“Whatever do you mean?”

  The baby was making little noises. Not cries or even full-hearted fussing. Just little whimpers. The Duchess smirked and held out her arms.

  Em handed the child over.

  “Call my wet nurse and get out of here, you little scamp.”

  Em curtsied. Peer to peer, keeping her gaze on the Duchess’s warm eyes.

  “As you wish. I’m glad you’re doing well, your grace.”

  Em was almost to the door when the Duchess said warmly, “Tell Mister Sager’s assistant thank you. I don’t think I or my child would have survived without her.”

  Em plopped down on the carriage seat while Todd closed the door behind them.

  “She’s a little too observant.”

  “Who is?”

  Todd sat across from her. Crossing his arms and lounging his head back.

  Em pulled her hat off and tossed it onto the seat next to her. “The Duchess. I was wearing a veil! How did she know it was me?”

  Todd sat up and gave Em a puzzled look. To which Em rolled her eyes and looked out the window.

  “Where to now?”

  Em pursed her lips.

  “I was going to see Mister Sager today and arrange my schedule. But I’m wondering now if that’s a good idea. If the Duchess recognized me, who else might?”

  “Is that what you’re going on about? I wouldn’t worry about it.”

  She gave Todd a look and he shrugged.

  “I’m serious. Most of those leeches don’t know you well enough to guess who’s playing the doctor’s nurse. And most of them think of the staff like furniture. They might notice your clothes, but your face will escape them.”

  Em chewed her lip.

  Part of her agreed with him. But that didn’t change the gnawing worry in her gut.

  “But if they find out-”

  “What are they going to do? Ostracize you more?”

  Em didn’t answer right away. And when she did, it was with a wrinkled brow.

  “Ostracize? Where did you hear a word like that?”

  “For the love of-! I follow you everywhere. Do you think I don’t listen to the big word talk of those people? Half the time, I wonder if they understand themselves.”

  “I thought maybe you were reading my books.”

  “If I’m doing that, I’m not telling.” Todd half stood to open the slide between them and the driver. “The Grand Park.”

  After closing the window, he faced Em’s grumpy look.

  “What?”

  “I didn’t say I was going.”

  He smiled cheekily back. “So?”

  Em snatched up her hat and threw it at him.

  In the park, they hid under a bridge. Where Todd kept his back to her and guarded her from view while she quickly changed into something more plain. Then he carried her bag with her clothes as they strolled casually to the other end of the park.

  Doctor Sager’s practice was a big house on a high end street. Most of the buildings were either the homes of the rich middle class or boarding houses. All of them well kept and pretty.

  Em walked passed a large sign hanging out front and up to the door. Knocking firmly.

  A tired-looking older woman opened the door.

  Em barely opened her mouth before the woman gasped. She grabbed Em’s arm and yanked her inside.

  “Thank the gods!” Todd barely got inside before she slammed the door in his face. “Just thank the gods!”

  “Martha what’s-?”

  The woman didn’t wait for Em to finish. Instead, she practically yanked the girl further into the house and past the waiting room. Two people watched them curiously from the settee.

  “Martha, wait! I’m going to trip!”

  “No time, no time! Thank the gods! I was going mad trying to figure out how to contact you.”

  “Martha, stop!”

  She didn’t. If anything, she pulled harder. So Em stopped trying to talk and focused on staying upright.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  A moment later, they barged into the back surgery.

  “I found her, sir!” The woman pushed Em forward, like the girl was a naughty puppy they finally tracked down.

  Sager looked up.

  Sager looked like he was about five or ten years older than Martha. Usually a robust, brisk man, today his face was sallow and sunken. As though he had recently slept very little. But as soon as he saw Em, his eyes brightened.

  His relief was so palpable that Em pictured him melting into the floor.

  “Tell Allen he can see the other patients,” he instructed Martha quickly.

  She bobbed a quick bow and left. Slamming the door behind her.

  “What in the world?! Sager, what’s going on?”

  “An emergency. There’s a clean apron over there.”

  I know where the aprons are, Em thought with a shake of her head. She pulled one out of the cupboard and unfolded it.

  “I didn’t come here to work, Sager. I came to make a schedule.”

  “We’ll do that in a minute. Hurry!”

  Em exchanged bewildered looks with Todd as Sager stepped into a patient room behind the surgery. Todd shrugged and made shooing motions with both hands. He was grinning like he was watching a soap opera.

  Em rolled her eyes, tied the apron on tightly, and stepped into the back room.

  There were only mana stone lamps in this room. Similar to dull fluorescent lights, they made it feel more like a storage cellar than a patient room.

  Immediately, her eyes fixed on the blanket covered body on the bed. It was breathing so raggedly it made her wince.

  “He sounds like he has pneumonia.”

  “You’re not far wrong. He was brought to me five days ago. I thought I got the problem under control, but then it got infected-”

  The doctor trailed off as he ran his hand in frustration through his hair.

  Em winced.

  This world didn’t worry as much about germs and contamination. Even with people trekking in and out of the room, they had magical items which did a fairly good job at keeping surgeries disinfected. But it wasn’t foolproof, and she was glad the doctors at least washed their hands before touching their patients.

  Which Sager proceeded to do as Em stepped over to examine the patient.

  “Right side.”

  Sager didn’t even look up as he rinsed his hands in a tiny sink.

  The patient had his face turned away from Em and she could see him shivering even in the dim light. The shivers became worse as she pulled the blanket up and gaped at the wound.

  It seemed to shear off half his hip.

