The Apothecary's Daughter Part 9

She stared at her uncle, not comprehending.

"The Royal College of Physicians, my dear," Uncle Elliott clarified.

Lilly felt oddly stunned. "I did not even realize."

"Good gracious, I trust the two of you did not spend the evening discussing ailments and diseases." Her aunt shuddered.

"We discussed nothing," Lilly said. "We barely spoke."

"Good." Her aunt relaxed against the seat. "Then no harm done."

So modern *pothecaries, taught the art

By Doctor's bills to play the Doctor's part,

Bold in the practice of mistaken rules,

Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools.

ALEXANDER POPE.

CHAPTER 7.

he following evening, the Willoughbys hosted a musicale in their stately Grosvenor Square home. The performer was a young soprano Lilly and the Elliotts had heard perform the previous season. Lilly did not appreciate the ingenue's cathedral-high vibrato but resisted comment. She knew her aunt would never dream of declining an invitation from the Willoughbys.

Dressed in an elegant gown of pearly nacre satin, her upswept hair ornamented with pearls, Lilly followed her aunt and uncle into the impressive home. Several servants were kept busy taking guests' wraps, and by the time Lilly turned after handing over her hooded cloak, she realized she had become separated from the Elliotts in the throng. No matter. She knew where to find them. Front and center before the soprano.

Following slowly with the crowd, Lilly made her way through the double doors into the great drawing room. There the crowd thickened as gentlemen greeted one another and ladies searched for the best seats to regard one another's gowns and to spy potential suitors for their daughters. Lilly paused and stepped to the side, out of the flow, while she searched the room for her aunt and uncle. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a gentleman standing against the wall, arms crossed. She glanced over and was disconcerted to see Mr. Graves standing there, looking at her. One could not miss his pale blond hair.

Not knowing what else to do, she nodded at him and returned to her search. Where were they? A moment later, she still felt his ponderous eyes upon her. The last thing she wanted was for him to believe she loitered there in hopes he would take notice and address her.

She glanced coolly at him over her shoulder. "I am looking for my aunt and uncle. We came together, and I seem to have lost them."

He nodded stiffly but said nothing.

"Why do you stare? " Lilly asked tartly. "If you are trying to place me, I am the lady you danced with last evening."

"I had not forgotten. But nor would I call what I did dancing."

She looked at him sharply. "Dancing it was, though you were coerced into doing so."

He blinked his blue eyes. Opened his mouth. Blinked again.

Crossing her own arms, she turned her back to him, attempting to resume her search, though anger coursed through her and she felt unable to focus with his cold eyes p.r.i.c.king her.

A moment later she was surprised when he stepped to her side and said quietly, "I meant only that I am aware my poor attempt can hardly be called dancing."

"You seemed familiar enough with the steps," she challenged.

He dipped his chin. "True. I can claim no lack of training."

"But you clearly did not enjoy it."

"No. I am-" He cleared his throat. "Miss Haswell, please forgive my conduct of last evening. There is not a man alive who should require coercion to dance with you."

She looked at him, stunned. She felt her lips part, but now it was she who could not seem to speak. And by the time she could, he had already slipped away into the crowd.

It was all Lilly could do to keep from wincing as Miss Augusta Fredrickson hit the climactic note of her aria. However, she could not keep one eyebrow from lifting higher and higher with each screeching half step as the soprano trilled up the score in a piercing octave. The scream, when she first heard it, sounded like more of the same. It took her a few seconds to realize that the scream came from behind her and from a more pleasing voice. She whirled in her seat as the soprano sang on. Clearly others had not realized the shriek had not been part of the performance.

Lilly left her chair and, ducking a bit, hurried to the back of the room. A woman screamed again, this time adding words to her emission. "Somebody help! Calla doctor!"

It was Mrs. Price-Winters, kneeling beside her husband, who lay p.r.o.ne and gasping on the floor.

The singer broke off at last.

The hostess, Mrs. Willoughby, rose. "Is there no doctor in the house?"

Crouched beside Mr. and Mrs. Price-Winters, Lilly searched frantically, but there was no sign of Mr. Graves.

One liveried footman ran to send for a doctor. A second stood nervously at the double doors of the drawing room.

"You there," Lilly called to him. "Please bring me the house medicine chest."

The footman stared at her.

"The mistress does have one?"

He nodded.

"Then hurry!"

The young man rushed away, and Lilly bent to examine Mr. Price-Winters.

