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"Yeah" She took in a deep breath and let it out in a shuddering sigh "Had a bad dream I’m sorry I woke you"

"It’s OK" He stroked the swell of her hip, over and over, like one gentling a horse "Want to tellwas rhyth over hiether like candle wax

"I was cold," she said softly "I think the quilt must have fallen off But in the dream, I was cold because the as open"

"Here? One of these s?" Roger lifted a hand, indicating the faint oblong of thein the far wall Even in thethe as very slightly lighter than the surrounding blackness

"No" She took a deep breath "It was in the house in Boston; where I grew up I was in bed, but I was cold, and the cold wokefrom"

There were French s in her father’s study The cold wind ca white curtains into the room The cradle stood by the antique desk, the end of a thin white blanket flickering in the draft

"He was gone" Her voice had steadied, but had a one The cradle was eh theand took hi reassurance "I was afraid of it--whatever it was--but it didn’t matter--I had to find Jemmy"

One hand was curled up tight under her chin He folded it in his, and squeezed lightly, e her

"I threw open the curtains and ran out, and--and there was nothing there Only water" She was shaking at the memory

"Water?" He stroked her clenched fist with a thu to calainst the edge of the terrace It was dark, and I kneent down forever, and that Jemmy was down there, he’d drowned, and I was too late--" She choked, but got her voice back and went on, more steadily "But I dived in anyway, I had to It was dark, and there were things in the water with s I kept looking and looking but I couldn’t see anything, and then the water suddenly got lighter and I--I saw hier forced himself not to ined that the drea Je I went to take hi that, and I tried to hit hihed Then he looked up and his face changed"

She took a deep breath, and took hold of Roger’s fingers, holding on for coer, never There was so--and it scared hi et away--I couldn’t leave Jeave a srandmother always said that when you fall off a cliff in a dream, if you hit the bottooes for getting eaten by a sea monster?"

"No Besides, you alake up in time from dreams like that"

"I have so far" She sounded a little dubious Still, dreao its last resistance and she breathed deep and easy against hie under his arm

"You alill Don’t be troubled now; Jemmy’s safe I’ently round her, and cupped his hand around Jemmy’s fat bottom, warm in its linen clout Jemmy, all his bodily needs ious in its abandon Brianna sighed and put her hand over Roger’s, squeezing lightly

"There were books on the desk," she said, beginning to sound drowsy "On Dad’s desk He’d been working, I could tell--there were open books and scattered papers everywhere There was a paper lying in theon it; I wanted to read it, to see what he’d been doing--but I couldn’t stop"

"Mhtly, and the movement rustled the corn shucks in the mattress, a tiny seishting sleep, and then relaxed, as his hand cupped her breast

Roger lay awake, watching the square of theslowly lighter, holding his fa-cool, but very huer could feel the sweat film his body like the skin on boiled milk It was no ht of the house, and his scalp was prickling already, slow droplets gathering under the plait at the base of his skull

He flexed his shoulders with resignation, and the first trickle crawled tickling down his backbone At least sweating helped to ease the soreness; his ar that Brianna had had to help hi his flies with deft fingers