Chapter 63
Bjorn?
She felt him, the press of light around her heart.
Yet, she was fading.
Her body still, her breaths raspy.
I’m here, he said.
“There’s nothing else I can do for her. Get the priest.”
She pried her eyes open. A dark room. Three men standing above her. Two in red coats. One in brown. A doctor. With a medicine box.
She raised her hand, but it remained at her side. She tried again, her fingers twitching.
“She’s awake again.”
The men looked, one kneeling in the straw beside her with a crooked nose.
The doctor. His cold finger against her throat. Dull throb. Some instruments shuffling. The word “bloodletting.”
“I already have.” The doctor sighed. “But perhaps if I try again …”
With effort, she rolled her head to look at him. She overshot. Her eyes found the middle space between his boots and the stone wall.
Her heart quickened. She saw it then, a flicker. The pain leaching from the flames of her skin.
“Bjorn?”
A knife drawn. A pinch in her arm.
I’m here.
“I told you to stay,” she wheezed, fighting for air, a laugh escaping her lips.
“What did she say?”
“Fever dreams. She gets ’em. I’ll hold her down.”
I never left, my love.
Bjorn reached for her, and she reached back. Leaning into him and his strength. She’d been strong alone for so long. She felt herself let go.
Then she startled. “I can’t leave.”
His fingers through her hair, a gentle kiss on her forehead.
Not yet, I know. Tell them. Tell them what you want.
Mary threw her eyes open. The men watching. The doctor with his knife.
You know it can be done.
Mrs. Lambert. That day in the war.
The knife. A flash of silver. The word came like an answer. “Ces … arean.”
The doctor froze. “Did you hear that?”
“More nonsense.”
“No, I heard her. Shh!” The blur of his face came into view, the hard nose. “You want … a caesarean?”
Her throat rattled when she tried to speak.
“Nod if you can understand me.”
Her head fell to the side.
“Never mind that. Blink! Blink if you can understand,” he said with urgency.
She blinked.
“You want a caesarean?”
She blinked again.
“You understand what will happen? Your own fate, and likely that of the child?”
She blinked again. The warmth around her heart swelled, Bjorn keeping his promise.
The doctor cursed, throwing open his bag, shouting orders. Men moving, flying. Sails across her vision.
“Anne,” she said, a smile resting on her lips. Find her. She strained to open her eyes.
“Anne?” the doctor said, leaning over her.
She blinked, then closed her eyes for the last time.
I’m still here, darling.
I’m here. No more hiding. No more pretending.
Nothing left to fight.
She breathed in, finding that deep well within, the place with water still and calm. Then she exhaled, letting go in a blaze of light.