Page 5 of A Devilish Element
“Eliza, truly? You’ve not been here five minutes. If you really must, then can it at least wait until after we’ve taken tea? It will be cold if we have to wait until you’ve attended your patient, and I’m sure Mrs Honeyfield can soldier on a little while.”
“Aye, milady. It’s kind of ya to think of us, Miss Wakefield. It’s much appreciated. Me John knowed about such stuff. It’s times like this I don’t half miss ’im.”
“Oh, you lost your husband recently?” Eliza asked, more eager to explore Cedarton’s still room now than she was to take tea, but when Jane waved her towards a chair, she nevertheless sat.
“Aye, a wee bit back, Miss. I should get back t’ kitchen now. Cooky’ll be havin’ conniptions over t’ feast his Lordship asked for. But I’ll be mighty grateful for that tooth remedy if you’ve time to mix it.” She winced again but followed it with a tight little smile before departing.
“Honestly, Eliza, your things aren’t even in your room and you’re already meddling,” Jane admonished as she poured. “I’ll tell you right now that I doubt Bell will let you through the door of the still room, so you might as well forget any thoughts of potion making. He’s very protective of his domain.”
“His?”
Jane nodded. “It’s not a mere still room he’s set up. He’s taken over three whole rooms on the ground floor and furnished them as a consulting room and surgery.”
“Is he setting up practice? I thought you said he was Linfield’s personal physician.”
“That’s right,” Jane confirmed. She thrust a plate of parkin at Eliza. Jane, herself, was already biting into a second square. “Though it confounds me as to why it’s necessary. Linfield’s the picture of health. You don’t mind that it’s parkin, do you? I’ve had a proper hankering for it of late, and the only other thing on offer is some marmalade that Linfield’s mother sent. It’s horridly bitter, but apparently Linfield loves it. I daren’t say that I’ve not the same love of it in case it gets back to the Countess.”
“Yes, probably best not to slight your mother-in-law’s marmalade afore you’ve met.”
She accepted the offered piece of parkin and tucked in.
“As for Bell,” Jane continued. “Well… I suppose I had better tell you now, that he’s no ordinary physician, before you go rattling on about his sort never sullying their hands. He’s very well respected, but rather eccentric. Mixes his own potions like an apothecary and he’s performed for the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields and studied at the Anatomy School in Oxford.”
“I see.” He didn’t sound much like any physician she’d had the pleasure of meeting, more like a—
“Don’t, don’t say it.”
Ginger exploded fiery on Eliza’s tongue. “—body thief.”
Jane sighed into her teacup. “Please don’t say that to his face. It’s not at all accurate.”
“I know,” Eliza thoughtfully chewed on her cake. “He dissects corpses. Resurrectionists only dig them up. Although, one has to wonder which is worse. Personally, I thought the role of the physician was to keep people alive.”
“You know as well as I that’s the whole point of… of chopping people up. Can we talk of something pleasanter? I hope when I go, I’m left peacefully in my grave, not relieved of my organs and pickled in a jar. The whole idea makes me feel nauseous.” She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth as if she might gag.
“You were always squeamish.” At school, Jane could be relied on to faint dead away at the sight of the merest scratch. Eliza was made of hardier stuff. Delivering babies required it, as did the recent forays into anatomy she’d made for herself, not that she was about to tell Jane of them. Her friend was already gulping tea as if her life depended on it.
“I’ll be scrupulously pleasant to your Doctor Bell, I promise—”
“I’m pleased to hear it.”
“—for how else will I get him to share all his tricks?”
Jane put her head in her hands. “You ought to have been born a man.” She sighed.
There was much Eliza could have said about that too, but Jane looked too pale to handle it. She’d seemed the picture of health when Eliza arrived, but on closer examination it was plain there were dark smudges beneath her eyes, and a pallor to her skin not manifested with powder. Eliza stretched across the table and squeezed her friend’s hand. “Tell me about Linfield. I can still hardly believe that you’re wed. How long have you known one another? It must have been a whirlwind match.”
When her friend remained silent, Eliza said, “I could tell you about the pistol ball I removed from a man’s leg.”
Jane raised her hand. “Stop. I will tell you everything you could ever want to know about Linfield, if you’ll only spare me your love of blood and guts.”
-2-
Jem
“Dear God, are you really going to let him assault you with those things?” James Whistler declared, watching with rapt fascination as Ludlow Bell extracted a coterie of leeches from a glass jar in which he had them stored and set them on a saucer.
Linfield, idly sprawled across the chaise Bell had procured from the attic a few days ago to serve as a consulting couch, turned his head, only to recoil from the plate of invertebrates. “I don’t see that I have much of a damned choice. Having been coerced into marrying the wench, I’m now expected to produce a brace of tailfruit.” He gulped and shot an imploring glance at Jem.
