Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match(64)
She was frustrated with his evasion. “Is your health growing worse? Answer me.”
“I grow tired of being a test subject. I can no longer endure it.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“And I shall not. I am going to the village, to continue trying to find out about myself. I am only disappointed at how little empathy you have shown for me. I hope you had a pleasant time today.” He turned and walked toward the stables.
Angelika was left behind to sit on the front stairs, alone.
*
Angelika had an apology burning in her chest, but because she could not cough it out, and nobody wanted to hear it, she went into the forest at sunset.
She took with her a basket of fruit, bread, a sausage, cheeses, and a knife. Over her shoulder she carried a waterskin, and her arm ached from the weight of a wool blanket. She went to the clearing where she had first found the huge, lost man.
As she was setting out her gift on a fallen log, she noticed something.
On the ground, where her body had disturbed the golden leaves, was a wilted bunch of flowers.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The duchess is asleep,” Victor said when Angelika entered the laboratory. “So do not clatter about.” He proceeded to clatter about himself, knocking over a dustpan, and Lizzie stirred in the armchair. The siblings stood frozen as she made a sleepy grumble, and then resumed her deep breaths. Her lips moved silently.
“She dreams she is performing to an audience,” Victor said with amusement. “Did you know she wants to build an amphitheater, to put on plays for the villagers? I suppose it would still work out cheaper than your soap habit.”
Angelika watched Victor put his eye back to his microscope. “What are you doing?”
In a tone he’d used since childhood, he replied: “Using—a—microscope—Jellybrain.”
She gritted her teeth. “For what?”
“See for yourself.” He usually made her try much harder to use his equipment. It felt like a trick, but Angelika stood up on tiptoe to look through the eyepiece.
“What am I looking at? Bacteria? Bile?” Another world was teeming on this glass slide. Angelika adjusted the view. “Some sort of lice?”
“Spermatozoa,” Victor replied. “A sample that Lizzie collected for me a few minutes ago. Say hello to your nieces and nephews.”
Angelika recoiled. “Chemicals to wash my eyeballs, I beg.”
The fact that he wasn’t laughing was a worry.
“Be more mature,” Victor chastised her. “I am only doing this for your benefit. This is selfless research.”
“Oh, certainly. Did Lizzie obtain the sample with a needle?”
After a violent shudder, Victor continued his noble speech. “I seek to understand what Will’s chances are of fatherhood. Whilst I do not flatter myself as the perfect specimen, I’m the only baseline I have easy access to. This new microscope is marvelous.”
“This is what he meant about your unendurable requests,” Angelika said slowly as the full scale of the experiment dawned on her. “You asked him for a sample, so you could compare.”
“I did, and he reacted like I had offered to tug it out of him myself.” Victor hunted through the mess on the bench and proffered a glass beaker. “Sterilize this, then see how you do. Make sure you bring it to me at once. Doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night.”
“He said no.” She crossed her arms and refused to take it. “So I will not even ask.”
Victor insisted, “It’s the only way we can know. Our other comparison subject is my friend out in the forest, but that would be a challenge I’d rather not attempt. Unless you’re up for securing a third suitor.”
The grin on his handsome face was infuriating, but it also put a happy bubble in her stomach. This felt so much like old times, bar a snoring Lizzie behind them.
“I think we’ve done enough to him.”
Victor looked through the eyepiece at his sample again. “I’m thinking about bringing a dead ram back to life as a possible alternative.” His brow creased as he thought about it. “The things we do for science, eh?”
“Just leave it. This is one thing we can leave up to—” She mindlessly almost said God, but quickly finished with: “The mysteries of nature.”
“And can you make Will your final choice, without knowing?” Victor leaned an elbow on the bench and they both watched Lizzie sleep. “She’s with child, thanks to my spectacular efforts.”
Angelika knew this was inevitable, but still felt stunned. “Are you sure she is?” A flash of envious, guilty, scrambling desperation coursed through her. The race to lie on a picnic blanket with their babies had now officially begun. “Are you absolutely sure?”
“She’s tired, and is very picky about her food, and hates bad smells. Her courses were due two weeks ago. Check the slide again if you doubt me.” He gestured to the microscope. “I am a very productive person. I should be the one asleep.”
“Your greatest experiment begins. How wonderful.” Angelika saw his smile did not quite reach his eyes. “Are you not happy?”
“I’m very happy, but it is creating friction between us. According to her, we have to be married as soon as possible.”