“Yes. Thank you, doctor.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, closing his bag and he made his way to the door.
Grace left first, and waited for him as the door closed.
“I didn’t mean to say that out loud,” she said. “I mean, I did, but I didn’t know she could get in trouble.”
“You’ll have to learn to keep your voice down,” James said as close to her ear as possible, ignoring the scent of sweet mint that seemed to cling to her. “These people are suspicious at best and hostile at their worst. An outbreak, even the suggestion of one, could see an entire family attacked or thrown out of their rooms.”
“That’s awful.”
“It’s a reality.”
“Is there something we can do? Someplace they can go?”
“I fear the only place they can go is worse than here.”
The misery in Grace’s face was telling, but it wasn’t something James had time for. There were at least ninety families that lived in the building and at least eighty required his attention.
“All right?”
“Yes,” she said, shakily at first, but then firmly. “Yes.”
“Good. Just remain quiet if you can. These people can be apprehensive.”
Grace nodded again as another woman, a Mrs. Hader, waved James over.
“Wot’s this?” she asked, staring at Grace. “A lady doctor?”
“Yes.”
“Madness that is,” she said, before crowding James. “Er, have you heard? Two more graves been dug up over near St. Mungo. They saying body snatchers be doing it, but I think something more sinister than that is going on.”
“Is that so, Mrs. Hader?” James said, glancing back at Grace.
She tucked her head to the side as if to question what she was speaking about, but James gave her a small shake of his head. If either of them asked Mrs. Hader to elaborate, they’d be stuck in her rooms for half an hour.
After setting a dislocated finger, they went to the next room.
“A woman doctor? Are you mad?”
And that was the third time out of eighty-eight other times that James was questioned about Grace. It had started to aggravate him after the tenth time, enraged him around the twentieth, and made him aware of how exasperating it must be to be questioned constantly around the fortieth time. By the sixtieth, he realized that even with this small glimpse, he wouldn’t ever actually understand how much Grace would have to put up with as a female in this profession.
Thankfully, Mrs. Muller had no such comment.
“’Bout time they start allowing us to be doctors.” The elderly woman elbowed Grace as James restocked her medical cabinet with bandages, salves, and the like. “Having been doing all the work all along.”
“I suppose,” Grace mumbled, an oddly charming blush touching her cheeks.
She really must have heard every opinion a dozen times over since she started studying with Dr. Barkley. James himself knew at least a dozen doctors who wouldn’t have stood for it and likely would have left the profession altogether if they were questioned as much as Grace already had been, and yet, still she was willing.
It was impressive. The tenacity of this woman with amber eyes made James thoughtful. After finishing up in the tenant building, they went next door to visit the barracks where they treated fourteen men with fevers, six with boils, and twenty-two who were suffering from various wasting diseases. One man actually lunged at Grace, who was quick to sidestep him, and then promptly scolded him for being a poor patient, much to the delight of the other soldiers. James had to restrain himself from grabbing the ill man, but he kept his composure and by the time he and Grace returned to the hackney, he was contemplative.
Why had he had such a visceral response toward her? Surely it was because she was the niece of someone who had been a patron of his since his youth, but a part of him wondered if that was completely true.
“You did well today. Better than I expected,” he said as the sun set across the city.
Grace’s tired eyes opened and she grinned, a genuine, exhausted grin. One he knew well, but seeing it on her made his heart begin to beat erratically.
