Finding Bliss

by B L Bierley

  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.

  “I’m afraid that isn’t possible. I’m staying at Whisper Chase as a guest of Lord and Lady Osterburg,” she hinted. “As an unmarried woman, that wouldn’t be proper.”

  Bliss sat impatiently waiting for the moment when recognition sank in, when Eric would realize who she was.

  He should be kissing me by now!

  “I’m afraid I cannot help you, then. I do not commit peccadilloes at work, sweetheart. I’m all for natural progression of intimacy, but my reputation as a surgeon is more important than any scandal or improper conduct within my public setting. I will offer you an alternative, though. Have dinner with me,” he asked, “in my home.”

  “Unmarried girls do not attend gentlemen in private homes without proper escorts. What would my parents say?”

  This comment came from out of the blue as Bliss was distracted by a vision. The clarity so striking it made her whole body tingle. The scene in her head was perfect. It wouldn’t be Eric kissing her. She was going to have to kiss him.

  Steeling herself to the notion, Bliss leaned to her right ever so slightly so as not to alarm him, and took his face between her palms. With movements so small no instrument on earth could measure them, she pulled him toward her while staring into his smoldering eyes. Licking her lips for moisture, Bliss planted them firmly against Eric’s waiting mouth.

  Time, air, wind, the ticking of a clock outside the room, all seemed to stop in that instant. Eric’s mouth pressed against hers for a moment longer than she expected before he seemed to give in to the temptation of such a willing female. He opened his lips and let his tongue come out for a taste of her mouth.

  Wetting the seam of her closed lips, Eric teased until she opened to him. The jolt that rocked them both was better than lightning. It was a spark of two souls colliding in a fury.

  Kissing her with more energy, perhaps due to the added input of their chemistry, Eric’s breathing became rough and tempestuous against her cheek. Bliss angled her body upward to gain more access to him. But the change in her body positioning broke the connection between them.

  Chapter Nine

  Eric, age twenty-six, Bristol, March 1811

  The mornings in March were never much of a joy for Eric. His nurse seemed to always come down with a horrible cold as soon as the spring flowers began to pop their pretty yellow heads from the ground.

  The first sound that greeted him in the office that morning was all the evidence he needed to know that spring had arrived. Scarlet was sitting behind her desk, blowing her nose vehemently into the thinnest excuse for a handkerchief he had ever seen.

  “Good borning, Dr. Benchley. You habn’t got buch on your patient list this borning, so if you’d like to take your coffee and wait in your opice until someone arribes, I can come and get you,” Scarlet said with a stuffy smile.

  “Have you taken anything to help alleviate that head cold, Miss Scarlet? You know it doesn’t speak highly of a surgeon if his staff is unable to boast particularly normal health,” Eric mused with warm hu
mor and compassion.

  “I dow, I dow, I’b sorry, sir. I always get this way wheneber the jonquils begin to bloob. I’b only sneezing and stuffy, though. Baybe if I just blow by dose well enough I can bask the sybptobs a little better,” Scarlet suggested wincing.

  “Never mind that. I’ll mix you some elixir. Something aromatic to clear your sinus cavities ought to help a little. You could do with a steam, too. Why don’t I go and get something started, and you can take a few moments in the kitchen with the hot water kettle and a bowl and towel. I’m sure anyone I have to see today won’t mind that my nurse is unavailable. We’ll work through this.” Eric said with a smile.

  He hurried into his office to the rear left of the room and set his satchel down beside the desk. Walking through the rear doorway he found his apothecary cabinet still locked tight. He fished the skeleton key from his pocket and opened the doors to retrieve a few remedy ingredients.

  A little honey and camphor with a few leaves of eucalyptus would help to open the passages in poor Scarlet’s muddled head. He laid a few soft muslin towels on the table and began heating a kettle full of water on the stove. He reached above the counter near the water reserve and found one of his rarely used blood-letting bowls. He set it on the table beside the towels.

  Once the water had begun boiling, he removed the kettle from the heat and poured a small dram into a bottle. Next he added the eucalyptus leaves and the honey and let them steep. A small dab of camphor went in once the water had wilted the leaves down.

  Then he took a bottle from the counter with a bit of alcohol spirits and another with simple sugar syrup adding them in equal parts to the tonic. Corking the bottle, he upended it several times to mix the solution. He set the bottle beside the bowl and retrieved a large spoon from the silver drawer.

  Scarlet entered just as the spoon was in place.

  “Dr. Benchley, dere’s a woban in the opice who says she dows you. She’s got no appointbent, but since we’re not busy this borning, I thought you bight have tibe to see her,” Scarlet said, eyeing the bowl with a nervous glance.

  “Take her to the examination room and have her get ready. Then come back here and let me prescribe your regimen,” he gave her a stern look.

  Scarlet fled the scene without a backward glance. He chuckled at her response to seeing the blooding bowl. She was a silly woman. Working for him two years did little to convince her that he wasn’t one of the saw-bones who believed that letting out a person’s blood did anything to relieve their problems.

