He didn’t. She let out a torn wail and covered her mouth.
“When did his evacuations begin?” Daniel asked.
“Yesterday afternoon.”
He nodded, pressing his lips. Some patients died within hours. Perhaps Sam’s was a tamer version of the disease. He told her as much and repeated Harry’s instructions before backing out the door quickly as Harry repeatedly promised to check on her. They escaped the oppressive darkness of the tenement, back to the wet street.
Daniel concentrated on filling his lungs with the cool fall air, but Harry slumped onto the neighbor’s front stoop, leaning his head against the railing.
“Harry?” Daniel bent down, unable to keep the trace of panic from his voice.
“Took it out of me, is all.” Harry closed his eyes. “The smells and the noise, and I was certain he was going to drop down dead when he started hacking. And now…” He took a mournful breath. “The cholera really is here.”
Daniel frowned. “Do you feel faint? Headache?”
Harry shook his head in a way that didn’t convince Daniel at all. They’d need to change their clothes before they went into the house. John, the orderly, could bring what they needed to the stable. To be safe, these things should be burned.
But Harry looked too haggard for comfort. Daniel restrained his hand from feeling for a temperature. The gesturewas as likely to get him slugged as anything else. “You don’t look well.”
Harry stared ahead with unfocused eyes, the usual ruddiness of his cheeks gone. “Three nights I’ve been called out, and even when I could have slept, I…” He looked toward the intersection ahead, where a group of factory girls crossed the street, chattering on their way home.
“You aren’t sleeping?” Daniel pressed.
“Doesn’t matter.” Harry’s shoulders straightened and his face went blank and closed, a maddening habit he used for ending a conversation. Useless to pry when he wore this expression.
“I’ll take your calls tonight,” Daniel offered. “Nora can help, too. You can send some to the clinic.”
Harry shifted his bag to his other hand and shook his head. “Nora’s expecting. Even if she weren’t, she can’t wrestle wild patients like Sam.”
No, she couldn’t. Daniel slumped onto the step beside Harry.
“When she can’t work, we’ll be underwater,” Harry lamented.
We are already.
Daniel turned his head away. “If it were up to her, she’d never stop. She’s angry at me for signing Adams’s petition.”
“It was idiotic,” Harry confirmed.
A sigh ran from Daniel’s lips and joined the passing breeze. “I’m trying to spare her a firing squad of angry doctors.”
“You put yourself in her line of fire instead,” Harry pointed out, accurately. “And it’s all about to get worse.”
Daniel cocked his head. Harry was too tired or discouraged to even open his eyes.
“TheSpectatorhad an article today.”
Daniel stiffened. Why hadn’t he taken the time to scan the papers today?
“A woman claiming to be a midwife in Surrey was arrested for murder.” Harry rolled his head toward Daniel and opened his worried eyes. “She apparently made a mess of it, and the mother and child both died.”
“What do you mean, claiming to be a midwife?” Daniel pressed.
“She knew nothing about it. Wasn’t trained at all. Doubt she’d ever seen between a woman’s legs. Thought it would be a quick pound, perhaps.” The iron bar of the railing indented Harry’s whiskered cheek.
“Dammit,” Daniel spat out. It strengthened his argument in the fight with Nora, but he didn’t enjoy the victory, not when it bolstered Adams’s cause. He turned back to Harry’s absent gaze. His friend was miles away.
Harry shook his head. “I can’t tell up from down anymore. But the Surrey case—it’s a tragedy. Perhaps I was wrong and I should sign the petition, too.”
