The Fire's Center (30 page)

The husband blinked.

Riona said, "I think they deserve a few minutes alone, don’t you?"

Dr. O’Carroll followed Riona out, and would have walked past her had she not plucked him by the sleeve and hissed, "Well, I hope you're ashamed of yourself!"

"What for?" he asked belligerently.

"Let’s start first with what you did to that woman in there, or didn’t do. You simply
assumed
that she was a prostitute. You were ready to give up on her, to let her die, since you judged that she wasn’t cared for by anyone, and that the child was simply an unwanted bastard, a burden on the parish, didn’t you? Didn’t you!"

He didn't even bother to deny the accusation. "There are plenty of those sort in the world! I ought to know. I see them milling out on the streets as I come back and forth to work here. Why should anyone care about them, degraded wretched that they are? Besides, one bastard less in the parish orphanages is a bonus. You should be thanking me. At any rate, I don’t know why I'm standing here defending myself. I don’t have to answer to the likes of you!" Dr. O’Carroll spat as he tried to push past her.

"No, you’re right, you don’t. But you do have to answer to Dr. Woulfe if you wish to work in this clinic. Moreover, there is of course an even higher authority who can see into men’s hearts and knows all your petty spites and prejudices, even if you yourself aren’t willing to admit them," Riona said coldly.

Dr. O’Carroll laughed at her moralising contemptuously. "I don’t need a moral lecture from a skivvy from the backwaters of Donegal, thank you very much. As for telling tales to Dr. Woulfe, he won’t believe you! You're no better than a serving wench. He’ll believe me, a respected professional,"’ Dr. O’Carroll sneered.

"Not so fast, Doctor," Riona stated flatly, grabbing his arm and pushing him up against the wall. "Lack of patient care is one thing, but
theft
is another. I checked with Breda and Angela and Dr. Kennedy and Sean about the break-in. No one came in or out last night or this morning except me. We’ve searched all the patients and their beds on the pretext of bathing them.

"So even if Dr. Woulfe weren’t to believe me about the situation with Mary Smith, whom you would have let die because you thought she was a mere whore, there is the small matter of the robbery and the missing drugs. Breda and Angela checked. They weren’t anywhere in the surgery. Your bag was in the office, so I took the liberty..."

"You little bitch, I’ll bloody kill you!"

Riona side-stepped him, but she knew he was furious enough to carry out this threat.

Then suddenly he thought better of it. "Nay, I’ll just disgrace you. You came in this morning. I’ll tell Dr. Woulfe that you stole them," he laughed. "Unless of course you are prepared to be sweet to me again, the way you were the other day," he laughed mockingly.

"Sweet to you? You disgust me. I should have broken your arm when I had the chance," she said, skirting around him, but unable to get past him. "I definitely have my answer now though, as to why you would ever want to work here when you clearly loathe the poor. You're a debauched opium addict."

"Not as debauched as you'll be if you want to keep your post. So come here and show me your talents, you hot little—"

As he reached for her breasts, a hand shot out of the darkness to grab his arm and spin him around.

Riona gasped as Lucien growled, "Get your hands off her, and get out of here,
now
!"

"I don’t know what you think you heard, but she was making advances to me, Dr. Woulfe. I have proof she's a thief--" Dr. O’Carroll began to protest.

Lucien silenced him with a shake as he began to drag him to the front door of the clinic.

"I’ve seen and heard more than enough to know that you're the last man who should ever be working in a clinic for the poor, or indeed anywhere else where decency and honesty are required. Now get out, and don’t even
think
of asking me for a reference. But before you leave, I insist you apologize to Miss Connolly for what you just called her!"

"Apologize to that whore?" Dr. O’Carroll laughed.

Lucien would have struck him then, but Riona, who had been hurrying after them, grabbed his fist in mid-air, and maintained, "I don’t need any apology. I don’t care what he said. Just let him go!"

Lucien shook Dr. O’Carroll again. His towering rage caused him to struggle against Riona’s restraining hand. But in the end he let go. Dr. O’Carroll disappeared out of the door like a shot.

Once the foul Dr. O’Carroll was gone, Lucien leaned against the wall, panting heavily, while Riona brought his hand down to his side, and held it in silence.

At last he looked down at her dishevelled appearance, and asked, "Are you all right?"

"I’m fine. It’s a patient’s blood, not mine."

"I don’t mean that, I mean what he said, about well, all those things..." Lucien rasped, his voice trembling.

