The Painter's Apprentice Read Online Free PDF Page B

asked. ‘Sometimes I feel as much a prisoner behind these walls as any of the guests.’
    ‘Why would I want to leave? I love it here! There is my painting and Johannes, the gardens and the servants and guests, who
     are almost family anyway. Merryfields is a whole world of its own.’
    ‘But there’s a whole
new
world outside these walls.’ Wild-eyed, Kit paced across the floor. ‘I’m suffocating here. I don’t care where I go, Virginia,
     Babylon or, or …’ he floundered, ‘or Billingsgate, but I
have
to leave Merryfields.’
    Beth stared at him, a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. ‘I’d no idea you were so miserable.’
    ‘Why should you, when you walk around in a glow of self-satisfied happiness, spending every minute possible closeted away
     with Johannes? You
know
what you want to do with your life.’ He went to the window and stared out at the gardens, bounded by the high brick wall.
     ‘I’ll have to face Father,’ he said. ‘He’ll be angry but even that is better than spending the rest of my life in a lunatic
     asylum.’
    ‘I hate to see you so miserable.’
    Kit gave his sister a tight little smile. ‘I can’t put it off any longer. I must speak to him. If I haven’t reappeared in
     an hour or two you’d better come and save me.’

    Sometime later, Beth passed the half open door to William’s study and heard raised voices from within.
    ‘Even if I had the money, which I do not, I wouldn’t give it to you so that you could sail off on a hare-brained scheme to
     Virginia. You know nothing about growing tobacco …’
    ‘But I could
learn
, Father!’
    ‘You will
learn
how to be a doctor at Oxford.’
    ‘You must have realised by now that I will make a poor doctor. I don’t
like
sick people.’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous! The sick are the same as you or I.’
    ‘But they bleed and purge and sweat. I can’t stand it; it makes me ill. And I’m frightened when one of the guests starts rocking
     or weeping or banging his head against the wall. I lie awake at night with my heart pounding if I hear a disturbance, terrified
     you’ll call me to help. I may not know what I want to do but I do know this.
I will not stay trapped behind the walls of Merryfields with a pack of lunatics!
’
    The study door flung back, nearly knocking Beth off her feet, and Kit sprinted out, slamming the front door behind him.
    Shocked, Beth looked into the study to see her father at his desk with his head in his hands. She went in and sat down before
     him.
    William looked up, his face creased with worry. ‘I don’t know what to do for the best. All these years your mother and I have
     spent in making Merryfields a model for the care of the melancholic will be wasted if Kit doesn’t take my place.’
    Beth experienced a tiny stab of jealousy, wondering if her own absence would cause William as much distress as Kit’s. ‘Perhaps
     you need another doctor to come and work with you?’ she said. ‘One who will share your ideals for Merryfields?’
    ‘It isn’t as simple as that.’
    ‘Why not?’
    William frowned. ‘It’s no concern of yours. Young women need not trouble themselves …’
    ‘Not my concern? Of course it is! Whatever happens at Merryfields concerns me, even if I am only a woman.’
    ‘Sometimes you are as hot-headed as your mother.’ He sighed. ‘I’m too worn down with it all to argue with you. The income
     Merryfields produces is barely enough to support us. Certainly I cannot pay a decent wage to employ another doctor.’ William
     pulled the ledger towards him and opened it, running his finger down the page. ‘You wouldn’t believe the price of coal. Then
     there are the servants’ wages and the housekeeping bill. So many mouths to feed!’
    ‘Mama says you have too many charity cases.’
    William shrugged. ‘She’s right. But take Clarence Smith and Old Silas, for example. Their families gave up paying our fees
     years ago but if I send them home, they will