Chapter 1

Haworth, England, 1815

“ T he medical profession? You can’t be serious, Simon? No, I won’t hear of it. A man like you doesn’t become a doctor – a quack? No, no, no,” Simon Wilkinson’s father exclaimed, shaking his head.

Simon had known this would be his father’s reaction. The duke had raised Simon to be his heir – that was the order of things. The first son of a duke – the only son of a duke – became a duke. He might hold a military position for a few years, or even dabble in politics. But his duty, his destiny, was determined from birth. There was no question of it, even as Simon was now questioning it.

“But Father, you’re in rude health. I don’t need to stay here at Burleigh waiting for you…well, there’s no necessity in my remaining here. I’m your heir, but I need to do something other than…wait,” Simon replied.

His father’s eyes narrowed. They were standing in the duke’s study, with its book-lined walls and great desk, the scene of so many discussions between father and son. But this was the first time Simon had voiced the desire he had harbored since childhood – to be a doctor, to be a physician.

“But you don’t have to, Simon. A man in your position doesn’t need to work. The sons of lesser gentlemen might choose such a path, but you’re different. You’re to be the Duke of Burleigh – one of the most distinguished titles in the country. If you need something to do, I can find you something to do here, on the estate,” he said, but Simon shook his head.

His mind was made up. He knew what he wanted, and it was not to remain at Burleigh House, trapped in a gilded cage. He wanted to help others, he wanted to be a physician, to cure and heal…

“I’m not interested in managing the hunt or overseeing the servants, Father,” Simon replied, shaking his head.

He had already written to the medical school at Bart’s in London – one of the oldest in the world – to make enquiries about studying there and had received a favorable response. This was his ambition, and it had taken considerable courage on Simon’s part to speak to his father about the matter. He wanted to do his duty, and he knew he would one day inherit the title – whether he wished to or not – but now, in the flush of youth, his ambitions lay elsewhere. He was twenty years old, and before the inevitability of inheritance, he wanted the chance to fulfill his ambitions, and do something other than pursue the life of a country gentlemen – as attractive as such a life might seem to others. His father sighed.

“Simon…you’re not making the right decision. Why not study…theology?” he said, and Simon smiled.

He had considered doctoring souls over bodies, but his desire to help others was material, rather than spiritual. He was a believer, but he did not believe his own vocation to be that of the pulpit. It was practicality he favored, and he shook his head.

“No, Father, I want to be a physician. Can’t you understand why?” he asked.

His father looked suddenly grave and glanced up at the portrait above the mantelpiece. It showed a young girl, a child of seven, wearing a pink dress, smiling as she sat in the gardens of Burleigh House. This was Simon’s sister, Eve, whose death at the age of just seven years old had cast a long shadow over both their lives.

“It wasn’t your fault, Simon. How many times do I have to tell you?” his father said, turning his face away from the portrait, as tears welled up in his eyes.

Simon knew his father found the memory of Eve’s death difficult to bear – as did he. It had been summer, and she had been playing in the gardens of Burleigh House when she fell into the boating lake. Simon had gone inside to fetch a drink from the kitchen, and when he returned, he had found no sign of his sister on the lawn where he had left her. He had called out for her, his panic rising, searching the grounds, joined by the servants. But it was his father who had found her, wading into the boating lake to retrieve the lifeless body. It had been an accident, but one Simon had blamed himself for ever since. If only he had not left her on the lawn, or been quicker in his response to the tragedy, perhaps she would still be alive today…

“I know it wasn’t, Father. But if I can learn how to save lives…perhaps I won’t feel so guilty,” Simon replied.

His father shook his head, sighing, as he sat down in a chair by the fire.

“And it’s truly what you want, is it?” he said.

Simon nodded. He had thought long and hard about it. He knew it was what he wanted – to be a doctor, to save lives, to assuage his guilt over the loss of his sister.

“It is, Father. But I don’t want to go against your wishes. I want your blessing in the matter. I know I have a duty here, and it’s a duty I intend to fulfill – when the time comes. But for now, I want to do something meaningful. I want to be a physician, a doctor, call it what you will. I know I can do it,” Simon said, and his father nodded.

“Very well, Simon. You have my blessing. Go to medical school, become a doctor, and help others. It might make you a better duke – when the time comes, as you say,” he said, giving a weak smile.

Simon nodded, holding out his hand to his father, who took it in his.

“Thank you, Father,” he said, and his father nodded.

