The Convenient

Convenient mistress whore (B.E.) Cant expression of standard meaning favorable to ones comfort.Malcolm Forrester a physician from Edinburgh and Elspeth MacLeod a healer from the Isle of Skye were both educated in European universities but only men are permitted to practice medicine in the Scotland of 1705. The two collide in Torrport a small town near Edinburgh Elspeth stubbornly seeking recognition as a physician and Malcolm searching for a cure for smallpox amid the swirling vortex of war politics religion and disease. Poverty and misadventure are ever-present and medicine a curious blend of old beliefs and new discoveries. Elspeth delivers a beautiful young woman of her bastard child and suspects she was poisoned. When the Lairds Second-in-Command is found dead kneeling face-down in a tub at the laundry the two find themselves entangled in murder smuggling and espionage amid powerful opposition that resists change.