Provings

Chapter 2

When Lucius heard his brother's plea for life he realized for the first time that Edwin was truly in peril from his ill-conceived testing of formulas. This development troubled him, but not as much as he expected it would. He allowed himself a passing thought of what life might be like without Edwin. It felt light and free without his brother's constant presence and galling reminder of Lucius' own failings, and it gave him pause. 

Lucius was Edwin's younger brother and they had both been raised on a yeoman farm near the village of Butternuts in upper New York State. Their father, Samuel, had been a pioneer in the area, leaving New England, where his Puritan ancestors had lived for six generations, with his young wife and Edwin still a babe in arms in order to raise his own monument to God in the wilderness. Samuel was a pious and righteous man and an old school Calvinist - he believed that man was depraved and must be made good, and he approached the rearing of his own children accordingly. Of all his children, the need for correction was greatest in Lucius.  

From a young age Lucius understood he was different in this way - he was singled out by his father for his precocity, something in which Lucius took some pride, and for their special relationship. Lucius and his father shared a birthday - August 29th. It was for that reason Samuel chose to make his third son his namesake and named him Lucius Samuel. Over time Lucius understood that Samuel had come to regret that naming, and that in punishing him for his sinful nature, his father was often directing the correction at himself also for having bound them through that Christening. Lucius came to expect the extra sting when the strap came out for him. 

Partially because of his fraught relationship with his father, Lucius turned increasingly to Edwin for guidance. Being seven years older, Edwin was called upon to teach his younger brother the details of the farm chores expected of him and assist their father in basic lessons of an intellectual and moral nature. He was a steady, fair and occasionally inspirational teacher, and he encouraged Lucius in his cleverness.  

It was because of their close relationship that Lucius followed Edwin into the apothecary trade when Samuel released him from his obligations on the farm; and it was because of that relationship that Lucius turned to Edwin for help years later when his drug and sundries business in New York City was approaching bankruptcy. Edwin came through, buying at a good price Lucius' stock in trade and the store and house for which Lucius could find no other buyers. But Lucius hadn't thought through where that would leave them and was surprised and disheartened to find that Edwin intended to take Lucius' old business and make it into his own drug manufacturing concern, in which Lucius figured as a mere subordinate. That was four years ago and since then Lucius had faithfully discharged the duties imposed upon him, which in fact suited him very well. He was the travelling man for the concern, sent throughout the Union and Western Canada to sell, and manage the agents that sold, their medicines. It gave him the freedom to do what he might and the latitude to utilize his enterprising nature. The business did well, even surviving the past months of financial turbulence which saw many of its competitors go under; but while Edwin had shown himself more than capable in the endeavour, Lucius, despite past evidence to the contrary, was sure he could do better. He chaffed against the bonds of employment and wished to be made a partner, something Edwin had so far denied him on the grounds that their suppliers, whom Edwin had appeased when he took over the business, would not like it. For some months now, Lucius had been biding his time and waiting for an opportunity to present itself.  

Like William, Lucius felt dazed when he left his brother's house and walked down the front steps of the brick townhouse that he used to own. It wasn't merely the transition to the light of day from the inner darkness of the sick room; thoughts of the possibility of Edwin's death had set the whole world askew and the seeming normalcy of the day was dizzying: The din of the street, the carriages and passersby seemed like something out of a dream, on a different plain entirely. Yet almost as unsettling was the euphoric sense of release that Lucius still felt at the thought of his brother's passing. He wondered, as he walked on, whether that might be the very opportunity he had been waiting for.