“Then when Lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished it bring forth death.” (James 1:14)

Testimonial of Dr. Robert Grace. March 8th, 1908

The tired adage stating that youth is impulsive and lacks discretion is, I have found, contrary to reality insomuch as material gain is concerned, and indeed, youth restrains itself in matters potentially detrimental to an enterprise if the consequences are sufficient to foil the ambitions therein proffered. This is why I have, to my great shame, kept this abominable secret hidden for decades, clutching its monstrous revelations to my bosom until old age has rendered all other considerations irrelevant as I stand eye to eye with Death at long last. Having retired from my medical practice, I need not fear the incredulity which this account will invariably afford and which, regardless of the solemnity with which it is presented, will lend ridicule unto my previous practice and, ultimately, discredit my woefully sound mind. And I assure you my mind is sound. It is the world that is mad, though I fear it is too late to rectify it in any meaningful manner.
The Worthington family had always prided themselves on their breeding. All the English gentry do, of course, but the Worthingtons have always been of extraordinary descent. As a consequence, their long line practiced rigorous exclusivity of admittance until its final termination. When considering, then, the privilege of my family’s acquaintance with their illustrious family, I must admit privilege of social acquaintance. Not all can claim a social circle boasting their radius. Indeed, Johnathan Worthington employed my father as his physician throughout the entirety of his long life, as did his father my grandfather, and so our families had been allies against sickness for generations. Naturally, his son William had sought my medical advice concerning his wife and her illness those many decades ago. Of course, I must state that he had not sought my advice in the past, for I was not considered as respectable in my medical practice as my father and grandfather were, for I was a doctor that even they thought of dismissively, and, indeed, they so vehemently opposed in my chosen field of study that my father refused to speak to me even unto his death. I suppose it is ironic, then, that I feared so much the reification of medical business since it was, in the eyes of most British citizenry, a farcical field of medicine, even if it was lucrative.
I was, in short, a doctor dedicated to treating hysteria in women.
As I stated, it was very lucrative and I soon established myself in a rather large clinic in a seaside village in beautiful Cornwall. This clinic was more of a rambling assortment of thatch-and-stone cottages built long before my arrival. Using the money I acquired in London from my burgeoning practice, I moved thereto and renovated and repurposed those buildings. They were inexpensive to purchase, when compared to similar dwellings on the rural outskirts of London, and so I gladly claimed them.
Since we were so far South on the tip of Britain, many of our patients came and stayed with us for months. Their stay benefitted them not only with treatments, but with scenery and the fresh seaside air. Wealthy widows even wintered there, so greatly did the la titillation improve their physical and spiritual health during those frigid, snowy months. I was delighted by my work, of course, not withstanding the drudgery of it, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the betterment of my patients, which was ofttimes amply evident within the first treatment. Japes and snide remarks aside, I was very contented in that seaside village and would, in my free hours, go walking about the beaches and moors for exercise and to clear my mind. My life seemed idyllic, insomuch as a mortal man’s might be.
I was enjoying one such walk when I saw a ship with a familiar flag gently rocking toward the narrow beach. It dropped anchor soon enough and a small boat cast off from its bosom, carrying three figures which I could not discern at the distance. They rowed toward the beach up from which the seaside village was strewn among its shrub greenery, shouldered on either side by the rising hills. Realizing that the flag belonged to none other than the Worthington family, I set off at once downhill, hurrying through the winding streets of the village and down onto the beach. My attentions were rewarded by the grave smile of my childhood friend, William, as he and a servant unloaded the boat of its belongings, including his beautiful, yet strangely catatonic, wife, Virginia.
I hailed him and immediately lent my assistance in unburdening the small craft. We spoke as we carried the luggage ashore.
“This is fortuitous, Will,” I said, “to be here to greet you upon your arrival.”
“Fortuitous, indeed,” he replied, “even if in unfortunate circumstances.”
“What ails?” I asked, unable to prevent my eyes from wandering to his unresponsive wife. “Does the trade go well in the Americas?”
“Very well,” William said. “Dickens was wise to milk the Golden Calf. Following his example, I have gold enough now to profit in even a back-alley enterprise.”
“Does the Gold Rush persist, then?” I asked, having read in a newspaper an article chronicling the American obsession with gold in California. They swarmed that region, it seemed, like ants to honey, and many found themselves therein stuck.
“It is a Gold Rush of a different kind,” he said, bleakly, “and of a different coast. But, yes, I have struck gold, so to speak, and the enterprise turns more profit than I could dare dream of. Yet, I did not come to Cornwall to speak of base material things. Rather, I came to seek your assistance in a personal matter.”
“I shall help in any way I may,” I said.
“I hope so,” he said.
We had finished unloading the boat, except for its silent passenger.
William climbed aboard and gently raised his wife to her feet, guiding her from the boat as the servant and I steadied the boat athwart the puckish waves of the sea. The married couple stepped down onto the sand and William held his wife’s unfeeling hand. He turned to me.
“My wife, Virginia, is stricken with some unknown malady. I have gone to every creditable London doctor I could find, yet none prevailed in effecting a cure. Remembering your modest clinic here, at the tip of England, I thought it wise to seek your aid.”
“Perhaps you ought to have taken her to the Ivory Coast,” I jested. “My practice is in such ill repute that witch doctors are said to offer better counsel.”
William did not laugh, nor even smile. I realized, for the first time, that my friend was considerably pale and gaunt. I attributed this, at the time, to sea sickness. Yet, even so, I could not help but notice how ashen his face was and how hollow his eyes. Even his mustache was grayed, as if he had aged ten years in the two since I had last spoken to him. Moreover, he was balding, the spate of his head opening like the tonsure of a monk. His remaining brown hair had lost its composure and seemed to be unraveling in the Atlantic wind.
His wife, too, was pale, but it seemed that she was so pale that she had a glow about her, not unlike the Cornwall moon as it steered close to the Celtic Sea. What her blue eyes saw, in their vacant expression, I could not guess, but it was not the cliff-walled coastline or the green hills or the sloped beach, nor any personage within her immediate scope.
“Come,” I said. “Let me take you to my clinic. If your manservant will remain, I will send some of my employees down to help fetch the luggage.”
“Excellent idea,” William said.
We walked up the shore, its sand gradually giving way to shingle and rock and finally scrab grass, then to the heath that covered most of the hills and moors with its gorse and flowers. I was anxious that I take my friend and his wife to one of my cottages as quickly as possible. I feared they might require rest, for they both appeared so sickly. I obliged Mrs. Worthington, and William, in aiding her in the ascent to the village, thus unburdening one sickly personage of another. Contrary to her vacant expression and ill pallor, I could feel warmth emanating from Mrs. Worthington where I had expected to discover pneumatic clamminess. Indeed, the glow upon her was as much a trick of sensation as much as of light. Women often complained of being chilled, often owing to their fairer natures, yet I had known during the course of administering treatments that a woman’s temperature could easily rise to such ferocities as any overworked farmer in his field. And so it seemed now that Mrs. Worthington was ever in such a heat as those goatish labourers.
“I fear it will rain soon,” I said. “But that is bound to happen in Cornwall at some time or other.”
As expected, Mrs. Worthington said nothing in reply, her emptied eyes surveying the cobbled streets and cottages with as much recognition as they did the seaside cliffs. William, on the other hand, seemed to grow anxious.
“I fear a squall is to come,” he said. Then, more to himself than to me, he muttered, “It will likely chase us toward America once again. Or will it remain here in Cornwall? It knows all. Of course it will remain.”
Before I could inquire as to his particular reference, I saw three of my midwives carrying various supplies back to the house. They had went to see the baker, the butcher, and the local farmers. A consequence of so many boarders was a great need of food. Being that my patients paid well for their stay, I always granted my diligent employees the liberties of indulging in victuals if they were so compelled and the prices were reasonable. Since I deferred to their womanly instinct for fair prices, I had saved tremendously in terms of scatch-of-straw savings, and it inspirited them with affable usefulness. I hailed them as we crossed paths.
“Emily, Charlotte, Ann. If you are not otherwise preoccupied, please deliver what you must to the clinic and then hasten to the shore. There you will find a manservant with sizeable luggage in need of relocation to the unoccupied cottage.”
“Of course, Dr. Grace,” they said as one.
The three midwives curtsied and did as I bade them, joining my escort to the clinic and then returning downhill toward the shore to see to Lady Worthington’s effects.
Newly arrived at the clinic, I guided William and Lady Worthington to her personal cottage among the cluster. It was, I must say, much like the other cottages, albeit nearer to the sea cliff than the others. It was modest and cozy, warm and comfortable. There was a bed in one corner, a writing desk, various papers and a quill for inking such correspondence as might be needed, and an oil lamp. The hearth was not aflame, as it was midsummer and no want of fire was evident in the sea-blown winds. The windows were open, rather, and afforded a wonderful view of the greenish-blue hued ocean as it sang its lovely song across the moors.
“Are these accommodations adequate?” I asked.
“They are quite adequate,” William said with little more than a glance across the interior.
“Should I close the windows?” I asked. “I never know the preference of a lady, but I suppose neither do such ladies until they have been here long enough to appreciate the briny breath of the sea.”
