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FOURTEEN

The wo that Lydia knew could only be, ‘Will he be all right? Will he be all right?’ but since she was speaking Russian it actually could have been anything It didn’tdown her face, the way her stooped thin body trembled in the aard circle of Lydia’s aratory Annushka Vyrubova, on the wo words, while at the battered table of the clinic’s curtained-in consulting-rooory wad of torn pillowcases froers that were left

Lydia whispered in French, ‘What happened?’

‘An accident in the factory,’ Madame Vyrubova whispered back ‘They’ve stepped up the production quotas because of the new battleships, and the poor boy had been working since eight last night No wonder he didn’t get his hand out of the press quickly enough’

Despite theTheiss had ad man had been half-carried into the clinic by his mother and brothers – the patient screamed, and on the bench between Lydia and Madauish, like an echo The bleached canvas curtains of the consulting ‘roo partly open, and past them the clinic – which had the appearance, in the thin clear sunlight of the first springlike day, of having begun life as a sled reek of blood, carbolic soap, and unwashed clothing and bodies, a combination of stinks that, despite herself, Lydia hated

In her years as a h clinic duty only by her step assurances that, ‘You’ll hate it, dear, you know’

Well, of course sos, but I don’t see why it has to be youThat had been her Aunt Faith And, Darling, I know it’s bien à la mode to take an interest in the poor, but surely one day a htwell knows a PERFECTLY clean and decent one – would do

After which, of course, Lydia had been completely unable to protest that she, too, disliked the stinks and the wastefulness and the sense of speechless futility that filled her in the face of poverty It had been impossible to admit that she did not share the usual womanlythe ‘less fortunate’, as they were politely called

She couldn’t tell them – the aunts who had raised her, the exquisite slender woman that her father had married the year Lydia was sent away to school – that what she sought was knowledge of the hu details that women weren’t supposed to know about or want to know about A thing of miracles, Benedict Theiss had called the human bodyTubes and nodules, nooks and crannies, nerves and bones and the secrets hidden in thein the clinics was a stepping stone to the end that she sought, which was research for its own sake – knowledge for its own sake – the pursuit of goals far beyond the tying up of a drunkard’s bruises or the Sisyphean labor of pri clinic rooe, and there were about two dozen people on the benches at one end, men and women – several with children clustered around the in shawls at their bosoarments that peoplespent on rent and fuel and food if it could be afforded They were thin, in the way that even the poorest of the London denizens of settlement houses and clinics were not: thin and wary, like anihtfully abused Lydia recalled the streets she and Maday yellow-brick building on the Sa blur of myopia, it was clear to her that these slurown up like oozing sores around the factories

‘Please forgive us for interrupting you,’ said Lydia, when Dr Theiss had finished his task and washed his hands – he was reaching for his frock coat, hung on its peg, as if to get himself ready to welcome his visitors She held up her hand ‘Don’t I shouldn’t have asked to coested it Of course dear Dr Theiss will be delighted to receive us He always is

He probably alas for this dumpy little woman as said to be the best friend of the Empress and almost a member of the imperial family

‘I see now you have many more important matters to attend to’

Madame Vyrubova looked surprised at her words – it had probably been a long time since anyone had professed matters more important than her warm-hearted desire to make the world a better place – but the physician’s hazel eyes thanked Lydia’s understanding ‘It’s kind of you to think of me, Dr Asher Yet I know you spoke, when last we hted to take a moment’s rest when our Annushka has come all this way to visit’ He took Madame Vyrubova’s hand and bowed deeply

‘Texel--’ At the lifting of Theiss’s voice, the ence careat ashed brick room ‘Is there tea? Thank you Would you please let esture took in theon the benches – ‘that I must perform the offices of society for ten short minutes, and then I will return?’

‘Bien sûr, doctor’

Lydia struggled with the i and sneak a better look at the man, who at that distance was little ht, ar on his jaws like socks on a clothesline, and thin fairish hair slicked unappetizingly to a dolichocephalic skull Even his voice was thin, with a nasal quality to it and – though Lydia’s ear for accents was not nearly as good as her husband’s, especially not when everyone was speaking French – an inflection that differed froh the doorway into a laboratory – and thence to a chamber beyond it, barely wider than its hich served as a sitting room – she inquired, ‘Mr Texel also a physician, I think you said?’

