Ecstasy Wears Emeralds by Renee Bernard

lady remembers to ring for them or not. She is studying very hard, at my insistence, and has a tendency to lose track of the hours, so the fault is mine. But let’s not punish the girl for it, agreed?”
    â€œAgreed,” Carter answered with relief. “I knew you’d see it just so.”
    Rowan smiled. I’ll never make a tyrant, and that’s not a bad thing to boast at the end of the day. “And would you please remind Mrs. Evans that since I am starving at the moment, if she could send up a tray of those wonderful little ginger cakes, I would be eternally grateful—and I will even promise not to track so much mud into the house.”
    Carter bowed before retreating back through the hidden doorway. “She’ll send a mountain of them for that promise.” And with that, he was gone.
    And it’s on to anatomy, Miss Renshaw. Brace yourself.

    The sound of a bird striking one of the glass window panes awoke her instantly. Gayle lifted her head in a strange, breathless momentary panic at the stark transition from dreamless sleep to exhausted alertness.
    She realized she must have fallen asleep while studying, her cheek sore from resting against the open pages of a book of anatomy plates. Unsure of the hour, she knew only that it was daylight and she could only pray that she hadn’t lost enough of the day for Dr. West to have noticed. A small clock on one of the shelves read nine o’clock, and she stood to brush out her skirts and smooth her hair as quickly as she could. He was usually in the laboratory by then, and her face flushed with shame at the idea of him catching her like this, dazed and mussed over her reading.
    Had he come and gone already and just left me sleeping?
    She wanted to betray no weakness of any kind, especially since it was clear he was sure she would beg off at the first challenge or obstacle.
    He’s testing my resolve.
    As a teacher, he was thorough, extremely knowledgeable, and genuinely inspiring. He was also demanding and ruthless when it came to her performance. At any moment, he would require an oral recitation from her assigned studies, a defense of an assumption she might have uttered, or an explanation of a medical technique or practice. Failure to provide an adequate answer inevitably meant the reward of more study, or the repetition of her lab work. No meal was enjoyed in leisure without the inclusion of a lesson. Even at the end of an exhausting day of patient calls, he would make his way to find her and inquire on her progress.
    For eight days and long into the nights, she’d done nothing but study—every waking thought given to the medical arts and to not disappointing Rowan.
    It was a strange slice of heaven sprinkled with a little bit of hell. The freedom to learn the forbidden sciences and arts of medicine, to have at her fingertips all the answers she had craved to all the endless questions in her mind. She’d sacrificed her future and her reputation to achieve her hardscrabble hold on this chance—and it was more than she’d hoped for so far.
    Even so, she was surprised to be suffering from a touch of homesickness. Not that she’d lived in Standish Crossing for very long, but perhaps it was the care and security of the life she’d abandoned that beckoned to her in the night. She’d always chafed at the restrictions and confinement of her days before, but it was hard not to think with fond nostalgia on some of the leisure she’d forfeited. Even her room at Aunt Jane’s had offered a garden view and every comfort. Here, the accommodations were drafty and Spartan. She’d never lived without a maid and had learned that she missed the companionship of one as much as having an extra pair of hands when it came to laces and buttons. Even so, it wasn’t the lumpy, thin mattress or the bare room that threatened to spoil her paradise.
    It was Dr. Rowan West.
    His presence was unsettling. She hated