Page 186 of Feathers in the Wind
I poured us each a glass of red wine and, with a heartfelt sigh, sat on the sofa beside him.
‘How is your arm?’ I asked, my fingers lightly brushing his injured bicep.
He stretched his arm and flexed his fingers. ‘A little sore but bearable.’
‘I’ll give you another pain killer before bed tonight.’
He smiled. ‘They are most efficacious, but I think not. Tell me, Jessica, are there other women doctors in this time?’
‘Many of us. Doctors and hospitals are different places today. Yesterday you said you wouldn’t go to hospital because you weren’t dying.’
‘That is the only reason for a hospital.’ He shuddered. ‘I have read Dr. Harvey’s work on the circulation of blood. Is he correct?’
‘Yes he was,’ I replied.
‘I am interested in knowledge.’ Nat sipped his wine. ‘I like to know why things happen the way they do.’
‘Isn’t it all the work of God?’
He looked into the glass. ‘This is a fine wine.’
‘Just an Australian Shiraz,’ I said. ‘Nothing fancy.’
‘What is Australia?’
I found my old school atlas and indicated Australia on the map of the world. He closed the book and set it to one side, shaking his head.
‘I have seen enough for one day,’ he said. ‘You ask if everything is the work of God? Of course it is but that does not preclude reason. You are a doctor, have you not seen the hand of God where there is no reason?’
‘Many times,’ I conceded.
‘When I was eighteen I travelled on the continent. I spent six months in Italy.’
‘Is that where you came across Leonardo Da Vinci?’
‘I procured a book of his machines and brought it home with me. It has been my constant companion.’ He gave me the benefit of one of his lopsided, wry smiles. ‘I even tried to construct one or two of them. Not with any success.’
‘You are a contradiction then.’ I tilted my head to one side and looked at him. ‘From what I know of the seventeenth century, you are a man ahead of your time in many ways.’
‘So I have been told,’ he commented as he poured himself another glass of wine. ‘One of the great scientists of all time, Isaac Newton, was born not far from here in Lincolnshire in 1642. He changed the way we view the world.’
‘So there will come a time of enlightenment when this war is done?’
I shrugged. ‘I suppose so. Under Charles the Second, Newton and others founded the Royal Society...’ His attention had wandered to the flickering TV screen. Perhaps, like me, he had taken in as much as he could for one day. ‘Tell me about your family?’
His attention snapped back to me. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Your wife?’
‘Anne.’ He shrugged, a curious dismissive gesture when talking about one’s spouse, I thought.
‘Had you known her long?’
‘It was never intended as a love match, Jessica. Her father was able to provide power and influence at court that my father lacked. He paid a handsome dowry for her hand.’ He smiled. My face had always been a book and I must have looked horrified at this cold blooded approach to matrimony.
‘You are shocked? I liked her well enough but she didn’t understand me…my interests. Her only thoughts were of the house and children.’
‘And your children?’
