He watched her mouth as she spoke. Watched the flick of her little pink tongue against her teeth. And then, after a moment, he remembered that he was meant to hear the words she’d said as well.
He shook himself and nodded, turning and grabbing the bottles with both hands before making a hasty retreat into the clinic itself.
As though entering the belly of the beast had ever been any sort of reprieve at all.
PART II
SUTURES
CHAPTER 5
Minus Sally, who was only at the clinic a few days a week, and Dr. Bethel, who was making house calls this morning, Mae found herself with a full accoutrement of help before breakfast had even been cleared away.
She had immediately sent Mr. Reed into a back room to organize inventory, thinking that perhaps hiding him was the safest route forward, at least until she came up with something better, and it was a good thing she had, for within moments of his sequester, Dinah, Rosalind, Ezra, the rabbi, and even Vix Beck arrived, all apparently intending to spend the day seeing to clinic business alongside Hannah and Thaddeus.
“Oh, no,” Mae said immediately upon spotting Vix and Dinah, arm in arm, cresting the doorway in her grandfather’s wake. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, good morrow to you, too, Casper,” Vix replied with a lift of her chin. “I’m here to grace you with my charm. You’re welcome.”
“Vix is always a help,” Dinah said, gazing up at the other woman with hero worship in her eyes, which won slightly different sounds of distress from both Mae and Hannah.
“She’s here to watch her mischief play out,” Hannah said with a little frown. “Aren’t you, Vix?”
“Of course I am,” Vix replied with a flash of her teeth. “Where is Roland?”
“Roland?” Dinah repeated, her big blue eyes going somehow wider as her voice went up an octave into an excitable squeak. “Is Mr. Reed here? Is Mr. Reed going to be working at the clinic?”
“Who?” came Ezra Barnett’s voice with a frown. “Who are you blustering over?”
Mae thought she might be getting a headache.
“The most beautiful man in London,” Dinah replied, blinking at Ezra. “You will see. You will see.”
“Oh,” said Ezra, looking wholly displeased with that answer. “Wonderful.”
Mae sighed. “An enforcer from Mr. Beck’s gambling hell. Here to provide a bit of aid should the trouble strike up again, after the vandalism the other night.”
“Oh,” said Ezra. “Well, I’m here for that, aren’t I?”
There was a moment of silence as the women turned and regarded him. Ezra Barnett: freshly turned all of twenty years old, fingers hooked in the button eyelets of his tweed jacket.
“You certainly are,” Mae said after a moment, sending Dinah into a fit of stifled giggles.
Ezra’s frown deepened. “I’ve brought some copies of the recent medical journals to go over with you when you have a moment,” he said, turning his back on Dinah to face Mae exclusively. “We are mentioned.”
“Are we?” Mae said with a little sigh. “Anything damning?”
“Not explicitly,” he answered with a shrug, “but they mention the Quakers four or five times in one of them. Seems that is a particular bother to someone out there. I imagine there might be something more colorful in the next copy ofTheLancet.”
“Isn’t there always?” Mae said with a grimace. “It is nothing more than a gossip circular with a particular focus.”
“Yes, well,” said Ezra with a shrug. “I’m starting to think that’s true of every newspaper.”
“Oh, that’shim,” Dinah breathed, gripping Ezra by the elbow and turning him toward the supply closet as Roland Reed emerged to grab another box of empty bottles ready to be filled and labeled. The sunlight caught like a halo in his hair, casting a ring of pink gold over the top of his head as his curls swung over his shoulders with the motion of leaning down to grab the next crate. “Mr. Reed,” she added unnecessarily, with a deep and indulgent sigh.
“Him?” said Ezra, shaking off her hand from his elbow. “The statue man?”
“Oh,” said Vix, her lips immediately curling into amusement. “Do mention the statue incident to him straight away when you introduce yourself, lad.”
