The Girl in His Shadow by Audrey Blake

Author:Audrey Blake [Blake, Audrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781728228730
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-05-03T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Daniel tried to keep his mind on volume two of Bourgery and Jacob’s Anatomy, but the wind outside shook the house as he had never felt before. Angry gusts tore across the rooftops as if frantically searching for the rain that refused to fall from the low ceiling of black clouds. The battle between winter and spring was fierce this year. Daniel picked up his scalpel and practiced steadying it against the back of his left hand as the colored plate demonstrated, but his awkward hold looked nothing like the suave illustration. Perhaps if his hands were not so chapped. He’d have to ask Nora for some salve. She knew how to make it so it smelled like fresh greens and not fussy perfumes.

She’d taken to her room early, so Daniel had the library to himself. He tried to use the rare hours alone to study delicate medical issues that he could not bring himself to peruse when she was present. No matter how glibly Horace spoke of labial cysts and lesions from the clap, Daniel could not bear to see Nora exposed to such conversation. In medical school it had taken him months before he stopped squirming during female dissections, and though he hid it by his brisk and bored manner, his heart still seized uncomfortably when he had to examine sensitive areas of either sex. He hated to be the one to strip a patient of what little dignity they had left.

The specimen jars Horace had left on top of the mantel rattled as the wind raked its way down the chimney and scattered ashes from the low fire. Daniel hurried to stomp out the sparks before they burned black circles onto the oak floor, and in all of his trampling almost missed the urgent knock on the front door. Making his way to the hall, he met Nora, her eyes wide.

“A patient?” she asked.

“Perhaps. Let’s hope it’s something easy like a fever.” Daniel did not relish giving up his warm library tonight.

He opened the door and at first glance found no one. It was a moment before he registered the man doubled over almost to the ground. The glow from the gaslight cast the front step into harsh shadows, but when the man raised his face, it was white and covered in dewy sweat.

“John Prescott!” Nora cried. “What happened?”

There was no time for introductions or for Daniel to ask how they knew each other. He stooped down and took the man’s arm, unsure where to touch until he knew the nature of the man’s injury. The way he clutched his gut, he looked like he’d been stabbed, but Daniel could see no blood in the darkness. “I’ve got you,” he murmured as he heaved the man’s cold arm around his shoulder.

The man trembled as he leaned on Daniel and shuffled inside. Nora steadied his back and helped steer him to the nearest sofa. The man would not unfold himself, but curled his knees and hands close around his middle.

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