An Improper Death (Dr. Alexandra Gladstone Mysteries Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman. That’s all I can say.”
    Edith glanced at her mother-in-law and scowled. “Doesn’t know what she’s saying half the time. Such a burden, she is! You can see that, can’t you?”
    Once more Alexandra ignored her complaints and pointed to the vial. “Remember, two drops no more than twice a day.”
    With that last instruction, she left the house. Zack, who was waiting outdoors in the sun, got up and followed her, watching over her carefully while she mounted Lucy, boosting herself up from a stump in front of the house.
    She made her way to the Blackstone cottage a short distance from the village in the countryside. The cottage would have, under normal circumstances, been her last stop, since it was outside of town, but Edith’s gossip and attitude toward Mary had so distressed her, she felt she needed the ride to clear her mind.
    Once there, she found little Saul, the Blackstone baby, was much improved. His stepmother, Helen, took as good care of him as she did her own infant, who was only a few weeks older. Helen had been hired as a wet nurse when Saul’s mother and twin brother died at his birth. The arrangement as wet nurse had eventually resulted in a permanent position as Seth Blackstone’s wife and mother to little Saul and two-year-old Phillip, something patently beneficial to each of them.
    Feeling refreshed after the ride and after seeing the family thriving, she rode back to the village to look in on Hannibal Talbot. She found him in a restless, laudanum-induced sleep. His face was flushed and his body hot to the touch, suggesting that an infection of the bladder had set in. His wife was beside herself with worry.
    When Hannibal first became ill, Alexandra had examined his urine under a microscope and diagnosed cystine deposits in the bladder. She had prescribed a preparation of iron, iodine, iodide of iron, and nitro-muriatic acid, along with podophyllin for the liver along with copious amounts of water. When he didn’t respond to the medicine, she had recommended surgical removal of the stones, but he had, so far, steadfastly refused the operation, claiming a female could not possibly know a man’s body well enough to accomplish such a procedure. He preferred, it appeared, to live in pain and beg for laudanum for occasional relief.
    “Can’t you do the surgery now, while he sleeps?” Mildryd Talbot’s voice trembled and tears glistened in her eyes.
    Alexandra shook her head. “I’m afraid not. See how fitfully he sleeps? He would feel the knife, and anyway it would be dangerous as long as the infection is present, not to mention unethical if he doesn’t give me permission.”
    “Please,” Mildryd said. “Can’t you do something? I just wish your father was still around. He would have known what to do.”
    Alexandra had grown accustomed to a certain few of her patients continually comparing her to her father. Still, she bristled. “My father would have recommended surgery earlier, just as I did. It was your husband’s decision not to trust me.” While she spoke, she occupied herself by applying a glass suction cup over the area of his bladder in order to force more blood flow into the spot. The touch of the glass cup awakened him slightly. He thrust his arms about and swore, then groaned loudly as he felt the vacuum pressure of the cup.
    “Is he still drinking the diuretic?” Alexandra spoke quietly to Mildryd as she worked.
    “The what?”
    “The infusion of wild carrot and hair moss I mixed for him. See that he drinks it six times a day. If we can get him to pass enough water to clear the infection out, perhaps he’ll decide to trust me to operate.”
    Mildryd nodded in a distracted way, her eyes still on her husband. She remained distraught and preoccupied throughout the treatment and forgot to see Alexandra to the door.
    When Alexandra was outside on the narrow street, she once again mounted her mare, while Zack took his time rousing himself from his nap in the warm sun to