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I lean back in the chair. “I’m blathering, aren’t I? I’m trying to explain a concept that’s still difficult for me to accept—that I can’t do everything men do.”
“Becauseof men,” he says. “Presumably men are the danger in your time as well.”
“Yes, but if you say that, you get the rallying cry of ‘not all men.’ Not all men are dangerous. Not all men are assholes. Not all men are going to mug or assault me.”
“I should hope that would be obvious. Saying doctors can harm more than they heal certainly does not meanalldo.”
“Right. It’s wise to be wary of doctors who run shady operations… just like it’s wise for women to be wary in rough Victorian neighborhoods, at night, without a male escort. I needed you to point that out, Dr. Gray. You asked to join us yourself, and I thought you just didn’t want to miss an adventure. If you had said you thought it was unsafe, we’d have bristled but agreed. Yet pointing it out puts you in the shitty position of offending us.”
“Yes.”
“The alternative was to send Simon after us, which putshimin a shitty position.”
He sets down his pen. “I had not considered that.”
“It also risks offending us more than if you’d said it was unsafe. The answer is compromise. I will acknowledge now that venturing there alone at night is unsafe. I can make Isla understand that.”
“In return, I shall acknowledge that I not only put Simon in a difficult position but was patronizing to you and my sister.”
“And in future you will not send Simon—or anyone else—to watch over us if we refuse the offer of an escort?”
He hesitates.
I lean forward. “We’ll discuss Isla in a moment, which is another matter, but I am capable of analyzing a situation and assessing threat. If I make a mistake, then I deal with those consequences. For you to override my decision…”
“Is the very definition of patronizing,” he says with a sigh.
“Yep. Now, being new to this time, I need help understanding its dangers, but I also need you to let me make that final call. Isla is… another matter.” I glance toward the door and lower my voice. “May I speak frankly on that, Dr. Gray?”
“Of course.”
I explain how I interpret the situation: that Isla can’t accurately assess the danger because she’s been sheltered from it.
“The answer isn’t to continue sheltering her,” I say. “Or to make choices for her.”
“It is to give her the data and experience she needs to assess the danger, as I will do for you.”
“Plus the tools to deal with it. Self-defense lessons. A weapon—and training in how to use that.”
When he hesitates, I say, “You’re afraid her enthusiasm for adventure will get her into trouble.”
He exhales in relief, as if glad he didn’t need to say it. “Yes.”
“Which is, again, patronizing.” I pause for a beat. “Just as the way she sometimes treats you can be patronizing. I don’t have siblings, but I can see both the amazing side of itandthe frustrating side. She sometimes treats you like her little brother, in need of protection from threats like distraction.”
His cheek ticks, but I plow on. “She is the older sister whohasgotten herself into trouble, chasing adventure, blinded to everything else… as she did when she married.”
“You know about that.”
“I know she married an asshole, and you said she was marrying an asshole, and she didn’t appreciate your warning. That caused friction before she discovered you were right… and caused awkwardness afterward. For her, at least.”
“For both of us.” He rubs his mouth. “I do not wish to burden you with our family troubles, but yes, I did not want to be correct about Lawrence. For obvious reasons. She suffered with him. More than she’ll ever let on.”
I soften my voice. “I know. But Isla isn’t the girl who married Lawrence, and you aren’t the boy who needed to be kept from distraction. I will speak to Isla. We’ll get her to the place where she knows she can’t sneak off to the Old Town at night… and getyouto the place where you know you shouldn’t send Simon to follow her.”
He’s silent for a moment. Then he says, “Would you like that drink now?”
I feign collapsing onto his desk. “Please.I know I interrupted your work, so I’ll take it to go.”
