Chapter 6: The Doctor

The family doctor examined me in the sitting room with the door open.

He was a heavy man in a gray coat with cold hands and a leather case.

Eleni stood by the window with her arms folded and watched every move he made.

I sat on the edge of a satin sofa while he took my wrist and looked at my eyes.

"The young lady's cycle?" he asked in English.

"Regular," I said.

"The last was early in the month."

"Any pain?" he asked.

"No," I said.

He glanced at Eleni.

She said in Greek, "Is she ready to carry?"

"There is no reason she should not."

"Then we do not waste time."

I looked at the wall.

I had not lied about my cycle by accident.

I had been with only one man since the wedding, and he was not the man my husband's mother meant.

If she counted, she would count wrongly, and that suited me.

When the doctor had gone Eleni took the chair across from me and put her hands on her knees.

"You will be fertile as your mother," she said.

"She gave your father two children in three years.

"I have seen the family."

"My mother is dead," I said.

"Yes.

"A pity."

She said it in the same voice she used for the bread order.

I sat with my hands under my thighs so she would not see them.

Sunday dinner was at six.

The table was longer, with candles, and the aunts, and a cousin of the priest, and two men from the market I had never met.