Orpheus and the Pearl & Nevermore Read Online Free

her mind’s torment. This is why I have sought out your
help.”
    “ Dr.
Wallston, I don’t know what to say to such an account.” But
Catherine’s practicality again asserted itself, despite the
unbelievability of the doctor’s story. For ultimately, it made
little difference what Mrs. Wallston’s exceptional, even unique
physical journey had been. Today she was a patient whose pain
Catherine might be able to diminish, and immediately that settled
all other matters. “I will do whatever I can to treat Mrs. Wallston
and improve her condition. Please know that I will do whatever is
necessary, whatever is possible, and whatever is within my power and knowledge.” She knew it was
terribly forward, even scandalous, but she couldn’t help putting
her right hand on his arm, lightly. “If there is anything in modern
science that can cure her pain and yours, I will find it.” And
despite her skeptical statements of the previous day, she felt it
necessary to add, “God willing.”
    He let her hand stay where it was for just a
moment, before stepping back slightly and letting Catherine
withdraw her hand. “Yes, I believe you will agree how necessary
God’s will is in this matter, when you see the severity of the
problem.” He walked to a large, dark wooden dresser and opened the
top drawer. “Please come over here, Dr. MacGuire.” She stood next
to him and saw that in the drawer was a leather jerkin of some
kind, together with large, thick gloves of the same material, and a
metal helmet, much like the soldiers had worn in the Great War,
though with the sides bent down more, so that they would come
closer to the wearer’s collar, covering more of the ears and neck.
“She’s so violent that I must ask you to wear these, at least when
you first meet her. Romwald wore them at first, but she’s gotten
used to him and me. It’s mostly changes in the routine now that
send her into a murderous frenzy. She becomes so savage that she
may even try to bite you, and you must be especially on guard
against that, for the wound might be so septic as to be fatal.” He
held up the jerkin. “I wouldn’t want you hurt.”
    “ Oh, do you want me to
take that back to my room and put it on?” She didn’t quite
understand what he was suggesting.
    Dr. Wallston saw her confusion, and blushed
now at his own lack of perception. “Oh, no, it fastens in the back,
there’s no way you could put it on yourself.” At this Catherine was
blushing much more than he, though his own redness deepened several
shades beyond hers when he realized what she thought he was
suggesting. “Oh, but it’s very large, as we made it for Romwald, so
you need only take off your jacket, nothing more.”
    Catherine cleared her throat and took a deep
breath. Having a man watch her unbutton her jacket seemed much more
lewd than the simple fact of being in front of him in only her
blouse, so she turned her back to the doctor as she unfastened the
buttons, removed her jacket, and draped it over a chair. She turned
back towards him and he held up the leather jerkin so she could put
her arms in it. She then had to turn away from him so he could
fasten it. There was a pause. “Dr. MacGuire, I’m sorry, I hadn’t
reckoned on all the details of having a woman wear this. May I ask
you to let down your hair? It won’t fit under the helmet otherwise,
I’m sure.”
    The blood was rushing back to her face again. “Well,
at least fasten the jacket and then I’ll take care of my hair.”
    There was another pause. “That would be
another problem. I think it best if the hair went under the jacket.
Again, changes and surprises seem to incite my wife to a particular
fury, and I am afraid the site of your long, red hair would be much
like the red capes bullfighters use.”
    Catherine knew her hair incited enough
negative attention in men, she hardly doubted that it could have a
similarly deleterious effect on a deranged woman. But it was still
galling, as though she