Chapter 8

Chapter

Eight

Kathryn

W hat is he doing here?

Kathryn breathed deeply when she saw Doctor Beille on the other side of the library. He was not wearing his jacket and had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a flash of toned muscle on his forearms. Kathryn swallowed and tried to focus on other things. He wore a plain waistcoat, a cheap one, and his hair was swept back as it was the day before.

He stood on a ladder propped against one of the shelves and leaned on the top rung, with two books in his other hand. He looked down at her from this great height, a rather curious expression on his face.

"I beg your pardon?" She managed to find her voice.

"I said, if you're seeking out that woman's periodical, Lady Georgiana always keeps it close to her. She doesn't leave them in here." He turned back to face the shelves and returned the books to their places.

"Good morning to you too, Doctor." Her wryness caught his attention, and he looked back at her over his shoulder.

There was something in that look that made her fidget. She wrung her hands together before remembering the dropped book and gathering it from the floor.

"I was not looking for the periodical. I was searching for books on botany." She slid the book back into place on the shelf, finding it was not the kind of thing she was looking for.

"Then you need these shelves." Doctor Beille gestured to the shelves in front of him. "I did wonder yesterday how you knew what digitalis was," he muttered these words more to himself than her at all.

"Yes, you probably wondered how a maid could read such words at all." She scoffed, lifting her voice so he could clearly hear her as she crossed the room to the shelves beside the ladder. He still hadn't stepped down, but he turned, leaning on the top rung once more as he stared at her.

There was something in his look that made that feeling jolt in her stomach once more.

Just as Sebastian said. It is like fluttering moths!

Deciding Doctor Beille was far too handsome to look at for very long, she turned her focus to the books and pulled them out one at a time, reading their title pages before returning them to their places.

"My apologies for my mistake yesterday," Doctor Beille said as he stepped down off the ladder behind her. "I was not really looking at you when I made the comment."

For some reason, this made matters worse.

"Yes, I have a habit of disappearing into the wallpaper," she muttered, choosing another book. "Why are you here?"

"Lady Georgiana is kind enough to let me peruse her large library when I'm doing my research. I also wanted to check on her this morning." He abruptly took the book from her hands.

"Oi." She tried to snatch it back.

"If you're interested in botany, then this book is not for you. It's by a quack rather than a man with any real knowledge." He moved to her side, coming so close that Kathryn staggered back, bumping into the shelves beside her. She tried to make it seem as if she had completely intended to press herself so close to the shelves, out of fear of looking like a complete fool again. His eyes rested on her, though he said nothing, that light blue rather startling, then he shifted and reached for a book near her arm. He came so close that his bare wrist practically brushed her shoulder. "You need this." He handed the book to her.

She opened the front cover, careful not to touch him as she read the title page.

" An Anthology of Plants and their Uses." She wrinkled her nose. "Yet it is not a book dedicated to healing."

"Ah, I see. You are one of those." He walked away, the censure in his voice plain.

"You are not a man of a subtle opinion, are you?" Her challenging words made him turn back to her from the nearest table. His hands rested on a stack of books, his eyes on her once more. "You give it most assuredly."

"I speak as I find."

"Then I shall do the same for you." She lifted her chin. "I have done nothing to be ill mannered toward you, yet this is the second time in the space of two days I have found you rude." His lips parted, clearly shocked at her audaciousness. "Pray, tell what you mean by saying ‘I am one of those'." She had a feeling she'd regret hearing his answer but couldn't stop herself now.

"You have an interest in healing?" He motioned toward her.

"Yes."

"Yet you cling to herbs as the answer for all healing?"

"I did not say that." She shook her head. "Yet there is much to be learned from plants and their healing properties. That is something I do know."

"If you have an interest in healing, then do not rely on them completely," he said dismissively, opening one of the largest volumes in front of him. "The latest research on apparatus and the like are equally applicable to conditions these days."

"This from the man who prescribed digitalis yesterday." She reminded him, arching her eyebrows. He mirrored that look and for a moment they just stared at one another across the room.

We should not be looked at one another in this manner. What would Lady Georgiana say?

Kathryn turned her back on him, looking down at the book he had given her.

"Herbs have their application. All I'm saying is that they are not the only means of healing," he explained, searching through the pages of his book so angrily now that she could hear the pages flicking in the air.

"I am wondering if that is how you really feel, or in the effort just to argue with me it is what you are saying." Kathryn looked up from the book, noting he did the same from his own volume.

"I do not go out of my way to argue with young ladies."

"Oh? Am I just the fortunate one then to get such attention? Fortunate me." Her wry words she could have sworn brought the smallest of smiles to his lips, but the flicker was gone before she could be sure of what she had seen.

"A lot of references to botany these days and herbal medication is derived from old wives' tales. There is no scientific application." He was dismissive, turning to the back of the book he was reading and looking down at the page in front of him.

"How can you possibly know that?" She feared what he would make of Arabella's books and the copious notes she had made. Kathryn was immediately defensive, knowing how much her aunt had helped those around her over the years.

"Because of my research." Doctor Beille abruptly lifted up the vast volume and crossed the room toward her. He held open the book for her to see the diagrams on the page. They were of a cross section of a body, the illustrator detailing each part of the heart and the lungs, in shocking detail. "The body is a complex system. It cannot be fixed by potions."

"Potions?" Kathryn laughed, nervously. "You make it sound like witchcraft." It reminded her all too easily of how Arabella had been suspected of being a witch for a time.

"I do not doubt the myth of witchcraft came from skilled healers using the right herbs, but they do not all work." He thrust the diagram toward her again. She smiled, turning to face him completely as she realized what he was doing.

