“Are you talking about regulation or restriction?” Daniel asked. He had another surgery waiting. He should have been back before now, and his bladder was protesting that it, too, needed attention.
“Aren’t they one and the same?” Adams asked.
Daniel shook his head. “No. And you’re proposing a completely unworkable solution. What will you do? Prosecute women who have their children at home? Prosecute their mother or sister for helping them?”
“Hardly.” Adams somehow managed to straighten his already impeccable posture. “But we can make it clear to the public there is no such thing as a qualified, professional midwife. If the women would only come here where there is an abundance of doctors and surgeons, then—”
“They won’t come,” Daniel countered. “They’re afraid of the hospital. Many more die here.”
“They die here because they come as a last resort after a meddling woman with no medical knowledge has done permanent damage.”
“That’s not true.” Daniel kept his voice even. “And your protest needn’t be so extreme. Many experienced midwives—”
“Help us modify it, then. We must be united as licensed professionals. And when Vickery’s article comes out in theProvincial—”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “What’s Vickery saying now?”
“He and several physicians are countering your wife’sposition—ironic play on words, isn’t it?—on childbirth and the education of midwives in this field. Cordially, of course.”
Daniel closed his eyes for a long blink, savoring the darkness and the break from Adams’s meticulously groomed face. First a petition, now opposing articles and papers. “He needn’t witch hunt my wife. She merely reported on the results of an unusual labor.”
“It certainly was,” Adams agreed solemnly. “A wealthy woman who gave birth like an animal in the woods, under your wife’s supervision.”
“What would you have done, Adams?” Daniel crossed his arms, hoping to hide the thumping in his chest. “If your patient dropped to the floor as the child crowned? Would you have forced her up? Would you even be able to? The laboring woman was larger than my wife.”
“Precisely.” Adams searched Daniel with a bottomless gaze. “She hadn’t the strength or ability. But ifyouorIhad been there…”
The possibility hovered in the air, as heavy as the grim clouds darkening the window. Daniel shook his head. “Mother and child are safe. Let it be, Adams. I have no desire to brawl with you.”
Adams tipped his head in courteous acknowledgment of the compliment. “And I respect you. Enough to give you advance warning that opposition is rekindling against Mrs. Gibson.” He brandished the paper again. “Mr. Roland is disgusted over the rumors that the article is about his wife, you know. Your name on the list will appease him.”
Daniel frowned. Mrs. Roland’s husband was a wealthy man. An influential one known for his caustic temper. He’d make a terrible enemy.
“I haven’t even read the thing.” Daniel dried his hands with unnecessary violence.
“It’s all here.” Adams pushed it so close the thing was impossible to ignore.
With a sigh, Daniel read the rambling introduction. He begrudgingly agreed with the language—the consistency of standards, the licensing of those who collected fees for medical procedures. “Be practical,” he said with a shake of his head. “Under these conditions, most of our students couldn’t attend a birth. Some doctors as well.”
Adams lowered his eyebrows. “Nonsense. Any doctor or student well versed in anatomy—”
“The standards should apply to all—not just midwives.” Daniel tipped his head back, stretching the painful muscles in his neck as he squeezed his shoulder blades together.
“We need to start somewhere.” Adams studied him carefully. “Your wife is once again defying the profession she petitioned so hard to join. It won’t end well for her, Gibson.”
“Are you threatening my wife?” Daniel tilted his head, eyebrow lifting.
“Not at all. I’m merely warning you out of respect. Right now, I haven’t spoken with a single doctor opposed to this petition except her. She’ll be excoriated if this keeps on. But if you add your name…I’m giving you a chance to do something to prevent it.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Whose name do you really want? Mine or hers?”
Adams laughed. “Well, they’re the same, surely. Either way, you’ll be setting the example.”
Dammit.“I want Nora left alone,” Daniel said. “No more articles or rumors.”
“Of course.” Adams offered his fountain pen.
Daniel gripped the metal cylinder and scrawled a hasty, crooked signature. Nearly unrecognizable. Let these idiots think whatever they wished, as long as they stopped harassing Nora. “There.” He thrust the paper and pen back at Adams. “I agree no one should impersonate a doctor or undertake procedures for which they are not trained.”
