Memory of Morning by Susan Sizemore Read Free Book Online Page A

her enthusiasm. I really hadn't expected this return to my normal life to leave me so melancholy. All I could do was hope that I'd get past it in time. Sooner than later would be nice.
    It was after dawn before Star and I returned to Lilac House. People were stirring by then. I begged some hearth-toasted bread and scrambled eggs from the kitchen rather than go through the formality of breakfast, changed clothes, and bespoke a ride down to the naval base which took up half of Seyemouth.
    The Medical Home campus was my destination - not for just my morning appointment with the hematology department, though I reluctantly made my way there first. Only it turned out the building I was directed to wasn't actually divided up into specific departments.
    The bleeding room was not to my liking. Oh, it was meant to be a cheerful place, the walls painted a lively yellow. A blue-and-white floral rug covered the floor. Instead of a bed or patient cot and a work table there was an upholstered chaise and low tea table. I put my hands on my hips and looked around, appalled.
    "This is a waiting room?" I asked hopefully.
    "No, miss," the nurse who'd come in with me told me. "Admiral Glass had two examining rooms set up like this to make ladies feel more comfortable during procedures."
    I sighed. "I see." Unfortunately, I did. "Admiral Glass is a very traditional sort of physician."
    "Oh, yes, miss," she answered cheerfully.
    The All help the officers' wives in his care.
    "Vinegar," I told the nurse - I hoped she was a nurse - who'd escorted me in. "I want vinegar, hot water, and strong lye soap."
    The woman looked at me with her mouth hanging open.
    "By all that's worshipped, we're fifty years on from Dr. Croft's treatise on sanitation and sterilization and people still aren't listening," a man's voice pronounced behind me. His words echoed my thoughts exactly, but with a sarcastic arrogance that left me wincing.
    I turned to him. "Exactly." I gestured around the room. "Do you want to help me roll up this rug and scrub the floor?"
    "No."
    He looked me over, from an impressive height.
    I looked him over, matching his unabashed curiosity with my own. He was not only very tall with perfect posture, he was slender and quite handsome. He wore a contractor's uniform, but so beautifully cut to his figure I was certain his personal tailor must have made it for him. His hair was black and wavy, a lock arranged to fall cunningly across his forehead.
    "Dr. Danil Heron," he introduced himself.
    "Sir, please," the outraged nurse complained. She looked at me and performed the proprieties. "May I introduce Dr. Heron to you, Miss Cliff?"
    "Dr. Cliff," I said.
    She paid this no mind. "Dr. Heron, this is Miss Cliff."
    "Now that's done, get out of my way, woman," Heron said.
    I was as shocked by this rudeness as she was.
    "Bring the flasks and preservative," he ordered her before either of us could protest his behavior.
    The nurse chose obedience as her chance to leave the room.
    I crossed my arms and asked, "What is the matter with you, Dr. Heron?"
    "I'm fine," he replied, as though I was asking after his health rather than his manners. "I am in a hurry, however. Be seated. Roll up your sleeve." He put his medical case on the little table. "My instruments are sterilized," he said as I glanced into the contents of the case. This came out as information rather than an attempt at reassurance.
    This irritating man was not in the least bit socialized. I did not like being bled to begin with, to have it done by the brusque young doctor made it worse. I doubted arguing with him would do any good, so best to get this over with as quickly as possible. Unhappy as I was about the setting, I had operated in worse and brought patients through without infection. I sat, shrugged off the shawl I wore, and presented my right arm. I had worn a short-sleeved dress in preparation for the session. Most of the tiny scars from past bleedings had disappeared in the last two years. I was