Page 106 of Seduced by an Irresistible Lady
Anchored to thoughts of Lord Jeffrey came Miss Helena’s image. He had almost taken her at the party if not for Lord Jeffrey’s timely interruption.
I should move away from her completely. She isn’t mine to take.
There was a pushing tension in his breeches. His member had arisen in response to his sensual thoughts.
The body is willing, but the mind is not, not anymore.
Miss Helena had caused him enough hurt. Dr Frederick steered his thoughts back to his work. If he could manage to make further progress in his work, he would take it to the English Council of Physicians and the Centre for Medical Research. If his work was deemed groundbreaking enough, he would be given an audience with the King on whom the prerogative lay to provide funding for further research.
Dr Frederick smiled. There was a tingle in his belly. His work might be about to be properly rewarded. He could even be knighted.
“Arrgh, the allure of a grand future,” Dr Frederick exclaimed, exasperated by his unnecessarily forward mind.
He was already thinking too far ahead. He had to get the project ratified by the English Council of Physicians first if he was going to get permission to use on humans. Without their permission, using it on anyone could cost him his medical licence.
Would, would cost me my medical licence.
But why would he do that? He wasn’t so stupid.
Chapter 23
Why Did I Look Out That Window?
Aren’t I just being stupid?
Dr Frederick shook his head. He could still stop this madness. He was about to test research that was not ratified.
How stupid could you be to test something that had never been tried on anyone else on the Duke of Beaufort? As stupid as I am, obviously.
Dr Frederick didn’t see any other option, though. If he didn’t do this, the man would die, surely. He was only a few breaths from doing so.
“Is there any problem, Dr Frederick? Please do it, he seems to have stopped breathing. Do not let him die,” Duchess Mona cried.
Dr Frederick picked up the syringe and unsheathed the needle. The Duchess was distraught, and it was getting to him. But he could understand. She also saw that her husband was dying. Another thing that could also die was his research and profession. If he did this and the results prove to be unexpected, in a wrong way, the woman and her son might come for his head.
Lord Jeffrey would have more than enough motivation to do that.
Dr Frederick remembered the morning. He could never have imagined that he would find himself in this situation.
When Dr Frederick had woken up that morning, he thought about the set out plan for the day, and he couldn’t stop smiling. It was more than a week now since they had run the first test on the rhesus monkey. Now they had used all the monkeys and had gotten sterling results.
Dr Frederick had gotten up from his bed and walked to the window. The sun was just rising and formed a yellow semicircle in the background of a landscape that one would struggle to define as breathtaking. The land had no major topography as it was flat in some portions and others had small ditches and short hills. What would have been an expansive portion of land with grass and a sprinkling of trees was now excessively punctuated with houses and shanties. Dr Frederick shook his head.
It’s better to think about my research than the beauty in this view. There isn’t any.
He had managed to reconstruct the heart of the second monkey after it died of poisoning. Yesterday, he copied that to the third one, although to a less extent, to ensure its survival, and observed the effects. Blood flow in the heart of the monkey reduced drastically and arrhythmia set in. Dr Frederick waited till it was about dying.
“You can do it any second now, sir,” Mister Frank had said with his eyes telling his boss to do it immediately.
After a short while during which Dr Frederick only stared at the monkey, Mister Frank spoke again, his voice strained with naked angst.
“You might want to do this right away. The animal will take its last breath about this time.”
Dr Frederick didn’t respond. He waited some more. He waited till there was no observable rise in the animal’s chest, till it had just taken its last breath before he quickly pierced its naked heart with his injection needle and infused the hormone into it. The reaction was instant. The heart beat again, faster and harder than it had since he had opened it. And the force of the beat almost forced a normal beat, although Dr Frederick could see that the shunt he placed in its aorta still held. The animal still died, but it had fulfilled a purpose.
That was yesterday. This morning after his reflections on the poor view of his bedroom window, he had his bath and ate quickly.
“Frank,” Dr Frederick called.
