It was no mystery to anyone within earshot of the Atherton Arms Hotel which of Dr. Mauldin’s visits was merely to administer the calomel syrup orally, and which of his visits was to give Burnell the “blacksmith’s rod,” as the staff at the hotel mockingly called it behind his back.

Dovie took no comfort in her husband’s illness or suffering. In fact, she was burdened by the knowledge that she herself had likely become infected, during the early days of their marriage, when forced to submit to Burnell’s humiliating marital desires.

Burnell had been unable to pursue her sexually for the last several years, due to the steadily worsening condition of his health and his contaminated reproductive organs. While this provided Dovie endless relief, she couldn’t help but suspect, with increasing dread, the disease was the reason she had avoided becoming pregnant.

Burnell Shipley made no secret of his wish for Dovie to provide him a son. He desired an heir to inherit his sprawling empire. But as the years went by, no pregnancy resulted. Despite Burnell’s frequent rages at what he deemed were Dovie’s failings as a wife, she was pleased to have failed to fulfill her husband’s most fervent demand.

Her apparent inability to conceive, coupled with her own growing symptoms, which included heavy female bleeding, the occasional and random onset of weakness, extremely painful abdominal cramps, and unexplained fevers that beset her without warning, led Dovie to suspect she had indeed become infected.

She was afraid to visit the doctor, for fear he would verify she was barren and inform Burnell. Dovie suffered no delusions about what her husband would do if he became convinced she couldn’t bear him a child.

Dovie was aware that Burnell’s mind was failing as rapidly as his body. She knew madness was one of the other signs of advanced “sporting pox.” One of the many ways his diminishing sanity was manifesting itself, other than his mood swings, fits of rage, and general distemper, was his outlandish belief that Dr. Mauldin was somehow going to eventually “cure” him.

Burnell often spoke, irrationally, of how he was going to impregnate Dovie as soon as he was “healed.” Were he to be faced with the truth of either reality—that he would never be cured of the venereal ailment not only afflicting him but slowly killing him, and that Dovie would never bear him a son—there was no telling how he would react.

Or what he would do. The only thing she was certain about was that Burnell Shipley would take the unpleasant realization of their mutual infection and her inability to conceive out on her.

Or on Idelle.

Burnell’s screams grew louder, reached a crescendo, and then faded to a wailing sob. There followed a sound of breaking glass and angry shouting. A moment later, Dr. Mauldin quickly emerged from Burnell’s room.