“I know you are,” she snapped. “Did he give you the key to the medicine cabinet?”
Dr. Casper blinked twice and then gave a wheezing chuckle. “No! How didheget it?”
Mae felt her cheeks heating. “That doesn’t matter. Go home.”
He gave her a wet kiss on the cheek and continued to chortle all the way out the door.
She fiddled with the tidying, watching the door as the kits finished their work and Dr. Bethel started the process of leaving as well, snapping his case shut.
“Dr. Bethel!” she exclaimed, remembering suddenly a particular item in his medical kit. “You keep a small hand mirror in there, do you not?”
He blinked at her. “Yes,” he said. “For the tooth extractions. We ought to get you one too.”
She nodded. “We should. Would you mind if I borrow yours tonight? I will leave it here for you to retrieve in the morning.”
“Oh,” he said, glancing down at his bag and back up at her. “I don’t see why not. Just don’t break it! Baked quicksilver isn’t cheap, my girl. And I hear it’s bad luck.”
“I promise I won’t,” she assured him as he fished the little mirror in its brown leather casing out of his bag. “Thank you ever so much.”
She ushered him out the door and peered through the torchlight across the street to see if Roland was approaching, gripping the mirror to her chest. She didn’t see him, only the two patrolmen starting their rounds, so that meant she had a few moments at least to freshen up before he arrived.
She turned and fled to the procedure room, where the setting sun shone the brightest, and hoped she could do something with herself at this late hour and without any toilette tools.
Perhaps …
She glanced at a little tincture of iodine on her tray and wondered at how it would look on her lips, then chuckled to herself with a shake of her head.
No. No, that was too far. But a splash of witch hazel and perhaps some beeswax wouldn’t be remiss. She also rubbed some of the wax between her fingers to tame the frizzy curls around her hairline as she removed her linen wrap, attempting to pat her dark mane into some semblance of civility some nine hours after braiding it.
An exercise in hubris, she knew, but she wasn’t about to take the braid out and start fresh.
She had minutes, not hours.
The door sounded in response to that thought, bringing her to her feet with one more quick look in the tiny mirror, sliding over her wax-dabbed lips and over the tiny curls patted back into her hairline. She used what was left on her fingers to smooth down any frizz sticking up at the part of her hair as she carefully removed her apron and draped it over her arm, took a breath, straightened her shoulders, and walked out of the roomas though she were midway through her normal routine, and surprised to see him returned.
He was carrying two boxes, presumably filled with food, and the fragrance of what was certainly a wine sauce crawled over the air, drowning out the talc and aqua fortis that floated in the air every evening.
“Look at you,” he said softly, blinking those incredible turquoise eyes. “You’re glowing.”
“That’s just the light, Roland,” she said impishly, unable to stop herself from dimpling at him. “Give me my key back, you scoundrel.”
He grinned back at her. “It’s in my pocket. Come get it. My hands are full.”
She raised her brows. “You jest.”
“Me?” he replied with a chuckle. “Never.”
“Well,” she said, drawing closer, examining the front of his trousers, which did in fact have pockets on both sides. “I suppose turnabout is fair play.”
“That is what they say,” he confirmed, watching her. “On the left.”
She trailed her fingers over his left pocket, starting to dip them inside, hesitating only because the light glinted off his teeth as he flashed them with a predatory smile. “What?”
“My left,” he clarified, in a tone that suggested she could continue as she was if she wished.
Her heart jumped and her breathing thinned, but she did her level best not to show it. “Why would I fish around in an empty pocket?” she said with a little sniff, switching to the other side.
“Who said it’s empty?” he replied in a dark little murmur, fanning heat up her throat and along the entire span of her chest.