“Opened. Closed. You are the doctor” My friend’s attitude was impatience bordering upon petulance. He seemed quite ready to leave. “I must away soon,” he said, stroking his mustache as if in vexation. “I should like to view a treatment, however, before I consign Virginia to your care.”
“As you wish,” I said. “But I must first inquire as to whether the lady has imbibed sufficiently today.”
“Water? Wine? Does it matter?” he said, growing perceivably agitated.
“Water would be preferable,” I said. “The treatment can tax a woman’s bodily fluids.”
“She has enough water in her,” William said. “Now. Please. Treat her.”
I acquiesced to his hasty request, thinking it would possibly reassure William and thus restore his health alongside his wife’s. I took him and his wife to the most isolated cottage among those I owned— my treatment cottage. By then, Anne, Charlotte, and Emily had returned and I requested that they prepare his wife. I always used this most isolated cottage for treatments because it was farthest from any neighbor whose sensibilities might be upset by the conclusion of a treatment. Indeed, one never knew how clamorous a treatment might be, especially in newly arrived patients whose reactions have not been properly gauged.
While William and I waited for the midwife to prepare his wife, I casually queried him about his wife’s condition and her former behavior prior to her current symptoms.
“Normally Virginia is a very prominent member of London society,” he said, trembling as he spoke. “She is a darling of many a drawing room and the heartbeat of every soiree she attends. I have heard many a well-bred lady remark that without Virginia in attendance a ball is a dead affair without a pulse. She has always had ample energies to pursue whatever aim was her intent, and she turned this innate vivacity toward endeavors beyond what was strictly a woman’s sphere. Often, whenever I would leave home to tend to business she would accompany me. The most recent adventure, however, brought us to America. Though it was a long, arduous journey, Virginia committed to it in earnest and soldiered through it rather impressively. But gradually the business itself debilitated her and soon she succumbed to her current quiescence. At first, it was mere ‘vapours’ and lethargy. The American doctors, while brutes in their manners, used the available London treatments as well as they could. Smelling salts. Bleedings. Opium and other various medications which I cannot recall. The same treatments achieved no better in London. Soon her fatigue gave over to malaise and then lassitude. Finally, she vacated herself and has been hollow ever since. She eats but little and does not respond to speech.”
I nodded to my friend’s concise history on his wife’s deterioration. “While some of these symptoms are certainly signposts for hysteria, I must administer a treatment and measure the results of the reaction to verify such a diagnosis.
“Thank you, Robert,” he said. “I only ask that you cure my wife, and do so with discretion.”
“Discretion is crucial, indeed,” I agreed. “In hearts, arts, and professions.”
It should be said that this cottage on the outskirts of the village was of a unique discretion in and of itself. To afford my patients privacy during our sessions the windows were covered by heavy drapes that allowed neither sunlight nor the scrutiny of curious eyes to penetrate the inner secrecy of the cottage. In place of natural light I employed candlelight which, even then, glowed in subdued illumination as Mrs. Worthington was denuded. My patients’ seemed to prefer this ambiance. It contributed positively to their therapies. Having inquired as to whether they might prefer more natural light, my patients all confirmed that the dim haloes of candlelight was more than sufficient and, verily, increased the effectiveness of their treatments. The only deviancy in fondness for this methodology was that my patients occasionally requested a nightly administration with the windows open, should the stars and the moon be bright enough in their illuminations so that the darkness not hinder my capacity to work.
The midwife aided Mrs. Worthington in donning the patient gown that all of my patients wore during their treatments. It was a thin white linen garment spun seemingly of gossamers. Its touch, I had been informed by my patients, was very pleasing and conducive to their treatment and subsequent rehabilitation.
It must be said that I often delegated the more menial labours of the treatment to the many midwives I employed. Yet, since this was my friend’s wife, and since he was present to observe the treatment, I felt it incumbent upon myself to reassure him of the treatment’s efficacy, as well as my professional pursuance of proper procedure and diligent care in regard to the patient. Thus, once Virginia had been laid comfortably upon the medical bed, I directed her legs apart and applied an olive oil from Greece—which had no known negative reactions—and, in occupational manner similar to the hundreds of other female patients I had serviced through the years, stimulated the petaled womb.
The reaction was immediate. Virginia’s breathing increased in rapidity and depth. Her eyes regained focus, her attention returning once again to her immediate surroundings and, in particular, her body. There even seemed to appear, in the corners of her lips, a smile that evoked not only presence of mind, but intense cognizance. Had I the boastfulness unknown to my character, I might have complimented myself on the change being akin to Lazarus waking from death.
Despite my attentive care and the positive reaction from Mrs. Worthingon, William turned away and refused to watch the remainder of the treatment. It upset him, I supposed, as it likely did all British husbands who viewed their wives as composed matriarchs of the household. The moans and the groans that accompanied such treatments were, for such men, irreconcilable with the notion of an angelic female presence premised to be of heavenly spheres. I had never been so susceptible to such prejudices myself, even in the beginnings of my journey into medicine. Rather, I assumed what was good for the Gander was good for the Goose, and, so, such so-called “secret pollutions” needed to be conducted so as to retain the sanity and the dignity of the matriarch in question.
At length, I brought Virginia to the culmination of her hysterical paroxysm— or as the French deem it, du titillation du clitoris—and she underwent the usual strong reaction, albeit much stronger than the usual patient. So strong were these spasms that she nearly threw herself from the bed. Anne and Charlotte had to restrain her until her gyrations and flailing subsided. When the spasms had ceased, she lay panting upon the medical bed, staring up at me with an expression of not only awareness, but of extreme gratitude.
And yet, like the tides at full moon, she gradually ebbed away, her presence retreating into.dormancy and unresponsiveness.
“It may take several treatments,” I confided to my friend.
“I suspected as much,” William said gruffly. “That is why I brought her things. She is to stay here with you while I am away in America. My business ventures are too important to neglect, even for the sake of my wife.”
William’s words seemed not only callous, but his tone was gruff and terse, as if he was suffering a moment of lockjaw. His mustache seemed to bristle with each word.
“You said you took her to several doctors?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “They tried bleeding, tonics, elixirs, laudanum, cocaine, and even sunshine. To no avail. If this…treatment…does not yield results then I shall have to seek a surgeon to exact the change. There is a surgeon in London who does such work. Dr. David Severan. Perhaps you have heard of him?”
I had indeed heard of Dr. Severan. He was a butcher of women. A savage with a knife. He believed that to cure hysteria, the female genitals needed to be removed. In particular, the clitoris. The barbarian had savaged many a lady, and yet, not surprisingly, he was held in high esteem among the medical practitioners of London, whereas I, in my minimal reputation, was largely derided as a charlatan and witch doctor. Much of this criticism seemed to me to be resentment toward not only the efficacy of my methods, but the affluence of my clinic. My patients enthusiastically endorsed my clinic among their confidential circles, so whereas my reputation was singularly repudiation among my colleagues, it burgeoned prosperously among my patients.
“It is best that you do not seek his…treatment,” I said, carefully. “Virginia has a greater chance of recovery here. More importantly, she has a greater chance of recovery intact.”
“I hope you are right,” he said. “There are some pioneers that would say that sacrifice is all that can attain certain results.”
I did not wish to imagine Virginia’s moans of relief rising to screams of agony as there passed along her womanhood not a warm, nudging hand, but a cold, cruel blade.
“Now,” William said, “your pay.”
Before I could protest, William brusquely shoved a rather hefty pouch into my hand. It was the size of a human heart and astonishingly heavy.
“It is not a conventional payment,” he told me. “But it is copious. This I assure you.” Without a further word, he headed toward the door as if he was in dire need of fresh air. He opened the door and stepped out of the dark cottage and into the blanching sunlight. His face was all sneering agony as he shielded his eyes. I followed after him, wanting to ask him a few more questions regarding Virginia’s condition.
“William!” I called. “Wait a moment!”
But by the time I had exited the cottage he had disappeared down a cobbled path around the cottages. His stride had been fiercely adamant and I had no doubt that he had heard me, but was willfully affecting ignorance. Discouraged, I let him go upon his way, turning my attention instead to the pouch still clutched in my hand. The pouch itself was of a rich velvet that glistened in the midday sun, like newly pressed veldt. Pulling at the drawstring, the pouch opened its mouth to reveal uncanny marvels and curios that astounded me. I do not write this lightly, for I had been party to many transactions that profited me greatly and which afforded me the keyhole to the vaults of some of the wealthiest Brits in the world. Yet, the contents of this pouch outshone all previous payments. There were opalescent pearls glinting within a clutter of strange green jewels neither like emeralds or diamonds, but hued as if like green ice. Looking at the former, I bethought to see bubbles frozen within that solidified liquid. Stranger than this were the ingots of gold. The ingots were strange of shape, spiraled and smooth like stems of coral, and their golden gleam was milky white, like honeyed cream rather than yellow yolk. A cursory glance revealed this, and I quickly drew the drawstring tight once again, suddenly suspecting my Cornish neighbors of covetous treachery.
Returning indoors, I found Anne and Charlotte were helping Virginia to stand from the bed. Emily was preparing Virginia’s bath. I was pleased to see some colour visible in Virginia’s face now, even in the dim candlelight, and thanked my midwives for what was, I thought to have been, an excellent treatment. This done, I went to my own private cottage to put away so much exotic wealth that had been so unceremoniously thrust into my possession.

