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Back The Art of Dying Save as PDF
Chapters (90)
  1. PROLOGUE
  2. 1849
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. EDINBURGH
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. FIFTY
  54. FIFTY-ONE
  55. FIFTY-TWO
  56. FIFTY-THREE
  57. FIFTY-FOUR
  58. FIFTY-FIVE
  59. FIFTY-SIX
  60. FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. FIFTY-NINE
  63. SIXTY
  64. SIXTY-ONE
  65. SIXTY-TWO
  66. SIXTY-THREE
  67. SIXTY-FOUR
  68. SIXTY-FIVE
  69. SIXTY-SIX
  70. SIXTY-SEVEN
  71. SIXTY-EIGHT
  72. SIXTY-NINE
  73. SEVENTY
  74. SEVENTY-ONE
  75. SEVENTY-TWO
  76. SEVENTY-THREE
  77. SEVENTY-FOUR
  78. SEVENTY-FIVE
  79. SEVENTY-SIX
  80. SEVENTY-SEVEN
  81. SEVENTY-EIGHT
  82. SEVENTY-NINE
  83. EIGHTY
  84. EIGHTY-ONE
  85. EPILOGUE
  86. HISTORICAL NOTE
  87. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  88. Extract from A Corruption of Blood
  89. 1850
  90. ONE

She stared at him for a moment, unsure of what to say. He looked well. His lean frame had filled out a little and he had lost his Edinburgh pallor. His face was burnished by the sun and the scar on his cheek had faded to a thin white line. She experienced an urge to reach out and touch him, but she suppressed it. She felt suddenly uncomfortable. He too looked as though he wanted to be elsewhere.

Sarah felt the need to say something, to acknowledge the awkwardness between them.

‘You didn’t write to me,’ she said.

It was both a statement and a question.

‘I did not think it appropriate to do so.’

‘Correspondence is a private affair and seldom a scandal.’

He had no answer to this. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked at his shoes.

‘Well, you didn’t write to me either,’ he replied, his discomfort making him churlish.

‘An address is usually necessary when engaging in correspondence, and I had none.’

‘We moved frequently. We were seldom in one place for any length of time.’

‘Did you not think that I might want to know what it was like? Visiting the great hospitals of Europe? An opportunity that I will never have,’ she added, an edge creeping into her voice. Now she was the one becoming churlish.

He said nothing for a while, then looked up at her, his brow furrowed.

‘I am sorry,’ he said. ‘More than you will ever know. But it is too late now, isn’t it? You are married.’

‘Marriage does not preclude friendship.’

‘I think your husband might disagree,’ he said and moved past her towards the stairs.

THIRTEEN

logo missingaven returned to the doctor’s study. He could see no point in skulking about in his room and he needed to get away from Sarah. Talking to her had only compounded his misery, though if he sought a return to the familiar, he could look to the fact that badly handling a discussion with Sarah had been a leitmotif of his time here. Another was that work always offered a useful distraction, and he wished to discuss the likely pathology underlying Mrs Glassford’s condition.

Mrs Glassford had been taken from the consulting room to one of the guest bedrooms to recover from her ordeal, although Raven was apt to think he had suffered more from the procedure than she had. At least she had been anaesthetised for the duration of her part in it.

‘If the seat of the disease is the ovary, why then is no attempt made to remove it?’ he asked as he entered the room, intent on putting his embarrassment behind him.