Ecstasy Wears Emeralds Read Online Free PDF

fair and too young to heed such a calling.”
    â€œMy reasons are as sound as yours. It’s not as if you’re some lifeless old prune! Or do you really view it as just a trade, Dr. West? Is it profit alone that drives you so that you’re incapable of imagining why anyone would want this?”
    â€œYou cut me to the quick. But why don’t we set aside the fact that this course of action will destroy your chances for a decent match? I’ll even try to set aside the distinct possibility that Mrs. Hamilton has even now called for the guard and declared me a criminal for engineering your presence on my doorstep—”
    She interrupted him. “Aunt Jane has no idea that I’ve sought you out!”
    â€œWhere, precisely, does Mrs. Hamilton believe you to be?”
    She hesitated, finally displaying a bit of uncertainty that made him wonder what else she was keeping from him. “I may have led her to believe that I was determined to make a tour of the Continent to gain a bit of worldly polish before agreeing to marriage.”
    â€œAlone?”
    She crossed her arms defensively but said nothing.
    â€œShopping for an imaginary trousseau, are we? Did you remember your invisible chaperone and send Mrs. Hamilton a pretend itinerary?”
    The look she gave him was pure disdain. “I could correct her misconceptions about my travels, but I don’t see the advantage. Besides, weren’t you saying something about setting aside an argument based on Mrs. Hamilton’s potential alarm at my departure? Or was that the last of your protests and you were going to agree to take me on?”
    This woman has a mind that tracks like a falcon and is probably just as deadly. Still, let’s try another more traditional tactic.
    â€œFrankly, Miss Renshaw, medicine is not for the faint of heart. There are . . . indelicate subjects a physician must be familiar with that a lady can’t . . .” He tried again, hoping the moral high ground wasn’t about to give way beneath his feet. “Society’s rules of etiquette and decency dictate that you maintain a certain ignorance when it comes to the human condition.” Even as he said it, the words sounded pompous and inane in his ears.
    â€œHow is that possible?” she asked, completely nonplussed.
    He couldn’t even muster the energy to answer her.
    She recrossed her arms, shifting her stance defiantly. “Women bear the brunt of childbirth, do they not? A most indelicate experience, by all accounts, and yet you would prefer to believe that we are blithely, as a gender, oblivious to life’s messier and more painful aspects? How exactly does society expect me to shield myself from the human condition—whether I’m a doctor or a milkmaid?”
    â€œGood question. But I’m sure that since women commonly faint at the very prospect of seeing blood, it’s hard for most men to imagine them drawing it out of a patient or cutting into the flesh to withdraw a tumor or remove a limb. Ideally, you are seen as the weaker vessel and—”
    â€œI have never fainted, Dr. West, and I see no reason to wobble at the mechanisms or fluids that sustain a human being’s existence. Do not make the mistake of describing me as a weak vessel or a fragile angel! I’ll not—” She stopped herself, as if the very passion of the argument that overtook her was now the greater threat. She turned her back on him, openly fighting for composure before she turned around again, the icy mask back in place. “If you can bear a thing, I don’t see that I am any less capable of bearing the same! I am less experienced, granted, but not less capable.”
    â€œThat’s a claim you cannot make so confidently, Miss Renshaw. You haven’t been exposed to the worst.”
    â€œPrecisely! I haven’t been exposed to anything! And until you stop lecturing and agree to give me the chance, then we can