Ella sighed, "I ought to talk about it, instead of keeping everything bottled up inside. Alan's last letter said that the money was stretching farther than he had expected it would, and he can spend another year learning, instead of coming home already. He's in Vienna, which is probably the best place in the world to study medicine. He's wanted to go study there his whole life. He intended to go right out of medical school, except the War started, and he needed to serve there. He spent more than he saved during the War, mostly by buying medical supplies that the Army couldn't or wouldn't supply, so he couldn't afford to go right after the War. Then he married me, and we worked together to save up the money for him to go. I thought I was going to go with him, because the inheritance from my grandmother would have paid my way, but he intends that money to buy us a house of our own after he gets back."
Ella started washing the glassware, and Becca started drying.
"In Boston, we lived with Alan's partner, who is a widower, so I kept house for the two of them. With Alan gone, it wouldn't be proper for me to stay there, so Alan planned that I would stay with my aunt and uncle. I love Aunt Margaret dearly, but Uncle Marvin has very strict ideas of proper behavior for women, and I feel stifled if I stay with them more than a week. I actually stuck it out for two weeks before I decided to ride Ruth to California to stay with my parents. It was fun at first, just riding generally West until I reached someplace that needed my skills where I could earn supplies for the next leg. I got as far as Tucson before I signed on as a deputy Marshal along with Patches, Scarlet and Doctor Bill. When we came here for New Year's, I was not planning to go back to Tucson. I figured I would either find work in El Paso or spend money saved up from the deputying to buy a railroad ticket the rest of the way to California."