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Adrienne barely took time to arrange her fashionable, autumnal-shaded skirts, which so complemented her colouring. She sat a trifle awkwardly, leaning forward towards him. ‘I can remember the day very well. It was two months ago. Papa had been growing weaker for a period of time. At first the doctors thought it was just weariness. My father is over sixty and he insists on behaving as if he were a young man.’ She gave a slight smile but it vanished in an instant. ‘He travelled extensively. He was always very vigorous in his pursuits, climbing mountains, riding for days on horseback. He attended the opera and the theatre, visited Paris, Rome, Madrid.’ There was pride in her voice. ‘It was not foolish to wonder if perhaps a long rest would do him good.’
‘And did it?’ Magnus enquired with interest. His eyes were intent upon hers, and his expression very grave.
She lowered her gaze and her answer was almost a whisper. ‘At first it seemed to, but I fear now that we saw only what we wished to see. He is failing very rapidly. Unless you are willing to help him, I think he has only weeks left.’
‘I must consult my brother,’ Magnus said with unusual gentleness.
Adrienne leaned even further forward. ‘My father is a man of very considerable means, Dr Rand. He would be well able to recompense you for your skill, and to meet any expenses you might incur in treating him. Surely that is worth something?’
Hester winced at the words, and yet in the young woman’s place she might have said the same thing, clumsy as it was.
Magnus brushed it aside.
‘I will not take your money, Miss Radnor, unless I am certain that we have some chance of helping your father. I must still consult my brother. He is a chemist of more than skill – of brilliance – and it is his experiments that give us hope that we can cure this, and perhaps many other diseases.’
‘Then call him!’ she begged. ‘Call anyone, only please do not delay.’
Magnus looked up at Hester. ‘Mrs Monk, you have heard Miss Radnor’s plight, and that of her father. Please inform my brother of the situation and ask him if he will be good enough to lay aside whatever he is doing at present and come to my office so he can ask whatever he needs to of Miss Radnor, and reach some decision.’
‘Yes, Dr Rand,’ Hester said willingly, and turned to leave.
She was not accustomed to going to Hamilton Rand’s laboratory. It was closed to the hospital staff for excellent reasons. It was full of chemicals that were highly likely to be harmful if touched, mixed or spilled, and of experiments that could be ruined if disturbed. Hester believed it was also because Hamilton Rand did not wish his work to be interrupted for anything short of the building being on fire. But now she had no choice.
She walked quickly, without distraction. She hurried past other nurses barely acknowledging them. She did not even glance at storerooms, other wards, even operating theatres. When she reached the laboratory door she knocked on it firmly and loudly.
There was no answer.
She knocked again, harder.
Still there was no response.
Hamilton Rand spent most of his time here, not only all day but frequently most of the evening. He had been known to work all night, which had earned him both fear and respect.
Hester was moved not so much by concern for Magnus as pity for Adrienne Radnor. She understood painfully well her deep love for her father and the desire to save him at almost any cost. The guilt still ached within Hester for her own father whom she had not been there to save. She had been fighting her own battles for independence and purpose as an army nurse in the Crimea when her father had been dishonoured by a brutal trick, and had taken his own life. If she had come home even a month or two earlier she might have prevented the tragedy that had driven him to such a thing. That would have spared the whole family. For her mother, the loss of a son in battle, followed by financial ruin and then the death of her husband had been too much. Her health could take no more. James, Hester’s younger brother, had done all he could, but it was beyond his power to help.
Hester had no option but to override good manners. She turned the handle and opened the door. The laboratory was a very large room, as large as a ward, but there were no beds in it. Shelves and cupboards lined all the walls. In the centre were benches with sinks and racks of all manner of scientific instruments: glass tubes, bottles, retorts, individual gas burners and other contraptions whose use she could only guess.
Hamilton Rand was only about eight feet from the door. He stood rigid, his face like a wedge of ice, his white cotton coat splashed with chemicals and what looked to be blood.
‘What do you imagine you are doing here, woman?’ he demanded. ‘How dare you barge in and interrupt me? Get out!’
Hester straightened her shoulders and stared back at him. Doctors did not frighten her, chemists still less.
‘I came to deliver a message to you from Dr Rand,’ she replied levelly. ‘He requests your presence in his office to consult a young woman whose father is dying of the white blood disease. He is desperate, and has the financial means to pay you for any cure you are willing to try. Dr Rand does not wish to take the decision without consulting you.’ She said it with some satisfaction in telling him because she knew he would not resist the temptation. Even in the short time she had been here, his devotion to science had become clear to her. He spared neither himself nor others in the search for healing.
He put the dish he was holding down on the nearside bench. ‘Then move out of the way, woman!’ he ordered. ‘We must see this patient at once.’
He looked her up and down. He was not a tall man, and she was close to his height.
‘What are you?’ he asked, frowning at her. He had seen her before only a day ago, but had instantly forgotten.
‘A nurse,’ she replied equally stiffly.
‘Ah!’ There was light in his eyes. ‘Yes. Now I remember Magnus telling me about you. Come with me. Don’t stand here wasting time!’ He brushed past her and she stepped aside out of his way to avoid being knocked down. She swivelled round and followed him briskly back down the long corridors all the way to Magnus’s office.
He flung the door open without asking. Adrienne Radnor was still sitting in the chair and she had the composure not to rise as he came in, announcing himself brusquely.
Magnus introduced her and she answered as calmly as she could, but Hester heard the tremor in her voice. For her Hami