  It wasn’t quite that bad, but it was bad enough.

  And the smell… She pinched her nose.

  “What the-?! How did he-!?”

  As her eyes roamed, she stared at the straps keeping his ankles and biceps locked to the table. If he hadn’t been covered by a blanket, it would have been the first thing she noticed.

  “And why the restraints?”

  “I don’t know about the wounds. The client who brought him didn’t give me any details.” Sager dried his hands on a clean towel. “As for the restraints, even with a wound like that, he can be quite uncooperative.”

  Uncooperative? What did that mean?

  Puzzled, she waited to speak again until the doctor came over. He began fussing with a tray of tools and medicines that was already waiting for them.

  “You might have to cut away some of that infection,” she warned the man.

  He nodded, already filling a needle with painkiller.

  “I’ve been a doctor and surgeon for years. And I’ve been working with you for years. Do you think I don’t know my business?”

  Em shrugged and arranged the blanket away from the patient’s hip.

  “Why is he in here instead of the surgery? Do you want me to have Todd move him?”

  “No!”

  Em flinched and looked at the doctor in surprise. The man took a deep breath and lowered his voice.

  “My client gave me strict instructions. No one but me and my most trusted staff can know this boy is here. Do you understand?”

  “So… you don’t want him in the surgery because…?”

  “Too many windows. And the rest of my staff has too much access.”

  Em stared at him as he went through the procedure of injecting the needle into the patient’s arm. Then he checked the drip, making sure the sedative was the right amount.

  Curiously, she reached for the patient’s face. Intending to turn it so she could get a look while the doctor was busy.

  Suddenly the patient cried out and arched his back in agony, making Em forget about checking his identity. Hastily, she and Sager leaned on him. Forcing him to lie down as his body convulsed.

  “Damn it!” Sager swore.

  “What’s going on?!”

  “He’s been fighting the sedative. Damn it! I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Frantically, Em leaned all her weight into the man’s chest. He was stronger, much stronger than he should have been in that state. If he were conscious, she was fairly certain he could’ve thrown them off. Even with the restraints, all he would have had to do was buck.

  “Stop it,” she growled as she shifted her weight so she could free one hand.

  She placed her fingers on his bare stomach and imagined the golden cord.

  It was thinner than it used to be. Using far less mana with a lot more punch. And even with the half awake patient trying to free himself and jarring her around, practice made it easy for her to grab the thread and push it into his flesh.

  Abruptly, he stopped moving.

  Sager’s puffs almost matched the patient’s ragged breathing as Em carefully fed mana into the body. Bits of the man’s hip visibly closed up as she worked.

  She didn’t make it close up all the way, however, because there was still a lot of infection. And she knew from experience that infection didn’t come out just cuz she healed the flesh.

  Wheezing, Sager retrieved a knife.

  Carefully, the doctor began cutting and pushing out pus from the infected parts. Occasionally he pulled back and allowed Em to heal the bits he just operated on.

  Twice, the patient tried to wake up again. In the end, Em had to sit on his chest to hold him down while Sager increased the sedative dose.

  “At this rate, I’ll be healing him from sedative damage.”

  “Do you have a better idea, girl?”

  Em made a face. “Is there any way to restrain the rest of him?”

  “I’ve ordered a bed with more restraints, but it’s not here yet. And I don’t dare use rope in case he burns himself.” Sager leaned over the hip again. Grumbling. “Never thought I’d have to restrain my patients more than this. I set bones and do minor surgeries. If they wanted something this big-”

  Em couldn’t hear the rest but she grinned to herself, anyway.

  She shifted. Trying to make sure the man under her could breathe while still keeping enough weight on him so he didn’t hurt himself more.

  It took over an hour, but Sager finally announced that he was sure most (if not all) of the infection was now gone.

  Em slid off the bed.

  She was a little dizzy from the effort of careful healing. Wounds were a lot trickier than her first attempts suggested. While the mana seemed to know what to do as soon as she infused the body, that didn’t mean she didn’t have to be careful.

  Usually, what she needed to do was watch for foreign objects and make sure she went far enough with the healing to avoid unintended problems.

  For example, there’d been a patient once with a sliver.

  At the time, Em was still fairly new at healing, so it didn’t seem like a waste of power to work on something so small. Especially since it was only one of many wounds from the same monster fight.

  Considering the bigger wounds, she figured he wouldn’t notice that a sliver prick had been completely healed.

  However, the man came back a week later. It had gotten infected because they missed part of the sliver deeper inside.

  And doing a partial healing could end in scarring.

  While that didn’t mean the patient would be in danger, sometimes scarring could produce things like chronic pain. She had to carefully gauge when to stop so the patient would end up with less discomfort, no more.

  All without giving herself away.

  This patient’s hip wasn’t completely healed. But, hopefully, healed enough that he’ll be able to move freely.

  And with luck, the infection won’t come back.

  While Sager cleaned and bandaged the wound, Em got a good look at the patient’s torso. During the scuffle his blanket fell off, so she had a clear view.

  Scars pockmarked his entire torso and chest.

  Most of them were nicks. But some of them looked like they were once serious wounds. Especially the one over his right pectoral. That one must’ve pierced a lung. And it was probably a healer that patched it up.

  She winced in sympathy.

  She’d never experienced the pain of a normal healing herself, but she’d seen it enough to know it must’ve hurt.

  A lot.

  The man turned his sweaty face toward her. Once again, he was trying to wake up. Eyelids fluttering but unable to do more than gasp. He was finally too exhausted to fight his restraints.

  Em froze.