He held them out in front of him and clicked them together like kitchen tongs, blinking rapidly. “We do not have these in my local infirmary,” he announced, sniffing. “What manner of quackery are they for?”
Mae took a steadying breath and closed her eyes, inhaling deeply through her nose.
“Childbirth, sir,” Rosalind answered for her, blinking her wide hazel eyes with enough innocence that the man immediately dropped the forceps in apparent horror, letting them clatter to the unswept ground. “Oh, bother,” Rosalind said, watching them fall.
“Where is Dr. Casper?” the inspector demanded, taking a delicate step back from the forceps lying harmlessly on the ground. “Is he performing … is he doing … is he …”
“We have a midwife,” Mae told him as her grandfather reacted to the sound of his name and started making his way across thecentral room from his perch near the entrance. “She is here on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. You have met her, Mr. Evans. Twice.”
“Am I needed?” Dr. Casper asked, placing a knobby hand on Mae’s shoulder and looking from the auditor to the inspector with a raise of his bushy white brows. “Who’s been throwing around the surgical equipment?”
The inspector turned to him as though he had come to offer rescue in a stormy sea. “Ah, Dr. Casper. Finally, someone to answer me plainly,” he said with a sigh. “Your granddaughter is … erm, a capable assistant, I am certain,” he said, flicking his eyes quickly to Mae and back again. “But I am relieved to hear that you have hired on two new physicians to assist with your works. May I meet them?”
“I still need to speak to Miss Lazarus!” the auditor exclaimed.
Mae spun on the ball of her foot toward the auditor with her eyes wide. “You can find her at the Flaming Fox in St. James,” she said in a low whisper. “She will be there tonight until midnight. She has an office in the back. Go now and you might even catch her before her very large husband arrives for the evening and demands to know why you’re questioning his wife.”
“M-Mr. Beck,” the auditor stammered, glancing back down at his document. “Thaddeus Beck? The … he is also …”
“Yes,” said Mae, flashing her teeth at him. “He should be on your documents too. If you wish to meet them here, I suggest you send advance warning next time so that we may arrange for everyone to be present, as is typically polite in these situations.”
“I will not be spoken to this way by a … by a …” he said, looking Mae head to toe.
“A woman?” Rosalind guessed, tilting her ringlet-haloed head to the side.
“A subordinate who barely stands to my elbow!” he shot back, eyes gone wide and wild.
Mae paused, momentarily too stunned to react.
Of all the bigotries he might have come out with in a moment of confronted candor, a disdain for her unimpressive height had not even registered on her list of guesses. She looked down at her feet and back up at the man, blinking a few times, and then knelt down to retrieve the forceps, at a loss for anything else to do in the moment.
“Ah, Mr. Evans! I was not expecting to see you again so soon!” came a cheery voice from the stairs as they were joined by yet another participant in this morning’s melee. “Surely this isn’t yet another surprise inspection. Ah, and you’ve brought a friend!”
Mae turned with a resigned sort of gratitude to their newest resident volunteer, a young man whose auburn head shone like a beacon as he approached an immediately wary inspector and his auditor. He held out his hand, flashing a wide smile. “Pleasure. I’m Ezra Barnett.”
“Ah,” said the auditor. “The new doctor? The Jewish one?”
“Jewish,” he agreed with a raise of his brows, “but not a doctor. I’m a newspaper man myself. I must say, I’m finding all these back-to-back inspections quite fascinating.”
“We all are,” Mae echoed, dry as dead grass as she examined the forceps for dents.
“Tell me, are all the charity clinics in London getting the same attention?” Ezra pressed, leaning against the nearest wall andcrossing his arms over his chest. “Or is it just this one on account of our resident Miss Manners? That was my doing, you know. When I talk about this newest development of endless harassment, all the same eyes will fall upon it.”
“Evans, the Lazarus girl isn’t even here,” the auditor announced suddenly. “There’s no reason to stay.”
“Dinah is here,” Ezra said, puzzled. “She’s right upstairs, being an absolute beast.”
“He means Hannah,” Rosalind replied, sighing. “Mrs.Beck. Not Lazarus. Not anymore.”
“Let us make an appointment for sometime next week and try again!” the auditor replied, turning his back on Rosalind. “I’ll write to Mrs. Lazarus-Beck and we’ll come back.”
“Beck née Lazarus, surely,” Dr. Casper said jovially.
The auditor gritted his teeth but did not acknowledge the comment. “It’ll be more useful when the new doctors are actually present, I daresay.”
“Yes, of course,” Ezra replied in a saccharine tone. “The Jewish one, at least.”
“And the foreigner,” Dr. Casper added, raising his brows. “Haven’t you heard? The other chap’s from India. Trained by the Germans. I’m sure you’ll find much to say about him as well, but he doesn’t start for another fortnight.”
