Re: Shiloh & Kit: the B&B sitting room
Kit had encountered all kinds of people and thus all kinds of ways in which they dealt with difficult subjects. A hospital was a place where difficult subjects were discussed extensively. There were those people who did not like to a fit a word to a subject as if by avoiding saying it, they could somehow unhook themselves from the inevitability of what was in front of them. Kit was not given to an excess of belief that language made things better or made them worse. "I did. One, so you'd believe me. But two, you asked me why I was here. I no longer had a reason to be there. That's true as well," he said with the peaceable matter-of-fact tone that lacked any sense that offence had been taken. But equally, it made clear that the particular topic was at an end.
He had not had brothers nor sisters. Perhaps it might have been nicer, for Kit, if he had. Blood relations who had not dried out in the brisk cold of Scotland, or who were buried six feet deep. It might have made the transition, from skinny, under-estimated defiance in a series of Southern foster-homes to lanky Scottish doctor, more difficult. He hadn't the roots Shiloh did. But he did have a dry sense of humor.
"You're the one talking about tadpoles," Kit said, rubbing one hand over his face as if the process of waking up was one in stages, "I have no idea what nonsensical approach to the authorities one might make about them." He ignored the entire byplay with the dollar-bill, because it was Shiloh being Shiloh. Perhaps Kit had experienced similar moments in the past and perhaps he hadn't. He ignored it nonetheless.
"The link. Hippocratic oath, patient," Kit said, affably. "I'd like to know if you're well. I think all physicians do. Pride in how people do, I suppose. I think you look and sound better than you would be if you were not getting some sort of help. I suppose whoever is helping, they've got prescribing rights somewhere." He blew on the surface of his coffee, as if suddenly realizing the temperature, and said, off-hand:
"It's funny. I've been something of a mail-order physician for someone recently. Much like you, actually. The kind of prescription I'd expect you're getting somewhere." He looked at Shiloh now, the dry tone tucked into the back of his voice.