‘No such thing!’ exclaimed Georgy. ‘I shall contrive to keep my arm out of your way.’ She put down her cup, and rose to her feet unaided for the first time since entering the doctor’s house.
‘How do you feel?’ he asked, watching her face.
‘Yes, indeed, ma’am, have a care!’ warned Mrs. Hume, rising also, and coming to Georgy’s side. ‘You have had a nasty shock, you know!’
Georgy nodded, smiling. ‘But I am quite recovered, now, thanks to your kind offices, ma’am, and those of your daughter and nephew. I am quite able to go home, and I think I ought to go at once. It will not do to put everyone in a bustle, wondering where I am.’
Seeing that her mind was made up, Graham had the gig brought round from the stable, and Georgy took her leave of his aunt and cousin, once again thanking them for their ministrations in her usual frank, sincere style.
The young doctor handed her up into the gig carefully before seating himself beside her. He took up the reins, and slow, fat Nelly began to amble placidly down the village street in the direction of Fulmer Towers.
There was silence between them at first. As the last of the cottages was left behind, Graham turned towards her to ask how she was feeling now.
‘Oh, splendidly, thank you!’ She gave a rueful little laugh, and held up the bedraggled bonnet which she was dangling from one hand. ‘I only wish I could say the same of this — what a poor wreck it’s become, to be sure!’
‘We must be thankful that you didn’t fare as badly,’ he replied, with an answering grin. ‘Another foot or so, and those horses would have trampled you.’
‘Oh, well, it didn’t happen,’ she said, airily. ‘The Mail coachmen are pretty fair drivers, are they not?’
‘You are a judge of driving, of course,’ he ventured, his grin broadening.
He saw a flash of anger in her eyes, but it vanished in a moment. She laughed readily enough. ‘Well, you may not think so, but the fact is that I am considered a tolerable whip, even by my brothers — though they usually add the words ‘for a female’ to any compliment they may pay me on my driving.’
‘Naturally. One wouldn’t expect the same standards to apply.’
‘Why not?’ There was no mistaking the spark in those green eyes now.
‘It’s largely a matter of physique. Men have stronger hands than women, for one thing.’
‘Oh, stuff!’ she said, impatiently. ‘What has that to say to anything? A daintier wrist than mine may acquire strength through practice!’
‘That’s true enough, of course.’ He glanced at her wrists. Her gloves were as soiled and tom as her bonnet, and she had discarded them. ‘1 suppose there may be daintier wrists than yours, since you seem to think so,’ he added, spontaneously.
She laughed, and tossed her tangled auburn curls. ‘Oh, it will never do for you to be paying me compliments! I thought we were agreed that it is to be war to the knife between us!’
‘No such thing. I have no wish to quarrel with you, Miss Eversley. That was a very brave thing you did — the child would most likely have been killed had you not been there, and kept your wits about you.’
She coloured a little. ‘Oh, it was nothing — anyone would have done the same!’
He shook his head. ‘I can't agree. And it was an especially brave thing for a female’
She interrupted him with a contemptuous laugh. ‘There you go again! Pray, why should you consider it a braver thing for a woman than for a man?’
‘Because they are more timid by nature, less likely to plunge into action without weighing the physical consequences’
‘Oh, pooh!’ exclaimed Georgiana, in disgust ‘What fustian you do gabble, to be sure! Let me tell you, Dr. Graham, that all your medical training hasn’t succeeded in teaching you the first little thing about women!’
‘That may well be true,’ he acknowledged, slowly. ‘I seldom encounter any, except in a professional way. In fact only the other day my cousin Anne was saying to me,’ he went on half to himself, ‘that I have a tendency to think of the people I meet only in physical terms, and not to take sufficient account of their characters, thoughts and feelings.’
‘Believe me, she’s not far wrong,’ replied Georgy, emphatically. She made a mental note that evidently Miss Hume could not feel too certain of her cousin’s affections, since she talked to him in this vein. ‘But one thing I can plainly see — however small your acquaintance with females may be, it has given you no great opinion of the sex as a whole.’
