Protection Read Online Free PDF Page B

into Gabriel’s mind. Perhaps no matter what Cooper was, it didn’t give anyone the right to use him against his will. Not even if he sacrificed pregnant women at the full moon and ground their bones for his bread.
    “I didn’t proclaim myself a godly man. I only said there is a God,” Gabriel snapped, looking away. “So the doctor turned up drunk and you knew it. Go on.”
    “Dr. Pfiser took charge of Jane’s labor. She was pained, of course, and he kept saying she was only afraid, that nothing was truly wrong. All the Wheaton heirs had been born at Wheaton Manor and Jane wanted to preserve the tradition. The boy was already named – John Carothers Sergeant Wheaton. His christening gown and silver cup were laid out.” Cooper’s eyes shone. “Dr. Pfiser was confident, half-asleep in his chair, but I was concerned. Jane’s color was bad. Her urine smelled of sugar and her lower legs were swollen. Have you heard of diabetes?”
    Gabriel shook his head.
    “It’s deadly in children and pregnant women. Sometimes it doesn’t present until a few weeks before labor. Dr. Pfiser missed the signs. But that could happen to any doctor,” Cooper added. “The point is, once we realized Jane’s condition, labor at Wheaton Manor was too dangerous. She needed transport to hospital right away. I told Dr. Pfiser as much. He said I was a good lad, but green as grass and dead wrong. To disrupt Jane’s labor, to anger Lord Wheaton, would be the unmaking of my career. And that,” Cooper sighed, swiping at his eyes, “that frightened me. So I held my peace.”
    Gabriel frowned. So far Cooper had confessed to two misdeeds, neither of which were actionable in British courts. As the supervising physician, Dr. Pfiser carried the liability for both. Gabriel shifted, unsettled, as if danger crouched at the very edge of his peripheral vision.
    “When things went bad, they went bad all at once,” Cooper continued. “Jane’s pulse turned thready. She started gasping. And the baby presented placenta first. That meant Jane would bleed to death, no doubt. She was already hemorrhaging fast. Outside of a hospital there was no way to save her life, and if we wasted time transporting her, the baby would die, too. There was nothing left to try but a Caesarian.” Cooper looked at Gabriel. “Do you know what that is?”
    “How Julius Caesar was taken from his dead mum’s belly.”
    “Yes. Dr. Pfiser had been dozing. He woke up sober, for the most part, and frozen, completely at a loss. I opened his black bag. Pulled out the surgical instruments. Jane was dead, or as near as made no difference, so I performed the Caesarian. I’d just pulled the baby free when Lord Wheaton burst in.”
    Gabriel could imagine the scene all too easily. He saw a posh bedchamber, a four-poster with old-fashioned bed curtains, the ancestral site of consummations, conceptions, births and deaths. He saw a young mother, dead. And blood everywhere, soaking the bed linens, sprayed on the walls, spattered on the motionless woman and Cooper alike.
    “Was it alive?” Gabriel asked, meaning the infant.
    “Barely. Lord Wheaton slapped the baby out of my hands. He was wild over the sight of – of Jane laid open that way, viscera exposed, covered in blood. He struck me so hard, I fell and lost consciousness. When I came around, the baby was dead.” Stubbing out his cigarette, Cooper tossed down the dog-end and wiped his eyes. “And Lord Wheaton had summoned the constables.”
    “But you told your story, didn’t you?”
    “No one asked. Dr. Pfiser told me to go back to my room above his surgery. Said we’d discuss it in the morning. I didn’t sleep that night, but not out of fear. I was too foolish to be afraid.” Giving a little laugh, Cooper accepted a new cigarette from Gabriel, allowing the other man to light it. “I was sad over the loss of our patients. Not guilty. Sad.
    “And so.” Putting the Pall Mall to his lips, Cooper drew in another double lungful