Wedding Eve Goodbye novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Stay

The doctor was waiting on the front steps of the stone house when the car came up the drive.

He was an older man with a leather bag, and he took Mina out of my arms and carried her inside without a word.

"Pneumonia, starting," he said after ten minutes in the guest wing. "She hasn't eaten or slept since her mother's funeral. Fluids, antibiotics and quiet."

"Her mother's funeral?" I said.

"A month ago."

I had known Mina for three years and I had not known her mother was dead.

I stood in the doorway of the guest room while the doctor set up a drip.

Mina lay small and flushed against the pillows.

The front door slammed downstairs.

Dominic came up the staircase two steps at a time, still in yesterday's shirt.

He passed me without a glance and went straight to her bed.

He sat down on the edge of the mattress and took her hand in both of his.

"I'm here," he said. "You're all right."

His voice was soft, the same soft voice from the study.

It went through me again, and I did not know where to put my face.

Mina's eyes opened a crack.

"I didn't tell her," she whispered. "I swear I didn't."

"I know you didn't."

"Mr. Haldane, I'm sorry about the coat..."

"Sleep," he said. "Nobody is coming tonight."

He smoothed the hair off her forehead with a tenderness I could not look at, and I turned and walked out.

Odile found me in the corridor and put a cup of tea in my hands.

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