Graham opened his mouth to deny this, then shut it again. ‘It would be against all my training,’ he said, at length, ‘to speak of what I do not know.’
‘It won't serve you to hedge,’ said Georgy, laughing, ‘your attitude is only too plain. Now why, I wonder? Why should you have such a poor opinion of us?’ ‘You’re pitching it too strong,’ he replied, joining in her laughter. ‘I only say of women what I have observed in my work — that they are physically weaker than men and less liable to take violent action. What possible objection can you make to that?’
‘Oh, but it’s not only that! It’s a kind of superiority that you adopt whenever you mention us — as though we were beneath serious consideration!’
He whistled. ‘Do I?’ he asked, in mock consternation. ‘You must blame my lack of address on the cause that I mentioned to you before. Apart from patients, I have spent scarcely any time in female company for the past two years or more.’
‘There is your cousin, Miss Hume,’ she pointed out ‘And have you no sister, nor a mother?’
‘Oh, yes,’ he answered, ‘but they are in Scotland, and my visits home have been all too few for many years now. As for Anne, I’ve seen very little of her since she grew up, until just lately. Besides,’ he added, suddenly, ‘sisters and cousins are not at all the same thing.’
She shot a provocative glance at him out of her green eyes. ‘No?’
He shook his head. ‘One takes one’s family for granted in a way that isn’t possible with other people. They’re like a familiar countryside which, though loved, has nothing new to offer the explorer.’
‘Well expressed, sir! I see that the man of science has a poetic streak, after all!’
He laughed. ‘Perhaps. After all, I was originally intended for the Church, you know. My father is a clergyman himself, and sent me to Oxford with that in view.’
She was interested. ‘What made you change your mind?’
He hesitated. ‘It was never really set on the Church — I think it was the frequent holidays I spent down here in Buckinghamshire with my uncle that first turned my thoughts to the medical profession. Whenever I came here as a lad, I used to go round with him in the gig when he was making his calls, and sometimes I was allowed to watch him at work on the simpler cases. I fell in with my father’s plans for my future in the way that sons often do, however, without thinking overmuch for myself. But it was meeting the great Dr. John Hunter that finally made me decide my vocation was for curing men’s bodies rather than their souls.’
Georgy wrinkled her brow in an effort of memory. ‘I have heard people speak of Dr. Hunter,’ she said, slowly. ‘He died when I was only a schoolgirl, I think — ‘
‘Seven years ago, in 1793,’ supplied Graham. ‘That was the year I met him. It was my first year up at Oxford, and I’d come to London on a spree with some other students during the vac. One of us became involved in a brawl — you know how these things go, I dare say, as you have brothers — and his arm got broken. I used what small knowledge I'd picked up from my uncle to render some primitive help until they could get a doctor. It happened quite close to St George’s Hospital, and they managed to get hold of the great man himself.’
‘What happened then?’ prompted Georgy, as he paused.
‘Oh, he took a look at the injury, said it was a simple fracture, and would do well enough with the improvised splint I had used. Then he asked who’d done the setting. I was a bit hang-dog about admitting to it as you may well ima
gine, but he just nodded, and stared at me, seeming to size me up. He asked if I was studying medicine at the University. When I said I wasn’t he seemed put out. Then you ought to be, young man,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but this is what you’re cut out for. Get your degree in medicine, and afterwards I’ll take you on as a pupil in surgery.’ And all at once I knew he was right and this was what I’d wanted to do all along. My one regret is that I never had the chance to study under him, for he died a few months afterwards.’
‘Did your father raise no objection to the change of plan?’
He shrugged. ‘My father’s too wise a man to oppose a natural inclination of such serious import. A reluctant clergyman is no good either to God or man.’
‘I suppose so,’ replied Georgy, slowly. ‘If a man has of necessity to earn a livelihood, then obviously he will do better at something for which he has natural talents. It's not a subject to which I’ve given much thought ‘ She hesitated, not liking to add the words that were in her mind.
He was able to supply them himself. ‘Of course not I dare say few of your acquaintance are at the necessity of earning a living.’
