Excerpt
The Runaway Bride
New York City—December 1868
“Let me see if I understand you correctly.” Annalise glared at her father. “You want me to marry one of your Wall Street associates to protect you from financial ruin?”
“It isn’t just what I want, daughter,” Roylston Sinclair said solemnly. “It’s what I need. Without your help, the bank and its investments will perish. The famous Sinclair Banking Company will no longer exist.”
Although Annalise had always known her father was a risk taker, she never thought he could lose everything at once. “How could this happen?”
“I’d hoped not to have to tell you this, but I invested most of the bank’s funds in the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, and the bank doesn’t have a leg to stand on if the railroad does not get built. In another six months, if they are finished, we’ll be rich, but in the meantime, I need a way to provide security for my depositors. Marriage to the right man would make my associates less anxious about doing business with the Sinclair Banking Company since we will have another family’s power and money to depend on. If you insist on practicing medicine, I don’t know what they’ll do,” Sinclair said nervously wringing his hands.
“They’ll keep right on trusting you with their money. It’s what you do that matters, not me, and they know it’s only your money you risk.”
“You matter, Annie. It just isn’t proper, what you want to do. I mean, a woman—treating—men?”
He was finally getting to his objections. Her father always got himself out of financial trouble—if he really was ever in it. But, he never seemed to accept her need to be a doctor.
“Now, Father,” Annalise said in wry amusement at his fatherly outrage, “what do you think female doctors do, ogle naked men?”
He gasped. “Annalise, I’m shocked.”
“No, you’re not. You’re an old fraud. You just think you ought to be. Why did you let me go away to school if you never expected me to make use of my education?”
His eyes grew moist and distant. “Annie, you were inconsolable after the deaths of your mother and your brother. I couldn’t refuse you anything at the time.”
“And then Teddy Miller bet you I wouldn’t finish the first year. You could never refuse a bet, either.”
Roylston finally gave way to a grin. “You know me too well. And you showed him, didn’t you?”
“And you were so happy about winning ten thousand dollars that you let me stay another year to study surgery under Dr. Lindsey. Oh, Father, there probably aren’t fifteen women in the state of New York who’ve done what I have. I thought you’d be proud of me.”
“I am, but you’re a woman and a woman needs a husband. I understand, I really do and I’m proud of you. But no matter what you think, a woman cannot practice medicine.”
“Father,” she said softly, “you never truly understood Mama’s struggle to live. She hid it from you. But I watched her the and she died because she didn’t have proper medical care. Then Steven died because he had none at all. I need to do what I can to prevent this from ever happening again.”
Roylston clenched his fist. “Steven died because he was a soldier. He died an honorable death. And your mother’s illness could not be cured.”
“No,” she argued quietly, “he died because there was no one to care for him and although Mother could not be cured, her pain could have been lessened.”
“Perhaps.” Her father looked at her for a long silent moment. “Annalise, the truth is, no self-respecting man will marry a woman who fancies herself a doctor.”
Fancies herself? Annalise blanched. She’d gotten that from her teachers, the nurses in the infirmary, and even some of her patients and she still couldn’t help but be hurt by it. But she’d thought her father at least tried to understand. “Sweet Papa,” she said, reverting to her childhood name for her father, “I made a vow to heal the sick. I’m sorry, but I won’t give it up.”
Roylston Sinclair planted a sad look on his face. She knew what he was doing, for she’d seen him do it before. “I’m sorry, too, Annie. But no one will accept you.”
She could defend her case forever, but after having the doors to every top medical office in New York slammed in her face for the last three days, she knew her father was right about a woman not being accepted as a doctor. She also understood that Wall Street marriages were arranged. Because of her father’s wealth, or the perception of it, they’d forgive almost anything except her decision to heal the sick. If he truly needed her help, maybe she was in a position to give it and to bargain for what she wanted at the same time, if only for a short period, or at least until she had another plan.
“If you’ll give me a chance to practice medicine,” she finally said, “I’ll start looking. I’ll accept any man as a suitor who will accept me as a doctor.”
Her father gazed at her thoughtfully, then nodded. “Suppose you fail? Suppose you are never accepted?”
“I’ll know soon enough, won’t I.”
“All right,” he said slowly. “I’ll agree to that. You’ll begin your search by attending Teddy Miller’s New Year’s Eve ball. It’s a welcome home party for his son, Daniel.”
“Daniel?” she questioned, trying to put a face with the name. She knew his father, for not only was he a close friend of her father’s, but Mr. Miller was also affectionately known as the rogue of Wall Street.
“During the war, Daniel was appointed to a diplomatic post in France. Always thought Teddy had something to do with that. Anyway, Daniel’s been studying over there ever since.”
“I don’t remember him. Because of Mother’s health, I never did much socializing.”
Roylston sighed. “I know. But the New Year’s Eve ball is a good place to see and be seen. Go out and buy yourself a fancy gown and one of those French masques.”
“French masque?” she repeated. “Why?”
“Teddy always has to show off with grand parties, sporting the latest trends. He says this ball is his wife’s idea. I doubt that. The only thing Laura ever wanted was a house full of children and grandchildren. Don’t understand it myself, but these balls are the latest thing—one of those parties where nobody knows who anybody is until midnight. Still, it ought to please you. With the masque, you can look at the eligible bachelors without anyone knowing who you are and Daniel happens to be one to consider.”
Daniel’s eligibility was a not so subtle suggestion that Annalise ignored. “I’ll go on one condition. Promise me that you won’t tell anyone there who I am. If I’m going to look at prospective husbands, I want to do it anonymously.”
“All right. I agree.” Roylston rounded the table and came to stand beside her, placing his knuckles beneath her chin and tilting it up. “Ah, Annie, I’m not trying to be difficult. It isn’t really about the money. It is about your life. I know how much you have to offer a man, if you’d give yourself the opportunity. No matter what you may think, I just want your future to be secure and for you to be happy. I promised your mother.”
“I know you did,” she said, remembering the gentle, loving woman who thought a woman’s life should be dedicated to pleasing her husband. Now, it all made sense—her father calling her in to discuss business trouble, when he really just wanted to convince her to take a husband. In Annalise’s heart, she knew her father wanted only the best for her and was only trying to do what he thought her mother would have wanted. And she owed it to her mother to please her father if she could. “I’ll try.”
Exhausted and a bit disheartened, Annalise bade her father good night, left the dining table, and went up the stairs to her bedroom. She hadn’t expected her return to New York to be an occasion for celebration by the medical community but she also hadn’t expected to be turned down without having had the slightest chance to prove herself.
And now she had promised her father that if she were not successful soon, she’d choose a husband. Not only that, but in the meantime she had to consider the bachelors available. The only consolation lay in the fact that at least, for now, she only had to look.