***

After the midwives had dried and dressed Virginia, I took her to her room and sat her down on her bed.
“Rest, if you like,” I told her. “I will have Anne or Charlotte bring some food and water for you very soon. Later, you will dine with me and the rest of my patients this evening.”
Remembering William’s request for discretion, and realizing that several of my other patients were doubtlessly inclined toward gossip, I corrected my error.
“To the contrary,” I said. “Perhaps it would be best if you dined in your cottage tonight. Gossip is an infectious disease for which there is no cure.”
I turned toward the door, but heard what seemed a muttered word among the cooing wind. Glancing back to Virginia, I observed that she seemed to be watching me— that she seemed to see me for the first time— but just as soon as this recognition appeared, it left her, and what was left were the most beautiful blue eyes devoid of soul that I had ever seen.

Coming again to the treatment cottage, I overheard my midwives feeding the air with their gossip.
“And his eyes never blinked!” Anne said. “Not e’en once!”
“Aye’ and what a stink he had to ‘im,” Charlotte said. “Like a mackerel left out all day in the sun.”
“His skin was what chilled me most to me bones,” Emily remarked. “No man should glisten green in daylight like that.”
“And the bulges of his neck!” Anne remarked. “Like he swallowed a chicken halfway down and it was tryin’ to climb out!”
They giggled like silly geese, but upon my opening the door they immediately tightened their tongues and went about changing the sheets of the bed and lighting incense to cleanse the air. No amount of incense could ever cleanse air tainted by mean words, as they well knew. I had had to lecture them many times on the needful discretion of my practice. They were industrious girls, much to their credit, but I have heard that siblings have always been loose of lips amongst themselves. Being a single child I would not know from personal experience, though, as I have said, William and I were as brothers when children.
“Of whom are you speaking?” I demanded, eyeing them all in turn. “It is most uncharitable, this characterization.”
“Pardon us, Dr. Grace,” Anne said. “It’s just that we dinna’ think it nat’ral is all. That man of his.”
“Mr. Worthington?” I asked, sternly.
“No, sir!” Emily exclaimed with a rolling sigh. “We mean only his manservant. He was a strange one, if e’er there were!”
“Speak no more of it,” I said. “William has been a friend of mine since childhood. Our families have been interwoven throughout history. If he has hired a manservant of strange aspect, then it is due to the generosity of his heart, and not because of whatever it is you are implying.”
“We meant nothing scandalous, sir!” Charlotte said. “And we’re sorry to offend. It just that he seemed strange, is all.”
“Is all!” agreed Anne.
I had no informed opinion on the matter, frankly, for I paid little attention to William’s manservant. Yet, if William employed him, then he must have been a man of some integrity and virtue, therefore I would not have him bandied about by the vicious winds of womanly gossip.
“Charlotte,” I said. “Prepare some small meal for Mrs. Worthington. Cheese and bread and some vegetables, perhaps. And bring her water. I doubt she has had enough liquids to compensate for the treatment.”
Charlotte curtsied and went to see to Virginia. Anne and Emily remained behind, preparing the treatment cottage for the next patient.

***

That evening was windy and warm and so I suspected a storm later in the night. Presently, I had already taken my seat at the dinner table and Anne and Charlotte were serving the food they had prepared. It is something to be said that while my midwives suffered from a vice of chattiness, they were possessed of other virtues that distinguished them brightly from the normal rabble of Cornish laymen. They were as diligent as the others, but they also knew how to please women of higher rank, whether it was their talents for cooking, their deferential manners, or their adroitness in applying my techniques during therapy sessions. Much to my satisfaction, there were some patients that preferred Anne, Emily, or Charlotte to administer their treatments. Charlotte, being the most youthful of expression—as well as years—and the prettiest among the three sisters, was a particular favorite among these discerning patients. I often compensated the three of them in generous measure, which assured their continued service to my clinic.
I had, at that time, four patients in my keeping, including Mrs. Worthington. Three of them joined me for dinner, whereas I sent Charlotte to bring Virginia’s dinner to her cottage and remain there, feeding her as much as she might. Earlier, when she had brought that poor woman’s food and water she said that the unfortunate patient had not eaten much, though she had drank when the cup was proffered to her lips. Her appetite was, thus, wanting.
It was, therefore, a great surprise when— as my three patients and I began our supper—that we heard a door open and the hurried rush of steps into the dining room. There appeared Charlotte, looking flustered. Behind her, Virginia followed, stepping in from the threshold’s shadows.
“Mrs. Worthington is feeling much better,” Charlotte said by way of explanation, “and should like to join you for dinner.”
“Excellent!” I nearly cried, rising from the table in my eagerness to make measure of her transformation. “Excellent! Prepare for her a place at the table at once!”
Charlotte guided Virginia to an open place at the table, next to the Widow Carter and across from Lady Falswell. I watched Virginia take her seat, studying her with a doctor’s meticulous eye. There had indeed been a remarkable transformation in her presence. Her walk, her gaze, her every movement was marked with cognizant deliberation. No longer was she an empty doll guided about by a changing escort; now she was inhabiting herself with volition and intention. It was marvelous and gratifying to me as both a doctor and as the lifelong friend of her husband.
Yet, there seemed to be in Mrs. Worthington a certain presence of self that was out of measure with the modest reserve of most women of her rank. How can I circumscribe my meaning when it is, by its very nature, beyond articulation by either word or image? She seemed a wine goblet brimming overmuch. She was a pagan vision. Her fair hair was loose upon her shoulders, unkempt like a farmer’s daughter, and she wore only a simple gown that belied her husband’s apparent fortune. While Mrs. Carter and Ms. Atwood tolerated Mrs. Worthington’s remiss sense of etiquette, Lady Falswell was quite obviously displeased, for not only had she gone through great strains to prepare herself for dinner, but having gone through such great strains proved futile in the struggle with Virginia’s natural beauty, however slovenly and negligent in aspect and presentation.
“Mrs. Worthington,” I said, resuming my seat, “it is a delight to see such a stark change. And after your first treatment!”
“It is as if I have woken from a dream,” she said, her voice a husky cadence that was not at all displeasing. It reminded me of an opera singer I had once heard in London whose notes did not so much twitter, but bloomed resonant and full in the ear.
“We must talk about it at length after dinner,” I said, “if it is not too taxing on you.”
“Of course,” she said, “but I doubt much revelation will come of it. I remember little after arriving in America. It seems like ages ago, and, if not for your kind Charlotte, I would have likely suffered an acute attack of the nerves upon coming to myself.”
Charlotte had, at the moment, been laying Mrs. Worthington’s plate before her, and she smiled obligingly. I resolved in that moment that I should increase Charlotte’s wages. I paid all three sisters well for their work, but I knew, by light of Virginia’s praise, that they deserved yet more than had been their recompense.
“It is no wonder your nerves should suffer,” Mrs. Carter remarked. “Such far travel would wreck my soul. Why, my journey from London nearly jostled me unto a frayed spool. I liked to have thought my seams had come undone! I could only imagine the hourly frights upon a vessel tossed by the capricious sea.”
“It was a frightening journey,” Virginia said. “We had thought ourselves taken by storms on more than one occasion. That we do not people the bottom of the sea is a miracle, I suppose.”
“I would have rather sunk to the bottom of the sea,” Mrs. Falswell opined, “than set foot in that barbarian land of Yankees. Who knows what setting foot upon such a savage shore could do to your soul? Would very likely work an uncouthness upon you and render you a savage yourself.” She eyed Mrs. Worthington’s long hair and minimal dress as she thus spoke. As tight as Mrs. Falswell’s braids were— pulling her high forehead yet higher—her frown was yet tighter with displeasure and disapproval.
“Pardon my saying so,” Virginia said casually, “but however uncouth I might be, I certainly know the etiquette of prayer and its preference to pugnacity. Indeed, it is particularly important at the dinner table where we have spread before us so much for which we should show our appreciation. Even the barbarians of America enjoy this insight.”
“And how do you pray, Mrs. Worthington?” Mrs. Falwell said, her scorn as evident as the wrinkles ringing her eyes.
“In like manner to yourself,” Virginia said. “As you pray in your innermost heart while having your treatments. For that is why you are here, too, is it not? Because you cannot pray. Because the thrill of speaking your Lord’s name in Church is not half so exuberant as when your loins are being manipulated . How many times do you call your god then? I should think the quantity of invocation and the quality are drastically superior in one situation rather than the other.”
Mrs. Falswell blushed deeply, her mouth and eyes gaping as if struck dumb. She balefully eyed Virginia throughout the remainder of dinner. Mrs. Carter and Ms. Atwood remained silent also, their eyes affixed sheepishly to their plates as they ate, daring not even a wayward glance in Virginia’s direction. As a doctor I was mortified to witness so much strife and trauma among my patients, but as a man I was so taken with Virginia’s refreshing candour that I could not but exhilarate in the combative exchange. It was quite promising, if not invigorating.

