"P. N. Elrod - Jonathan Barrett 01 - Red Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elrod P N)

ke supper with her followed by Lord knows what else. He might even spend a
nother night with her.
Jericho promised to see to things and disappeared just as Elizabeth finished h
er piece. I joined in the applause.
Mrs. Hardinbrook gushed forth with more praise. This time it seemed directe
d less at Mother and more toward Beldon, in an attempt to draw his attentio
n to Elizabeth. His praise was more subdued and disappointingly neutral, at
least from his sister's point of view. Then he stood and bowed to all of us.
"You will think me terribly rude, Mrs. Barrett, but I must beg leave to go
to my room. I don't know where Deborah gets all her energy, but I am absolu
tely exhausted."
"I quite understand, Dr. Beldon. Pray do not let us keep you. Jonathan, sho
w Dr. Beldon up to the yellow room, if you please."
It hardly pleased me, but I offered my own bow and waited for Beldon to joi
n me in the hall.
"Your mother is a very kind woman to take us in," he said as we trudged up t
he stairs.
"Yes."
"I fully realize that this must be an imposition to you all, but Deborah and I
are very grateful and glad to be here."
What a surprise, I thought.
"I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that I am entirely at t
he service of you and your house should you require it."
"As a doctor?" I asked, somewhat insolently, now that he was away from Mot
her's protection.
A perceptive man, he decided to take the light insult as a joke. "I'm afraid
so. Doubtless I could make myself useful working in the fields, but I have
more talent for doctoring than animal husbandry or farming."
I paused on the landing and looked at him squarely. "You consider yourself
a good doctor, then?"
"As good as most. I studied with Dr. Richard Shippen of Philadelphia," he
added with some pride.
"Did you really? The smallpox man?"
Beldon was surprised that I'd heard of him and said as much.
"I should think so. Years ago Mother had instructed Father by letter to pack
Elizabeth and me off to the man for an inoculation against the pox. I still h
ave the scar. Couldn't have been more than nine, but I remember it vividly, w
orst six weeks of my life. What a horrible thing to do to children."
"Less horrible than dying of the pox," he pointed out.
I was unwilling to relinquish my hostile opinion of the man. "I'd read that
they had him up for body snatching three years back."
But Beldon was not to be drawn and only shook his head with amusement. "So
mething that every teaching physician seems to go through. He was accused
of taking a woman's body for his dissecting class, but those subjects only
ever came from the Potter's Field, never from Christian burial grounds. T
he whole business was utterly absurd. They said he'd dissected
a woman in the winter who had died that summer of a putrid fever. Absurd,"
he repeated.
"Oh, yes, very."
Letting that one pass as well, he gestured at one of the doors. "Is this my ro