“Oh! The lady doctor! How fascinating!” he said as he hobbled forward with an outstretched hand. Grace nearly shook it before he pulled back and with an expression of shock, bent his head. “Pardon me, my lady. I forgot that, well, it’s just that, I don’t meet many proper, society types.”
James watched as Grace bent down slightly and reaching for Virgil’s hand, she shook it as she pulled him back up.
“Please do not stand on any formalities with me, Mr.?”
“Virgil. Just Virgil.”
“Oh, well, just Virgil, I promise I’m not at all like what you’ve heard about society ladies. Unless you’ve heard that we’re all brilliant.”
Virgil laughed at the teasing, as did Grace while James rolled his eyes. Wonderful, he thought sarcastically. These two were going to get on swimmingly.
“Miss Sharpe, like I was saying, I’ve a very busy morning—”
“Which is why I’m here,” she said, with a firm nod at him, before turning back to Virgil. “Would you be so kind as toshow me around so that Dr. Hall can ready himself for his first patient?”
“Yes, my lady!”
“You may call me Grace. After all, I know your first name and we are to be colleagues.”
Virgil actually blushed at her statement and James couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the flattery. She really could be rather manipulative when she wanted to be.
“Very well, Miss Grace!” Virgil said, turning as he limped toward one of the display cabinets. “Come, come.”
James’s mouth was pressed into a hard line as he turned his back on the two, seething for reasons he didn’t understand. Why should Virgil be able to say her first name? And didn’t she realize how ridiculous it was to call him a colleague?
A sensible voice in the back of his mind called out, telling him not to behave so boorishly, but he seemed unable to stop himself. Grace was charming and bubbly, far more so than James had ever witnessed her to be during social situations. When they were within her aunt’s home, Grace was reserved and somewhat quiet, but she would transform when the topic of medicine was brought up. He had noticed it immediately and had smugly enjoyed being one of only a few people who could cause her eyes to light up as they did when the topic was touched upon.
Of course, that wasn’t the only time she was talkative. She had also been quite chatty when her brothers-in-law, Graham and Logan, were around. And even during their trip to the rookery, she had appeared far more attentive to their patients than with James.
He should like to ask her why she was so much more welcoming with others at some point, but as the tiny bell above the door sounded again, all his curiosities about Grace were pushed out of his mind.
Chief Constable Murphy was a stout, older man with a round face and very little hair, that encircled the bottom half of his skull. He was a serious man who rarely laughed, but one who was even tempered and dedicated to his job.
Removing his top hat as he entered, James waited, watching as the man noticed not only Virgil but Grace, who both came out from behind the display case.
“Virgil,” Constable Murphy said, though he kept his curious gaze on Grace. “And who might this young lady be?”
“Miss Grace Sharpe, sir,” she said with a curtsy, which seemed to chafe the constable. “I’m a student of Dr. Hall’s.”
James took a step forward, disliking the term.
“Ah, I’m afraid student is an unfair word. Miss Sharpe had been studying medicine for over a year now with my mentor, Dr. Barkley in Glencoe.”
“I see,” the constable said, though he appeared unsure. “A lady doctor?”
James gave him a tight smile, annoyed at how often he was likely to hear the term lady doctor over the next six months. Surely, people would eventually just call her Dr. Sharpe.
Wouldn’t they?
“Chief constable, if you would,” James said, heading toward his office. “We can speak in private in my office.”
“Ah, yes,” he said with a short bow to Grace.
James waited for him to enter and closed the door behind him. Walking around the room, he sat at his desk as Murphy studied the brim of his hat. Curious that, as the constable was always more chatty than despondent.
Ever since joining the force as a police surgeon, James and the constable would meet twice a week to discuss certain cases. There were a handful of other doctors who worked for the police, albeit part time, to keep their practices running, just as James was doing, but he was often the first to be called on when amurder had taken place, as the police were now attempting not to move evidence before notes were taken at the crime scene.
At present, the most pressing issue was the disappearance of several persons. It was happening all over the city, but more concentratedly in impoverished areas and unfortunately, the police seemed to believe that these missing people were out getting drunk or runaways, despite their families saying otherwise. But so was the attitude toward the disadvantaged these days. There was an unspoken belief that the poor were somehow morally bankrupt and more likely to become drunks or recluses who abandoned their families, but James had met more people across the classes than anyone he knew and he could state beyond a reasonable doubt that status had little to do with morality.
