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He bends towards me again. “I’m letting your friend in because she’s been here all afternoon fretting and pacing. Your other friend left, but I’m sure he’ll be back too. Talk for only a short time, mind you. You need to rest. I also suggest you take the next few days easy. Sleep, rest, tea, and small meals. Light reading if your eyes and mind can handle it.”

“Yes.” I close my eyes again. It feels better in the dark. “Thank you.” My mind clicks over. “Another friend?”

No one answers me as the sound of heel clicks fills the room. The doctor steps away as Peggy, blond curls tumbling all about, drags a metal chair next to my bed, drops into it, and grabs my arm in a seamless motion. Her pulling at my arm pulls at my brain.

“Careful,” I squeak.

“Sorry.” She lets go. “Are you alright? They said you were, or you will be, but it was horrible, Gemma. There was so much blood and you were mumbling things. You got sick all over the sidewalk, then again—”

“Yes.” I flap a hand towards her, thinking it would tap against her arm, but it doesn’t so I drop it onto the bed. “I heard. And, yes, I’m fine.”

“Thank God. You opened the door, didn’t you? To the closet where I found you? I heard something, raced up, and there you were lying outside of that closet. But all the blood was inside and if you’d still been inside, if you’d been passed out or dead, I wouldn’t have found you. It would never have occurred to me to start opening doors. In fact, I was leaving. Before the noise, I began to think you’d run out the open back door.”

“It was open?”

“Yes. When you didn’t come out after ever so long, I went around back like you had. You’d left it wide open.”

“I shut it.”

“You can’t have. You must not remember. Anyway, I walked through the house. There was a great fire in the fireplace, high and blazing yellow, which was odd because there was no smoke coming from the chimney when I was out front. So I figured you must have started it and that meant you had to still be in the house. Then when everything was so quiet I thought maybe you started the fire and left.” Peggy finally pulls in a breath.

“He must have started the fire.”

“Who?” Peggy draws closer.

“The man who hit me,” I whisper with my eyes closed. Even talking hurts.

“You saw a man?”

“I didn’t see him. I felt him. He was big. His shadow came over me and then—”

“Oh, Gemma. I was so scared.” I feel her draw close, but she doesn’t clutch at me again. “But you’re going to be alright now?”

“Yes.”

“Then we’re done. Do you hear me? Let her sleep with all the men in England, but we’re done.”

“Who else was here?”

“No one. I didn’t see anyone at all.”

“No.” I sigh. “I mean here. The doctor said you and my other friend were here.”

“Your Charlie came, but . . .” She stalls.

“But what?”

“You got sick on him. He had to leave.”

I gasp and that hurts everything. “I didn’t.”

“You did.” Peggy blows an exhale that almost sounds like a whistle. “Perhaps it’s best you don’t remember that.”

I close my eyes again and drift away. It’s a dream. A horrible, embarrassing dream.

When I open my eyes again, mere moments later, the light has faded and my head doesn’t throb nearly so much. I shift and realize Peggy no longer sits beside me, yet I have no memory of her leaving. Through the window across the room the sky, which was yellow while talking to Peggy, is deep grey as night approaches.

I open my eyes again and the world is bathed in a crisp light once more. A glance out the window reveals a blue sky and one puffy cloud, all on its own, just resting there for me.