Helena went tense. “Does Luc know, too?”
“No.”
Helena released a breath. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Lila said nothing for a moment. “Couldn’t help but notice you picked a day when Luc and I weren’t there.”
“I would have said it anyway,” Helena said, picking at her cuticles. The skin around her nails was cracked and ragged from constant washing, and there were still traces of Ferron’s blood under them. “But I was glad Luc wasn’t there. I didn’t want him trapped in the middle of something. I knew they’d say no. I just—I needed to say it. Soren said that was a good battle for all of you, but in the hospital—we ran out of everything. Beds, bandages, laudanum, and antiseptic. And bodies kept coming, and I couldn’t—I couldn’t make up the difference.”
Lila sat on the edge of Helena’s b
