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Authors: Shirley Raye Redmond
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ailments momentarily forgotten as she enjoyed herself in her friend’s company. Likewise, Dorothea and her son and daughter-in-law appeared to be in a happy, festive mood, eager to please and be pleased. Margaret, on the other hand, was cool and polite, speaking only when spoken too. Prudence carefully noted how her cousin did not appear flustered around Sir James, merely bored and aloof. Even when their host had asked, upon their arrival, to see the site of Margaret’s vaccination, her cousin had held forth her arm with calm reserve. She did not blush, stammer, or look away with embarrassment. But unlike Harry Paige’s solicitous manner the day before, Sir James took Margaret’s arm casually and without tenderness of any sort. He studied the reddening cuts and said, “It should take.”
During the meal, conversation quickly changed to the rather unappetizing topics of Arthur’s influenza, James’s injuries, and Margaret’s smallpox vaccination.
“Miss Pentyre, have you met Mr. Jenner?” Arthur asked, turning to Prudence who sat on his right.
“No, I’ve not had the pleasure,” she told him.
“Perhaps you may do so one day. He receives many invitations to speak before prestigious medical societies, churches, and other organizations. In London one quite meets him everywhere. Of course, members of the nobility and gentry frequently request he personally perform vaccinations upon their children,” Arthur went on.
“The man simply cannot say no,” James spoke up. “It is my understanding Jenner has gone into debt because he no longer receives a regular income from treating his usual patients. Moreover, he was vaccinating free of charge, as well as obtaining and shipping cowpox lymph all over the world at his own expense. I am told his concerned friends urged him to petition the government for reimbursement of his time and the expenses he had accrued while vaccinating citizens throughout the kingdom.”
“Has he done so?” Dorothea wanted to know.
James nodded. “Reluctantly, he agreed to do so. I believe he had no other choice.”
“Miss Leyes, I understand you were recently vaccinated,” Eleanor Greenwood said, addressing Margaret. “Might I inquire how the vaccine was transported?”
Margaret blinked. “Why, I cannot say. I do not know.” She regarded Prudence with a blank expression. Prudence looked to Sir James.
He regarded her in an open manner, his blue eye twinkling. “The usual way is to put the lymph in the shaft of a bird feather and then seal it with wax.”
During the course of the meal, Prudence put aside all her prejudices and preconceptions about James, regarding him as she would any other gentleman—one not intent on marrying her cousin Margaret for dubious reasons. She noted the creases of worry upon his sunburned face. There was a sadness in his unguarded countenance, as though he was oppressed by some private grief. Occasionally, his finely curved lips appeared flattened in a grim line. Did he experience pain from his injuries, she wondered? Was he perhaps heartbroken because of Margaret’s indifference to his suit? She experienced a prick of conscience as she contemplated these possibilities.
Later in the drawing room after dinner, as James spoke of the glory of God’s creation as it was manifested in Borneo, she noted the glimmer of something like joy sparkling in his uncovered eye. He described in enthusiastic detail how the mist hung over the jungle, the way the sun shimmered upon the waters of the Matang River with the great blue mountain looming in the distance. He told of the squatty brown huts, made from palm fronds, which dotted the mud flats. He brought out spears, bright silks, and ivory handled swords for their perusal. He also produced a fascinating collection of butterflies pinned to velvet-covered panels, pressed tropical flowers and an assortment of intriguing birds, chemically preserved.
Prudence stood apart from the others studying one particularly
During the meal, conversation quickly changed to the rather unappetizing topics of Arthur’s influenza, James’s injuries, and Margaret’s smallpox vaccination.
“Miss Pentyre, have you met Mr. Jenner?” Arthur asked, turning to Prudence who sat on his right.
“No, I’ve not had the pleasure,” she told him.
“Perhaps you may do so one day. He receives many invitations to speak before prestigious medical societies, churches, and other organizations. In London one quite meets him everywhere. Of course, members of the nobility and gentry frequently request he personally perform vaccinations upon their children,” Arthur went on.
“The man simply cannot say no,” James spoke up. “It is my understanding Jenner has gone into debt because he no longer receives a regular income from treating his usual patients. Moreover, he was vaccinating free of charge, as well as obtaining and shipping cowpox lymph all over the world at his own expense. I am told his concerned friends urged him to petition the government for reimbursement of his time and the expenses he had accrued while vaccinating citizens throughout the kingdom.”
“Has he done so?” Dorothea wanted to know.
James nodded. “Reluctantly, he agreed to do so. I believe he had no other choice.”
“Miss Leyes, I understand you were recently vaccinated,” Eleanor Greenwood said, addressing Margaret. “Might I inquire how the vaccine was transported?”
Margaret blinked. “Why, I cannot say. I do not know.” She regarded Prudence with a blank expression. Prudence looked to Sir James.
He regarded her in an open manner, his blue eye twinkling. “The usual way is to put the lymph in the shaft of a bird feather and then seal it with wax.”
During the course of the meal, Prudence put aside all her prejudices and preconceptions about James, regarding him as she would any other gentleman—one not intent on marrying her cousin Margaret for dubious reasons. She noted the creases of worry upon his sunburned face. There was a sadness in his unguarded countenance, as though he was oppressed by some private grief. Occasionally, his finely curved lips appeared flattened in a grim line. Did he experience pain from his injuries, she wondered? Was he perhaps heartbroken because of Margaret’s indifference to his suit? She experienced a prick of conscience as she contemplated these possibilities.
Later in the drawing room after dinner, as James spoke of the glory of God’s creation as it was manifested in Borneo, she noted the glimmer of something like joy sparkling in his uncovered eye. He described in enthusiastic detail how the mist hung over the jungle, the way the sun shimmered upon the waters of the Matang River with the great blue mountain looming in the distance. He told of the squatty brown huts, made from palm fronds, which dotted the mud flats. He brought out spears, bright silks, and ivory handled swords for their perusal. He also produced a fascinating collection of butterflies pinned to velvet-covered panels, pressed tropical flowers and an assortment of intriguing birds, chemically preserved.
Prudence stood apart from the others studying one particularly
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