***

After dinner, the patients retired to their cottages. I took it upon myself to personally escort Mrs. Worthington to her cottage so that I might ensure that her recovery was lasting. I would have been aghast had she fell to a swoon as the rest of us blithely retired to bed, leaving the poor woman abandoned to the elements. The sun had nearly sunk into the sea and the moon rode high, proclaiming its dominion in the darkening sky. A ring around the moon prophesied rain.
“I enjoy nightly walks,” Virginia remarked. “Often I will take several turns about the courtyard when at home. Alone. Beneath the starry vaults of heaven.”
“Oh yes,” I said, remembering fondly the courtyard at the Worthington estate. William and I had learned archery within its columns “It is a lovely expanse of gardens.”
“Indeed,” she said. “Ideal for solitary moonlit walks.”
“I would suggest not taking such moonlit walks here,” I said. “For the land and the sea become as bandits at night, laying in wait to ambush any unwary perambulator. They can easily trick the eye, given sufficient shadows. The cliffs are particularly treacherous. There was a boy who went running out at night to seek an escaped goat, and the misbegotten venture resulted in tragedy. He fell from one of the highest cliffs. It took days before the family found his body.”
“A tragedy, surely,” Virginia said, “but I wonder if the boy did not feel like he was flying in that fleeting moment of suspension. Had he no point of reference, it must have been as if he had been taken suddenly from the ground and ascended into the dark chasm of night. That would have been a strange thrill. Do you not think so?”
“A thrill, perhaps,” I allowed, “until the fall reached its conclusion.”
“Yes, but the death must have been upon the instant, which means there was no lingering life with which agony might rake its talons. Pure oblivion ensued. He was freed from the suffering of this world at the moment of contact with the ground, like a sleeper upon a pillow. It is similar to your treatments, I should think, or so near as my limited knowledge might compare. There is an acute acceleration of sensation, culminating in a terminal catharsis, and then an obliterating cessation of all residual life. What remains is a hollow husk freed from its own nerves.”
“There is no thrill in plummeting to one’s death,” I said firmly, even as I admired Virginia’s eloquence. “Nor was it a ‘thrill’ for his parents to have to fetch his remains upon the shoreline and bury him in his terrible state.”
“Of course, of course,” Mrs. Worthington said. “As you say. But it cannot be denied that there is pleasure in it. Much more pleasure than in living a full life as someone else’s resource and means. And after oblivion…well, who knows? A new life? The afterlife? Is that where I am now? This afterlife without William or his infernal machinations…”
“I do not understand,” I said.
“Of course not,” she said. “You are of Man. I am of Woman. It is impossible for you to understand.”
“And what of the consequences?” I pressed on. “The boy is dead. The family grieves.”
“Are you saying my husband will grieve me because of these treatments? Does the worm mourn the apple?”
“Your metaphors are too enigmatic for me,” I confessed.
“What I will say,” she said, pausing at her cottage door, “and what will become more apparent as weeks pass and you achieve a certain clarity— and a certain prominence, as will I— is that the consequences of doing what one likes and doing what someone else likes are drastically different. But I suppose if I had done what I preferred, I would have never married William, and thus would never have been at the mercy of what he most wanted.”
This riddle given, Mrs. Worthington bid me good night and retired to her cottage. The admission shames me, but I lingered by her door for some time before finally retiring to my own bed. That night I could see nothing in my dreams but her bright blue eyes.

***

The coming days were filled with treatments. All four of my patients prospered. In particular, Mrs. Worthington improved considerably, though there were times when she seemed quite listless and I found her standing near the cliffs, gazing vacantly out to sea. She remained pale, and retained what I deemed to be her “lunar luminescence”, even when flush with her treatments. Occasionally, I had to employ the midwives in keeping Mrs. Worthington and Lady Falswell apart, for any interactions between the two would unerringly result in conflict. Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Atwood found no fault in Mrs. Worthington, but I did notice their reluctance to converse with her. I attributed this to Mrs. Worthington’s general aloofness, and occasional forthrightness.
The other patients never deigned to dine with me again, not so long as Virginia was afforded a place at the table. I could not understand it well, then, and dimissed it as feminine envy since she was the prettiest among all of the patients. Indeed, at times I wondered if she was not the prettiest woman in all of Cornwall. My present opinion on the matter, however, is that the other patients, being women, understood more keenly than I could what was so terribly wrong with Virginia, and so they shunned her; not in protest to her presence, but in abhorrence to her presence. Virginia seemed to take pleasure in the abhorrence she garnered about her person, and I wondered if what she said was true or was merely to achieve such a response.
She engaged me quite willingly in conversation, which I thought only natural since I was her husband’s friend. It was pleasant to converse with her, for she was a wit, truly, and a flavourful change from the common Cornish stock. Her blue eyes were beguiling as she spoke and I found myself quite carried away by her presence and personality. She was well-read, and opinionated in a very agreeable manner, even when she was being disagreeable.
“It never ceases to amaze me,” she said quietly, after a treatment, “how jaded Man is concerning his own sexual capacities, and yet how bewildered he can be at the slightest glimpse into Woman’s capacities for carnal pleasures.”
“I am not one of those men,” I said, checking her heart rate for any stumbling rhythms. “I pride myself on my extensive library and its works by Woman.”
“Such as?” she said.
“Scheherazade’s tales captivate me,” I said, “not for their fantastical elements, but for their revelations about Woman. And, indeed, Sei Shonagon pleases me, too, with her brief confessions, as does Murasaki Shikibu’s extended tale of her beloved ‘shining lord’. To be perfectly honest, I prefer to read works written by Woman to better understand Woman and what she most cherishes. For, it seems to me, that when a writer sets pen to paper, she is sacrificing life itself— moment to moment— to impart upon a feeble sheet so easily destroyed by rain, fire, or even a careless hand, and so, knowing this, she commits her most cherished thoughts, feelings, and revelations.”
“Do you believe writing to be a means of therapy?” she asked.
“Many do,” I said. “It is how Man, and Woman, copes with chaotic life.”
“And so you would think that poetry is a rein upon the world?”
“Or upon the heart to keep it from bucking wildly.”
“From horror,” she said. It was not a question, and her tone broached no argument.

***

Unlike the other patients, Virginia took treatment every day, sometimes twice a day. Nor did she ever seem to suffer the menstruations that prevented my other patients from taking treatments every one week in four. Virginia seemed such an immaculate creature in the this regard, and in many other aspects, that I marveled that she should be so untouched by the crucibles of Womanhood.
“I would prefer you administered my treatments,” she said, her pink lips curling ever so slightly upwards. “As I do believe you would prefer it, as well.”

