No Distance Too Far
No
Distance
Too Far
Books by
Lauraine Snelling
Golden Filly Collection One
*
Golden Filly Collection Two
*
Secret Refuge
(3 in 1)
DAKOTA TREASURES
Ruby • Pearl
Opal • Amethyst
DAUGHTERS OF BLESSING
A Promise for Ellie • Sophie’s Dilemma
A Touch of Grace • Rebecca’s Reward
HOME TO BLESSING
A Measure of Mercy
No Distance Too Far
RED RIVER OF THE NORTH
An Untamed Land
A New Day Rising
A Land to Call Home
The Reaper’s Song
Tender Mercies
Blessing in Disguise
RETURN TO RED RIVER
A Dream to Follow • Believing the Dream
More Than a Dream
* 5 books in each volume
HOME TO BLESSING •
Book Two
No
Distance
Too Far
LAURAINE
SNELLING
No Distance Too Far
Copyright © 2010
Lauraine Snelling
Cover design by Dan Pitts
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America
___________________________________________
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Snelling, Lauraine.
No distance too far / Lauraine Snelling.
p. cm. — (Home to blessing ; 2)
ISBN 978-0-7642-0753-2 (alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7642-0610-8 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-0-7642-0754-9 (large-print pbk.) 1. Women physicians—Fiction. 2. Indian reservations— Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.N39N6 2010
813'.54—dc22
2009050211
___________________________________________
No Distance Too Far
is dedicated to
our new other half of the family, the Hiltons from Ohio.
They made the Norsk Høstfest at Minot a delight for all of us.
I now have more grandchildren . . . ah, delight. If you can’t get
them naturally, you adopt them.
Isn’t God amazing in the way He provides for us?
LAURAINE SNELLING is an award-winning author of over 60 books, fiction and nonfiction for adults and young adults. Her books have sold over two million copies. Besides writing books and articles, she teaches at writers’ conferences across the country. She and her husband, Wayne, have two grown sons, a bassett named Chewy, and a cockatiel watch bird named Bidley. They make their home in California.
Contents
MARCH 1904
ATHENS, GEORGIA
T
he dream was a lie. She was in Georgia, not Blessing.
Staring out the window did nothing to calm the butterflies rampaging in her middle. Astrid tried swallowing—once, twice—no matter, they continued to spiral and cavort. She laid a hand on her diaphragm and closed her eyes.
Please, Lord, fill me with your calm
and peace.
A throat being cleared behind her caught her attention. She turned, swallowed again, and smiled. At least she hoped she smiled.
“Dean Highsmith will see you now.” The young man needed to loosen his collar. He appeared to be near to strangling.
“Thank you.”
“Come this way.” He motioned her to accompany him, opened a heavy carved door, and escorted her in. “Dr. Bjorklund to see you, sir.”
Stiff, regal, he might have been a herald to a king. Were they always this formal? Astrid gave the book-lined room a quick glance, her attention snapping back to a huge map of the continent of Africa on one wall. She skipped over that and focused on the silver-haired gentleman behind a handsome desk of some dark wood she did not recognize. He stood and came around the end of the desk, a hand held out in greeting.
“Welcome, Dr. Bjorklund. I am exceedingly glad and grateful you decided to join us.” He shook her hand, his washed-blue eyes staring directly into hers, as if seeking her soul. “Please, be seated and tell me about your journey.” He motioned her to a leather winged chair in front of a cheery fire. “Marlin, please bring us tea . . .” He paused. “Unless you would prefer coffee?” When Astrid shook her head, he finished, “And make sure Cook sends up some of her pecan cookies. They might be a special treat for this northerner we have with us.”
“Thank you, sir.” Astrid sat, grateful for both the happy snap of the fire and the heat. The guest room where she’d stayed the previous night had not been heated, and while the South was known for its warmth, today, with a damp wind blowing, it felt more like Chicago. It had been raining yesterday and earlier this morning, not exactly a welcome she’d have associated with the South. All the things she’d read about this part of the country included sunshine, heat, and humidity.
Dean Highsmith, gold glasses perched on the end of a rather aquiline nose, sat down in the chair opposite her, nodding and smiling. “I received your application with enthusiasm. Rev. Schuman is an old friend of mine, and he has been raving about you.” He paused for a moment. “I must say, you look amazingly young for a person of your accomplishments.”
“I understand that, and yes, my youth has caused some to doubt my ability.”
“I wonder why that is, that we do not expect a lovely young woman to be involved in the medical field. Stereotypes are sometimes difficult to overcome.” He propped his elbows on the arms of the chair and steepled his fingers. “Be that as it may, tell me about yourself. What brings you here and where do you dream of going?”
I dream of going back to Blessing,
she thought but knew that was not what he wanted to hear. “All of the story or a brief synopsis?”
A knock came at the door, and Marlin peeked in. “Cook will be sending up a tray as soon as it is ready.”
“Thank you.” Highsmith turned back to Astrid. “All of it.”
All of it. Where to start? “I grew up in a very small town in North Dakota, the daughter of Norwegian immigrants who homesteaded there. My mother is a gifted healer. She took care of all those that she could and developed quite a pharmacopeia of herbs and natural medicines, gaining her knowledge from the native people, her mother’s training, and a dependence on God to guide and continue her efforts.”
“She sounds like an admirable woman.”
“She is. Because I was interested in what she was doing, I sometimes accompanied her on calls, helped her forage and preserve her simples, as she called them, and learned by observation. My brother married a physician, and when he brought Dr. Elizabeth to Blessing, my mother stepped back so that people would go to a more formally or scientifically trained doctor and accept her into the community.” Astrid felt as though she were telling someone else’s story, as clinical as this was sounding.
“Through all this, I decided to become a nurse in order to assist Dr. Elizabeth with her practice. She began training me while I was still in high school. It was all such a natural thing. I have always been fascinated by God’s creation of the human body. How intricately and wonderfully made we are. While my goal was to go to Grand Forks to study nursing, Dr. Elizabeth’s goal was to train me so that I could go for further instruction at the hospital she trained at in Chicago, but as a doctor, not a nurse.
“After I graduated from the school in Blessing, a catastrophe of hoof-and-mouth disease wiped out all the cloven-footed animals, including the dairy herds that provided milk for my mother’s cheese house. I decided we couldn’t afford for me to leave for school right then, so I spent the next year in rigorous training with Dr. Elizabeth. She is a firm taskmaster, and we both loved all the textbook learning she put me through. As I said, I am in awe of the human body and loved every moment of the time spent learning and practicing. There is nothing more thrilling than helping a baby into this world.” Her voice caught on that line.
He smiled. “I’ve not had that privilege, but I can believe that with you.” Another knock sounded, and this time a white-aproned young woman brought in a tray with a silver tea service and plates of tarts and cookies.