removed the soup bowls before saying, “You were trying to figure out how to break a bone, weren’t you?”
Georgie’s eyes lit with surprise. “How did you—”
“Oh, please, it was obvious.”
“What are the two of you talking about?” Nicholas’s mother trilled.
He gave her a look. He knew that tone. He’d heard it employed with his older siblings. And Georgie’s older siblings.
His mother was playing matchmaker, but she was also trying to avoid the appearance of playing matchmaker. Trying, but failing, because she was too curious to hold her tongue when she thought she saw something happening. Because what if she could intervene and make things better?
He knew his mother. He knew his mother well.
“We’re talking about how to break bones,” Georgie said plainly.
Nicholas didn’t bother to hide his grin.
“Oh.” His mother looked disappointed. And perhaps a bit queasy.
“I recommend falling from a tree,” Billie said. “Twice if you can manage it.”
“But not at the same time,” her mother said.
Billie turned to her with some exasperation. “How would one fall from two trees at the same time?”
“If it can be done, I have every confidence that you will be the one to figure out how.”
“Such faith in your eldest daughter,” Billie said in a dry voice. “It is positively uplifting.”
Conversation slowed when the next course was served—rack of lamb with mint jelly, herbed potatoes and French beans with butter, and duck terrine with courgettes.
Georgie turned to Nicholas with a look of pure camaraderie. “Toasted cheese and rack of lamb. We are outdoing ourselves tonight.”
Nicholas nearly groaned with pleasure at the first bite. “I can’t remember the last time I had such a good meal.”
“Is Scottish food so very dreadful?”
“The Scottish food in my rooming house is.”
“Oh,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
“Did you think I traveled with a chef?”
“No, of course not. I thought—well, to be honest, I don’t think I did think about it.”
He shrugged. He would have been surprised if she had.
She cut her meat slowly, then used her knife to add a bit of jelly. But she had a faraway look in her eyes and did not bring the food to her mouth. “I can’t stop thinking about it,” she said.
His own fork paused about two inches above his plate. “My gustatorial deprivations?”
“No, of course not. That’s just poor planning on your part. I’m still stuck on the broken bones.”
“Why does this not surprise me?”
“As you said, one can’t just open a book in the pursuit of medical inquiry.”
“We do, actually, for much of it.”
“Yes, but there must come a point when practical knowledge is required. As you also said, you can’t go around breaking people’s arms. You have to wait for it to happen.”
“True, but there is rarely a shortage of ill and injured patients.”
She seemed somewhat impatient with this explanation. “But what if they are not ill or injured in the way you need?”
“Will I regret it later if I ask what you mean by that?”
She waved off his (mostly) rhetorical question, and said, “It’s such an interesting ethical dilemma.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“What if you could break someone’s bones?”
“Georg—”
She cut him off. “For the pursuit of knowledge. What if you offered to pay?”
“Pay someone to have his bones broken?”
She nodded.
“That’s inhumane.”
“Is it?”
“Certainly unethical.”
“Only if you do not have their consent.”
“You can’t ask someone permission to break their arm.”
“Can’t you?” She cocked her head to the side. “Consider this example. Imagine that I am a widow. I don’t have very much money. In fact, I have almost none. And I have three children to support.”
“Your life has turned very grim indeed,” Nicholas murmured.
“I’m trying to make a point,” she said, visibly peeved.
“My apologies.”
She waited a beat, presumably to be sure he wasn’t going to interrupt again, then said, “If a doctor offered me enough money to break my arm and then set it, I would do it.”
Nicholas shook his head. “That’s madness.”
“Is it? I’m a penniless widow with three hungry children. It sounds to me as if my only other option is prostitution. Frankly, I’d rather have my arm broken.” She frowned. “Although it would make it more difficult to care for my children.”
Nicholas set down his fork. “Prostitution is not your only other option.”
“What are you talking about now?” his mother asked. She looked very concerned, and Nicholas suspected she’d heard the part of the conversation that included the word prostitution.
“Still on the broken bones!” Georgie said with a sunny smile.
Which slid right into a steely stare when she turned back to him. “It’s easy for you to say