Janet Tronstad - Doctor Right

He didn’t know why he was surprised. But it seemed pretty cold to him that his nurse was trying to marry him off to someone he didn’t even know. Somehow, he had thought Maryann was interested in him. Well, it was nonsense, of course.

“I’m sure she won’t do,” Alex said with as much dignity as he could manage. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go write some prescriptions.”

He walked down to the exam room and closed the door.

He was finally interested in a woman, and she was trying to match him up with someone else. Of course, it was probably for the best. He was leaving in a few weeks anyway. And, just because he was interested in her, didn’t mean he had anything to offer someone like that.

Alaskan Bride Rush: Women are flocking to the Land of the Midnight Sun with marriage on their minds

Klondike Hero—Jillian Hart

July 2010

Treasure Creek Dad—Terri Reed

August 2010

Doctor Right—Janet Tronstad

September 2010

Yukon Cowboy—Debra Clopton

October 2010

Thanksgiving Groom—Brenda Minton

November 2010

The Lawman’s Christmas Wish—Linda Goodnight

December 2010

grew up on a farm in central Montana, spending many winter days reading books about the Old West and the gold rush days of Alaska. During college she got a chance to see the beauty of Alaska for herself when she worked a summer on Kodiak Island in a salmon factory, packing fish eggs for a Japanese firm. Because of those experiences, she is excited to be part of this series. Janet lives in Pasadena, California, where she writes full-time when not dreaming of other places.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

—Psalms 121:1–2

This book is dedicated to my friends in the Love Inspired Historical discussion group on Goodreads. We’ve taken many exotic trips together in our minds and I hope they’ll love this one to Alaska, too.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

If she opened the clinic door, Maryann Jenner knew a gust of cold wind would blow inside that would smell of wood smoke, mostly from the stovepipes jutting up from the row of flat and peaked roofs that lined the main road into Treasure Creek, Alaska. As much as she liked the scent, not all of the patients did, so she left the door closed and instead looked out the window at the rugged, green mountains that edged the backside of this small tourist town. She still couldn’t believe she was working in this postcard-perfect place.

For the first time in her twenty-six years, she was beginning to feel like she had a chance at the peaceful life she wanted. She’d been an unwilling participant in other people’s dramas—mostly her parent’s—since she was born. Now she was far enough away that she could love her mother and father without being dragged into the soap operas that were their respective, disconnected lives. As though to celebrate her new life, she’d landed the perfect job, working with the ever so perfect Dr. Alex Havens in this perfect little clinic in paradise.

“Oh, no,” she muttered to herself and took a quick glance over her shoulder to be sure the doctor was still in the back room examining six-year-old Johnny Short’s ear infection. She had a bad habit of actually believing what she conjured up in her day dreams when looking out that window. Treasure Creek was wonderful, of course, but the pediatrician could be, she had to admit, a bit demanding at times. And particular. And downright testy about some things. He’d even been dubbed The Ice Man by her predecessor. And, since Maryann was now his nurse, it was apparently her job to make his days run smoothly.

Ordinarily, that wasn’t much of a problem. She was good at maintaining order. Besides, the doctor might be an ice man around adults, but children seemed to love him, and since they were his patients, everything moved along fine in their small clinic. She and Alex had figured out how to work together.

But if the line of women marching up the slight hill toward them were the ones she thought they were, she was going to earn her salary today. The final thing he’d asked before hiring her last month was if she knew how to keep the fancy women away. She’d assured him she did, even though she was new in town and hadn’t known what—or who—he was talking about.

Today she knew. Several months ago, Now Woman magazine had run an article on the bachelor tour guides in Treasure Creek, and before Maryann arrived, women had started swarming up here in hot pursuit of husbands. The locals called them fancy women because they looked like exotic tropical birds when set against the sturdy, practical dress of the local people.

Maryann had never heard of the women attacking their target all together, though. Not like this. Alex was only a part-time guide with Alaska’s Treasures tour company, earning just one brief mention in the article.

Of course, he was completely single and unattached. But—oh, dear.

The door flew open before Maryann had time to retreat. The smell of perfume followed the women inside, along with a surprising number of the rather large mosquitoes Alaska is famous for. She wasn’t sure if it was the heavy floral scents that attracted these insects so late in the season, or if it was the red shine on the women’s lips and nails. Either way, the fact that the women didn’t complain about the bites they must be getting only proved how determined they were to be here.

“This is a pe-dia-tric clinic,” Maryann raised herself up to her full five-foot-seven-inches and announced in her strictest nurse voice. “Adult patients need to go down the street to Dr. Logan’s clinic.”

She’d worked on that voice in her nurse’s training, until it could silence a group of rowdy boys. It didn’t even stop the women from chattering long enough for them to really listen to her. Of course, part of that could be because they were reaching up to try and tame their windblown hair.

“I have full-coverage insurance, so any doctor will see me.” A showy blonde, with a dandelion head of bleached hair and the plumpest purple lips Maryann had ever seen, sat down in one of the few adult chairs in the waiting room and crossed her nylon-encased legs in a theatrical gesture. Then she looked at Maryann. “It was part of my last divorce settlement. The doctor can do any test he wants on me. My ex will cover it if the insurance doesn’t, so the doctor doesn’t need to worry about the bill being paid.”

“I just need a prescription refill,” a young waif-like woman whispered as she slipped into one of the nearby children’s chairs. She had long brown hair and a slight overbite. “Do you know if the doctor likes to walk on the beach in the moonlight? I adore the beach. Not the Alaskan beach, of course—it’s too rocky and cold—but, you know, the regular beach.”

The wind had ruffled the young woman and she nervously tried to pull her tangled hair into place.