Memory of Morning (34 page)

I found the bed and slept for a long time. Then I got up and discovered that naval doctors and supplies had thankfully arrived from the base. I made rounds, putting off checking on Uncle Eadum until my last stop. I had hard news to deliver. It was never easy, but this the first time I'd ever had to do this to one of my own family.

There was no space in the medical home for privacy. Uncle Eadum was in a ward of six critically injured patients, but at least I'd arranged for a privacy screen to be put between his and the other beds.

His eyes were closed when I approached him. I checked the treatment notebook clipped to the end of the bed. I made a note of his home address in the space I hadn't had time to fill in before now. I touched his forehead, affection as much as to check for fever.

He groaned. His eyelids fluttered.

I almost ran.

But I took his hand instead, watched and waited, taking deep breaths. His eyes opened, and focused on me after a moment. "Lise?"

"Hello, Uncle Eadum." I tried to smile, but couldn't manage it. "Do you remember anything that happened?"

"Where's Lise?"

Lise Hay was Abethe's mother, Uncle Eadum's long-time lover. She'd moved in with Abethe while Uncle Eadum considered finding a noble wife.

"Shall I send for Lise?" I asked.

He squeezed my hand. "Please. I need Lise." He blinked. "Thirsty." I gave him a drink of water. "I remember, Meggie," he said after his head was settled on the pillow. "Why don't I hurt?"

"Poppy infusion," I told him. "A great deal of it. We'll start weaning you off of it in a few days. The important thing right now is to make sure no infection sets in."

"In my leg?"

I made myself hold his gaze. "Yes. Your leg had to be removed below the knee."

He stared at the ceiling. I took the time to write a note to be sent to Lise. After a while he looked at me. "
You
cut off my leg?"

I nodded. "It was necessary." I couldn't help but respond to the hate in his eyes. "This is what I do, uncle. Life and death choices. I want you to live."

He looked back at the ceiling. He was silent so long I thought he never wanted to speak to me or see me again.

He did look at me, and the anger was gone. Not that there was any love there. "Thank you. You still have to obey the Emperor, even if--" He made the slightest gesture. "--this is what you are meant to do."

"Yes, sir." My chest tightened with the reality that he was right. "I'll make arrangements to leave for Loudon as soon as possible."

"Good." His eyes closed.

I left him to his rest.

When I left the ward, I found two naval officers waiting in the hallway. One looked me up and down. "You are Dr. Cliff. Contract surgeon on reserve duty."

Chapter Forty-Six

I didn't expect to be taken down to the docks, but that is where we went. "Shouldn't I report to the base medical facility?" I asked.

There were more ships, mostly frigates and corvettes, and some supply hulks, out in the river than the last time I had been here. In the center of the pack, the new class cruiser
Ironbound
dwarfed most of the others.

"Fleet's gathering," the woman told me as she noticed my gaze going from warship to warship. "We're going after the Framin hard this time."

I was helped into a ship's dingy and the two officers joined me. I noticed how bright and shiny and new their uniforms were. A pair of seamen in equally new uniforms pushed off and began to row across the swift, complicated currents of the Seye.

"There's a patient asking for you onboard, Dr. Cliff," I was told.

It was soon evident that our destination was the
Ironbound
. I was curious to get a look at this ship, anyway.

Climbing a rope ladder onto any ship while wearing long skirts is difficult, it was even more so given the size of the
Ironbound's
high, curved hull
.
My blue dress was already a ragged wreck, so I didn't mind the new damage inflicted upon it now.

The main deck was a carved, shining, beautiful thing to behold, but I wasn't given any time to get a good look around. Instead, I was taken down two decks. There was a plaque which read “Officers’ Quarters” at the entrance to a hallway. And the hallway had actual doors on either side. Privacy? Onboard a warship?

"Impressive," I said, though I didn't mean to speak. But since I had, I added, "What's the crew number on this marvel?"

"Eighteen hundred, though we aren't at full complement yet," the woman answered. "Wait here, please," she said as she opened a narrow doorway for me.

"Where's my patient?" I asked.

"Wait here, please."

All right. Fine. I stepped into a tiny cabin. I expected it, so I didn't turn when the door closed behind me. I'd been told to wait. I would. For a while. I hadn't heard any lock click.

