The Heiress Effect (Brothers Sinister #2)(27)

Jane sighed and slipped her a coin. It disappeared almost instantly.

“She’s in the east parlor, with Alice and Doctor Fallon. I’ll see you’re not disturbed.”

Jane nodded and started grimly down the hall.

She found her sister sitting at a table. One sleeve was rolled up; the arm that was bared had been strapped to the table, exposing the pale skin of her scars.

Strips of white cotton were wound about her wrist and forearm, holding metal plates in place. These were attached to wires, which in turn were attached to some kind of contraption. Jane had no idea what it was. Some evil-looking, foul-smelling collection of jars. Galvanics. Electrical batteries.

But at least Emily looked to be bored rather than in pain. She brightened at the sight of her sister.

“Jane!”

“What is this all?” Jane asked.

“We’re waiting for a seizure to come on.” Emily rolled her eyes.

“Miss Emily,” said the man standing by the curtains, “I believe I have told you before. You must not move. When you wiggle your leg like that, you jar the contacts. They might come loose, and if they’re slack at the wrong time, I can’t complete the circuit.”

Emily gave Jane a speaking look of waggling brows and compressed lips. “Yes,” Emily said, “Meet Doctor Fallon. He’s been hard at work this morning.”

Doctor Fallon was a trim man of maybe forty. His chestnut-brown hair had not yet started to gray. He had a curling mustache and brown, bristling sideburns.

Jane strode forward. “I’m Miss Jane Fairfield, Emily’s sister. Would you mind explaining your methods?”

He frowned in puzzlement. “But I’ve already told Mr. Fairfield everything.”

“I take an interest in medical advances.” Jane settled into a chair next to her sister. “I would like to hear about yours.” She made a face at him that she hoped passed for a smile.

He seemed taken aback for a moment and then responded with a rusty smile of his own. “I am a galvanist,” he said earnestly. “Which is to say, I practice medicine of the galvanic sort. To wit, I have discovered that passing current through the human body can produce a number of effects, such as numbness, pain, convulsions…”

He glanced down at Emily, whose lips had pressed together into a thin line.

“Ah,” he said, “and, ah, I have found a few useful effects as well. For instance, the application of galvanics can cure malingering.”

Oh, Jane was sure it did. Delivering an electric shock to a patient who was pretending to be sick would no doubt be very effective. It would probably “cure” lesser illnesses, too.

“That’s lovely,” Jane said. “Good work, having found that out.”

He smiled uncertainly.

“I’m positive,” Jane continued, “that there’s absolutely nothing at odds with your oath as a physician in delivering—what was it you called it?—galvanic current to your patients.”

He flushed. “Ah, well, you see. In my case, doctor is something of a courtesy title.” He brightened. “A rank bestowed upon me by dozens of grateful patients.”

So he was a complete quack. Jane folded her hands and wished, not for the first time, that her uncle was not so dreadfully gullible.

“Interesting,” she said. “Have you ever cured anyone with a convulsive disorder?”

“Ah, no. But I have caused convulsions, and, ah…” He looked down at Emily, as if not quite sure he should speak on in her presence.

If he could deliver an electric shock to her, he could damned well tell her what he was doing. Jane made a gesture for him to continue.

“It’s a theory I have, you see. Galvanic current flows. It has a direction. If current can cause convulsion, flowing in one direction, then when someone is having a convulsion, one ought to be able to stop it by applying an equal and opposite current in the other direction. It’s a simple application of Newtonian laws. With sufficient experimentation, I am sure I can calibrate the precise amount to apply.”

“You are sure?” Jane asked dubiously. “Is sure the proper word to use to describe your theory?”

“I am…hopeful,” he amended. “Quite hopeful.”

Maybe a few years ago, she might have let him try. But Jane had heard a dozen men make equally grandiloquent, equally ridiculous claims about how their particular form of torture would cure her sister’s fits. None of their treatments had worked, and they’d all been painful. And there were Emily’s burns. She felt the corners of her mouth curl up in a snarl.

“So let me understand. You are proposing to deliver as many electric shocks as you like to my sister, for an indeterminate amount of time, on a theory for which you have no evidence other than a wild guess.”

“That hardly seems fair!” he squawked. “I haven’t even had a chance—”

“Oh, no,” Emily said, speaking up at last. “He’s demonstrated that he can cause a convulsion in me with his current. I told him that it wasn’t the same kind of fit that I have. It doesn’t feel the same at all. But it is, after all, only my body. What do I know?”

Jane couldn’t speak for the black rage that filled her. She’d wanted to protect Emily. Why did her uncle have to bring in these fools?