Page 242 (1/2)

"I know that" To le tear slid downthe paper I blinked hard, struggling for control I didn’t want to distress Brianna

She wasn’t distressed Her hands left s Then her ar just under her chin She si calm me

"I went to dinner with Uncle Joe once, just after he’d lost a patient," she said finally "He told me about it"

"Did he?" I was a little surprised; I wouldn’t have thought Joe would talk about such things with her

"He didn’t h, so I asked And--he needed to talk, and I was there Afterward, he said it was al you there I didn’t know he called you Lady Jane"

"Yes," I said "Because of the way I talk, he said" I felt a breath of laughter against htly in response I closedin passionate conversation, face alight with the desire to tease

"He said--that when so like that happened, sometimes there would be a sort of formal inquiry, at the hospital Not like a trial, not that--but a gathering of the other doctors, to hear exactly what happened, rong He said it was sort of like confession, to tell it to other doctors, who could understand--and it helped"

"M

"Is that what’s bothering you?" she asked quietly "Not just Rosamund--but that you’re alone? You don’t have anybody who can really understand?"

Her arhtly on , broad, capable hands, the skin fresh and fair, s of fresh-baked bread and strawberry jaainst my cheek

"Apparently I do," I said

The hand curved, strokedhandthe hair behind ht," she said "Everything will be all right"

"Yes," I said, and s my eyes

I couldn’t teach her to be a doctor But evidently I had, without o lie down," she said, taking her hands away reluctantly "It will be an hour at least, before they get here"

I letthe peace of the house around e had been a short-lived haven for Rosamund Lindsay, still it had been a true home We would see her safe, and honored in death

"In a , first"

I sat up straight and opened an to write the lines that must be there, for the sake of the unknown physician ould follow me

107

ZUGUNRUHE

September, 1772

I WOKE DRENCHED in sweat The thin che to me, transparent et; the darkness of h the cloth, even in the diht from the unshutteredI had kicked away sheet and quilt in my disordered sleep, and lay spraith the linen shift rucked up above hs--but stillwardizzy and disembodied My hair was soaked and my neck was slick with perspiration; a trickle of sweat ran down between my brsts and disappeared