Chapter Twenty-One: Adara

The next hours were torture.

After pronouncing that he’d done all he could, Doctor Hendricks asked Edin to show him to a bedroom where he could lie down and rest. Edin obliged and led the doctor up the long winding staircase in the foyer, with a servant trailing behind.

That left Dane and me together, alone with my sister.

A servant came in, bearing a tray with the chamomile tea the doctor had ordered.

I thought, Has so little time passed? It has seemed like an eternity.

I could tell by Dane’s rather startled expression, upon seeing the servant with the tea, that he was thinking the same thing.

He invited me to come into the dining room, to sit at the table and partake of the tea, as well as the sandwiches the servant had brought us.

Instead, now that the doctor was gone, I resumed my place on the carpet beside the sofa, by my sister’s side, holding her limp and deathly pale hand.

“You should ea