Finding Bliss (10 page)

Therefore it was surprising that Ozzie didn’t feel
comfortable believing something that was outside the usual norm. Something in
their past made Aunt Pen and Uncle Ozzie both a little unwilling to discuss
things that weren’t logically proven. It was a mystery to everyone who knew
them as to why that was.

Bliss’s maid Pauline insisted that she be allowed to assist
her mistress in getting prepared for the evening. She eagerly shared gossip
with Bliss about the lady of the house’s plans to see her settled with her
younger son.

Bliss laughed heartily at this and told Pauline not to fear.
Maxwell’s fate was already firmly sealed. In less than four years, he would
have a lovely English bride to make his mother joyful.

There would be no time to worry over Maxwell on this trip,
though. Bliss told Pauline that Maxwell wouldn’t even arrive until a day before
the post Easter ball. This news settled Pauline’s nerves considerably.

At the hour of dinner, Bliss went down to find Aunt Pen. Having
rehearsed the news a thousand times in her mind, she still wasn’t completely
sure what she would actually say when the time arrived.

Dinner proved less than conversational as Ozzie had invited
a few businessmen and their wives to dine with them that evening. Bliss chatted
easily with each of the women and even helped a few of them with irritations in
their lives with her usual sage advice that somehow always came along to fill
the void in her visions. The women adored Penelope’s young niece.

Lady Westford was especially delighted in her company and
invited her over for brunch later in her visit. Bliss, having expected this,
accepted graciously.

Everything went so well at dinner, allowing Bliss not to worry
as she asked Aunt Pen to sit with her a few moments before they retired that
evening.

“Well, this was a truly lovely evening. Pity the boys
weren’t here,” Penelope said with a small yawn.

“Forgive me for being blunt, Aunt Pen, but is there anything
amiss with you?” Bliss managed to keep her face placid and void of all
eagerness.

“I’ve been a bit over-tired lately. I’m forty four, you
know! Ladies of a certain age have all sorts of issues to deal with in their
daily lives, my dear. Don’t let that worry you, though. I’m perfectly fine.”

“I know that you are, Aunt Pen. But you should prepare
yourself. You and Uncle Ozzie are to be very happy soon.”

Penelope cocked her head to the side and looked curious.

“What do you mean? We’re very happy now. Is something good
happening? I know my son is always absent, but I’ve heard no word about
anything that might give me greater happiness. In fact I thought they would both
be here for your visit.”

“Oh this isn’t about a daughter-in-law, Aunt Pen. You and
Uncle are going to have your hands full very soon. And it will happen in less
time than you could ever guess!” Bliss no longer attempted to hide her triumph.

“What are you ladies discussing?” Uncle Ozzie asked as he
stepped into the room.

“Your new baby,” Bliss said as if the subject had been
opened. Penelope looked at her in disbelief.

“Is there something you wish to tell us, dear?” Penelope
began to speculate the reason for Bliss’s declaration.

“Yes, I’ve been trying to for the past few minutes. You are
going to have a baby, Aunt Pen. Congratulations!” Penelope and Ozzie looked at
one another in wordless digestion of the news.

“That’s not possible, Bliss. I’m too old to have a baby. I’m
… not even having my courses anymore,” Penelope said in a blush.

“Of course not,” Bliss said as if this news wasn’t
surprising or unusual. Ozzie scoffed and began to chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” Penelope asked, feeling hotly embarrassed
by his reaction to her aging. Ozzie cleared his throat and instantly became
contrite.

“I mean no disrespect to you, my dear! You are truly the
most beautiful woman, no matter what age, that I’ve ever met,” he said.

To prove his sincerity, Ozzie leaned down and kissed
Penelope very ardently. Bliss giggled and looked away, giving them a moment to
master their behavior before clearing her own throat.

“My point is made! You two have no idea what you’ve got in
store for you! I’ll just turn in now and leave you two lovebirds alone to accept
the news. I’ll be going out in the morning for some important visits. Don’t
bother to wake early to see me off. I’m only going to be out for the morning!” Bliss
hugged each of them in turn and ambled away.

