SECRET OF THE WOLF By Susan Krinard

She knew she’d have cause to doubt herself again. So would Quentin. But they would no longer be alone in fighting their battles. She need not be strong and sensible and responsible every moment of every day; Quentin could be those things for her.

As she would be for him.

“At least one matter is relatively straightforward,” she said, summoning up the breath to speak. “I have already considered that it would be best for the Haven’s residents to relocate to a place far from Silverado Springs, where we can start afresh. You said that your sister lives in New Mexico. We should be able to sell my uncle’s remaining land for a good price. Surely there is land to be bought and room to build in the Territory. I will have to talk to the others, but—”

“Does that mental machinery of yours ever cease its work?” he teased, kissing her on the nose. “Of course, my Valkyrie. I’ve passed through the Territory, once or twice. It’s a wild country, but there is still room for men and women to grow. We’ll find our place there.”

“You won’t mind sharing our lives with my patients?”

“Not at all. As long as we have a little time to ourselves.” He gave her a delightful sample of what he had in mind for their private times. Johanna found her thoughts turning with increasing persistence to her bed down the hall.

But she still had obligations. “I must say good-bye to May and Mrs. Ingram. And there’s your messenger—”

“Not quite yet. You didn’t answer my question.” He dropped to one knee again, and took her hand between his. “Will you marry me, Johanna?”

She felt the smile on her face growing and growing until it became a ridiculous grin. “It seems a perfectly rational thing to do.”

He jumped up, caught her about the waist and whirled her around and around with such a caterwauling that Mrs. Daugherty, Irene, Harper, Lewis, Oscar, May, and Mrs. Ingram came to watch in amazement.

Johanna only laughed. If she’d gone a little mad, it was a price she was willing to pay.

* * *

AUTHOR’S NOTES

Secret of the Wolf is a work of fiction. As an author, I love to explore intriguing story ideas that may or may not necessarily reflect my own personal beliefs or those of current specialists in a given field.

In Secret of the Wolf Johanna Schell is an early “psychiatrist” who used the relatively new science of hypnosis to help her patients. The modern concept of the trance state was made popular by Franz Anton Mesmer in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Mesmer advocated the concept of “animal magnetism.” The Marquis de Puysegur was the first to describe the three central features of hypnosis. But it was James Braid who, in 1843, coined the word “hypnosis,” and he wrote many papers on the subject as well as using forms of hypnotism in his medical practice. In 1845, James Esdaile performed his first operation under hypnosis, or “hypnoanesthesia.” However, as the nineteenth century progressed, hypnotism fell out of favor and most physicians considered its therapeutic use a stumbling block to acceptance by the medical community.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a French country physician, Ambroise-Auguste Liebault, began using the method to treat various illnesses in his rural patients. He wrote a book that was largely ignored, and it was not until a colleague, Hyppolyte Bernheim, paid him a visit in 1882 and adopted his methods that hypnosis was revived as a respectable therapeutic tool.

Johanna is ahead of her time in this respect, since she and her father continued to develop medical applications of hypnosis during a period when it was out of fashion.

Today, hypnosis is used to treat many kinds of disorders and remains a somewhat controversial type of therapy. More controversial, however, is the concept of “suppressed memory” and “Multiple Personality Disorder.” There are wildly divergent views on both subjects.

Some psychiatrists, psychologists, and specialists are advocates of the concept of “suppressed or recovered memory,” in which a person—usually a child—will “hide” a traumatic experience from the conscious mind. The theory is that such hidden memories may be uncovered through hypnosis and other forms of treatment. In Secret of the Wolf, Quentin possesses such memories. Some mental-health specialists believe that the act of uncovering these memories will help effect a cure. Others strongly believe that “recovered memories” are often implanted by the therapist, or are simply an amalgam of wishes, beliefs, and actual memories.

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