She froze as if struck. “You agree with Adams?”
The pain in her voice unlocked his arms, and he held up ahand in supplication. “Partly. When caring for patients, everyone must be accountable. We must be sound and scientific.”
“And I’m neither?”
Even in the darkness of the enclosed coach, Nora saw Daniel roll his eyes. “Please don’t do this. I’m trying to have a fair discussion.”
“I’m not fair now, either?” It seemed much more unfair to take the enemy’s side with no warning. “I put up with your impossible relatives all evening. Your mother and aunt attacked me, pushing me to renounce medicine, after all my work, so I could keep their books!”
“Attack? I thought it a generous offer. And it doesn’t mean you have to accept.”
“What a relief,” Nora spat out sarcastically. She needed air, but hard darts of rain had begun smacking the side of the carriage, and she couldn’t open the window.
“I only mean that they meant it as a compliment,” Daniel said finally, rubbing the back of his neck.
Nora released a strangled scoff.
“Our world is so distant from theirs. They’re trying to find a way to reach you.” He glanced at the roof as the sound of the rain increased. “You’ve hardly made any effort to befriend them.”
Nora pressed her lips together. “Would you find it a compliment if they offered you the position? If they tried to ripyoufrom medicine? They want me to give up my own hospital.”
“Words, Nora.” He sighed. “You needn’t load them with such powder. They’re notrippinganything. They offered you a prestigious position that would help women.”
Something crept into his weary voice that sent jolts of warning through her stomach.
“Do you agree with them about that as well? That I should stop practicing?”
Daniel gave an evasive groan. “That’s an absurd question. And I don’t think we should discuss it now.”
She stared at her husband—a person she’d known when she woke up this morning. Tears dove onto her lashes, hovering at the edge of a cliff before plunging down her face.
He sighed again. “Of course I don’t want you to give up the clinic and hospital. We’ve all worked too hard. I only meant they were trying to honor you in their way. You’re not used to them.”
Indeed, she was not. And apparently, she wasn’t entirely used to Daniel. As her silence stretched thin, he continued.
“Someday, when we have children, you’ll need a way to channel your talents.”
She jerked her head up, panic spinning in her chest.Had Horace told?
Oblivious, Daniel went on, “A prestigious society would let you keep your influence even when you’re not practicing. It is just something to think over. For the future.”
He blurred into the periphery as she followed the raindrops twisting down the window and catching the orange fire of the streetlamps. She wanted Mrs. Phipps and Horace to be right about the pregnancy, but when she thought of abandoning her patients, her calling…
His hand landed on her leg, and she flinched. He stubbornly kept it in place despite her frown. “I never wanted to argue with you. You know I adore you.”
Her eyes flashed to him, dull question marks.
He pulled his hand slowly back into his lap.
“When we have children, my medical career will be over?” Nora’s voice tasted like lead.
He looked at her as if peering at a stranger.
She knew the feeling.
“How could you perform surgeries with infants at your feet?” It wasn’t an angry question. Only a baffled one.
Magdalena. She has a son.