Neither of them believed her, of course. But it really
didn’t matter whether they ever did. Time and a bit of childbirth would soon
prove that she was right. She would make certain that Eric knew about it,
though. That would be easily accomplished on her visit tomorrow.

The next morning, Uncle Ozzie was up
and about when she ate her breakfast. He teased her a little about her “news”
and said that she must have misinterpreted the information she received.

“I’ve always known you got your information from somewhere. Maids
gossip a bit more than they should, naturally. It’s perfectly fine that you’re
too young to realize the meaning of what they say. No one expects you to know
everything,” Ozzie said with a sympathetic smile.

“Bolder critics have discounted what I’ve told them and been
wrong too, Uncle Ozzie. I believe I’ll just wait out the event and smile when I
say I told you so,” Bliss countered with a rueful smile.

Ozzie merely shrugged and shook his head dismissing her
completely. Bliss smiled to herself at how utterly blind people in love could
truly be.

An hour later, Bliss and her maid
left Whisper Chase Manor and set out for a brisk walk toward the local
surgeon’s district. On a high street overlooking the river, the hospital and
many offices stretched out in a convenient line. The cobbled street was less
busy than the main thoroughfare, but there were enough hackney’s around to make
her mindful of where she stepped.

Bliss didn’t know the exact number of the door she was
looking for, but the name was easily painted on the window glass of the fourth
office past the hospital. She told Pauline that she had a matter to attend to
and that nothing was medically wrong. Pauline, knowing her young mistress’s
unusual gift, said nothing as they entered the lobby and shed their outer
shawls to a waiting rack.

Bliss strolled casually up to the desk and requested an
appointment with the surgeon. The nurse, looking up from her message book
seemed unaware of her for a moment. Then she gave in to a horrible fit of
sneezing into a lace handkerchief.

“Bless you, dear,” Bliss said sympathetically.

“Do you hab an appointbent with Dr. Benchley?” the woman
asked nasally, then proceeded to blow her nose very loudly into her much abused
cloth.

“No, I’m afraid I don’t. But I know he’ll be able to work me
in. My name is Deanne Porter. The doctor and I are old friends, you see,” Bliss
said patiently.

“Well, he isn’t bery busy today. I suppose I could put you
in for a few binutes this borning. Please hab a seat and I’ll get you back in a
bit,” the nurse smiled beneath her reddened nose as she wrote the name on the
patient list then stood to leave.

Bliss told Pauline it wouldn’t be necessary for her to
accompany her back to the examination room, since it wasn’t really a medical
visit. Pauline agreed, and her obvious lack of concern over the propriety of
the scene didn’t go unnoticed.

A few minutes later, the nurse came back and motioned for Bliss
to follow her. They walked past the desk and into a room to the right. Inside
there was a counter stretching out from the left of the door that held a few
medical instruments of varying oddities. On a slightly raised dais sat a plain
chaise covered in roughly tanned leather with pin-tucks interspersed along the
cushion.

The smell of ether was faint in the room, but Bliss didn’t
let that distract her. In the far corner of the room there was a dressing
screen and a coat rack.

“If you’ll just go behind there and strip down to your chebise
and stockings, we’ll be back in a bit to check you ober,” the nurse said
kindly.

Bliss nodded and walked behind the screen. At that moment,
when the door closed behind the nurse and the room was still, Bliss could hear
her heart pounding in her ribs. This was the part she was nervous about.

Seeing Eric while she was dressed in less-than-appropriate
clothing would be practically scandalous. But Bliss wasn’t backing away. There
was an important event on the horizon and it was worth every ounce of her
nerves not to run or panic. Eric Benchley was about to give Bliss her very
first kiss.

Bliss stepped out of her slippers, loosening her buttons and
pulling her gown over her head afterward. Undressing without assistance caused some
of the pins to fall from her hair. A few loose strands dangled near the
neckline of her undergarment. Bliss didn’t attempt to straighten them, knowing
that when she put the dress back on a little while later they would only be
loosened again.

