When the Heavens Fall (44 page)

“My lady, I am not a physician.”

Lady Benton only smiled. There was a sensuous turn to her mouth that fascinated Colin, and at the same time made him very nervous.

“Mr. Winslow, the physician has such an intimate relationship with his patients. I suppose you grow accustomed to such intimacy with your female patients.” She laughed because she saw Colin's face redden. “Well, I did not think there was a man in England with a blush left in him! I like you for it, sir! I would guess that some of your female patients must have shown you signs of their favor.”

Colin could not think of a single word to reply. He felt like an idiot sitting there. She saw his awkwardness. Suddenly she reached over and covered his hand with hers. “I like you, Mr. Winslow! It's refreshing to find a truly innocent man in our country. You must tell me more about yourself—I am truly fascinated.”

Colin stuttered a little, then asked a question that had been on his mind. “Is your husband here, my lady?”

“Oh, no. I lost my husband more than a year ago. He was Aaron Caldwell, the Right Honorable Viscount Benton. He died in a riding accident.”

‘”I'm very sorry for your loss, my lady.”

“Thank you, Mr. Winslow. It was a hard loss, but time does heal all wounds. One must go on with life.” She smiled and said, “Now, tell me of some of your victories in your practice.”

When Colin entered his room he found Dr. Teague standing there waiting for him. “Do I have the wrong room, Dr. Teague?”

“No, this is your room. I wanted to get a report of your meeting with Lady Benton.”

“Why, she merely wanted to know of the treatment for her brother.”

Teague had piercing eyes, which he now fixed on Colin. He had a face like a bird, with a beak of a nose. Right now those
eyes seemed to pin Colin on a board, as he himself had pinned butterflies and other insects.

“That is the first lie you have ever told me, Colin Winslow. I am sorry to see such dishonesty in you.”

Colin dropped his head. “I—I don't know what else to say, Doctor.”

“Well
I
do.” Teague said abruptly. “I am not a man of God, but I remember a sermon I heard when I was younger. It stayed in my mind for some reason all these years. It is very simple. I don't know where it is in the English Bible, but it says, ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.'”

Colin straightened and moved his head slightly from side to side. “Yes, Dr. Teague, that's in the book of First Corinthians. But, sir, a woman like that would not be looking with favor at a poor physician, if that is what you are afraid of. She wouldn't be interested in any man without a title.”

Teague laughed rather harshly. “So you think that all women are interested only in titles? You are wrong—dead wrong! Some of them are interested in what a man brings to the bed with him.”

Colin was accustomed to Teague's rough speech, but this still shocked him. “You can't possibly mean she has any immoral interest in me?”

“You are the brightest boy I have ever seen—and the densest in some ways! You know all the cures that go back two hundred years, but you can't see when a woman has interest in you.” He shook his head and said with something like disgust. “Listen to this, my boy—money, power, and women. These are the snares that destroy a man.”

“Well, they will not destroy me, sir!”

Teague threw up his hands. “You did not hear a word I said!” he said with disgust. “‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.' Just watch out for that woman. I've seen her kind before.”

“Yes, sir,” Colin replied neatly. After Teague left he shook his head.
Teague is not often wrong, but he has to be wrong about this
.
He looked about the room and studied the expensive furniture, the hangings on the walls, but his mind kept going back to when Lady Benton put her hands around his. He had seen something in her eyes that somehow drew him. He shrugged his shoulders in a motion of impatience and muttered, “Teague is wrong, he has to be!”

“I would like to see the record of what the physicians have done for your son, Lord Withington,” Teague said.

“Of course. I insisted that they write them all down.” He moved over across the room, opened the desk drawer, and pulled out a stack of papers. “Here it is, Dr. Teague.”

Teague took the papers and Colin stood close beside him. The two men studied through the documents. Instead of replying to Teague, Lord Withington asked abruptly, “What do you think, Mr. Winslow?”

Colin was surprised, for he had expected that Dr. Teague would deal with the man. He said briefly, “I think you can guess my thoughts, my lord.”

“Just tell me, what do you see, Mr. Winslow?” Lord Withington demanded.

“I am sorry, my lord, but what I see here is not the kind of medicine that Dr. Teague has taught me to practice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at this, they bled the young man four times and one time only two days apart.”

Lord Withington stared at Colin. “Isn't that common practice?”

“It is common practice and the old authorities all agree with it, but I see no value in it.”

“Dr. Perry told me it was to bleed out the bad blood.”

Colin could not help smiling. He did not know it, but he looked very young standing before the nobleman. “Bad blood, sir? No one has ever proved that there is such thing as bad blood. And if it did exist, how would anyone know that the blood
bled out or taken by leeches was the bad blood and not good blood?”