"I’m fine, really. I don’t pay any attention to what narrow-minded fools say, you ought to know that by now. Are you all right?" she asked, smiling up at him softly until he was tempted to stroke one auburn curl away from her cheek and bent to kiss her.

But just then Breda came bustling though the corridor.

Lucien jumped away as though he had been burnt.

"The breakfasts are all done, the washing is well under way, and I can barely get them out of the tubs, they’re enjoying their baths so much."

"Take that fancy soap the doctor here gave us out for the bathroom at the back, and let them use it. I have plenty more at home," Riona said.

She caught Lucien looking down at her darkly.

"Right, Miss Connolly, I'm going to do my round of the ward with Dr. Kennedy, who seems to be the only doctor still working here at the minute. Then I want to see you in my office, once you have tidied yourself up, of course," Lucien suddenly ordered, his expression grim. Before she had a chance to say a word, he stalked away.

Riona looked down at her once-lovely dress with chagrin. The apron had done little to protect it from the oil, blood and others messes she had been exposed to. She went into the bathroom at the back and sponged it down as best she could, reinserted some hairpins to make her coiffure a bit more tidy, and then presented herself at his office door.

"Please sit," he said with a small wave of his hand. "Now, I would like an explanation as to what's been going on here this morning."

Riona wondered why he was in such a foul mood, but recounted simply and succinctly the state she had found the clinic in when she had arrived that morning.

"And why were you here so early?" he demanded.

"I couldn’t sleep, and I wanted to bring in some more of my medicines and herbs, to see if there were any new patients who could benefit from them. You had told me yourself last night that there had been several new admissions."

"How in the name of God did you come to be at that woman’s birth?" he declared with barely suppressed rage.

Riona bristled then. "None of the other doctors were here! They needed help. It was a difficult birth, twins, one a breach birth. One was even born blue, but we managed to save it."

"No,
we
didn’t,
you
did," Lucien pointed out coolly.

Riona looked at him blankly.

"I was on the other side of the window. I saw the whole thing," he admitted.

"Then if you saw it all, and that I did my best, why are you so angry?" Riona dared to ask him.

Lucien couldn’t tell her it was because he had wanted to find her naked in bed beside him when he had awakened with the morning. Or that he half-believed the remarks Dr. O’Carroll had made about her encouraging him, even though the detestable man was not to be trusted.

 
Instead he asserted, "Because you were simply meant to help with light tasks, not start doing surgery on the patients or arguing with my doctors and chasing them away. Nor do I want any young woman of mine being exposed to such horrors as drunks and women brawling, theft, drug abuse, scurrilous insults, prostitutes, and the gory details of child birth!"

Riona’s mouth fell open in astonishment, but not a word came out. They both sat glaring at each other for a moment until she managed to gasp, "Are you trying to tell me that I'm your
property
? That you want to order me about, to run my life?

"I don’t understand! Only yesterday, you wanted me to help you with your fever patient research. Now you want me to stay way from the clinic altogether? What on earth has changed?"

Lucien looked away with a blush, and then Riona
knew
.

"It’s because of last night, isn’t it?" she demanded. "We shared the most intimate of acts with each other last night. Now you think you have some sort of ownership and control over me.
 
You want to treat me like some
possession
, a fragile piece of porcelain that should be locked away in a glass cabinet, ornamental, gracious, but for no one’s eyes or hands but yours?"

Lucien reached out for Riona then, longing to kiss away the frown that had settled on her brow, and see the smiles she had been wreathed in the night before.

She stepped out of his way. "Well, I have news for you, Lucien. I refuse to accept it! I have two hands, and whatever medical skills I possess. No matter what's happened between us, I'm not going to give up helping people just because you think I need to be protected. I’m not an innocent virgin any more, Lucien. You saw to that. So now that you’ve made me a woman, please allow me to act like one."

Lucien winced at her words, and didn’t dare try to stop her as she stormed out of the room.

My God, she was absolutely right. He had ruined her!
In nine months’ time, it might be
her
in that bed giving birth. All because he had never once stopped to think that he was taking advantage of her position in his house, of her friendship for him, of her trust in him.

Lucien rested his head in his hands, and groaned. But what could he do now? He couldn’t go back even if he wanted to.

A tap at the door caused him to sit up straight, and Dr. Kennedy came in reluctantly.

"I know this is none of my business," he said to Lucien without preamble, "but I can see you're angry with Riona. She doesn’t deserve your wrath. Dr. O’Carroll and I asked for her help. She was telling the truth. Dr. O’Carroll did say the woman was a prostitute and deserved whatever bad things happened to her. He did try to steal the drugs.