"Doctor Beille, are you seeking to shock me with this diagram? Are you hoping like some fading flower I'll wilt and then run from your presence, so you'll have the library to yourself once more?" At her question, his brows quirked. "Yes, I thought so. Yet your goal will not work. I have seen such diagrams before."

He closed up the book and laid it down on the table behind him, clearly disappointed.

"Very well, Doctor, if you are so convinced that herbs are not the way to healing completely, then prove it to me."

"Prove it?" he spluttered, folding his arms in front of his chest. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Tell me ways to treat the body that are not reliant on botany," she urged, matching his stance and folding her arms, stepping toward him. He went to meet her, so they were standing even closer together. "Constipation, for instance? How would you cure that?"

"Water and… prunes." He grimaced. "Dates have also proved good."

"Last time I checked, prunes and dates did come from plants." She smiled, feeling as if she had won.

"If we are to play this game, then at least allow me to set the parameters a little." He stood taller, lifting his chin. Standing so close to him, Kathryn was distracted by his handsome face once more and those light blue eyes. His lips were rather thin, and he often pressed them into a flat line. She wondered what they would be like if he dared to indulge in a smile. "Injuries and inflammation of any kind are usually encouraged to heal with ice, for instance. The application of cold to the inflicted area, that does not rely on any botany at all."

"Yes, I suppose," she whispered. "And a headache?"

"Treatment of headaches depends entirely on the cause. Whilst yes, I will admit there is some application for herbs in this case, most of the time I can reduce my patients' frequent headaches through other means. Shielding their eyes from bright light or avoiding certain foods that turn out to trigger a reaction in their body. You'd be surprised how urging someone to avoid exertion of the eyes can avoid headaches entirely." He stood taller once more, clearly pleased with his success. "Did I win our little game, Miss Fitzroy?"

"Not as well as you think you did," she said, irked he had proved himself so well.

"Ah, now you are just being difficult." He lowered his head a little more. "I am the one between us who is a trained doctor, Miss Fitzroy. Trust me, I know what I am talking about it when it comes to such matters."

"Are you so proud as to think you know everything?" Kathryn couldn't resist needling him further. He irked her, and there was some satisfaction in the idea of irking him too. "At least I know I am deficient in my knowledge, and I seem to remember one great philosopher saying once that he considered himself the wisest man alive, for he knew that he knew nothing." She smiled with victory.

"Plato." Doctor Beille's knowledge of the philosopher made her brows raise.

"Do you know everything?" She huffed.

For the first time, Doctor Beille smiled. It was small yet it transformed his countenance so much that she couldn't stop staring at him.

"No, far from it." He shook his head.

She wasn't sure which angered her more. His pride or his charm.

"So, have I won our game?" he asked.

"Do you need me to openly admit it." She curtsied exaggeratedly to him. "I bow down to your superior knowledge, Doctor. Although I wish you were not so proud in declaring it."

"Proud?" His brows quirked together. "I have never been accused of such a thing before."

"No?" Her plain disbelief shocked him, and that smile appeared again, even if it was only for a few seconds.

"I have pride in my work. That is all." He softened his voice.

"Ah, is that why you disparaged my wish to read about botany?"

"No, I just…" He petered off and shook his head, as if realizing what he had exactly done. "That was not my intention."

"No, of course not. Why would you wish to disparage a maid?" she teased him, her smile growing.

"I already apologized to you for my error." He pointed at her in emphasis.

"I know you did." She nodded, finding she couldn't let go of her frustration now. It was an ire brought on by her equal anger at his manner and the charm of his appearance.

"I see my apology has not been accepted then." He sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Perhaps hardly surprising considering how I have just behaved." He held up a finger, urging her to wait for one minute, then moved to the ladder and shifted it, so it leaned against a different stack of shelves.

Kathryn moved to follow him, tripping on the edge of a rug as she didn't look where she was going. She hurried to grab the edge of a shelf, covering up what she had done. Doctor Beille glanced at her at the sudden sound but made no comment before stepping onto the ladder and reaching for another book.

"Here." He took it off the shelf and jumped back down the ladder. The sudden athleticism made Kathryn's mouth dry. So shocked, she took a few beats to take the book he was proffering to her. "If you do have a genuine interest in the study of botany and its herbal applications, then this should be your second read."

She turned the title page, reading hurriedly. The Medical Applications of English Plants.

"Thank you," Kathryn whispered in surprise.

"See? I am not such an awful man. I can do a kind turn every now and then."

"I did not call you an awful man, Doctor."

"Merely a proud one," he reminded her. He smiled once again, that tiny flicker which made those moths dance in her stomach.

"You gave me that impression," she reminded him. "I should apologize too; I did not mean to offend you." He quirked an eyebrow, as if in disbelief. "I meant to disarm you, not offend you."

"Ah, yes. I completely believe that," he said with thick sarcasm as he returned to the table in the middle of the library and reached for his heavy volumes. "You are a bafflement to me, Miss Fitzroy."

"Likewise, Doctor Beille." Uncertain what they had really meant by such words, Kathryn stared at Doctor Beille, startled to find he was looking at her too, rather than at the book in front of him.

"I should leave you to your reading." She thanked him once again for the books and left, sighing with relief once she was out of the door and leaning upon it.

Oh dear. I should stay away from Doctor Beille in the future.

She had a feeling that keeping away from him would reduce the amount she thought of him, yet another thought lingered in the back of her mind. His knowledge was clearly superior to her own when it came to healing. If she did spend more time with him, he could certainly teach her a lot.