Master of the Moors by Kealan Patrick Burke Read Free Book Online Page B

in a staccato
rhythm.
    Pale light washed the
walls and cast the winding staircase in shadow. Wind swept the
chimney dust from the roof, scattered it across the moors and into
the thickening fog.
    Campbell set his battered
Gladstone bag at his feet and straightened with a grunt. "He's
awake, I can tell you that much."
    "That's very
illuminating." Kate crossed her arms to avoid kicking the
information out of the doctor. "But is he all right?"
    Campbell leaned against
the banister of the stairs. Grady winced at the creak it gave and
stepped closer to the old man. Kate guessed it was in case he might
be required to save the doctor from a sudden fall. I'd let him fall , she
thought, it might teach him some
manners .
    Campbell was sweating
profusely and, when not gesturing emptily at the air---a habit Kate
assumed was his attempt to cull long forgotten medical terminology
from the air---daubed his brow with a soiled linen
handkerchief.
    "He's conscious, but not
speaking and, I dare say, not entirely lucid. What you might see as
a step forward may indeed be a whole leap in reverse."
    "But he woke up," Grady
said. "Surely that means somethin' after all this time?"
    Campbell shrugged.
"Haven't you ever heard the expression 'waking up in time to catch
your death'?"
    Kate, fists and teeth
clenched, stepped forward. Grady reached out a hand to stay her.
She kept her glare fixed on the wheezing doctor, who seemed
oblivious to the proximity of the chestnut-haired
dervish.
    "Don't you ever have any
good news, you incompetent sop, or do you have so little to live
for yourself that you delight in being the bearer of
misery?"
    Campbell looked at her.
"Young miss..." He paused to hack a cough into his handkerchief.
"Believe me, I wish more than anything that I could tell you your
beloved father will be up and around in a matter of days. But I
have seen nothing to contradict my belief that he is slowly
collapsing under the weight of some great and mysterious malady.
That he has managed to cling to life this long is in itself a
wonder!" He wiped his mouth before continuing; spittle still
glistened on his lips. "I've gone to great lengths to try and
understand what it is that's plaguing him. I've spoken with some
colleagues of mine in London and though they have put forth some
theories---Doctor Joyce even suggested some kind of tropical
virus!---not a one of them could shed any light on the cause of this
illness, or indeed what it might be. Therefore, you can see how
difficult it is to treat a disease alien to me, and how equally
difficult it is to offer you the hope you so desperately seek. To
do so would be merely raising the height from which you'd
eventually have to plummet when you learned the truth. I'm truly
sorry, but it is not in me to deceive a dying man's
children."
    "If you can't identify his
illness, then how can you say he's dyin'?" Grady asked.
    Campbell scoffed.
" Look at him for
Heaven's sake!"
    Kate moved before she was
fully aware she was going to, but just as quickly she could move no
more. Grady's hand had attached itself to her shoulder and one
squeeze extended her patience, but not by much. Campbell raised a
hand to his throat, as if fearing she might yet try to take a bite
out of it.
    "He's not dying," she told him. "And I
believe it's quite probable that you insist on drawing such a
conclusion only because your drunken mind has long since shredded
your expertise, allowing you no alternative but to fall upon the
simplest of diagnoses to save you the labor of having to strive for
a cure."
    Campbell was appalled. He
turned to Grady. "Are you going to permit
this...this... child ...to talk to me in such a manner? I'd cuff her ears if I
were you."
    "Fortunate for the lady
then that yer not me," Grady replied.
    "And don't you dare call
me a child," Kate added, bolstered by Grady's support.
    Indignation stiffened
Campbell's posture. " Lady? Well, then it's clear who holds court in this
house."
    Kate glowered. "You're a
charlatan