Not many weeks passed until, one by one, my other patients departed unexpectantly from Cornwall, claiming to have had regained themselves miraculously from their bout of hysteria. At that time I was dumbfounded as to their precipitous exodus. On the other hand, I am ashamed to confess my pride complicit in dismissing their departures as a result of my improving methodology, for I was enamored of my own skills and deluded myself with my own efficacy.
I fancied no complaint when they left. The truth was that William had given to surfeit in his payment and could have likely bought my exclusive services for years to come, and the whole village itself. This situation also allowed my total divestment of all concerns except his lovely wife. This proved both enlightening and problematic, for she was a strange creature and had notions wildly divergent from most London ladies.
And yet the storms brewed on, even in the absence of my previous patients. Soon my midwives, Charlotte, Anne, and Emily all conspired to suggest something disagreeable about Mrs. Worthington.
“There’s something strange in her airs,” Emily said to me one day, while I was overseeing their chores around the cottages, “and I donna’ mean how freely she wags her tongue. Most uppity ladies speak to impress, even if it means being salacious, but she’s not speakin’ for sake of twistin’ knickers. She jus donna’ care a’ tall!”
To my chagrin, I must admit that I was more concerned with studying the widwives at that moment than I was their insinuations. Nor was my attentiveness in any way obscene or lecherous. The truth was that I was having another epiphany concerning the world of Woman. You see, I had always suspected that the corset, and indeed all such fashion, had much to do with the “vapours” that had hitherto beset the ladies of high society. The poor never seemed to suffer these noble illnesses inherent in the female sex, or else they abided it in silence as they did all other burdens they had been born to. Perhaps, then, it had as much to do with attire as it did with gentle breeding.
“Dr. Grace?” Charlotte said.
I realized that I had been studying the unencumbered bent in her abdomen as she stooped over the wash basin and cleaned some undergarments upon the washboard. Had she a corset she would have been too constricted and breathless to perform such strenuous labours.
“I am sorry, Charlotte,” I said. “I was lost in thought.”
Emily whispered something to Anne, upon which the latter giggled. Charlotte smiled broadly at me and I could not help thinking that I was the center of some jest. But Cornish women have always been given to delighting in jests.
“Perhaps you ought to assist Charlotte in her work,” Emily said, snickering.
“Hush, Emily!” Charlotte hissed.
“Aye,” said Anne, “she is getting her dress all wet! Dr. Grace could hold back her bloom!”
Anne and Emily burst into laughter and Charlotte brightened red, swearing worse than a Yankee sailor.
“Do you need additional assistance, Charlotte?” I asked. “I could afford to hire another midwife, if necessary. Perhaps you have a cousin in need of work?”
The three sisters became silent and wide-eyed upon the instant, but soon all three gave over to laughter again, leaving me feeling quite confused. I must confess that, even now, having aged with lifelong study, Woman is an enigma beyond my understanding.
I left them to their chores, their laughter growing louder as I closed the door. I heard Charlotte swear at her two sisters, and so I lingered by the window, listening to them speak.
“We know he knows what to do already,” Emily said. “Or as much as we know what to do. Why donna’ you see if he knows the rest?”
“He’s our employer,” Charlotte said. “And it would be improper. He’s a doctor, besides, and what would he want with a low working girl like me self?”
“You are too harsh on yourself,” Anne said. “He looks on you fondly enough, I think.”
“Not so often enough now,” Charlotte said, her tone suddenly reluctant. “Not so since she arrived.”
“Ack!” retorted Emily. “She’s no matter to mind. She’s married, anyhow, and so is no fair game. The strange witch.”
“You got to make ‘im see you more, Charlotte,” Anne said. “Donna’ let ‘im forget how pretty you are, too.”
Charlotte sighed sadly. “I donna’ know how.”
At that moment I saw Virginia walking along the heath. She wore nothing but her white undergarments. They billowed about her body as the wind blew around her. She seemed to pause in her wandering, and cast a distant look at me. Divining that she wished me to accompany her, I went to her forthwith.
“A beautiful day,” I said.
“It is,” she said.
“Are you in need of a treatment today?”
“Later,” she said. “Perhaps after dinner.”
“The sisters will be too preoccupied to assist me, then,” I said.
“I do not doubt that you can handle the treatment alone,” she said. “And the truth is I would rather they not be in the room when I am receiving my treatments. That Charlotte girl carries a petulant expression throughout, and it only distracts me from enjoying the treatment.”
“If it is your request, then I will happily oblige,” I said. “As a doctor I must ensure that my patients are at ease if it is to work. I did fancy observing a reluctance in your previous treatments. If such conditions advance the efficacy, then I submit to them full heartedly.”
She looked out upon the sea, her hair fair like cirrus clouds touched by dawn. The wind caused it to stir and ripple around her, glinting in sunlight like an aureole.
“I think I am a poet,” she said. “Like Sappho, but not in her affections for her fellow Woman.”
“I deduced that from your having married William,” I said.
Her smile was thin and wry with amusement. “Nor do I speak of William, or of Man. But that is neither here nor there. Your treatments have helped me, but they will not save me. It is no matter. All true poets live short lives. Keats. Shelley. I shall live a lifetime’s worth of feeling within the span of a year.”
I did not understand what she meant, nor did she give me time enough to ponder it. She walked straight toward the cliff and I feared, momentarily, that she should fall into the sea below. I rushed to seize her, but she paused and she stood at the brink, staring out at the glimmering green-blue sea. She then recited some small fragment of poetry:
“When fruit hangs before Woman’s eyes
and a snake slithers toward her budding thighs,
the restless fangs are both sharp and sweet,
clutching forbidden fruit to eat.”
This spoken, she turned toward me. “Do you know who wrote that?” she asked, her blue eyes mirthless even while her rosebud lips smiled.
“I am unfamiliar with it,” I said.
“What do you think of it? Enlighten me as to your opinion.”
I scratched my head in a look of abject incomprehension, and she laughed.
“Did you not like it?” she pressed me.
“Oh, it has imagery,” I said. “It is just so…suggestive. I am unaccustomed to such poetry.”
“Indeed,” she said, “and to think it was composed by a woman. Who would have thought a woman could be so suggestive?”
“When was it written?” I inquired.
“Just now,” she said. “In the light of a new sun.” She smiled again, and there was a genuine sparkle of mirth in her eyes now. “Are you surprised?”
“It is quite evocative,” I said.
“No more than what you do,” she said. “And much less shameful than what most men do when they believe no one else is looking.”
Her smile disappeared and she headed toward her cottage. I tarried a moment longer, unsure how I should feel about Virginia’s “poetry”. She was a strange, marvelous creature, and reminded me of the Oriental women whose literature I had read to better understand the myriad minds of Woman. Yet, she was of decidedly British stock, replete with fair hair and blue eyes. What a strange dichotomy! She did not conform to the dominant paradigm. She was a singular variable among the great British experiment, and she fascinated my analytical mind.
This baffled me, however. Why would William abandon such a woman? I gazed out upon the vast sea and wondered where on earth he might have been and what was so urgent that he was forced to put the Atlantic between himself and his intriguing wife?
I was turning away from the cliff when my eye chanced upon something unusual in the sea. Even in the warm Summer air I felt a chill take hold in my bones. Momentarily, my heart seized upon itself. Squinting, I peered down at the rippling green expanse, attempting to discern what had so unsettled me. Seastacks rose from among tossing waves like the granite pillars of some forgotten kingdom. As my eyes lingered upon them I thought I beheld a great appendage encircling one of the rock pillars. It was in semblance similar to the boneless limb of a Kraken or some other infernal creature of the depths. The entwining limb had to be massive, for the seastack it encoiled was of a titan’s height.
Fearing for my sanity, I rubbed my eyes forcibly to clear away the ostensible illusion. When I glanced again, shielding my eyes from the misleading sun, I saw but granite stone jutting as a primordial pillar—ancient, silent, and glistening with a fetid slime.

***

The Cornish village offered much of Nature’s delights, yet it was bereft of Man’s conveniences. There were no modern accommodations— no plumbing nor that fanciful novelty, electricity— yet my patients bore these comparatively barbarian conditions without complaint. As for myself, so long as I had my work, and my library, I was contented. Gladly did I enjoy Cornwall’s natural splendor as well, and the quietude offered by its walks. Walks in London had always proven stressful to me, for it was a fetid place of squalor and crowded unease among its cluttered streets. Nor did I care to happen upon colleagues, for it inevitably led to conversations that always proved contentious in spirit, even if they appeared outwardly cordial and courteous. I was, in the medical circles, something of a pariah.
Virginia’s health improved greatly in the coming weeks. I noticed that she gained a healthy fullness to her figure and her “lunar luminescence” intensified in such a complimentary way that that I doubted there was ever a debutante in soiree, ball, or court that glowed so radiantly. Her odd aloofness remained, and when she was not talking to me or being treated, she wrote copious poetry which she insisted I read. Gladly did I read her works, for they elucidated much for me upon two fronts: one as a doctor ever needing to understand his patients, and one as a man exulting in the ever-surprising mysteries of Woman’s inner depths. If only my father could have read Virginia’s poetry. It might have dissuaded him, and the rest of England, from their antiquated notions concerning female sexuality. I suspected that she wished me to somehow promote her works— perhaps with a former academic friend that I knew in London who was involved in a newspaper—but I did not think that such rapid bursts of creativity were signs of any stress deriving from sickness. Rather, Cornwall seemed to me to be the perfect location for those moody aeshetes whose genius thrived upon atmosphere.

