Old Tin Sorrows Read Online Free PDF Page B

trying to do him out of something.”
    Wouldn’t say a word to an outsider. I was proud of her. “It isn’t possible somebody might actually be robbing him? Like they say, even paranoids get persecuted.”
    “Who? You tell me that, Mr. Smartass Snooper. Ain’t nobody in this whole damned place wouldn’t wrestle thunder-lizards for him. Half of them would take the disease for him if they could.”
    I didn’t make the point, but people work kinky deals with their consciences. I had no trouble imagining a man willing to die for the General being equally willing to steal from him. The very willingness to serve could set off a chain of justifications making theft sound completely reasonable.
    She’d figured me out in fifteen minutes. How long would it be before word spread? “You ever have a problem with pixies or brownies?” The countryside suffered periodic infestations, like termites or mice. The little people are fond of baubles and have no respect for property.
    “We had any around here, I’d put them to work.”
    I figured she would. “Dellwood hinted that the General has a prejudice against doctors. In his condition I’d think he’d be ready to try anything.”
    “You don’t know that boy. He’s got a stubborn streak a yard wide. He by damned made up his mind when the missus died, he wasn’t never going to trust no quack again. And he stuck.”
    “Uhm?”
    She wouldn’t talk to no outsider. Not her, no siree! “See, he loved that girl, Miss Tiffany. Such a lovely child she was. Broke all our hearts when it happened. They laughed at him, he was so much older than her. But he was her heart’s slave, him that never loved a thing before. Then Miss Jennifer came. She was in labor so long. He couldn’t stand to see her in pain. He brought in doctors from the city. After Miss Jennifer finally came, one damned fool gave Miss Tiffany a damned anticoagulant infusion. Thought he was giving her a sleeping potion.”
    A big mistake and an especially stupid one, sounded like. “She bled to death?”
    “She did. Might have anyway. She was a frail, pale thing, but you couldn’t never convince him.”
    Mistakes that cost lives aren’t easy to understand or forgive, but they happen. Despite what they want us mortals to believe, doctors are human. And where there are human beings, there’s human error. It’s inevitable.
    When doctors make mistakes, people hurt.
    Easy for me to be understanding. I hadn’t known and loved the General’s wife.
    “Changed his whole life, that did. Went off and spent the rest of it in the Cantard, taking out his grief on the Venageti.” And when generals make mistakes, lots of people hurt. “You going to hang out here all day, youngster, you better roll up your sleeves and get washing. Round here we don’t got no place for drones.”
    I was tempted. She had plenty to say. Still . . . 
    “Maybe later. If it looks like I’m wasting my time, I might as well wash dishes.”
    She snorted. “Thought that would get rid of you. Never knowed a man yet with balls enough to wade into a mountain of dirty dishes of his own free will.”
    “The lunch was great. Thank you, Miss . . . ?”
    Didn’t work this time, either.
     
     

5
     
    That fountain in the great hall was a good hub from which to launch exploratory forays. I perched on the surround, digesting Cook’s remarks. I had a premonition. I would get intimate with dishwater before I exhausted that vein of stubborn silence.
    I had that creepy feeling you get when you sense somebody watching you. I looked around casually.
    There she was. The blonde again, drifting in the shadows, bold enough now to be on the same floor with me. I pretended not to notice. I gave it a minute, got up, stretched. She ducked out of sight. I moved her way pretending I had no idea she was there.
    She lit out like a scared pheasant. I bolted after her. “Jennifer!”
    I ducked between pillars . . . Where did she go? I didn’t see anywhere she