm advice from her sickroom while Martha's appetite and the rent consumed Marcus's little capital.
Aunt MadgeThere are poor patients who trust Marcus, but no paying patient has yet trusted the new sign above the door.
Then we need patience, not panic, and perhaps one good case to teach the town his worth.