The King's Beast by Eliot Pattison

Author:Eliot Pattison [Pattison, Eliot]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781640093188
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 2019-12-27T00:00:00+00:00

At last they painstakingly hid the Lick’s treasures and a weary Franklin bid farewell, but only after making Ishmael and Duncan promise to be at Craven Street later that afternoon when he returned from meetings at Whitehall.

“You’ve been most generous with your time, Dr. Hewson,” Duncan said to their host, “but I wonder if I might beg a bit more.”

“Only if you join me for an early breakfast,” Hewson replied. “No hope of sleep this night. I have patients to call on, and I asked my housekeeper if she might cook up something with eggs and last night’s leftover ham.”

Duncan liked the man’s good-natured, modest intelligence and was impressed to learn that the physician was engaged in detailed research into the lymphatic glands. When Hewson learned that Duncan had studied at Edinburgh, he erupted with fresh questions about professors of mutual acquaintance, then eventually turned to the practice of medicine in the colonies.

“I am honored to say I have learned much from both the wise medical men of Edinburgh and the wise healers of the Iroquois,” Duncan declared, raising new wonder in Hewson’s tired eyes.

“I beg you, sir, prithee, you must speak to me of this! The miracles of the human body can be interpreted in so many ways. How wonderfully rare it would be to hear of how an entirely different world interprets them.”

The reaction brought a smile to Duncan’s face. “I confess that if I were suffering a battlefield wound I would much prefer to be under the care of an Iroquois healer than that of an army sawbones. But to explain in any meaningful way would take hours, which I fear neither of us have at present.”

“Then we must set a time to do so!” Hewson said, then paused. “But I have usurped our breakfast with my own questions and I believe you had a request of me.”

Ishmael, who had quietly consumed several servings of the delicious breakfast, put down his teacup and gazed pointedly at Duncan, who was not sure how to make his request. “As a medical man,” Duncan began, “I thought perhaps you might offer insight into—”

Ishmael would not let him finish. “My uncle is incarcerated at Bedlam,” he blurted out.

The lingering joy on Hewson’s face evaporated. “Then I am most sorry for your uncle,” he replied in a tight voice.

“I was hoping you might give us some insight into the working of the hospital,” Duncan ventured.

“Those who run Bethlem Hospital have the best of intentions,” Hewson offered flatly.

“But?” Duncan asked. “But they can’t resist the temptation to run it as a public entertainment?”

Hewson clamped his jaw, then sipped at his tea, weighing the unwelcome shift in their conversation. “The government encourages all the physicians of London to provide support for those unfortunate souls. I did attend some patients there, but after they passed away I never took on new ones. I stopped going.” He turned to Ishmael with a melancholy air. “What floor?”

“The top floor.”

Hewson’s face twisted in a grimace. “What wing?”

“East wing.”

The doctor hesitated over the news.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.