She Brought a Doctor’s Bag to the Duke’s Estate — By Winter, the Village Was Grateful
Chapter 11
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He had the gripes. So did Kit. And Dr. Strand had just written out a paper of calomel for both."I would not give them that, Mrs. Holloway," Elspeth said.Strand turned and looked at her with polite amusement. "And you are the young person with the liver of sulphur. Harcourt has told me. A very pretty experiment, madam. It is also good for nothing. Liver of sulphur will blacken in the presence of iron, of copper, of half the minerals in a Northumbrian hill. Any chemist would tell you so."It was true. She had known it was true, and it stung all the more for that."Then the experiment is not enough by itself, sir," she said. "But the minnows are not iron, nor are Jem Rookwood's wrists, nor is the fact that the houses on the mill well are well and the houses on the pump are sick, and the bog lies an equal distance from both."Strand's smile thinned. "Women's observations," he said lightly, "are often very acute. It is the reasoning upon them that wants training." And he gave Mrs. Holloway the calomel.After he had gone, Beatrice Holloway stood at her table with the paper in her hand. She looked at it for a long time. Then she put it on the fire."I can't pay you, Miss Carrow," she said without turning round. "Not money. But my boys will drink the Hall's water from your cart, and nothing else, if you'll let them.""They may have all they want.""Arthur won't like it. He thinks he's a man of business." She almost smiled. "I'll make him like it."That night, very late, there was a knock at the surgery door. Elspeth opened it with a candle and found a thin young man in a clerk's black coat standing on the step, hatless, soaked, and plainly frightened out of his wits."Nathaniel Price, miss. I'm Mr. Harcourt's clerk." He held out a little book with marbled covers wrapped in oilcloth. "I've been copying the estate accounts for three years. There's something in them I can't make add up, and I heard what Dr. Strand said today, and what you said, and I can't sleep for it."She brought him in by the fire. The book was a fair copy, in his own neat hand, of payments made out of the estate's repair fund. Every year since 1803, there was the same line:Harrow Head conduit, cleansing of cistern and repair of sluice, to J. Pratt, mason: £40."There's no J. Pratt," said Nathaniel miserably. "Not in Kestleford, not in Hexham. I've asked. And there's this." He turned to the back. "Hartside pays His Grace £900 a year for the mining lease. That goes in the great ledger. But there's another £150 a year from the company every Lady Day, for the liberty of washing and the right of water above Harrow Head. Mr. Harcourt receives it himself. It never goes in the great ledger at all."