An Acquaintance with Darkness - Ann Rinaldi [33]
"Don't believe rumors," Uncle Valentine said. He jumped down from the carriage seat, came around, and helped me out. "Come inside and I'll bind up your foot," he said. "Merry, get her things."
"What's the matter?" Maude said, gaping at the blood on my foot. "Did you get attacked in the street?"
"No, we're all right," Uncle Valentine assured her. "But Washington has gone mad. We are launched upon the maddest hour of our history."
And with that he scooped me up and carried me into the house, yelling for Merry and Maude to lock all the doors and windows.
I looked up. There she was, in the tower room of the second story. My room. Marietta. I saw her clear as day, standing there looking down on us, pushing the draperies aside and watching.
9. Old Addie
UNCLE VALENTINE took me into his office and attended to my foot. But first he did a strange thing. He washed his hands with warm water and soap that Maude brought in.
"I've been in correspondence with a man named Lister, who is a professor of surgery in Glasgow," he said. "He believes that the air and dirt on the hands causes putrefaction. I've fought with officials in this city to clean the offal off the streets."
I looked around. I saw instruments, terrible things; vials, jars, books. One was Observations on the Gastric Juice and Physiology of Digestion. Another, The Injuries of Nerves and Their Consequences.
Uncle Valentine washed and cleansed my wound. I had never seen him do doctor things before, and I decided he was very good at it. Marietta held my hand. She had come downstairs. Why was she here, I wondered? And not teaching? She handed him things. "Are you a nurse?" I asked her.
We'd all heard about Florence Nightingale, nurse during the Crimean War. And our own Clara Barton, who'd followed the army in our war.
"No," Marietta answered. "But if I could, I'd be a doctor."
"Women can't be doctors," I said.
"Yes, they can," Uncle Valentine told me. "And they are. Dr. Mary Walker was an assistant surgeon during the war. She was taken prisoner by the Rebels, exchanged for a soldier, and given a medal. She visits and lectures here in Washington frequently."
What with all the talk, my foot was soon finished, stitched up and all. But it hurt. Uncle Valentine gave me a powder and told Marietta to take me to my room.
My room. I hobbled upstairs. Marietta brought along my things. When she wasn't looking I fished the velvet sack with the twenty gold pieces out of my pocket and hid it under the pillows on the bed. I'd find a better place for it later.
"You'd best get in that bed," she advised. "That powder is going to start to work soon." She was unpacking my clothing and putting it into the chiffonier.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"Lincoln," she said. "It's so terrible. They closed the schools. Nobody knows what's really happened yet. They're saying it's a Confederate plot. There are thirty thousand Confederate soldiers in town on parole after Lee's surrender. I came in case any of them were attacked. Your uncle might need me."
"Is it true about women being doctors?"
"Yes." She was hanging my dresses.
"Then why don't you become one if you want to? Uncle Valentine could help you."
"I'm part Negro. It's difficult enough for white women who want to become doctors."
"You look white."
"There is always someone who would find out. I don't wish to put myself through that. So I teach. And I help your uncle in his laboratory, though it's not supposed to be known."
"Why?"
"Dr. Walker is the exception, not the rule. Women don't help in laboratories in this country. We're very behind Europe. Oh yes, your uncle has been summoned to the White House."
"The White House?"
"Yes. The authorities want his advice. Likely about what to inject in Lincoln's body so it holds up for the funeral. He knows about that. And he wants to see the head wound. He's very interested in head wounds."
"He says he knows nothing about them."
"Not enough yet, no. But he will learn. He is doing some very important work in medicine. If you are going to live here, don't pry."