Page 86 of Ghost of the Ton

Miss Lucas…

But then, that was what, no doubt, she’d be called when she embarked on her future life as a doctor.

“Is that so?” was all he could think of to say.

Mia blushed. “I’ve told the children a little about vaccination.”

“Why are ye blushing, Miss Lucas?” one child said, and Mrs. MacLennan shushed the little girl.

“Sienna, lass, we dinnae ask questions about anything other than the lesson.”

“Yes, Mrs. MacLennan,” the girl said. “Sorry, Mrs. MacLennan.”

“Please continue…Miss Lucas,” Hamish said. “I have no wish to discompose ye. I can leave if ye wish it.”

“No,” Mia said. “Stay. Please.”

Her soft words warmed his heart, and he leaned against the back wall and smiled. “Thank ye, lass.” He felt his own cheeks warm as her smile reached her eyes. The little girl—Sienna—stared at him, then opened her mouth, and the teacher clapped her hands.

“Concentrate, children!” she said. “Do continue, Miss Lucas.”

“Very well,” Mia said. “Now, children, you’ve seen how I’ve tied a bandage on Mrs. MacLennan. Who would like to have their leg bandaged next?”

The children glanced at each other and the whispering resumed, then a young lass at the front of the class put her hand up.

Mia smiled. “Thank you, Ada,” she said. “Come and exchange places with your teacher.”

She helped the little girl onto the chair then propped her leg up on the other.

“Now, who would like to tie the bandage on Ada’s leg?”

More whispers, then a boy in the middle of the class let out a laugh.

“Is there something you wish to say, Billy?” Mia said.

“No,” the boy said, his voice sulky.

“Do you find it amusing, the notion of bandaging Ada’s leg?”

Billy folded his arms and stuck out his lower lip in defiance. “She’s a girl!”

“Girls are the same as boys,” Mia said. “They have arms and legs, just like you.”

“Not everything they have is the same, is it?” Billy said. “We have something that the girls dinnae.”

He let out a giggle, and some of the other boys laughed.

“Quite so,” Mia said. “Boys are physically different to girls in many aspects. And to make up for the lack of”—she hesitated—“of what you are referring to, girls have larger brains, Billy, which heightens their capacity for intellect relative to their male counterparts.”

Hamish suppressed a smile.

The girl who’d spoken earlier raised her hand. “Is that true, miss?”

“Of course, Sienna,” Mia replied. “There have been numerous studies on the relative levels of intellect between men and women. The results don’t tend to be widely recognized or published, given that most of the journals are owned by men. But we know better, girls, do we not?”

“Yes, miss!” the girls chorused.

Billy scowled and leaned back in his seat.