Lord Withington stared at the two men, then his eyes fixed on Teague. “Do you agree with this?”

“I do, sir.”

“And look at this, my lord,” Colin said. “Purging! I have never
seen
such purging!”

“But I understood that was common also.”

“It is common because physicians know of nothing else to do. Galen the old master said that bleeding and purging is good for men, so we do it, even if we do not understand why we do it.”

“You amaze me, Mr. Winslow.” Lord Withington laughed shortly and shot a direct glance at Colin. “Dr. Perry said you were a rebel.”

“I think that is exactly what he is,” Teague agreed slyly. “But you go to any physician and ask why purging is good and why bleeding is good for any disease, and they will give you long words and convoluted sentences. Which means in translation ‘I do not know.'”

“And I am looking at the medications the physicians gave your son. Listen to this—horn of unicorn. There is no such animal as a unicorn, at least not known to man. What could they possible give him? Perhaps the horn of a billy goat?” Colin began to grow angry. “Here it says the grease of a heron and the fat of a vulture.” His tone grew louder as anger filled his face. “And listen to this. They gave your son, so they say, a bezoar stone.”

“What in the world is that? I asked but I could not understand the answer,” Lord Withington said.

“It is supposedly the stone taken from the intestines of a Persian wild goat. And look, rooster testicles, crayfish eyes! On and on they tried all these remedies, not knowing what they were.”

“I see you are angry, Mr. Winslow.”

“I am a little, my lord.”

“Well, what would your treatment be, sir?”

“That is for Dr. Teague to say.”

“We would both say the same, my lord,” Teague said flatly. “In the first place, no more bleeding and no more purging. Second, there will be no more of these harsh medicines that were poured down your poor son's throat. The thing I would prescribe, and I think my young colleague would agree, is a good diet, very mild at first, rest, and some very mild medication. That which has been tried and we know is effective. No more bezoar stones, whatever the blasted things may be!”

“Very well, gentlemen, we shall try. It shall be as you say.”

Leslie Farley prospered almost immediately with the treatment that two men set forth. He slept long hours, and without all the terrible purging and bleeding he gained strength. The diet was very mild at first, but then increased in richness. He grew stronger and the color returned to his cheeks. He was able to get out of bed after three days, and within a week he was well on his way to health. Satisfied, Teague said, “I must get back to my practice, I am afraid.”

Lady Benton said, “I would be afraid for you to leave, Dr. Teague—unless you could leave your colleague here with us. I still fear for my brother.”

Teague's eyebrows rose, and he said in a spare tone, “If you insist, Lady Benton.”

Lady Benton did insist, and as Teague was leaving the last thing he said as he got into his carriage was “Be careful, boy!” He leaned out the window and grabbed Colin by the shoulder, pulled him close, and said fiercely, “That woman is a man-eater!”

“I think you are mistaken, Dr. Teague. The only time I have ever thought so.”

Teague shook his head and released Colin, and said, “God keep you, boy, even though I don't believe in God. If there is a God, I pray he will keep you from the clutches of that woman. I repeat, she is a man-eater.”

The driver spoke to the team of horses, and the coach left. Colin thought,
He is wrong about this. Dr. Teague is a wise man, but he knows nothing of women. He has never been married or even had a sweetheart as far as I know. He is mistaken about Lady Benton. He must be
!

GILBERT MERRIS

Reading Group Guide

The following reading group guide is intended to help you find interesting and rewarding approaches to your reading of
When the Heavens Fall.
We hope this enhances your enjoyment and appreciation of the book.

Set in Tudor-age England,
When the Heavens Fall
tells the epic tale of Brandon Winslow, a devious and troubled young man struggling to find his way and place in the world.

At the same time that Mary takes the throne as queen of England, the mischievous young Brandon Winslow decides to become a soldier, much to the dismay of his spiritually sound and noble parents, Stuart and Heather Winslow. It does not take long after enlisting for Brandon's womanizing, gambling, and drinking to get him into serious trouble.

Thought to be dead by his parents and the soldiers who knew him best, Brandon finds himself wandering futilely, struggling to survive among vagrants. He befriends a pair of Spanish gypsies and makes a small fortune moving between towns playing cards with rich gentlemen. Brandon soon hears of Queen Mary's zealous and bloody behavior in her determination to return England to Catholicism.

When rumor spreads that Mary is beginning to execute protestants on the basis of their religion, Brandon knows his family is in trouble. He is faced with a serious decision—to return home to protect his uncle, the protestant preacher Quentin Winslow, or simply to vanish into the vagabond life he has become accustomed to.