***

It was as I was enjoying an early morning walk that I heard Emily’s scream. I rushed toward the direction of her issuance, the echoes of it deceptive in the strange acoustics of the bluff-valley Cornish coast. My sense of direction has always been wanting, but fortunately she found me and fetched me toward Mrs. Worthington’s cottage.
“It was a man peepin’ in on Mrs. Worthington!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide to the whites. “When he saw me, he went hobblin’ away! I thought him a seaman, for he limped so!”
We hurried to Virginia’s cottage, finding it absent of any suspicious men. Virginia had emerged by then, roused by the ruckus, yet she did not appear agitated. Rather, she looked almost amused.
“Virginia!” I called. “Have you been harmed?”
“Of course not, Dr. Grace,” she said, an easy smile upon her face. “The ruffian only fancied a glance, and I accommodated him.”
Emily’s astonishment gave way to fury. “A most improper vixen, you are! Where is yer sense of decency? I’ve known coquettes with better sense for modesty!”
“Emily, that is quite enough!” I said, firmly. “Return to your sisters. I am sure there are chores to be done.”
Emily did as I bid her, though she cast a dark scowl in Virginia’s direction.
“You will have to excuse Emily,” I said, turning to Virginia. “It is just that you do not seem upset about the occurrence.” Indeed, I seemed more upset than Virginia had.
“A man wanted a glimpse,” she said, casually. “Why does it matter? What is Woman’s flesh, after all, but gift to Man?”
I went to her, taking her hand and entwining her waist with my arm. I escorted her toward the treatment cottage. “I believe your sense of self-preservation has been addled,” I said. “You must take treatment.”
“As you say,” she remarked. “Perhaps that man would care for a peek into that secrecy as well.”
As we went to the treatment cottage I could not help casting my eyes about the village, the moor, the cliffs, and the sea. I saw no trace of that hobbled man that had encroached upon Virginia’s privacy, but I swore to exact punishment if I should ever spot him.
The treatment went well and Virginia’s hysteria was once again purged through my pragmatic methods. As I worked the treatment upon her, however, I could not help noticing that, beneath her treatment gown, Virginia’s belly had swollen to a pronounced protuberance. At first I mistook this protuberance for a healthy appetite. Yet, I deemed it of medical interest and so dared trespass my hand upon that swell, finding it firmer than most fatty tissues tended to be.
“Virginia,” I said, “are you with child?”
Virginia luxuriated upon the treatment bed, her eyes like the eyes of a cat having satisfied itself upon cream.
“Of course, Dr. Grace,” she said. “Why do you think William abandoned me here?”
I was taken aback, yet felt I had to reassure her to the contrary. “He has not abandoned you, Mrs. Worthington. He would not do that to his wife, or to his child.”
Virginia’s smile reigned laxly upon her face, but her blue eyes were mirthless in the candlelight. “And why, pray tell, did you conclude it to be his child?”
I was so disturbed by her question, and its implication, that I could only gawk like an imbecile. She remained upon the treatment bed, reclined gently in her self-righteous obscenity. She seemed all the more beautiful through her self-deprecation; like Aphrodite steeped in the foamy wash of her father’s loins. She savored my stunned silence for some time before speaking once again.
“I must intimate something to you,” she said. “My family has become very much like the Cornish mines they own,” she said. “Barren of yield after too many eons of mining. Do you know who I was before marrying William? My maiden name is Harlow. My family was once very prosperous here in Cornwall. But sooner or later, as all things do, it went to rot. The copper mines ceased producing and we had only our ancestral name to boast of. But since a family cannot sup on name alone, it was decided that I should marry a wealthy Londoner, and so I was spirited away to London to hunt for a husband. Your friend proved amicable, if a little trite, and I proved accommodating to his presence in the laudable circles of London, if not ingratiating. I had always possessed a natural knack for endearing myself to dull people, if need be. And so I embosomed myself in your friend’s esteem. It was more of a business transaction, our marriage, as most are, and we found it a largely agreeable arrangement. I was his guiding angel in society, and I was his mare in the breeding stables. Yet, he did not ride me so often as you might have thought. William never has been an attentive husband. Whether in society, the household, or the marriage bed. He was utterly negligent and indifferent to me. Oh, I tried to sway him, but it was for nought. Business was all that mattered to him, whether it was business in America or business in the plebeian alleyways of London.”
“You do not mean that he…?” I could not bring myself to say it.
“The business of working women has always had his heart,” she said, a wry smile upon her face. “And the truth is that though I was young when we first wed I was not so young as he often desires when he walks those dirty alleys in search of comfort. His passions are quite particular, my dear Robert.”
I wished to muster the words in defense of my friend, but Virginia’s eyes arrested me with their openness and their candour. All I could say was an offhand remark pertaining to William’s business affairs. Even as I spoke I knew it was from cowardice. I wished only to steer this conversation in some other direction; a direction of less sordid roads. Virginia, being so shrewd, and yet being quite tactful, observed and allowed this course change, though the mockery in her husky voice lost none of its sardonic edge.
“Despite William’s obsession with business,” she said. “He is not possessed of the acumen for business. His fleet of trade ships are impressive, but without cargo they were like a revered name without means: materially meaningless.”
“He eventually gained substantive trade, though,” I said. “Did he not?”
“He did,” she allowed. “Though I doubt he, as a self-proclaimed gentleman, would ever admit to trade of such a detestable nature.”
“Detestable?” I was utterly shocked. “Do you mean to imply an illegal trade? To what degree illegal?”
“To the degree of illegality as determined by most prevailing laws except, perhaps, by those of Hell.”
I could not deduce what trade she might be implying, nor could I bring myself to ask of its particulars. I could only look away from her, lest her gaze entrap me within the tethers of my own complex being.
She seemed pleased by my agitation. “Imagine the irony of seeking wealth in London only for it to bring me round again to the poverty of Cornwall. Life is a slippery staircase which you climb only to slip and fall down again. The higher you climb, the farther you fall.”
“But your husband is prospering,” I said, recalling the strange gems and jewels and gold hidden away in my bedchamber. “And he will return for you. I have known William throughout our childhood. He is the same honorable person he has always been.”
A wry smile played again upon her lips. She sat up, at last, and stretched toward me, raising her pale hand and cupping my cheek. She drew me to look at her, eye to eye; unguarded.
“You knew William when he was yet wealthy,” she said. “You did not know him wracked by financial strains. He was a different person. Or perhaps he had always been that person, but was too appeased by wealth to free his ignoble creature from its cage.”
Her hand slipped from my face, and I was ashamed to think how pleasant a thing to have it placed there once more.
“It is difficult for me to accept this characterization,” I said, with some strain to foster my thoughts as a cohesive whole.
“Of course it is,” she said, laying back once again in a suggestive sprawl upon the bed. “Every person upon this earthly sphere has a creature upon his or her peripheries, and we fight to prevent ourselves from seeing it in others lest we see it, too, within ourselves. Man and Woman rarely indulge it, but when they do it can overtake them.”
“I believe your condition has rendered you melancholic,” I said.
“No,” she said. “Only philosophic. Even you, my dear doctor, are not immune to the inheritance of Man, or his inner beast. There is a part of you, I am certain that delights in this occupation, and not solely for the sake of your patients.”
“What do you mean to imply, Mrs. Worthington?” I asked, warily.
“That you are a man of Man, and so surely take interest in Woman that is not purely of a medical nature.”
“My profession is the only Mistress I court,” I said, alarmed by Virginia’s insinuations. “She is a demanding Mistress with many faces. And as for other ‘beasts’, I am sufficient with techniques to tame them.”
“But there is no especial face among the multitude you fancy?” she said. “Is there not a young woman’s heart you have been hunting?” She smiled slyly, knowingly. “That envy-eyed Charlotte, perhaps?”
“No,” I said. “I am afraid that apart from my patients and my employees there are no women I interact with enough to intimate myself into their acquaintance without a proper distance of professionalism between us.”
“And yet women are your expertise,” she remarked with a coy smile. “And your world, it would seem.”
“True,” I said. “But of personal relationships with women, I have none. Nor have I many friends in men, either. My mother died in the birthing process, and my father considers me dead since I took up my present profession.”
She rolled to one side, luxuriating in my embarrassment.
“Is there something wrong with Cornwall that prevents you from acquiring acquaintances?”
“It is less varied in its personages than London, to be sure, but I find these seaside people to be rather agreeable. True, they lack the refinement of their city superiors, but they compensate for this with open-heartedness and serene countenances. There is nothing like hard work to inspire gratitude and joviality in life. Of course, I am sure the lovely landscape aids their moods and tempers considerably. It has bettered my own.”
She sat up and leaned forward, her hands clasped together and her elbows resting on the bedside table. I was embarrassed to find that her bosom exposed itself from within the hanging fabric of her gown, and had she not been a well-bred, innocent lady I would have presumed the display of a licentious intention. Truth be told, her coquettish smile undermined my presumptions of her innocence.
“I cannot help but think that your other patients should become smitten with you,” she said. “A handsome doctor with good breeding and ample means would be the talk of many a lady’s boudoir, and a comforting dream on the pillow of every cold marriage bed.”
I cleared my throat, and my chagrin, with a discreet cough.
“That is the rub, Mrs. Worthington,” I said, once I had cleared my throat.. “That the majority of my patients are married, or have been widowed. True, they frequent my clinic often in pursuit of my treatments, but it is purely in the intention of remedying their prevailing maladies. It is of no personal affection toward myself.”
“And so none of your clients have confessed any secret attachment in regard to your person?”
I became anxious. This was not a conversation that was appropriate for a doctor and his patient, and indeed it was unpleasant to me, as it should have been to any decent lady of breeding. Yet, Mrs. Worthington’s blue eyes sparkled with curiosity and intrigue and, despite my loathing the topic, I admitted to some repercussions from the treatments that smacked woefully of emotional attachment. Even as I was chagrined by my confession, and indeed horrified at the rupture of patient confidentiality, I was too taken by her eyes to restrain myself.
“There was a widow whose attachment to my treatment succumbed to emotional investment,” I confessed. “She was of a considerable age, but handsome enough in her own right, and not so deteriorated by age to not be a viable wife for any man seeking a wife among his peers. When she was roughly your age she had married a man of means who was of disproportionate years. Though such gossip displeases me, I must confess knowing that she had married him for his wealth and his age, thinking that the latter would grant her rapid access to the former. Yet, he lived much longer than her designs presupposed, and so by the time he had passed on, she had progressed in age to an extent that she would likely remain a widow for the remainder of her life. This did not fret her as much as spinsters half her age, for she had inherited a comfortable life with freedom to pursue any lover she desired. These lovers, however, were of the kind that knew how to hunt the societies of London, and knew how to dress down what they succeeded in trapping for themselves. Game was theirs for the taking, yet, as with real hunters, there was no pleasure to be had in it for the prey themselves.”
It shames me to admit it now, but I rather prided myself on this play of words, and particularly delighted in Mrs. Worthington’s approving giggle.
“Thus, she suffered her own form of hysteria, like so many women at her age, and found herself restless and irritable and desirous of what could not be named nor accepted in the minds of so many doctors among the Empire. She came here every two or three months, seeking treatment. Truthfully, I worried that she was spending all of her means in treating her hysteria. Then one day, after a particularly enthusiastic treatment, she begged me to marry her. This I could not do. It was inappropriate enough that she refused to allow any of the midwives to perform the ministrations, always insisting that I be personally involved in the procedure, but then she began to insist on further improprieties.”
“And what were those?” Mrs. Worthington asked, her mouth a perky moue of expectation.
I took a deep breath and silently debated whether I should indulge the account further. “She wished that I should kiss her. And touch her elsewhere, beyond the region of customary stimulation.”
Virginia’s expression was vulpine. “Such as?”
I hesitated, but her eyes, and her bosom, propelled me onward. “Her breasts,” I said. “And her anus. These things I refused, telling her that I would not mock my profession with perversions. She left the next day, sobbing, and has not returned for treatment since.”
“You sound as if in remorse,” she remarked.
“I regret only that she was a patient that needed aid,” I said, “but because of her confused emotions and personal traumas she had to forego that which rectified her illness.”
“Why do you believe she wished you to touch her breasts and anus?” Virginia asked.
To hear such words uttered by a lady like Mrs. Worthington not only baffled me, but horrified me. I immediately stammered some clinical response about a neurosis in the older woman, stating the predominat medical beliefs in regard to the breasts and the anus: that they were purely functional and of no secondary purposes— such as a means of carnal catharsis.
“You do not really believe that,” she stated, leaning away from the table and letting her gown shelter her bosom more conservatively. “Have you Men never thought to question what areas of a body pleases a Woman?”
“I only relate what I have read and implemented,” I said, deferentially.
“But you do not believe it,” she said firmly, “do you?”
I fancied a glance at the clock. “I believe it is time that I should have my tea,” I said. “If you will pardon me, Mrs. Worthington.” I stood up, bowed, and headed toward the door.
She called to me as I opened the door. I turned and she stood, the sunset flaring across the gossamers of her gown, her body silhouetted within the fabric.
“Sleep well, tonight,” she said. “Say a prayer for me. You will be in mine, comforting my pillow.”

