Death Devil's Bridge by Robin Paige

Author:Robin Paige
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-04-04T16:51:15+00:00

16

Here’s the devil to pay.

—SAMUEL RICHARDSON

Clarissa, 1785

Without speaking, Charles followed Dr. Bassett through the lamp-lit consulting room and into the tiny surgery, more brightly illuminated by hissing gas wall sconces. Albrecht was stretched, gray-faced and motionless, on the examining table, his jacket and shirt pulled open. The room was already crowded: Edward Laken stood stonily at the foot of the table; beside him stood another, younger man, with a pale face and staring eyes and an air of suppressed excitement. A gray-haired, motherly woman with a cloth and a basin was washing Albrecht’s bloodied chest. Charles looked once at the gaping wound, winced, and turned his face away. Just above the wound was a massive bruise. He had known it would be ugly, but not as ugly as this. From the look of it, the tiller had impacted the driver’s chest and snapped. The shaft had pierced the rib cage.

“Hullo, Ned,” the doctor said to Laken, hastily stripping off his coat. He glanced at the other man. “What the devil are you doing here, Jessup? Hot water, please, Hester,” he said to the woman. “And my surgical instruments.” He began to roll up his sleeves.

“Jessup discovered the victim,” Laken said evenly, “in the ravine beneath Devil’s Bridge.”

“The wreckage did not burn?” Charles put in.

“No, surprisingly enough.”

“And fortunate,” the doctor said, looking down at the man on the table. “Looks like the tiller ran him through.”

Laken nodded. “I was summoned, and the two of us brought Albrecht here. I thought Jessup might stay with me until I had the leisure to question him as to the circumstances of his discovery.”

“ ’Twas Lord Bradford’s motor the man was drivin’!” Jessup seemed to be near bursting with an inward excitement. “Same as the one that—” He stopped and swallowed, and his eyes, bright with a kind of triumph, went rapidly from Laken to the doctor, and back to the man on the table.

“Same as the one that didn’t kill your father?” Bassett laughed, a harsh, grating laugh. “The devil of a coincidence, wouldn’t you say, Laken? The car rumored to have frightened Old Jessup to death is discovered wrecked by Young Jessup. One might almost think there was an invisible hand at work in the affair.” He bent over and put his ear to Albrecht’s chest and listened intently for a moment. “I doubt that there’s anything to be done to save the man,” he said, straightening. “But I must try.”

As if in response, Albrecht gave a deep, despairing groan, and the doctor turned to put a hand on his shoulder. “Steady there, old chap,” he said, in a comforting voice. “I’ll be with you in a moment, and we’ll see about easing your pain.” He looked up. “Take Jessup out of here, will you, Ned? Charles, if you try, you might be able to get something out of our patient. Hester!” He started out of the room. “Hester!”

“How did it happen, Ned?” Charles asked.

“The road leading down to the bridge is steep and treacherous,” Laken said.

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