“India,” echoed the auditor weakly. “Yes, all right.”
They exited the clinic quickly after that, leaving nothing behind but some rearranged witch hazel bottles and an abused pair of forceps in their wake.
Mae sighed, her arms sagging at her side, the forceps clanging against her calf through her skirts. “Is the other doctor actually from India, or were you just goading that man?”
“He is,” her grandfather said, turning to her with a grin that was short a couple of teeth. “His last name is so long, it took an entire additional sheet of paper in the letter. But his accolades are exemplary. Dr. Bethel and I agree it is very exciting, and he understands perfectly well that you are actually the authority here, my sweet Mae.”
“Oh, well,” she said with no small amount of exhaustion. “That’s obviously the most important thing.”
“We’ll just call him Dr. Ravi,” Dr. Casper continued. “Can you imagine some fishmonger ’round Seven Dials asking for a stitch job and trying to fumble his way through the likes of Go-vin-da-char-ya when he can probably scarcely spell ‘Jones’ or ‘Smith’?”
“Grandy,” Mae said, frowning. “Control yourself.”
He only continued to grin.
“No one’s asking them to spell it,” Rosalind said softly, her hazel eyes gone wide. “Just to say it.”
“Whyarethey continuing to poke around?” Ezra threw in over her, still glaring at the path the auditor and inspector had taken out of the clinic. “They’re obviously looking for some reason to sanction us, but why?”
“I could tell you, lad,” Dr. Casper said, his grin easing off his face. “But you won’t like it. And you can’t print it.”
Ezra turned back to him, his brow furrowed. “Why the devil not?”
Dr. Casper sighed. “Because it will only exacerbate the onslaught. Have you ever cornered a known liar with proof of a lie? They lash out violently. It’s the same thing. Rosalind, my dear girl, this isnotyour fault, and I need you to look at me and acknowledge that before I say anything else.”
Rosalind startled, blinking rapidly as she turned her attention to the doctor, clearly unsettled by his sudden and unprecedented serious tone. “Of course, Dr. Casper,” she said, biting her lip. “Of course.”
He heaved a great, crackling sigh and waved his hand toward Mae’s private procedure room, leading the little crew behind the privacy of the closed door before continuing.
Mae had her suspicions about why all this was happening. Quite a few of them, truth be told. But she hadn’t spoken about it directly with her grandfather yet. At the root of it, she had assumed it all came down to professional pride. The clinic was doing too well. It was too visible. Too lauded. Too well attended by the needy.
It was a simple explanation, but things often were very simple, at their root.
However, this parade into privacy was giving her pause and a quivering thrum of anxiety right in the center of her chest.
Was it something else? Something worse?
They lined the walls of the little treatment room while Dr. Casper took the stool, wincing as his knees bent and crackled.
“Once upon a time, I was a respected doctor in this city,” he began with a wry quirking of his lips. “I was at Guy’s. I was a surgeon. This was before the Gordon riots.”
“Thewhat,” Rosalind whispered.
“Another story for another time, my sweet girl,” he said with a chuckle. “A good one.”
“A very good one,” Mae agreed.
“There is a backbone to the administration and progress of medicine in this world that is not often talked about or made visible to the world at large, though it is not exactly a secret either. Teaching cases. Do all of you know what that is?”
Mae immediately straightened, her jaw tightening. “I do.”
“Well, I know you do,” he said, clicking his tongue in annoyance. “I’m talking to the lay clergy.”
“I’m a vicar’s wife, sir,” Rosalind said with a little smile. “But no, aside from the implied meaning, I can’t say I’ve heard that term.”
“It’s poor people,” Mae snapped. “Who don’t get treatment like the important folk do. Instead, they’re either used as experimental fodder or as trial runs on new practitioners so it won’t matter as much if they err.”
“What?!” Ezra barked, startling away from the wall.
