Beyond the Spring Breeze novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Medical Office

Dean walked up the gravel slope toward us, slowly, with his hands in his pockets.

"Morning, Thea," he said. "Sleep well?"

Ellis stepped half in front of me.

Dean looked at him.

"Dorsey, isn't it? The alternate." His smile widened. "You must be disappointed."

"I'm doing all right."

"I bet you are."

"Dean," I said.

He turned to me, and for the first time his smile slipped.

His eyes went to my loose hair, my swollen mouth, the pins scattered on the gravel.

Something flat and ugly crossed his face.

It was gone in a breath.

"Your father is following us," he said gently. "He's worried sick. We thought you might have run off."

"I'm going to my medical exam."

"There is no exam."

"There is."

"Honey." His voice dropped, patient and kind, the voice of a man calming a horse. "You're not well. You've been sleeping badly. You've been seeing things that aren't there. Eldon and I talked about it. We'll take you home, and a doctor will come and see you, and we'll sort it out."

I looked at him in awe.

He had spent years learning how to make a woman doubt her own mind.

I had been the best student he ever had.

"No," I said.

"Thea."

"No."

I took my pins from the gravel, one by one, and I put my hair up while he watched.

Then I got back into the truck and shut the door.

Ellis climbed in beside me.

We drove the last eleven miles to Annapolis with Dean's pickup glued to our bumper.

The medical building stood just inside the Academy's Gate Three, a low brick building with a flag out front and a row of benches.

By the time we pulled in, forty other candidates were already in line on the steps, boys in their Sunday jackets and, near the end, five or six girls with their hair pinned flat.

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