Saffron wasn’t aware of the time when she awoke. Her curtains were closed, and her body was senseless as to how long she had slept. She sat up, rubbing her stiff neck. She looked about for her notebook and jotted down her observations of her condition, sore and feeling rather like she’d been hollowed out. Looking over the notes from yesterday, written in Alexander’s surprisingly messy hand, she realized for the first time just how hastily she’d made the decision to poison herself. But she wasn’t sorry she’d done it. After all, she’d achieved her goal of proving xolotl wasn’t responsible. But it wasn’t well done of her to have conducted the experiment so haphazardly.
She pulled on her dressing gown and padded into the bathroom, where she ran a bath. The warm water soothed her twinging muscles. She stared at the bubbles, wondering if her lethargy was a result of the lasting side effects of xolotl or from sleeping through breakfast.
She was mindlessly gazing into the water when a voice in the hall caught her attention.
A man’s voice.
She hastened from the water and, clutching her dressing gown around her, cracked the door open and peered into the hall. She just caught sight of a tall man passing through the doorof the sitting room and heard Elizabeth’s low voice. Had she slept so long that Elizabeth had returned home from work?
The tiny bathroom window revealed it was dusk, the dove gray sky leaning toward pink. She blinked, shocked. She truly had slept an entire day. She would have to add that to her notes.
She tiptoed down the hall to her room, luckily on the opposite end from the sitting room. Unfortunately, that meant that her ability to hear any conversation was nil. She quickly dressed in a simple dress and pulled a jumper on, not even considering powder or hairpins. She braided her damp hair into a long tail. Hoping she could creep past the sitting room and avoid Elizabeth’s visitor, she opened her door silently and tiptoed down the hallway.
Quiet voices floated down the hall. Elizabeth sounded worried. “… but perhaps I ought to see if she’s all right …”
Her guest didn’t respond, so Saffron was surprised when footsteps approached her with such speed that she couldn’t retreat. Elizabeth turned the corner, her usually healthy complexion lessened by a pallor Saffron recognized in an instant was caused by concern.
Elizabeth’s eyes opened wide as she noticed Saffron lurking in the hall. She was dressed in a green housedress patterned with flowers, rather than the typical suits she wore to work, though her face was artfully made up as usual. Saffron dragged her into the small kitchen and closed the door.
Elizabeth began loudly making tea to cover her hushed words. “That would be your Mr. Ashton in the sitting room. He telephoned last night, you know, just after you walked in like a ghost and went to bed,” she said, eying Saffron as she filled the kettle. “He explained, or rather barely explained, that you had accidentally eaten something while in his office and refused to tell me anything else about what it was or what I should be watching for. You are truly an idiot, darling.” She slammed thekettle onto the stove. “What kind of scientist would eat something in the office of a man who studies bacteria?”
Saffron couldn’t decide if she was flattered by Alexander’s concern or annoyed that he had told her flatmate enough to worry her. “Why is he here now?”
“I told him I’d telephone him when you woke up so he could be sure nothing dreadful had happened. He was most insistent”—Elizabeth raised her thinly penciled eyebrows—“on coming to see you.”
Saffron didn’t meet her eye and instead loaded the tea tray with cups, plates, sugar, and milk. Elizabeth arranged some ginger biscuits on a tray. They made their way into the sitting room, where Alexander stood at the small window. He looked out of place in the feminine space, his charcoal-gray suit looking harsh against the creams and whites of the walls and furniture. He turned, expression solemn, as they walked in the room.
“Alexander, you didn’t need to come all the way here,” Saffron said.
“It was no trouble. I see that you’re much better than yesterday.” He glanced at Elizabeth, clearly not sure how much he should say in front of her.
Saffron wasn’t sure how angry Elizabeth would get if they said much else, and she didn’t feel up to being shouted at. “Yes, luckily. Would you like some tea?”
They sipped their tea and worked through stilted conversation for ten minutes. The topic of Saffron’s unusual habit of not putting milk into her tea lasted awhile, then about Alexander’s departure to Brazil in a few weeks. Elizabeth was mostly interested in hearing about the nonscientific parts of the journey, which Alexander admitted he knew little about at present.
“But surely you’ll get to see Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo?” she asked.
Alexander replaced his teacup on its saucer and said, “We’ll be meeting to discuss the particulars next week, but I don’t think so.”
After a long pause, Saffron said to Alexander, “I forgot what time I left your office yesterday. Did you happen to notice?”
“It was just before seven,” he said, glancing at Elizabeth again.
“Right.”
An awkward silence fell. In the absence of conversation, she realized that Elizabeth was waiting for Alexander to leave, and Alexander must be waiting for Elizabeth to leave. Saffron shot a meaningful look at Elizabeth, who gave her a hard look, then rolled her eyes as she stood with the tea tray.
“Won’t be a moment, I’ll just make a spot more.” She left the room, hips swaying in her usual exaggerated way.
Alexander broke into speech the moment she cleared the door. “I don’t mean to intrude.”
“It’s quite all right, I appreciate you checking in on me.” After a deep breath, she continued, “I appreciate all you did for me yesterday. I know it was not the safest way to go about it, but I still think it brought valuable information to my, er, investigation.”
He stood, a frown creasing his brow. “Investigation? Saffron, if anything had gone wrong yesterday, you could still be paralyzed. Worse, you could have died. The information in that journal could have been completely wrong. You won’t do yourself or Dr. Maxwell any good—”
Though she knew he was absolutely right, Saffron stood too, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not trying to do myself any good. If I was, I wouldn’t have poisoned myself!”
“What?” Elizabeth was frozen in the doorway, her face a mask of shock.