***

That night I was visited by a nightmare. I had never before then been a man at the mercy of his dreams, though I have since then spent many restless nights comforting my haunted imagination with laudanum and insipid mantras of Reason.
I dreamt of a great flood in Cornwall. The rivers brimmed and broke over the land, and yet the rain continued to fall, drowning whatever land lay left except for the highest cliffs of the Cornish Coast. These, too, were steeped in the rising sea. I stood there, upon that drowned ridge, the waters hemming me in on all sides. It seemed that all the continents of the earth should be drowned in the rising tides. The moon was full in the night sky and ten times its reasonable size, like the great skull of a dead god leering garishly over the submerged earth. Soon only the ridge upon which I stood remained. The rest of Cornwall, and seemingly the world, had submerged in the gluttonous sea.
Beneath the moon, where its light glossed waxenly upon the turbulent waters, I saw a vast surge of water, as if something cresting along the Celtic Sea. A terrible fetor subsumed the salty air, and it reeked of stagnant life and profuse death. The thing that rose was as broad and high as Carn Marth rising from the Cornish countryside. I trembled to behold it and, as its ghastly head emerged, I screamed for the mercy of silence and oblivion and death. And though I wished to wake, I remained upon the crooked spine of a drown world.
I awoke with a start, sitting up in bed and drenched in sweat. The moon shone through the window, its roundish face half-concealed. It was not so large as it had been in my dream, but its illumination was ghostly within my bedchamber. I stood, then, and walked about the room, attempting to becalm my thunderous heart. Sweat, and tears, too, had taken to my face, and these I wiped scornfully upon my sleeve.
I did not return to sleep that night, and it was well into the morning before I banished the image of that island-sized head rising from the brine. It was fortunate that I had only one patient to treat, for I was too exhausted and haunted throughout the day to adequately treat any others. Nor was I the only victim of a stormy-headed night. The three sisters appeared taxed by restless nights. Even the pretty-faced Charlotte was pale and trembling throughout the day.
“Charlotte,” I said. “Are you and your sisters not feeling well?”
Her eyes darted about the treatment cottage as she and her sisters cleaned it after another treatment for Mrs. Worthington. Charlotte, and her two sisters, looked about them as if expecting demons to come clambering out of every shadow-pooled corner.
“Pardon my saying so, Dr. Grace,” she said, “but we donna’ feel ya’ shou’ ‘av taken that woman in.”
Whenever the sisters were under great duress, their accents became emboldened. I had attempted to correct such failings, but I was helpless to rectify it under present circumstances.
“You have a problem with Mrs. Worthington?” I asked.
Charlotte looked to her sisters, all of whom were as flighty in expression as bewildered does.
“Yes, doctor,” she said, casting her eyes upon the floor. “There’s some’ing terrible wrong ‘bout her, sir. She’s chased away yer oth’r patients ‘n put in ‘heir stead terrible dreams.”
“And she’s no’ right!” Emily said, coming forward to support her sister. “The winds donna’ sound the same since she come! The waves move strangely. Even the clouds are all wrong!”
“And the dogs bark at night!” Anne said. “They but rarely did afore, but now ‘ey bark all night as if keepin’ the Devil ah’ bay! An ill wind passes wit’ ‘er.”
“And ‘he dreams!” Emily said, rallying with great feeling. “We all ‘ave ‘he same wicke’ dream come flown to us from ‘cross an evil land! The Great Flood, wit’ Noah on its crest, and somethin’ risin’ from out o’ the waters! Leviathan perhaps!”
“Or Satan ‘imself!” Charlotte said. “Come new ‘pon the world!”
I did not care to hear my own fears voiced in plaintive, womanly notes, nor the plainly superstitious absurdity of it in my ear, particularly since it renewed resonant feelings from the night before. My susceptibility to their panic infuriated me.
“All of you come here,” I commanded. “Come and abide me a while, for I fear I must lecture this nonsense away lest it grow more beyond measure.”
I waited for the three of them to line up in front of me, their heads bowed, and their hands crossed before them, as if covering their Eden nakedness beneath their humble gowns.
“Mrs. Worthington is our patient,” I said, reproachfully. “She is to be treated with kindness, civility, and all of the attentiveness that conforms to the professionalism of our work. You are not to speak of her in belittling tones, nor through gossip, nor even salacious suggestion. Our work depends upon utter confidentiality. A wayward wag of the tongue could destroy the whole enterprise.” I took a deep breath and calmed myself, softening my tone. “You are each an excellent worker that I am proud to have in my service, but if you persist in feeding each other’s fears with whatever fancies take hold in your heads, I will have to reconsider your employment. Do you understand?”
“Yes, doctor,” they said together, their tone a collapse of dejection.
“Now,” I continued. “Finish cleaning and then retire home early to clear your heads and rest. Tomorrow I expect you to return without such fanciful shadows clinging to your eyes.”
Their accents lessened, reassuming genteel annunciations.
“And supper, sir?”
“There is food left enough for Mrs. Worthington from today’s lunch,” I said, “and I shall seek the tavern for a meal. It has been a long time since I attempted to acquaint myself with my Cornish neighbors. It seems as fit an occasion to condescend as any.”

