Free Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters by Suzanne Weyn Page B

high hill in the center of town. Stately neoclassic buildings from the middle of the 1700s surround the older part of town, which dates back to the year 1300. The city is no museum piece, though. It is as thriving and busy a city as any.
    This morning Ingrid left our hotel in the old part of town to meet Anthony Verde with some of our uncle’s clothing stuffed in a large bag. For a moment he questioned if he should let her go off with a young man unchaperoned. This made Ingrid laugh. “It can’t harm my reputation since I’ll look like a boy,” she said. “And Anthony is the sweetest young man; there is no need to worry about him.”
    Luckily, our uncle is so focused on his business interests that he hasn’t really been paying much attention to our comings and goings. This has allowed us considerable freedom which we never knew with our grandfather.
    For Ingrid’s sake, I hope this Anthony does have more than friendship in mind and will divert her from thoughts of our sickly neighbor, Lieutenant Hammersmith. I recall she once wrote me that Anthony was quite good-looking. The ways of attraction are certainly mysterious.
    I am eager to hear how her day at the medical school is progressing, but now I must ready myself to meet Johann.
    When he sees the woman I have become, he will be unable to resist me.

FROM THE JOURNAL OF
INGRID VDW FRANKENSTEIN
    June 26, 1815
    What a day I am having with Anthony! He has gone off momentarily to ask a friend something about his class here at the medical college of Edinburgh and has left me here at an outdoor table. I am using the time to make this entry in my journal.
    It was good to see my old friend. He is, as always, lively and handsome with his dark, soulful eyes. It was so generous of him to give me a tour of the medical school. We shared great hilarity over my disguise as a male student. I can assure you I looked utterly ridiculous with Uncle Ernest’s large trousers belted under my armpits and his hat down over my ears. It drew quite a few quizzicalglances from Anthony’s fellow medical students. It was all we could do to keep from bursting into gales of laughter.
    The high point was by far the anatomy lecture. How I envy him the chance to sit in on these demonstrations! There with about fifty other students, I sat on an ascending set of wooden benches and looked down upon a real human body! A corpse, to be exact.
    The cadaver was slit down the middle so that the heart and lungs were exposed. At first I found this shockingly gruesome and turned away in revulsion. But, quite honestly, it was only a matter of minutes before my fascination bade me return to the sight. From then on I could not look away. I was so keenly aware of what an opportunity this was.
    The surgeon-lecturer lifted the heart right up from the body and held it out for all to see. He pointed out the valves and explained their workings. The corpse must have been newly deceased, for when he squeezed the heart, blood gushed from a slash in each of the wrists.
    After the class, Anthony pulled me into a doorway of the medical school and handed me a package wrapped in burlap. “I smuggled it from the medical library for you,” he whispered. “You must swear to return it when you have finished studying it. It’s not theft as long as I return it.”
    “I swear,” I promised excitedly. I began to open it, but Anthony gripped my arm.
    “Not here,” he warned. “Someone might see you.”
    Clutching the book to my chest, I thanked him. Leaving the university, we walked to a shop filled with students buying dried sausages, smoked fish, breads, and other food items for their lunch. We bought a loaf of bread, some cheese, and two apples for our lunch and then went to sit on one of the outdoor benches set up to the side of the store. “I’ve never seen a dead body before,” I said as we ate. “How does the school come by them?”
    A wary, guarded look came over Anthony’s face.
    “They claim that all the cadavers