She hung the dress on the coat rack and padded lightly out
to the dais and chaise. Bliss surmised the raised platform probably made it
easier for the doctor to see while examining patients.

She climbed up using a small footstool at the near end of
the chaise and positioned herself so that her feet hung over the forward side. Her
chemise was barely to the level of her knees when standing, so her ribbon
garters peeked from beneath the hem as it drew up when she sat. The bright
yellow satin stood out like a beacon of sunlight just above her knees.

Bliss swung her feet childishly for a minute while she
waited. The sound of approaching footsteps made her stop abruptly. Her
breathing grew shallow as the knob on the door turned slowly, and Eric walked
in.

So much had changed in the years since Bliss had been close
to him. Eric’s features matured quite nicely and his shoulders and arms looked
very broad in the white shirt that showed beneath the oil-cloth apron he wore. He
gave her a smile as he entered and made an immediate apology.

“I hope you’ll excuse my nurse for not coming in with me. She’s
a bit under the weather herself this morning. I sent her to the kitchen for a
little tonic. If you like I can summon your maid? But I assure you that as a
surgeon there will be no impropriety to your visit,” Eric said with a sober
face.

“It won’t be necessary,” Bliss said, letting her remaining
breath out in a small sigh the moment she finished speaking.

“I’m Doctor Benchley. I know that sounds funny, saying
doctor. But it’s on the rise among my profession to use the title more formally
nowadays. My own father was a barber-surgeon and he used the title himself. He
was a man far beyond his years in medical practice, I assure you,” Eric let his
face relax a little at the mention of his father.

“I’m aware of that,” Bliss answered him quietly. She left
the statement purposefully ambiguous since he obviously didn’t recognize her.
He suddenly became all business.

“What seems to be your trouble today, Miss Porter?”

Bliss looked at him with narrowed eyes, still unable to say
a word in her purpose. The person before her looked much different from the
eighteen year old boy or even the man she saw just three years earlier at his
father’s memorial.

He didn’t acknowledge her then, and she didn’t push her
destiny that day. It seemed the wrong time to force her way into his life while
he was suffering such monumental loss. But now, seeing him so handsome and
mature, it literally stole her breath away.

“Women today have so many things that cause them discomfort.
The seasonal weather of spring seems to always unleash a hearty wrath, not to
mention the styles of clothing and lack of physical exertion allowed in normal
society. I see too many young ladies who suffer the pains of fashion and
idleness,” Eric commented as he came nearer to her. He pulled the stool close
to the end of the chaise and sat down.

His business-like manner prompted Bliss to put an end to the
examination farce. She had no need of medical advice. What she needed was for
Eric to kiss her!

“I’m in top shape,” she blurted out.

“If that is indeed the case, Miss Porter, then why have you
come for medical consultation,” he asked, giving her a wicked look that Bliss
was sure would burn the chemise right off her body. Not able to think of a good
reason, she stammered out an unintelligible sentence.

“I, er, needed to see if, but there’s this, and you
understand it’s very important,” Bliss said without making any sense.

Eric’s grin suddenly took on a wolfish quality. He studied
the length of her chemise in pointed interest for a few minutes. The slow
progress of his eyes rolling over her thighs and pausing at her stockinged
knees made her heart skip about four beats. She pulled in a quiet gasp of air,
unable to prevent it.

Eric’s eyes dragged upward again, and he gave her a
seductive grin of appreciation. He walked over to the table, slower than a
regular professional surgeon would ever dare. Extending a fingertip to her
collarbone, he brushed the stray curls aside with feather-light pressure. As he
looked directly into her eyes for a span of eternity, he leaned closer to her
face, veering aside just before his lips met her cheek and whispered to her.

“I don’t do that in my office. My nurse would club me over
the head for making an advance if I even thought about it. I am, however,
available for …
house-calls
. I have excellent bedside manner, you know,”
he said in velvet tones that made Bliss’s toes curl.

She gave another nervous gasp and blushed to her knees at
the very thought of what his suggestive words meant. Then she cleared her
throat to focus her mind before speaking to him. It was time to give up the
charade.