***

Virginia requested another treatment before taking her supper. I acquiesced, knowing the sisters would return early next morning to clean. As for myself and retaining my own cleanliness, I had methods and tools available that minimized my own involvement in such treatments and their untidiness. To spare my hands menial labour, and subsequent cramps, I not only employed the three midwives regularly in treating patients, but also various devices that quickened the conclusion of a treatment while also sparing my hand. The truth was that after a lady’s hysterical paroxysm, I found that my hands were rather soiled with the natural scents of the lady. Not in all cases was this undesirable, for the brimming tides that came with the excitation were not altogether unpleasant, but there were those select women from whom the odors were rather displeasing and, moreover, clung long after a treatment, despite repeated ablutions. Thus, I employed the phalllic constructions depicted in the more obscure ancient Greek relics of art, and more recently in Oriental cultures. Had I the modern conveniences of plumbing I would have used douches as well, for I had read about their widespread use in France and it seemed not only beneficial to the patients, but to the doctors. Streaming water would have spared my hands and meanwhile cleansed a lady of her impurities.
“An excellent treatment, Dr. Grace,” Virginia said, panting as she lay sprawled upon the treatment bed. “That is a curious device you have created. I have no doubt that you modeled it after the natural design.”
“Indeed,” I said, “but I cannot take credit for its creation. It has existed for many centuries prior in the Orient.”
“Then I must say that Oriental women are more fortunate than Occidental women.” Her smile was small in measure, but large in suggestion. “I wonder, however, why you do not simply forego such medical pretenses and utilize what Nature has given you.”
“I am afraid I do not apprehend your meaning,” I said, wiping the device clean with alcohol and then setting it upon a shelf to dry.
“It is no matter,” she said. “Those naturally inclined will surrender in time.”
Only Mrs. Worthington could be provocative even as she demurred on a subject.
“How are you enjoying our accommodations?” I asked, hoping she approved. “Are they adequate?”
“Completely contenting,” she said, remaining sprawled about the bed. She gave no indication that she was ready to leave the treatment cottage.
“Do you miss London? It’s society? I have come to understand that you were a personage as respected as the queen herself within certain circles.”
“I was,” she said, “but I do not believe I could endure crowds now.” Her gown was still spread apart most immodestly and I wondered if she was quite conscious as to her unladylike position. Granted, most women seemed to forget propriety after a successful paroxysm, but they gradually realized their lapse in bearing and remedied it quickly. Virginia seemed quite aware and yet unconcerned. “And you? Do you miss the peopled streets and the breathless air?”
“Even while I lived there I tended to avoid crowds,” I said, turning away from her. “I prefer quiet contemplation and solitude, such as is afforded here in this village.”
“You enjoy being steeped in yourself,” she said, “like Narcissus at his pool, transfixed by his own reflection.”
I could not help but laugh. “Indeed? And who is my Echo, abandoned and forlorn?”
“Charlotte, of course,” she said, standing up from the bed. “You pay her no mind at all except in how she tends to me. That poor girl longs to please you.”
“If I am Narcissus, “I said, “and Charlotte is Echo, then whom might you be?”
Her smile withered like a rosebud in hoarfrost. “Of my twin there are many,” she said. “Galatea, Leda, Ariadne. Countless others, I am sure.”
“All women with unhappy fates,” I remarked grimly.
“Because all women have unhappy fates,” she said. “There is nothing unique or aberrant in such stories for women. Rather, the story of Woman has always been one with an unhappy fate.”
“To be mortal, you mean?”
“Partly,” she said. “But mostly by simply being of Woman. By being bearers of the wombs of the world.”
She did not bother to don her clothes, but returned to her cottage wearing only the treatment gown. The indecency of the action did not seem to bother her in the least. I escorted her to her cottage, fearing that some rake might observe her unconcern for propriety as an invitation toward mischief. When I asked if she should desire her supper, she asked only for a wheel of cheese. I inquired how much and she said, quite decidedly that she desired the entire wheel. I acquiesced to her request, fetching a wheel of cheese, but I also took the liberty of bringing a half-loaf of bread and two apples. These she graciously accepted and bid me a good night.
The sun was setting into the sea, gilding the green waves and blending shadows across the moorland. Fearful that I might miss my supper, I hurried downhill toward the tavern where many of the local Cornish men gathered to drink and talk after a long day of work. The tavern was a stalwart building with a thatched roof, its walls constructed of solidly stacked stone. It was the only building made of stone in the village that I had not purchased for my medical practice. Besides the church, of course. The majority of the other houses were wattle and daub.
I entered the dim establishment and went immediately to the owner manning the bar. George Friggs was the man’s name and he was as portly as he was friendly, especially to paying customers.
“What might a man hope to eat this evening?” I asked him.
“The best tasting mutton this side of the Celtic Sea,” George said. “And some potatoes, if you should care for them.”
“I shall have that with whatever your best drink happens to be,” I said.
“Just a stout, Dr. Grace,” he said. “Unless you thirst for an Irish or Scottish Whisky. We also have rum, though I donna’ think you would like it much. Better for those already swaying upon the sea. We landlubbers are too accustomed to the flat earth, I should think.”
“Give me a stout, then,” I said. I paid him for the food and the drink, then slipped him another coin and leaned over the bar, my back to the rest of the men in the tavern. “Perhaps you have heard of a seaman lost at sea. Or, rather, lost from the sea. He has a hobble and two eyes that roam where they should not.”
George rubbed his bald pate, thinking. “There are many sailors that come and go here, Dr. Grace. But if you’re talkin’ about one who’s got word out about him, then I would suggest you wait a while here and watch that corner over there.” He pointed to an empty table in the corner near the window. No candles were lit there, and it was farthest from the heat of the hearth, so only moonlight through the window lit its murky spaces. “I’ll get me wife to make you a plate. In the meantime, here’s your drink. Wait a while and you’ll see a man that sure is jumpy as if he been lookin’ where he was’n supposed to.”
I took my mug of beer, thanked George and waited by the bar, watching the door for the agitated seaman to appear. George knew his business: many sailors frequented his bar. It was the only place for miles where they might drink their sorrows and sea sickness away. Many men came and went, sharing drinks and stories and smiles and scowls. There was a bout of fisticuffs at one point and the two warring men were thrown out by their own compatriots. Blood may have been thicker than wine, but it was not so thick as warm beer spilt upon a wasteful floor.
It was as I had finished eating my meal that the lowly seaman came staggering in. I knew at once that it was he, for his unkempt beard and agitated eyes bespoke of mischief. He was a bedraggled specimen of knave. I could discern by his hobble that he was a seaman. He had the bowed hobble of a man that had spent more of his life on a tottering deck than on the still land.
Having witnessed the previous two men being thrown out, I knew better than to engage the man in a physical struggle. Nor was I a man predisposed to brutish means. That said, I could have easily handled him, however, since he was so much smaller than myself and was, moreover, crippled in one leg. His gait was so contorted by his pained leg that I wondered how he was managing to walk at all. A grimace of pain betrayed his hindrance with every step.
“Ale,” he said to George. “Your strongest.” George poured the man his ale, and had the sense of mind not to look to me until after the seaman had retired to his dark, solitary corner.
“That the man?” I whispered.
George only nodded.
I slid another coin across the bar, which disappeared in George’s large hand. Thereafter, the empty plate disappeared and I ordered two more ales, both of which I held, one to a hand, as I approached the seaman in the corner. They say that it is easier to catch flies with honey, and so I followed that adage toward whatever wisdom it might deign to offer me.
“Hello,” I said to the man. “Do you mind if I join you?”
The man looked up at me shrewdly, his eyes darting from my face to the beers in my hands.
“If one of those drinks is mine, you can join me twice,” the seaman said. He took the mug I handed to him, and watched me in amusement as I sat down. His amusement became a smile as I slid the other ale to him. I had decided that more honey could not hurt. “You must be wantin’ to loosen my tongue,” he said. “There hasn’t been a man handin’ out unsolicited drinks lest he wanted to cure a case of the lockjaw in his fellow man. What do the gentlemen say? In vino veritas?”
I was taken aback by his keen perception of me. Clearly he was no fool, even if he was a knavish cripple. Having no pretense to shield me, I decided toward candour to cope for this disastrous encounter.
“Yes, I suppose I am seeking truth from wine,” I said.
He grinned and took a swig of his mug, sighing in a contrite fashion. “Then it is a good thing I am only drinking ale. I do not believe you would want the truth you are seekin’. No, I believe you would come to lament it, as I certainly do.”
“Why were you peeking on my patient?” I demanded. “Why were you looking in through the window?”
I expected him to deny it, or to grow furious and threaten me, but my expectations were promptly dismantled by this strange seaman.
“I am a man of the Crow’s Nest,” he said. “On account of me bad leg, you see? Can’t be tying no nautical knots or mopping the deck when your leg’s all sideways. It may seem like an easy duty, but watchin’ out for the storms loomin’ on the horizon is always more difficult than most realize. Every crew member dreads the Crow’s Nest. It swings you about like a child her doll. Being such as it is, it’s the job no one wants, and being a cripple that no one really needs, I am the one told to climb myself up there and look out for trouble. All these years of it and my stomach still sloshes back and forth upon steady land, so used to the sickening sway of the sea.”
He rolled his shrewd eyes through the memories, his eyebrows eventually lifting as if in surprise at having found himself here.
“Even now I do no different,” he said, draining his mug. “I’m on the lookout for a storm. But this storm is already ashore. It’s made landfall and we are all in the middle of it. I promise you.”
“I do not understand,” I said. “Are you to be a lighthouse keeper?”
He appraised me with a frown, obviously unimpressed with my ability to follow his ranting. “I know who you are, Dr. Grace,” he said. “I know you have been lookin’ after Virginia Worthington. There’s no need for for alarm, though. What we are doin’ is the same. I’m lookin’ after her, too, as William asked me to.”
“You are one of William’s men?” I said, astonished.
“Yessir,” he said. “Name’s Henry O’ Toole. William asked me to make sure Virginia was seen to. I told him I may be a crooked man, but I’m no crook. I’ll see to what needs doin’, when the time’s right. Better than being stuck up in that Crow’s Nest for another season.”
“What is it that you are supposed to do?” I asked. “And why did William not tell me of your presence?”
“William did’n want to worry you,” Henry said. “He wanted you to put your time and effort into makin’ Virginia feel comfortable. Before he returns.”
I had expected a confrontation. I had expected a man of perversions in need of punishment. Yet, this antagonist that had provoked Charlotte’s scream seemed to be charged with a similar duty as myself. Nonetheless, his nervous mannerisms disturbed me. He appeared a man beset with his own neurosis. I rationalized it as a consequence of his occupation in the Crow’s Nest and his debilitation.
“What is this ‘storm’ that you speak of?” I demanded. “What has it to do with Virginia and Will? Can you not speak more frankly?”
Henry O’Toole leveled his eyes at me, even while his shoulders rocked slowly side to side with seaward memories.
“I’ve been a sailor me whole life,” he said. “Seen many strange things in the sea, but nothing so startlin’ as what was on land. Often we were allowed freedom of the cities we visited when we did trade. But Mr. Worthington did not let us stretch our legs too much in America. Least not when we were some of those more questionable docks. Not that I’d of wanted to. Strange noises you could hear at night there. Like a bunch of bloated frogs and fish splashin’ ‘bout in the water. We are hardy men, and never you mind how mean, but even we kept our breath shallow when he heard ‘em things roamin’ about the ship. Devil’s Reef is not place for a Lady. I couldna’ understand why Mr. Worthington brought his pretty wife there, but when he returned you could see the mischief it had worked on her. Silent as the grave, that wretched woman was. You’ve done her some good, it may as much seem, but I wonder for how long. And I wonder if she might’n’ ought been better off with her soul closed in a clamshell rather than brought to the ravin’ light.”
He perplexed me to no end. “Elaborate. Please. I cannot follow your meaning.” I slipped another coin across the table. It disappeared as a cloud passed over the moon, darkening the table for an instant with its doubt. The seaman sighed heavily. He took a swig of beer and snorted.
“While we huddled and shivered in our quarters, Mrs. Worthington accompanied her husband ashore on a night of a great tempest.” His eyes jittered in his sunken sockets, flitting here and there like nervous flies. “Such screams we heard amidst that storm. But whether in agony or joy I could not rightly say. Perhaps it were both.” He took a deep breath, and a deeper drink, his hand trembling and spilling the pungent liqour down his beard. “I hear those screams in my dreams at times, and I wish them to cease. Sometimes I wonder if they will ever be silent so long as that bedeviled womb stirs in its sleep.”
“Womb?” I said. The word struck me eerily and I felt the world slipping beneath amniotic waters. “What does that mean?”
“I can’t knowingly say,” he stuttered, trembling all over. “It’s just such a thing that no man can rightly understand. Like the sea itself. We can read the signs, but that don’t mean she isn’t plotting our destruction below the waves, or far out over the horizon. She’s a perilous lover. You make no mistake.”

***

I left the tavern feeling estranged from the earth. My adoptive motherland, Cornwall, menaced me with moonlight and shadows and countless mysteries whispered upon the leaf-tongued winds. It was an affliction of frayed nerves and a frenzy of half-fancied phantoms. There crouched in every nook and nestled within every root of a tree a thing best left unseen. Behind the moon and beneath the Atlantic waves there lurked what would undo me to witness its existence.
Returning to my living quarters, I wondered at the gulfs of ignorance surrounded Man, and in the immeasurable bosom of that darkness the horrors. Perhaps the seaman’s madness had caught in me. He had brains addled by too many storms at sea, and I had too many beers and too little sleep to fend off the apparitions of another man’s mind. So, hurrying home, I retired to bed and let the aqueous realm of sleep carry me whichever way their waves willed.