Wages of Sin by Harry Turtledove

Author:Harry Turtledove
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CAEZIK
Published: 2023-10-26T21:23:32+00:00

XI

“How are you feeling this morning?” Peter asked Walter Haywood as they got ready for breakfast.

“I’m getting better. You haven’t had to shake me awake in the morning for more than a week now, have you?” Walter said.

“I shouldn’t have to shake you awake at all. The bugger who bangs on doors would rouse the dead,” Peter replied.

Haywood went on as if he hadn’t spoken: “This bloody rash is going away, too.” He pulled up his shirt so Peter could see his torso. He told the truth, too; he wasn’t nearly so blotchy and bumpy as he had been when he first came down with whatever he’d caught. He also had a theory about that: “Must have been the grippe, or something like it.”

“You’re studying medicine and law at the same time?” Peter suggested. Walter made a face at him. If he was studying medicine, Peter didn’t think he was studying very hard. Well, he didn’t always study law very hard, either. But who came down with the grippe all by his lonesome? When you got the grippe, half the people you know commonly caught it at the same time.

Peter didn’t argue. He didn’t see the point, especially when doctors couldn’t do much about disease anyhow (Viola’s letters talked about how much that irked and frustrated her father). He didn’t want to imagine any other possibilities. Neither did Walter, no doubt. He buckled on his shoes and said, “Let’s go feed our faces.”

“Yes, let’s.” Walter nodded. “I’ve got an appetite. First time in a while, it feels like. I’ve got a couple of appetites, in fact. Been a while now since I lay down with a pretty girl.”

“Maybe you should wait till your bumps are all gone, or you won’t find a girl who wants to lie down with you,” Peter said.

“Maybe. Or maybe a few extra shillings on the nightstand will convince her I’m as handsome as I always was.” Haywood was one of those people dead sure money could make everything right. Peter had never lacked for it, but he’d also never had enough to give him an attitude like that. Then again, his roommate was also much more enamored of himself than he was. Walter didn’t have sisters or brothers to take him down a peg when he needed it.

At the refectory table, Walter shoveled in barley mush and greasy sausages as if afraid they’d outlaw food at a minute past noon. He hadn’t done that lately. He hadn’t ever really done it; he was one of the many who complained the food at Lincoln’s Inn didn’t measure up to what they got at home. Peter felt the same way, but ate it without grumbling. If they set food in front of him, he’d make it disappear. With Haywood now, he took gluttony as a good sign.

Along with several others, he gave a mock peroration before Master Heath. The legal scholar scribbled notes as each pupil spoke and critiqued each one after he finished. With Peter, he was short and to the point: “Everything is in its place.

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