any contact with Coralee, in a small town like Spring Hill there was no way to steer clear of her forever. He wasn’t ready to trust her, but he supposed hearing her side of the conflict with Samuel wouldn’t cause any harm.
All too soon, he approached Holbrook’s Apothecary. The old pane-glass door was now embellished with the shop’s name in gilded letters. As he pushed the door open, the familiar scent of herbs and soap filled his nose. Nostalgia washed over him. He missed the hours spent discussing remedies and diseases with William Holbrook. He had always admired the older man’s passion for healing.
Inside, the shelves that lined one long wall contained neat rows of the same bottles, tins and jars that he remembered. But the counter in front of the shelves now held a large copper scale and several small displays instead of Mr. Holbrook’s piles of paperwork. To his surprise, the small tables on the other side all sat empty. He hardly remembered a time when there hadn’t been at least one customer waiting for an order.
“Jake!”
He turned just as a dainty figure swathed in flowered muslin launched into his arms. Laughing at Cat’s exuberance, he swung her around before setting her back on her feet. It was good to see that her unconventional, passionate spirit hadn’t changed with the years.
“Coralee said you were back, Jake, but I wasn’t sure you’d have time to stop in. All that responsibility with Dr. Jay, you know,” Cat quipped with a wink. She glanced at the door behind the counter. “If you’re here to see Coralee, she’s working with some ingredients in the back. Peppermint, this time. It smells wonderful, unless it burns.” Cat’s pert nose wrinkled at the memory of the acrid smell and Jake grinned.
“It’s all just part of the job, Catrina, my girl.”
Cat shot him a good-natured smile and sudden seriousness settled over Jake. Life had been much simpler when they were growing up. Before Coralee had broken his heart, before he’d left Spring Hill, before Alan had died.
He shook off the gloomy thoughts of the past and looked around. The middle Holbrook sister wasn’t in the store as he expected her to be. “How’s Cecilia?”
“Oh, she’s fine,” Cat answered, waving one hand in her usual flippant way. “You know she was covering the school when Alan was sick and couldn’t teach?” Jake nodded. “The school board asked her to take over the position after he...” Her voice trailed off as she glanced at the workroom door again. Her brow furrowed and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth, looking as if she was hesitant to even mention Alan’s death. But she shook it off, smoothing her already perfect hair. “Anyway, Cecilia seems to love it. I think being in charge of an entire roomful of children sounds dreadful.” She shuddered dramatically, making Jake chuckle.
“I’m glad she’s doing well, even if her career makes you ill,” he teased.
Cat’s light laugh dispelled the somber mood. She pointed toward the office door. “You’d better go see her, Jake. She was hopping mad the other day after she talked to you.”
“What’s going on with Dr. Jay, Cat?” He had to know what his lifelong friends saw in his mentor.
Her hands clenched at the mention of the doctor’s name. “Oh, the man is a bother. He doesn’t like Coralee running Papa’s shop and he tells his patients not to come here. She’s working so hard to keep things going, but business is too slow these days.” She gestured to the empty tables. “I think Dr. Jay will come up with a way to get at her no matter what she does.”
Jake studied the closed workroom door thoughtfully. He trusted Cat, but he also trusted Samuel. “Cat, it’s been good to see you again. I’m going in. Come and check on me if you hear her throwing things.” He winked and squeezed her hand as he headed behind the counter. He paused with his knuckles raised to knock, took a deep breath and prepared to face Coralee.
* * *
Inside the workroom Coralee stood at one end of the large wooden table. Wiping her hands on the canvas apron covering her navy blue dress, she pushed back the strands of hair that always seemed to come loose. Jars of herbs, half-full beakers, a small metal scale and Papa’s marble mortar and pestle sat before her, evidence of an early morning full of work. She hoped she was close to figuring out which elements would create the right amount of pain relief with the fewest side effects. But this process wasn’t as easy as extracting the usual herbs like dogwood, ginger root, lavender or spearmint. Mixing elements to form a new compound had been Papa’s idea. After too many failures, Coralee was beginning to think a single herb had to be the answer.
A firm knock sounded on the door several times before she noticed. She shuffled her notes into a haphazard pile and covered the remnants of burned peppermint and yarrow with a cloth. When it came to making Papa’s shop a success again, she couldn’t be too careful. “Come in,” she called, trying to smooth her hair again.
When the door opened to reveal Jake, her breath caught for a moment. His chocolate-brown eyes made all thoughts of chemistry and herbs disappear. She couldn’t help admiring the width of his shoulders, broad chest and strong arms as he stood outlined in the doorway. Coralee flushed, realizing the direction of her thoughts. She had given up the right to notice Jake’s looks a long time ago.
“Good morning.” His deep voice was a bit cool. Not surprising, after her shameful behavior at the café the week before. In spite of her embarrassment, her traitorous heart started to beat faster as he stepped into the room. Closer to her.
Coralee forced herself to sound aloof to cover her unwanted reaction. “Good morning. I hope you haven’t come to spy on my work for Dr. Jay. I’m certain he would love to get his hands on anything he could use to undermine my business more.”
Jake stiffened at Coralee’s sharp words. “I came to speak to you about the problem you seem to have with Samuel.” His eyes flashed and Coralee realized baiting him might not have been the best response. “I don’t want working in the same town to be awkward, but you aren’t making it easy to get along. Samuel believes that medical professionals should be educated and governed. He doesn’t know anything about your experience, just that you aren’t certified.” Jake gave her a hard look to go along with the forceful words. “He might be a bit old-fashioned concerning his feelings about women in the field, but that’s all it is, Coralee. It’s not personal.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised that you would take his side. Do you have a problem with my level of experience, as well?” She turned sharply on her heel and marched to a glass-fronted cabinet full of clean jars and beakers. Her reactions weren’t smoothing things over at all, but she couldn’t seem to get her emotions in check. Alan, Jake, the failed experiments, Dr. Jay, declining business at the shop... It all swirled in her mind, making her tense and snappish.
With her back still turned, she heard Jake retreat to the doorway. “I’m sorry you think that of me.” His voice sounded tight and maybe a little wounded. “I’d hoped we could work together, in spite of our past. But I can see that you haven’t become any more reasonable than you were the night I told you about St. Louis.”
To her dismay, tears filled her eyes. She stood facing the cabinet, pretending to search for something. If she didn’t reply for long enough, maybe he would just leave.
It must have worked. A moment later she heard the door slam behind him.
For the next several days Coralee threw herself into her experiments. She spent hours bent over her table pressing tablets and brewing teas. Many of the tinctures she had mixed weeks before were ready for a few of her patients to test. In spite of