She stole a look at him. His tone was matter-of-fact but was there just a shade of embarrassment in the expressive dark eyes? Suddenly she was conscious of a desire to put him at his ease.
‘It might be better for some of them — notably my brothers — if they were,’ she said, emphatically. ‘Hugh, of course, has an estate to manage; but George and Freddy so far have nothing of any significance to do with their time. That’s no doubt why they get up to such wild starts every now and then. Come to think of it,’ she acknowledged, with a sudden flash of self-realization, ‘I do myself, and possibly for the same reason. But there’s no remedy, in my case. There is nothing of importance for women to do in the world.’
‘Except to marry and have children,’ he replied. ‘And what can be more important than that, pray?’
She grimaced. ‘It’s a talent every maidservant possesses — every animal, come to that. Is our work in the world to be no more significant than that of the beasts in the field?’
He looked at her in astonishment. ‘Surely you can’t truly think that, Miss Eversley? I have always believed that women considered motherhood their highest destiny and their supreme achievement’
‘Oh, yes, I know!’ Her tone was impatient, but he felt that her irritation was more for herself than for him. ‘And so it is — in a way. But that’s only one side of our natures. There is another side.’ She paused, struggling to express thoughts that she could herself only partly apprehend. ‘You believe — most men believe — that women are frivolous creatures, their minds filled with every kind of triviality, and totally closed to reason. But we are as rational as you, Dr. Graham, and as well fitted to do work of importance in the world, if only men would see fit to trust us to do it. But what happens? We are not even allowed to equip ourselves with a rational education, but must spend weary hours learning to wield a needle when perhaps we have more talent with a pen, or to make ourselves agreeable in a drawing-room, when we are longing to drive a curricle and pair headlong, or share in some other sport which is only allowed to our brothers! I ask you, is it fair, sir?’
‘You make out a very good case,’ he said, with a smile. ‘But yours is an exceptional nature — I imagine few females feel as you do on this subject’
‘More than you might suppose,’ she retorted. ‘I’m for ever meeting them, and they are by no means always young women, either! There was quite an elderly lady — a Mrs. Lybbe Powys — staying with some friends of ours only recently, and she gave vent to similar opinions one afternoon when all the women of the party were left together for a few hours. And you may depend on it that there are many more who have such feelings without ever expressing them, or even allowing themselves to acknowledge their existance!’
‘You may be right All the same, I don’t quite see what is to be done about it,’ he said, easily.
‘Oh, if that isn’t just like a man!’ exclaimed Georgy impatiently.’You acknowledge an injustice, but refuse to take any action to set it right!’
He looked down into the flashing green eyes that were turned up to his, and some of his habitual calm left him.
‘If any action of mine could serve to gratify your wishes, you might count on me,’ he said, spontaneously.
‘Oh!’ She was momentarily taken aback. ‘Do you mean it?’
‘Yes, I mean it.’ He retained his gaze to the road, speaking in level tones in spite of the erratic behaviour of his pulse. ‘But I fear my goodwill won’t be of much avail in this case — you need to convert the world at large — particularly your own world, the world of fashion.’
‘Pooh, I don’t care that much for the ton!’ she said, snapping her fingers.
The gesture jarred her wounded arm, and drew a wince from her. He pulled up at once and turned solicitously towards her.
‘You’ve hurt yourself — you must take more care,’ he insisted, lifting her arm and inspecting his handiwork. After a moment, satisfied that the bandage was firm, he placed the arm so that it lay resting across her knees. ‘Perhaps I should have put your arm in a sling, so that you wouldn’t be tempted to incautious movements,’ he said, in a deliberately light tone.
‘Certainly caution is never my strongest point,’ she admitted, with a twinkle in her eyes. ‘I feal I am a sad case, and quite beyond your doctoring, sir!’
He was still leaning towards her looking down into her face, his fingers resting lightly on the bare arm from which the sleeve had been cut away. For a moment he felt all the magnetism of her dancing green eyes, and knew a swift, strong urge to gather her up into his arms.
‘You are beyond me in every way,’ he said, hoarsely, scarcely knowing what words he uttered.
