I straightened my shoulders and scrubbed my fingers over my eyes to clear the film of unshed tears. “Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you told me.”
“Best get back in there before your friend drags himself out of that bed.” She nodded toward Penny, then squeezed my hand again. “You should rest, too.”
My smile couldn’t have been convincing, but Nora didn’t press and retreated down the hall toward a small knot of gathered nurses.
Back in the room, Penny grabbed my wrist as soon as I was within arm’s reach and nearly toppled me into his lap in his haste to pull me close. I sank beside him on the edge of the bed and curled my arm around his shoulders to tuck him against my side. He was shaking.
“Are you okay?” He looked over at me. “Was it about me? Is something wrong?”
I shook my head and kissed his temple. “It wasn’t about you, and nothing’s wrong. And you’re okay, right? Tell me again.”
His brow furrowed. “I’m okay. But, Kit…”
The arrival of one of the nurses with a basin of water and a few rags spared me from having to dwell on hownotokay I was. I extricated myself from Penny to take them from her along with a hunk of soap.
“Get cleaned up. We’ll be back in a bit with the fluids.” She spared Penny a gentle smile. “Then you need to get some sleep.”
I set the supplies on the small table across from the bed. “Thank you. I’ll look after him.”
Once the nurse was gone, I helped Penny out of his boots and tucked his sketchbook in the pocket of mytrousers so it wouldn’t get lost. He didn’t want to lay back but, with some coaxing, I got him propped up against the pillows and under the covers.
He caught my hand again when I moved to retrieve the basin from the table.
“Will you sit with me?” he asked. “I don’t want to be alone.”
I gave his hand a squeeze, letting the contact settle my racing thoughts. “I’m not going anywhere, Pen.”
This was where I wanted to be, by his side, no matter where he was. In the end, Levitt made his choice, and it was the cult over me. He could have followed me, but he didn’t. Pennydid.
Now, if only I could shake the worry that Penny might someday change his mind too.
11
Penny
When I was twelve, our milk cow dropped dead. Father was troubled by it, as she was young and perfectly healthy. Not to mention expensive to replace. I remembered the night he came in after dark, clutching a plant with a carrot-like root and a crown of clustered white flowers.
He held the thing in a gloved hand and shook it, dropping dirt on the floor as he showed it to Sayla and me.
“Never,” he’d said, as severe as I’d ever seen him, “nevertouch this. If you find it, tell me immediately, and keep the animals away. It’s terribly dangerous. Do you understand?”
Sayla and I nodded, though neither of us understood. I wasn’t given a name for the deadly plant until years later. A name I hadn’t heard again until a few minutes ago.
I lay in the bed where Kit put me, tucked up to my waist in white sheets. He sat beside me with a bowl of water in his lap and a muddy rag in his hands.
He’d done a decent job cleaning us both up, wiping my face and my hands and doing the best he could on himself, though he’d missed the streak of dirt across his forehead,and his fingertips were stained. Now, he sat unmoving, staring down at the discolored rag he still held.
Preoccupied as he was, I found myself equally so. I knew this place, or somewhere like it, and I’d never wanted to return.
Several moments passed before Kit and I broke our shared silence and spoke simultaneously.
“I should’ve known it was the hemlock,” he mumbled while I blurted out, “I don’t want to stay here.”
Kit continued, “And I should have told you…” Pausing, he frowned over at me. “What did you say?”
I wrung my hands together. “I want to leave. I don’t want to be here.”
He dropped the rag in the bowl and stood, carrying it to the small table positioned against the wall. “It’s a mission, Penny. It’s the best place for you, and it’s only for the night.”
