The Serpent's Shadow

Commotion next to her distracted her; she turned back to see Amelia holding Bill load down. 'Lemme up!' he begged her, as she sat on his chest to keep him in his bed. 'By gawd, I’ll fix 'is face so's 'e sneers out t'other side of 'is mouth! Jes lemme up! No fancy-boy says that about th' doctor! I'll show 'im 'oo 'e's gotta beware of!'

That cooled her off, as if someone had dropped her into an icy pond, and she joined Amelia in remonstrating with the factory worker.

'Bill, you can't do any such thing,' she replied, shaking his shoulders a little. 'He'll not only have you thrown out of the hospital, he might have you declared insane and chuck you into Bedlam, and then where would you be? You know no one ever leaves Bedlam!'

That threat was enough to quiet him, for Bill Joad had not survived this long without being well aware what the 'toffs' could and could not do to a poor working man. He subsided, although his stormy expression left her with no doubt that if the man came within his reach again, Bill Joad would extract some form of revenge.

Maya released him and signed to Amelia to get off him before someone noticed. She leaned down and spoke to him, urgently, but quietly, words meant only for his ears. 'Don't do anything right now,' she urged. 'Don't do anything he can pin to you. It was only words, and words mean nothing. Not to you, and not to me.'

Bill snorted, and made a wry mouth. 'Pull t'other one. I seen yer face.'

'I'm here right now because I'm better than he is— whoever he is—and he knows it,' she told him fiercely. 'Think about it! Why did you ask for me, insist on someone sending for me, instead of letting whoever was here at the time work on you?'

' 'Cause ev'ryone knows—' Bill Joad was not stupid; as the import of his own words dawned on him, his expression turned from angry and sullen to shrewd. ' 'Cause ev'ryone at th' Fleet, an' ev'ryone what knows about th' Fleet knows 'bout you. 'Get Doctor Maya,' they sez. 'She'll save aught there's t'save.' '

'And?' she prompted.

'Won't be long 'fore them as got more'n we do finds out.' He nodded.

'Got it in one, Bill,' she replied. 'Right now, all I have are cases like yours, but how long will it be before people with a great deal of money begin to notice how well my patients do? He's jealous,' she continued, taking cold comfort in the fact. 'Neither of us can afford to have someone like that for an enemy, Bill. Not now, anyway, and if important people do start to notice me, the important patients I take away from him will be revenge enough.'

Bill's brow furrowed as he frowned. 'Still. It hain't right, Miss Maya. 'E's got no call t' say things loik that, an' some'un had oughta teach 'im better manners.'

'Don't let it be you—or at least, don't let him find out it's you behind it,' she said sternly. 'There's no justice for the poor man. Money buys justice, and I have no doubt there's a great deal of money in that man's pockets to buy the finest judge on the bench.'

'Should be,' said someone from the next bed with a bitter laugh, a man in an unusually clean and well- mended white nightshirt with a bandage over half of his face. 'His uncle's the head of this hospital. I should know; I worked for him as his secretary before one of his damned dogs tried to tear my face off.'

Maya traded startled looks with Bill, turned to stare back down the ward, along the way where the arrogant young man had gone, then turned back toward the stranger.

'If that's the case, what are you doing here?' she asked carefully.

Another bitter laugh. 'Because the dog attacked me on the master's orders,' came the astonishing reply.

WOULD you care to elaborate on that ... remarkable story?' Maya asked carefully, aware that this could all too easily be a trap for her. It seemed too much of a coincidence-—and after the warning of last night, she was very wary of coincidence. And yet, if her enemy didn't know who or where she was, how could so specific a trap be laid?

It doesn't have to be her. It could be a trap laid to discredit me as a