Walking on Water by Matthew J. Metzger

Author:Matthew J. Metzger [Metzger, Matthew J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, LGBT, fantasy, mermaids, trans, magic, fairy tales, bisexual
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2017-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

“HAVE YOU EVER been married, Doktor?”

The question came about in the early morning. They were breaking their fast together on the balcony behind the kitchens, overlooking the frosty garden, and Janez interrupted the lecture upon the evils of mushrooms with a question he wasn’t sure why he was asking, nor why he’d never asked before. Yet, quite suddenly, he wished to know.

For Hauser, it occurred to Janez, must have had life before Janez did. He’d birthed both king and prince, though he was not yet fifty and looked far younger. His soft tones were from the mountains; his cheap grubbiness about his clothes spoke of a meagre upbringing, rather than any aristocracy, and in all of Janez’s years, he’d not once seen the good doctor with a respectable wig upon his scalp.

Who had he been before he became the doctor?

“Yes,” Hauser said and returned to his diatribe. “In the villages where I was reared, mushrooms were—”

“And where was that?”

Hauser huffed impatiently. “The borderlands, boy. But another mile and a half, and I’d have been serving another king entirely, and have brought a smarter prince than you into the world.”

Janez pulled a face at the mention of it.

“Now, there, mushrooms are rare—the cold, you see—and those that do grow—”

“So, where are your wife and family?”

A raw chuckle, almost a croak, escaped the doctor’s throat. “Wife and family? I think not.”

“But you said you’re married.”

“I was married. No longer.”

Janez paused. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not,” the doctor said.

“No?”

“No. I needed to pay passage to the capital, to begin my medical studies. Her father was a coachman. He would give no free ride to some upstart student with delusions of grandeur—but to his son-in-law, now, that was a very different matter.”

“So you married her for…a ride?”

“For several, if we include every meaning of the word.” The doctor chuckled darkly and shook his head. “She was as wild a wench as I was thickheaded. She needed a man to keep her growing belly respectable, and I was once very well thought of—don’t laugh so, you’ll choke—and fit the bill quite nicely. We wed and moved to the capital. She birthed a girl—supposedly mine, though I’ve never touched a woman such in my life—and once I had my place in the university and she her little apartment above the river, we parted ways without a word. For all I know, she is still there.”

“So—you didn’t love her?”

“I barely even liked her.”

Janez pushed his bacon about the plate, pondering it.

“Loving a wife is all well and good,” Hauser said, “but it is hardly necessary if the marriage is to serve a higher purpose.”

“And what higher purpose did yours serve?”

“It allowed me to attend at the university and become a surgeon,” he said evenly. “That ring, that signature to falsify a birth certificate, has saved a hundred lives or more by now. And quite likely it paved the way for a better life for the baby. A whore’s daughter is no existence, in the city or the country.”

“But she will be a doctor’s daughter.

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.