An Acquaintance with Darkness - Ann Rinaldi [82]
Where was everybody? Except for the ticking of the tall clock, the house was as silent as the inside of a marble vault. Was Maude out? I hoped so. I didn't need her around, chiding me. It was enough I had to face Uncle Valentine.
What would he say? I knew how he could cut you with his words, like he was doing surgery. Like he was cutting the bad parts out and throwing them away. Would he cut parts out of me now? I'd seen people he'd done it to. They walked away limping. Or all white in the face, like they were bleeding and didn't know it.
"I'm in here, Emily." The voice came from the parlor, muffled and sad.
I went down the hall. He was seated in a large wingback chair, reading. He looked up. I was a sight, all right, with grass stains on the skirt of my dress. It was torn at the hem, too. My arm was in a makeshift sling, my face dirty.
He stood up at the sight of me. The book dropped to the floor. "Are you all right? What happened? You look as if you were run down by a carriage."
"No. A horse, almost. It's a sprain, Robert said. And there's a bump on the back of my head."
He came over to me and felt my head with expert hands, knowing hands. "That's quite a bump. You've got to get some ice on it. But you don't have a skull fracture." He went to the kitchen next and I heard him fussing around out there. He came back with some ice tied in a rag. "Sit down and put this behind your head." He gestured to the wingback chair. I sat. He did, too, across from me.
"Emily," he said, "we have to talk." He looked so sad.
I said, "Yes."
"Why did you run away from me, Emily?"
"Because of what I saw yesterday." I wished his voice wasn't so kind. I wished he would scold. But he didn't.
"The bodies in my lab?"
"Yes."
He leaned forward. "You have suspected the true nature of my work all along, haven't you?"
I told him yes again.
"Then why didn't you ask me outright? Don't you think I deserved at least that?"
"I wanted to. But every time I set my mind to it something happened. You did something good for Annie. Or me. I was thrown off the track and thought I was being silly."
"I meant to throw you off the track. I couldn't have my work compromised. And it was, yesterday. It was more than compromised. It was almost ruined. I was almost ruined. If Robert hadn't been tipped off about the police raid and gotten the bodies out, I would have been arrested."
"Uncle Valentine, I didn't lead those girls there. They forced their way. The only reason I went along with it was because Robert told me there were no bodies at your lab. I never meant to hurt you."
"You discussed all this with Robert?"
"Yes, but he wasn't honest with me, either. Any more than you were."
"Don't call me to account, Emily." He turned sharp.
"I'm not calling you to account, sir."
"This has nothing to do with honesty. It has to do with research. With treating shattered bones and torn muscles. With head injuries and ghastly injuries of the face, the spine, the chest. The war taught us all we do not know about the human body. But we must now apply what we have learned in the war. Only, there are not enough available legal cadavers. We need Anatomy Acts to provide us with legal cadavers. New York has one now. Pennsylvania is working on one. I am authoring a pamphlet telling of the need here for such an act. When it is passed, the traffic in bodies will end. Until that time, I shall continue my practices. It is not a pleasant business. I do not profit from it, and I will not purchase a cadaver from anyone who profits from it. But it is my work, the most important thing in the world to me. Do you understand?"
I understood. "It's what caused the argument between you and Mama," I said.
"Yes. She found out what I was doing. She did not approve."
"I would have approved," I said, "if you'd given me the chance."
"I don't want your approval, Emily. All I want, if you wish