  In Eric’s experience from school, the removal of vital blood only made things worse! Scarlet returned a few minutes later and approached the table with clear terror in her eyes.

  “Sit down, Miss Scarlet.” Eric ordered.

  The women sat in the chair beside the tonic, but not close enough to the bowl to suit him. Eric shoved the China dish directly under her chin in practiced efficiency. Without waiting for her protest, he lifted the kettle and poured the hot water still in reserve into the bowl. Grabbing one of the towels he flicked it out so that it was no longer neatly folded. He nodded toward the tonic and spoon.

  “Take a tablespoon of that tonic, mind you don’t get any of the leaves, and then use this towel to tent your head over the bowl. Do not come out from underneath the tent until the water has cooled completely. Use the second towel to blow your nose. Repeat the steaming tent twice more and blow your nose between each turn.

  “Then you may rejoin me after another swig of tonic. I’ll be in exam for the next fifteen minutes so anyone who comes in can either wait or leave to find another surgeon. It won’t stop the clocks in town if they do,” Eric told his agitated assistant.

  “But, what about the young woban?”

  “If she isn’t comfortable with me in the exam room, her maid can sit in for you. Don’t worry, Scarlet, I’m a surgeon. I can do my job with one hand tied behind my back,” he chuckled darkly before pointing at the tonic and nodding. Scarlet gave out a reserved sigh and began uncorking the bottle as he left the apothecary kitchen.

  As Eric walked past the nurse’s desk, he saw the maid waiting beside the door in a chair. She looked unconcerned for her duty to the woman waiting to be examined. Eric cleared his throat.

  “Ahem, Miss? My nurse is unavailable this morning. Perhaps you would like to come in while I meet with Miss …” he glanced down to the appointment roster on the nurse’s desk, “Porter?”

  He saw the maid give a tiny smirk, but she shook her head.

  “It won’t be necessary. My lady assured me it wouldn’t be a long visit,” the woman told him confidently. Eric shrugged and gave her a professional smile.

  “I’ll have her out as soon as I can, Miss. Please make yourself comfortable. Oh, and if anyone should enter seeking treatment, please have them wait. My nurse or I will be with them as soon as possible,” Eric asked politely.

  “I’ll be happy to sir,” the maid smiled politely back. Eric turned and entered the exam room without a backward glance.

  Upon entering the room, Eric gave the young woman a professional smile 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,” the oddly familiar voice said. The woman let out her 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,” said the woman ambiguously. Eric had a queer sensation that the statement held much more meaning than the words implied.

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

  His lovely patient looked at him with narrowed eyes, as if calculating her response. He didn’t acknowledge her hesitation, but instead went right into his professional examination mode.

  “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 approach did nothing to stem an irresistible urge he suddenly felt toward the attractive blond sitting feet away on his examination table. It was very unprofessional to feel such stirrings toward a person in medical need, but there was no masking his response. He suddenly, desperately, wanted to kiss her!

  “I’m in top shape,” the woman blurted out.

  Eric gave her a wordless appraisal. Was she here because she’d heard about him from one of his clients? Perhaps one of the women he’d allowed more personal leeway to in the privacy of a home visit? He struggled to grasp the logic behind that as he answered her declaration.

  “If that is indeed the case, Miss Porter, then why have you come for medical consultation?” Eric couldn’t resist giving her a scorching look of intent.

  The young woman began to falter helplessly in the wake of his unveiled attraction to her.

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

  Eric’s mouth turned up in a smile that he knew must look positively wolfish. 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 the obvious pause at her stockings made the woman give a quiet gasp of air, as if 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 this 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,” he paused before letting the last words hint at something less professional, “house-calls. I have excellent bedside manner, you know.”

  Eric let his words come out softly and seductively. The woman, barely in her twenties if he were to guess, gave another nervous gasp and blushed beautifully. Then she cleared her throat before speaking to him. Her face took on a look of determined eagerness.

  “I’m afraid that isn’t possible. I’m staying at Whisper Chase as a guest of Lord and Lady Osterburg,” she hinted. “As an unmarried woman, that wouldn’t be proper.”

  She sat impatiently waiting as if for some stroke of recognition. Eric realized a hint in something she said made him feel odd. Her lips were parted as she breathed anxiously.

  I could be kissing her right now, he thought without compunction.

  Then the realization of how improper that would be seemed to draw him up a little. He decided to be blunt.

  “I’m afraid I cannot help you, then. I do not commit peccadilloes at work, sweetheart. I’m all for natural progression of intimacy, but my reputation as a surgeon is more important than any scandal or improper conduct within my public setting. I will offer you an alternative, though. Have dinner with me,” he asked, “in my home.”

  The invitation slid out effortlessly. It actually surprised him that he would make such a bold offer to her without knowing her better. Perhaps he’d made a huge mistake? That could be causing the odd, trembling feeling in his stomach!