‘A medical student’ And, with a humorous half-smile: ‘And one, I suspect, who blotted his copybook a little with the Kaiser’s police He’s an Alsatian, fro; he came to me at first only because he needed the work Yet he has found – as I have – the profound ease of heart that coood of one’s fellow ht have doubted James Asher’s ability to remember the face of a man he’d seen on three brief occasions seventeen years previously, but Lydia knew her husband’s memory for faces and details was as extraordinary as his ear for accents and did not doubt for a moment that it was the same man For Dr Theiss, with his dislike of the new Ger one’s copybook with the Kaiser’s police’ – if worked artfully into the conversation – would be an infallible Open Sesame to trustWas Alsace one of those places that Germany had taken away from France? Lydia recalled her friend Josetta hadabout it, and she tried to re you will excuseon your work,’ said Lydia, as the scientist poured out tea for the three of theht made small lace patterns on tablecloth and dishes ‘It truly is unforgivable of me But I read your article on seruet aith e to continue your researches, with the volu you the money to do it?

‘There was a time when it was impossible’ Theiss smiled at her ‘But now, thanks to Madame –’ he nodded at Madame Vyrubova and saluted her with his cup – ‘who put enerous patronsThat was hoas that I was able to hire ood Texel in the first place; and, of course the donation of this building – and of another excellent laboratory facility not far from here – was of inestimable assistance And I must admit,’ he added ruefully, ‘that e not being able to pursue my own researches, for so many years’

‘Oh, Professor--’ simpered Madame Vyrubova

‘It was the profession’s loss,’ said Lydia ‘Yet this ns of a completely new direction in your researches’

It was a shot in the dark, because Lydia had barely skihteen months previously in the Journal des Medicins – but Theiss beamed like an author whose more subtle themes had been applauded Lydia put on her spectacles, and with Mada politely on their heels, was taken on a tour of the laboratory next door, which was obviously – to her trained eyes – set up for experi, distillation and chemical analysis of the various components of blood

‘Oh, I covet your ly, and Theiss responded with a gallant little bow, hand over heart, as if he, like she, found relief in being able to talk with soe for its own sake It was a relief, Lydia reflected, only to talk with another physician Much as she enjoyed the stylish social rounds she’d been taken on by Razu, Madame Korova sounds so formal’) in her quest for inforht, she found the constant atteet her into bed wearing in the extreossipy as that of her London relations, but far more heated: everyone – with the exception of Madame Vyrubova, who seeed in adultery with everyone else

And as Jao to bed before dawn or to rise before dusk If it weren’t for their bank accounts she would suspect the in coffins

By contrast, like herself, Benedict Theiss was a researcher in his heart Perhaps, reflected Lydia, it hy she found the man so enormously sympathetic – had it not been for the presence of Texel in his household, and thereaction to the lady in the red touring-car, she would have concluded that there was nothing to investigate When Theiss spoke of working far into the nights, of the liroups (how s the absolutely most up-to-date journals – which were censored, like everything else in Russia – she found herself in danger of forgetting all that Jamie had told her about the scheme to ally a vampire with the Ger, Was Ja?

‘Ach--’ Theiss looked at his watch ‘Please, please excuse me, dear ladiesIt is just thatand so patiently, and there are so few to succor thehtly, but the younger man appeared at once in the doorway ‘Texel, would you please continue to give Dr Asher a tour of my experiments, and explain to her whatever she wishes to know? Texel has been of invaluable helpThank you, Texel’

He clasped his assistant’s hand as he hurried out to his patients once more

‘I’’ Lydia s Alsatian ‘Is that a dilute alcohol solution across plaster of Paris, as Pasteur did?’ The addition of spectacles to her perception hadn’t altered it: there was still an air of erness about the assistant, far deeper than fored and produced as cheaply as the market would bear His replies to her questions were short and uninforht lies, when she asked him, with an expression of naïveté, about processes that she herself already knew about

What would Ja? Jamie could place anyone in Oxford – scholar, servant, or shopkeeper – within ten miles of his or her birthplace after five ional dialects in Gerland, ales Would that show up in the French they were speaking? Evasions aside, it didn’t take someone of Jamie’s talents at observation to notice that the equipree of newness: bought within the last year and a half