Papa had oft teased that she had never been a child, that she had come directly into this world wide-eyed and ready to work alongside him. An old soul, he had called her. “Did you have any issue with anything I imparted to you in my correspondence?”

He pressed his lips together in a mutinous line. “As you well know, most of my inquiries were superficial in nature.”

She gawked at him. “Are you that unwilling to give me even the smallest amount of credit?”

“Much of our letters was personal,” he flung out, his eyes snapping darkly.

She hesitated, pondering that and realizing it was indeed true. He might have reached out initially with medical questions, but their correspondence had developed into something much more casual and friendly in nature.

She considered him carefully, noting the muscle ticking angrily in his jaw. He was indeed heated over her deception, and she realized it was partly due to this. He felt betrayed.

“Are you a trained physician?” he challenged.

His very question squashed her flash of guilt. Given that females were not permitted to attend medical schools in Britain, she did not think that to be a fair question. She would have to travel abroad to France or America if she wished to become a physician, and only if she were accepted into a medical college there. She was no stranger to the difficulties such a task presented. Few women, even abroad, were admitted into medical schools.

She pursed her lips before replying, “It’s not so easy for my sex. Women are not permitted to be doctors . . . but I trained beside my father for years. I may not be a doctor, but I’m no amateur either. I have skills and—”

“How many?” He nodded once, prompting her to answer.

“How many what?” she asked with a sense of wariness.

“How many others have you written to pretending to be your father? How many others have you duped?”

Oh. She shifted the weight on her feet. “You make it sound criminal.”

“I am no legal expert, but I am fairly certain it is criminal. At the very least it’s immoral.”

She lifted her chin in defiance, refusing to let him shame her. It was easy for him to judge. The man was the heir to a dukedom. He could do anything or be anything. He would not know limitations.

If she lived in a different world, if she had been born a man, she would have applied and been admitted to medical school. As a little girl she had once wanted that. She had foolishly thought it was a future she could claim for herself . . . before Papa had explained to her that such things did not happen. He’d told her his own alma mater, Middlesex, would never admit a female. Nor would any of the other medical schools in the kingdom.