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He padded down to her room, tapped softly on the door and walked in. “Winifred?”
“I am awake, Zane. I couldn’t sleep.”
He tiptoed past the baby’s crib to her bed and bent to touch her cheek.
“Something has happened,” he said.
She sat upright, peering into his face. “Your voice sounds so odd. What is it?”
“I lost a patient tonight,” he said as evenly as he could manage. “The Madsen boy. He was only three years old.”
“Oh, Zane. I am so very sorry.”
“There’s more,” he said. “I—I need to be with you.”
She made no answer, just looked up at him. Then she spoke a single word. “Yes.”
He drew back the sheet covering her and bent to slip one hand around her shoulders and the other under her knees, then lifted her into his arms. He stepped quietly around the crib where Rosemarie slept, propping the door ajar so he could hear her if she cried, and made his way down the hall to his own room. He moved to the bed and gently lowered Winifred on top of the quilt.
She wore some kind of soft, almost sheer gown. His fingers hesitated at the top button, then moved instead to his own garments, shucking off everything, his shirt, trousers, drawers. When he was naked, he moved to his bedroom door, cracked it slightly, then lay full length beside her and gathered her close.
“I’m too tired tonight to do what I’ve been thinking about for months, but I want you to know it’s still on my mind.” He leaned away from her, retrieved the bowl of strawberries from the floor beside the bed and poked one into his mouth. The sweetness brought tears to his eyes.
“Thank you for these.” He offered her a berry. “This means a great deal to me. More than you know. And I’m not talking about these strawberries.”
They ate them all, without talking, and when the bowl was empty Zane once more set it on the floor and without a word unbuttoned her nightgown, drew it over her head and tossed it away. Then he pulled her into his arms and tangled his fingers in her hair.
Winifred listened to the night sounds around her, the crickets in the garden below, a frog croaking somewhere, Zane’s slow breathing. Her heart swelled into rhythm with his.
His hand on her back fell away and when his breathing slowed, then deepened, she realized he had fallen into an exhausted sleep. It didn’t matter. She would still be here when he woke up.
* * *
She opened her eyes when the sky was just turning pink. Zane was already awake, propped up on one elbow, looking down at her.
“I regret that I was too worn out to do last night justice,” he said, his voice quiet.
“I was relieved, to be honest. I—”
He stopped her words with his mouth. “Don’t talk, Winifred.” He pushed the sheet covering her down to her waist.
“My God, you are beautiful.”
“R-really? I always felt plain next to Cissy.”
“You are anything but plain. Winifred, I—”
“Don’t you talk, either,” she said quickly. “Don’t say anything except that you are pleased.”
“Pleased! ‘Pleased’ is eating strawberries in bed. What I am at this moment is overwhelmed.”
“Good.” She sighed the word. “I want you to be overwhelmed.”
“Not yet. There is something I want you to know.” He tipped her chin up so their eyes met. “Winifred, I am in love with you. Surely you have guessed this?”
“No. And yes. I did not guess until two days ago when we went swimming. And then what I guessed was that...” She blushed and bit her lower lip. “...That I wanted you to touch me, to kiss me all over. And I could not but think it was because I have come to...” Her voice trailed away.
“To?” he prompted.
“To love you. Oh, Zane, that day I felt something I’d never felt before. It was heavenly.”
“Good. I want to be the first. You will never know how much I want it.”
He drew her close and began to circle his hand on her bare back.
“Where did you get this scar?”
“Cissy,” she whispered. “She hit me with an ice skate.”
“Why?” He continued to move his fingers on her skin.
“She wanted to go skating. I wanted to practice the piano. She was impulsive that way.”
His hand stopped. “I always suspected in some way that Celeste ran away with me as an act of rebellion.”
“Oh, no, Zane. She was wildly in love with you.”