She made a little incoherent sound, and seemed to sway towards him. His head felt light, as though he had drunk too much wine.
The spell was broken abruptly by the sound of horses trotting rapidly down the road. The next moment, voices were calling Georgiana by name.
Graham drew away from her just as the riders reached the gig, and reined in beside it
‘So here you are!’ drawled Pamyngton, sweeping his hat from his head. ‘Servant Graham! A fine morning.’
The other rider was Curshawe, and he treated the matter less calmly.
‘Wherever have you been, Miss Georgiana?’ he asked. ‘When you did not appear for breakfast, Mrs. Eversley became alarmed and asked us to ride out and see if we could find you.’ His glance, which had been ranging jealously over both occupants of the gig, now lighted on her bare arm and the bandage encircling it. He gave a horrified start ‘Good God! You are injured! Whatever has happened?’
Pamyngton echoed the query, though in a more restrained manner. Graham gave a short, lucid account of Georgy's rescue of the child.
‘It was madness!’ exclaimed Curshawe, at the end of the recital ‘You should never have ventured it Miss Georgy! You might have been killed!’
‘The child almost certainly would have been, but for Miss Eversley’s brave action,’ remarked Graham, in a dry tone.
‘How bad is the injury?’ asked Pamyngton.
‘Nothing serious,’ replied Graham. ‘A week should see it healed completely, and it will leave no permanent scar.’
‘All the same,’ expostulated Curshawe, ‘Miss Eversley should not be jolted back to Fulmer Towers in this style. I wonder you did not send to the house for a carriage, Dr. Graham.’
‘Oh, have done, Mr. Curshawe!’ exclaimed Georgy, in an impatient tone. ‘Dr. Graham would have sent for a carriage, but I didn’t wish it, as I feared the message might alarm Susan. I am perfectly all right, thanks to the good offices of the doctor and Mrs. and Miss Hume, and I wish to hear no more on the subject! Of all things, I dislike a fuss!’
Curshawe coloured up, apologized, and said no more. Graham took up the reins, and the gig proceeded on its way to Fulmer Tow
ers, closely accompanied by the two riders.
CHAPTER 10
Freddy Talks
DURING THE WEEK that followed, Georgiana had no need to seek out Graham, for the doctor called at Fulmer Towers every day to enquire after the health of both his patients.
Georgiana’s arm mended quickly, and she soon found herself longing to return to her normal pastimes and amusements. Everyone in the house seemed determined to take her injury more seriously than she herself did, however. Four days after the accident, when she announced at breakfast her intention of going riding for a spell, it caused quite a storm of protest from the others.
‘Do you think that’s quite wise, my love?’ asked Susan, mildly, when the first outcry had died down a little.
‘Of course not — she must have run mad!’ acclaimed Aunt Lavinia.
Everyone agreed with this view, except Freddy and George, who both returned to their newspapers, knowing the folly of opposing Georgy too strongly. No doubt Hugh, who was not present in the room at the moment, would eventually put a stop to her scheme. Curshawe spoke at greater length than anyone else in his efforts to persuade Miss Georgy not to contemplate such a step.
‘Why not?’ demanded Georgy, impatient of their fuss.
‘If I am fit to dance at a ball tomorrow, I can very well go riding today, as far as I can see!’
‘Dear lady, it is not at all the same thing!’ protested Curshawe, ignoring a signal from both George and Freddy to hold his peace. They sighed, knowing too well that opposition only served to strengthen their rebellious sister’s determination. ‘Ask the doctor, I beg of you, when he calls. I am confident that he will not permit it’
‘Dr. Graham may give what advice he chooses,’ replied Georgiana, tartly. ‘As to permission, I seek that from no one. I am my own mistress. Besides,’ she went on, in a slightly mollified tone, ‘he makes no to-do about my injury, which he says — quite truthfully — is nothing but a scratch. Susan made me ask him the other day if it would hinder me from dancing as otherwise she was going to postpone the ball; and he said there could be no reason why I should not do anything I myself felt equal to. That is all the guidance I need — or want’
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