As tiny as the cabin was, it was very well organized. A small cabinet reached from the low ceiling to the deck. There was a narrow bed tucked by the outside hull. A trio of drawers were set under the bed. A small desk folded down from the side of the cabinet. There was a chair. There was even a porthole. Oh, and there was an oblong braided rug on the floor. Luxury indeed! And I mean this honestly, not as any sarcasm. Not even Captain Copper's quarters were so nice on the
Moonrunner
, even though they were larger - had to be, as they were converted into part of a gun deck during battles.

Well, I had sent for it. It must have been delivered to the contractors' residence then transferred here for my use with this patient that had requested me. That was a logical enough explanation. Finding several of my frocks hanging in the cabinet was not so easy to explain. These included my black lace evening dress and my ball gown, as well as two simple daydresses. I had packed the daydresses in my luggage when I prepared to leave Loudon, and that luggage had also been sent for. But I certainly had not included the formalwear in the traveling case. Or the pearl necklace I found in its case in one of the drawers. I wondered who thought I might need such clothing and baubles on board a warship?

Further inspection of the cabinet and drawers turned up shoes, other necessities, and brand new, finely tailored contractors' uniforms. The notebooks and other items I had left at Mrs. Lilac's were in one of the drawers.

This certainly was a thorough and well-organized abduction.

I was completely furious at this high-handedness by the time the door opened. I had had far too much of this sort of thing in my life recently.

"What do you think you are about, Adrew Osprey?" I demanded when Lord North stepped in.

He closed the door behind him. He held a finger out toward me. "I have a splinter, Dr. Cliff. I need your expertise to--"

"Stuff it!"

He laughed. And the gesture of showing me his injury turned in to a caress of my cheek. I should have backed away from that touch, but couldn't.

His presence filled the small cabin. The intensity in his blue eyes captured me. "I need you here. I need you," he added.

Oh, no, this was no time to hear this!

My heart rate rose, and it was from far more than my anger. "I am sure you already have a surgeon on staff."

He kept smiling. "What a lovely cool, precise tone. As a matter of fact, I do not have any other medical officer. I have impressed you into that post, Contractor Cliff."

I laughed. I put my hand over my mouth and laughed. I shouldn't have. I don't know why, but I laughed. Lord North always brought out the strangest responses in me.

"You want to be with me," he said. "Admit it."

"Don't be so arrogant," I told him. I crossed my arms. "The Emperor wants me. I have no choice but to obey." I looked him up and down. "Besides, sharing that strapping lad's bed will not be a hardship."

I sat down hard on the bunk. Then I fought through the dizzying shock and pushed myself back to my feet. I glared at him. "That is not possible. You cannot be in love with me. This is some political ploy because the--"

"I do not play politics - not with you, my dear. I don't play them with Marqs. He is my best friend. But he doesn't love you and you don't love him. Seekers must always accept only love."

I turned my back on him, which is not a good way to handle a situation in the middle of an argument - but it had become easier for me to make him invisible. I'd taught myself not to think about him, not to talk about him, not to daydream about him. Most of the time.

"I said I tried, Seeker Osprey to Seeker Cliff. I told you it was complicated. You refused to notice my interest. I noticed you refusing to notice."

"I had to, to keep from introducing you to Lady Cobalt. She would have wrung everything there is to know about you out of you. The woman's a spy for Goshawk, and a more talented interrogator has never lived."

It pleased me that things were not as I told myself they were. Still, "It was not my place to notice you." I shrugged out of his grasp, took a small step back. "It's still not my place. I do not admit to feelings for you and I cannot admit to them. I have no choice but to obey the head of my family. I must go to the Emperor."

He threw his hands up. "By all the gods that ever were! You are a meritocrat, aren't you?"

"What does that--?"

"You believe in becoming the best person your skills can make you, yes? You believe in free will? You believe in self-determination, do you not? Are you going to imprison yourself within duty you know doesn't use your skills to help the world? There's more wrong with the world than Red Fever, gel. There's more to how you can serve than some miracle in your blood. More to
you
. Act like a meritocrat, and do what's right for you. Right! Not duty. Not corporate orders," he added loudly. "Decide for yourself."

I crossed my arms again. Then I gestured around the tiny cabin. "And what does this have to do with free will, Admiral? You've abducted me!"

This time he was the one who turned his back. "Yes. Well, that was a bit high-handed on my part. But you wouldn't have come voluntarily, now would you?" He turned back to me. A hopeful smile played on his lips. He was very handsome when a smile softened those sharp features.