Emily struggled to decipher the barrage of
words. Henrietta. Surgeons. Dere. Breakfast. This morning. Aud and Derian,
together. And of course, why not. Grabbing on to her runaway thoughts, she
edited the extraneous, what was none of her concern, what
didn’t—couldn’t—matter.
“Is she worse? Is that why they want to
operate so quickly?”
Aud shook her head. “I don’t think there’ve
been any new developments—but from what I could gather, when they reviewed all
of the tests, they felt they couldn’t wait.”
“God,” Emily whispered.
“Come on, sit down. Would you like some
coffee? Tea?”
“What? No, I—”
“You’re looking just a little shaky,” Aud
murmured.
“No, I’m all right. Just a shock.” Emily
pulled her fraying nerves together. “But I could certainly use some tea.”
Aud said, “I’ll get it. I need more coffee
too.”
“No, I’m really all right now. I just rushed
over here, and I wasn’t ready.”
“Who is?” Aud muttered. “How do you take your
tea,” she went on, pouring hot water from a large carafe.
“I don’t suppose there’s milk?”
“Mini Moo.”
“That’ll do.”
Aud returned with a simmering tea and a cup
of coffee of her own and sat down next to Emily. “We’ve met before, at one of
the Winfield meetings. It was brief, I think right after you started interning
for Henrietta.”
“I’m sorry,” Emily said, “I don’t remember,
but it was very overwhelming at first—so many people I only met for a few
seconds. I’m sure I’ve forgotten ninety percent of them.”
Aud smiled wryly. “After a while you get the
hang of facial imprinting. But you probably don’t need that skill at the
agency. It’s kind of its own little universe—cloistered.”
Emily laughed. “Well, it’s hardly a
monastery, but we are pretty close-knit. Everyone is very concerned about
Henrietta.”
“She inspires that kind of loyalty.” Aud
glanced in the direction of the ICU as if she were trying to see inside the
barred doors. “I don’t think there’s anything else that could’ve gotten Dere
back here that quickly.”
“I imagine if you’d called her, she would
have come.”
Aud, in that moment every inch an attorney,
riveted her with a piercing stare. “How so?”
“I could see last night that you’re good
friends,” Emily said. “I think she would be very loyal to her friends.”
A shadow stirred in Aud’s eyes, a swirl of
gray passing through the startling aquamarine.
“Loyal. She is. In fact, I don’t think
there’s a single thing that means more to her than that.”
“That rather says it all, doesn’t it,” Emily
said. “Trust, truth, everything that matters.”
“Exactly what Derian would say, if she ever
really talked about those things,” Aud said in a distant tone. Her attention
refocused on Emily. “You have a pretty good read on her. I thought you just
met?”