Chapter 11: The Scan

Julien Aubrac heard the needle tray hit the floor before he saw her fall.

He was on the landing with a stack of papers, and he dropped them.

Margaux was going down the stairs to the hall with one hand on the rail.

Her knees gave out between one step and the next.

He caught her before she hit the marble.

She weighed almost nothing, and her face was grey.

"Margaux."

Her eyelids fluttered.

"I'm fine," she said, very faintly. "I stood up too fast."

"You're not fine."

He lifted her against his chest and carried her to the downstairs sitting room.

He laid her on the long sofa and put a cushion under her feet.

His hands were not steady, and he put them in his pockets.

The household doctor came in ten minutes, took her pressure, and listened to her chest.

"Low iron, low sugar, and not enough sleep," he said. "Soup, a proper lunch, and rest. And Madame should have told us she was expecting."

He said it kindly, to Julien, and then he went red when Margaux's eyes opened.

"Doctor," she said.

"I'm so sorry, Madame. I assumed that your husband..."

"Thank you, Doctor," Julien said evenly. "That will be all."

The doctor went out.

Silence settled over the sitting room.

Margaux pushed herself up on one elbow.

"You knew," she said.

"My grandmother hinted at it last Thursday."

"I asked her not to say."

"She said only that you needed more green vegetables." He pulled a chair up and sat. "I understood. I am sorry. I would never have said it aloud."

He had read the file on Friday.

His assistant had put it on his desk before the luncheon.

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