In less than a minute, the footman ran back in and set a mahogany box beside the p.r.o.ne man. Kneeling there, Lilly threw open the hinged lid. Square bottles with labels on their shoulders proclaimed their contents turkey rhubarb, fever powder, ipecacuanha, laudanum. Lilly recognized the chest as an older model of one they sold in their shop at home. She pulled open the bottom drawer lancet, blistering plaster, double-ended measure, and a There! The probang. A long flexible device used to dislodge anything stuck in the gullet.

The first footman rushed back in. "Doctor's on his way."

"How long?" Lilly asked.

"A few minutes yet, I'd reckon."

Mr. Price-Winters's face was turning blue.

"He hasn't got a few minutes! Here, help me roll him onto his side." The servant complied. Mrs. Price-Winters was too hysterical to help, and the others seemed frozen an audience transfixed. It was left to her. She knew what to do. Had done so for Mary more than once. Inserting the probang, she used it first to fully pry open the man's mouth, then to peer down his throat. "Step aside, please. I need more light!"

Someone held an oil lamp above her. There it was. A white object lodged in his throat. She gently but quickly slid the device alongside the obstacle, careful not to push it further down his throat. Pressing the top of the device like a lever, she pushed and pulled simultaneously. This, combined with his gag reflex, was enough to expectorate the obstacle.

"There," she announced, as the object -a round peppermint by the looks of it popped out.

Mr. Price-Winters coughed and gagged and sucked in a breath, quickly regaining consciousness. His wife embraced him awkwardly there on the carpet. "Oh, thank G.o.d!"

Amen, Lilly silently added, grateful Christina's father not been denied life-giving air any longer.

She became aware of murmuring voices, of people staring at her with looks both censorious and amazed. She glanced up, hoping to see her aunt and uncle, but instead saw Mr. Graves. Standing in the back, stone-faced and pale. Had he been there all along? Why had he not come forward?

A distant voice shouted, "Doctor's here! "

A foppish gentleman in evening attire bustled in, carrying his black leather case. "Make way, make way!"

His eyes widened as he took in the open medicine chest, the probang, and the young woman kneeling beside his patient.

"What has happened here?"

Lilly smelled alcohol on the doctor's breath. He had clearly been called away from a supper or party.

"Mr. Price-Winters had a peppermint lodged in his throat," she calmly explained. "He could not breathe."

Mrs. Price-Winters gestured with a limp hand. "She used that thing and got it loose."

"A probang? Good heavens, girl, what were you thinking? You might have punctured his esophagus!"

"I am all right," Mr. Price-Winters whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "Throat hurts like hades, though."

"And no wonder!" The doctor turned on Lilly. "Who do you think you are to operate on a man?"

Lilly was stunned. Why was he so angry? Was inebriation clouding his judgment?

"I am sorry, Dr. Porter," Mrs. Willoughby soothed. "None of us knew what to do."

Lilly hesitated. Surely she had not done anything so wrong. "I saw no other alternative-"

"Had we known you would arrive so soon," Mrs. Willoughby continued, sending a cool glance her way, "we might have stopped her."

Dr. Porter glared at Lilly. "You could have killed him."

"On the contrary, sir." Adam Graves now stood above them. "He could have died had she not acted."

"Graves a you approved this?"

"Not exactlya"

His words trailed off and were lost in Dr. Porter's mutterings and instructions for a heavy dose of laudanum, which Lilly thought quite more than necessary.

The crisis past, the crowd began to drain away toward their coats and carriages.

Mrs. Price-Winters offered Lilly her hand. "Thank you, my dear."

Lilly leaned forward and embraced her friend's mother. "I am only glad he is all right." Then she added quietly, "Have him rinse with salt water and a drop of laudanum thrice daily and his throat shall heal quickly."

"Come, Lillian," Aunt Elliott called. "Let us depart."

Even as she stepped away, she heard Dr. Porter ask, "What did she tell you? " Lilly did not hear Mrs. Price-Winters's answer but did hear the doctor call after her, "Who do you think you are? First to operate on a man and then to prescribe treatment?"

Mr. Graves cleared his throat and began weakly, "I must say, Dr. Porter, the young lady acted more quickly than I, but she acted well. Do not abrade her for saving the man."

Lilly silently wished Mr. Graves had found his voice earlier, when the critical crowd was still around to hear it.

"Saving the man? The chit near skewered him."

Her aunt took her arm and said between clenched teeth, "Keep walking, Lillian."

In the carriage, Aunt Elliott sighed emphatically. "Lillian, I know you acted from the heart, but really, could you not have resisted?"

"What would you have had me do? Sit by and do nothing? No one came forward to help, or I would have gladly stepped aside."

"One of the men would have come forward were you not so a forward. That Graves fellow was there, it turns out, and the doctor was on his way. You usurped their rightful position as learned medical men."