The doctor lifted Katerina's face and looked into her eyes. He pulled down her lower lip. “She doesn't have the look. No, I don't suspect dehydration. You've
just come from dinner. I saw you eating, so it wasn't hunger that caused your faint. You've been seasick?”
“Yes,” she admitted, her voice a faint groan.
“Vomiting frequently?”
“Yes. Is that why?”
“I doubt it. Vomiting can be a mechanism for malnourishment or lack of
fluids, which can cause fainting, but in itself is unlikely to do so. Hmmm. May I
ask you a very personal question?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Katerina replied.
“How long since your last menstruation?”
She blushed furiously and then began to think…and think…and think. Her
lips parted in surprise. “New Year's.”
The doctor raised his eyebrows.
“What?” Christopher demanded, not following the conversation.
Dr. James ignored him. “When did you marry?”
“Mid-January.”
“Well that answers the question then, doesn't it?”
“Oh, it can't be!” Katerina cried. “I'm not ready.”
“What's happening?” Christopher asked, more insistently. The doctor's rapid,
expressionless questions and his wife's increasingly panicky answers made him
nervous.
“Your wife is with child, Mr. Bennett,” the doctor said mildly.
Christopher looked at Katerina, startled. “Is that true?”
“It must be,” she replied, and the corners of her eyes tightened. “Oh, Lord,
almost three months?”
“Yes.” The doctor replied.
“But… how?” Christopher asked.
“Mr. Bennett,” the doctor said dryly, “I assume you understand how the
process works?”
Christopher's cheeks warmed. “Of course.”
“Well then you know what happened,” Dr. James replied, talking as though
to a simpleton. “You married this lady, you took her to bed, and now she's pregnant. That's how this works. That's the purpose behind marriage.”
“Oh, Lord.”
Seeming to sense their distress, the doctor dropped his lecturing tone and attempted to reassure them. “It's no cause for concern. Married ladies are supposed to become with child.”
“I know,” Christopher replied, “but it seems too soon.”
“As long as the conception took place after the wedding, there's no such thing as too soon,” Dr. James pointed out.
“So perhaps my wife's seasickness…”
“Was exacerbated by the nausea of early pregnancy.”
“But I've not felt sick any other times. Only on the ship coming to Italy, and
now, heading home,” Katerina interjected, still seeming not to believe it.