“I hope you don’t intend to be a surgeon, though,” he said, and Simon smiled.

“No, Father – I want to be a physician. I’d like to go somewhere where no one knows me, and practice medicine for ordinary people. I don’t want to hack limbs off or see men biting on planks of wood to stop them from screaming in pain,” he said.

Despite his intentions, Simon was not possessed by a strong constitution when it came to dealing with blood and the interior organs. He had once fainted at the sight of an injury sustained by one of the gardeners, who had fallen into the hedge and broken his leg, the bone protruding from the injury and requiring to be set with a splint. Surgery was not his intention, but he had read a great deal about disease and its treatment, devouring the volumes in his father’s library, and sending off for journals containing the latest medical knowledge. But it was practical experience he now required, and by enrolling at Bart’s, Simon hoped to acquire those skills one could not learn from a book.

“A country physician?” his father replied, and Simon nodded.

“That’s right, though it’ll be some years before I achieve my ambition,” he said.

His father smiled.

“Well…it’s hardly what I expected for my son. But if it makes you happy, Simon…who am I to stand in your way? But I caution in this – a duke needs an heir. Don’t neglect your duty in that regard. You’ve got to take a wife, Simon,” he said, and Simon nodded.

“I’m still young, Father. And I won’t neglect society in its entirety. I just don’t want my youth to pass in a flurry of balls and soirees without having done something worthwhile,” he said, and his father sighed.

“I know I won’t dissuade you, Simon. Follow your heart. But don’t feel guilty about your sister. It’s my guilt to bear. I promised your mother on her deathbed I’d take care of you both. I failed in that, Simon,” he said.

Simon could only feel sorry for his father, who had become a widower when Simon’s mother had died in childbirth with Eve. Their father had doted on them, and the loss of his sister had been a tragedy from which the duke had never fully recovered. There were days when he would sit in the drawing room, staring out towards the boating lake, lost in thought, and Simon knew he blamed himself for the tragedy, even as no one could have foreseen it.

“You haven’t failed at all, Father. And if you won’t let me feel guilty for the loss of Eve, I won’t let you feel so, either,” Simon replied.

His father shook his head, crossing to the window, and pulling back the curtain to look across the garden. Evie was buried beneath a large oak tree – Evie’s tree. It had been her favorite place to sit, and following her death, Simon’s father had wanted to keep her close. It was the same plot Simon’s mother was buried, and it had seemed a fitting burial ground for her daughter’s final resting place, too.

“I couldn’t bear to think of her in the graveyard, surrounded by forgotten stones, gathering moss beneath the yew trees,” the duke had said, and he and Simon would go to visit the graves, marked by simple headstones, and their view across the parkland.

Following Evie’s death, Burleigh House had grown quiet, a mournful place, the servants talking in hushed whispers, and nothing of the happiness and joviality Evie had brought to them remained. There was no doubting the impact his sister’s death had had on him, and it was Simon’s sole reason for choosing the path he was now to take.

“Then be a good doctor, Simon. Be the physician who could’ve saved your sister – your mother, too, perhaps,” Simon’s father said, and Simon nodded.

He was grateful to his father for giving his blessing, even as he knew it would be a wrench to leave the estate – and its many memories – behind him. He was setting off into the unknown, into a world he knew nothing of, save for what he had read in his father’s library. Doctor Frazer, the local physician, had smiled wryly when Simon had gone to see him about the matter of medical school. He had been a ship’s surgeon in the Royal Navy, before returning from sea and setting himself up as Haworth’s resident physician.

“It’s not always a gentleman’s profession, my Lord,” the doctor had said.

But Simon knew that. He knew he was leaving a rarified world for something very different than he was used to. But at medical school, and in his practice, Simon did not want to be known as the heir to the Duke of Burleigh. He would be Simon Wilkinson, an aspiring physician, and, in time, a practicing doctor.

“Thank you, Father. And thank you for giving me your blessing,” Simon said, and his father nodded.

“Follow your heart, Simon, and may it lead you to good fortune,” the duke replied, and it was as though this was to be a parting of ways – it was to be a parting of ways, for Simon had made the arrangements for his enrolment at Bart’s and was set to depart for London in the coming days.

The two men shook hands, and Simon thanked his father again, promising to remain loyal to his duty when the time came.

“I’m still your heir, Father. But in the many years to come, I hope to do some good, too,” Simon said, and with this intention in his heart, he bid his father farewell.

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