Chapter 13 #2
El found a tin pan in which to boil water and had to use it as a tea pot as well. When the tea was sufficiently steeped, she poured it into a few cracked mugs. . . without comforting sugar or cream. Such a shame, but she was desperate for a cup.
She carried the mugs to the front room on a battered baking sheet. “I wonder if the people who last owned this house were so wealthy that when they moved, they left behind bits that were too ugly for use.”
“They weren’t wealthy if the bank repossessed the house.” Grey handed the infant back the instant El set down her makeshift tray. “A vagrant is likely to have been living here.” He hastily drank his tea, grimacing only a little. He preferred coffee.
El surrendered her bitter tea to hold the babe.
“Or the items left are ones no one wanted after everyone stripped the house over the years.” Finished with her ministrations, Dr. Walker packed up her bag and took a sip from her mug. “Vacant houses are opportunities for those who have little.”
El bounced the little boy, studying his new teeth while he giggled, until Dr. Walker rose and took him. Outside, Mr. Russell finally rode up with Andrew in the curricle. They knew so many people already! Although bailiffs and physicians most likely weren’t the sort one wished to encounter first.
Grumbling, Grey headed for the door. El called after him, “Your purse, sir. Physicians should be paid and we have no jam or cabbages to offer.”
Dr. Walker chuckled. “It would be nice to have an actual paying patient so I might eventually buy equipment. The jams and cabbage go to the manor, where we eat most of our meals.”
Grey simply tossed El his coin purse and continued on his way.
She handed over a sovereign and waved away any protest. “He can afford it, and if we are to stay for any length of time, it may be necessary to have as much equipment and supplies on hand as possible. Greybourne is not. . .” El wrinkled up her nose, looking for a polite description.
“He is not a quiet, unassuming professor.” Calling him a bull in a china shop might be a little extreme.
He simply had too much vitality to sit still.
The physician settled down to sip her tea, allowing the child to crawl the floor so El could sample hers as well. “The coin will most likely be spent on bandages for the brawling drunks in the gallery. I know Miss Talbot means well, but even the actors are better behaved than those addle-coves.”
El was unfamiliar with the vernacular but grasped the intent. “Actors? The village becomes more interesting by the minute. Do you have a theater?”
“I believe their shows are a little too naughty for general assemblies. Most of the time, they are on the road. The same cannot be said of the painters. Thea hopes to attract people from London who might buy the comte’s work.”
“That would be Mr. Lavigne, the one Thea calls Arnaud? He’s a French count?
” At the physician’s nod, El refrained from raising her eyebrows in surprise and asked, “I suppose, if she creates a gallery, the artists will write everyone they know that their work is being shown, in hopes patrons will find them? Unlikely, I should think, this far off the highway.”
El tried to think of anything but the men down by the river, hunting killer pirates.
“Various members of the late earl’s family visit the manor, as well as live there.
Their aristocratic acquaintances are widespread, so it’s not an impossible hope.
And the bootmaker and clockmaker needed places for their booths.
. .” The physician shrugged and took a dust ball from her son before he ate it.
“These things take time. We’ll see how long the proceeds from a single diamond will pay the rent. ”
“Diamond? She’s paying the bank in jewels?”
Dr. Walker smiled. “You need to visit the Priory and hear the tale told properly. But Major Ferguson discovered a hoard of jewels in the manor’s clock.
Captain Huntley arbitrarily decided they should be divided among the earl’s relations who live here and who work to maintain the estate.
The late earl’s trust pays the Priory’s expenses, but most of the heirs have little of their own—except Thea.
She is an heiress with a large allowance.
So, she used her diamonds to rent the gallery. ”
“Hidden diamonds!” El sighed and sat back to finish her sugarless tea.
“I should really love to stay here. It’s like living in a fairy tale.
” Unfortunately, it meant wearing dresses and being disrespected for her gender after years of being considered a man’s equal.
She knew how to be invisible as a man. As a woman. . . she didn’t know how to go about.
“A fairy tale with villains.” Dr. Walker jarred El from her reverie as the men tromped back into the yard.
Instead of coming inside, they started searching the foundation, presumably for the cellar door. El’s imagination took a steep dive. “What if there are skeletons down there?”
“It won’t be the first time,” Dr. Walker said serenely, setting aside her mug and reaching for Moses.