I did not go with her immediately.
That was the first thing I had ever done that Lena had not expected me to do. I saw it in her face, the small recalibration, the adjustment of someone who had prepared for a particular response and received a different one entirely.
"Give me ten minutes," I said.
"Nora, what I have to tell you is…"
"Ten minutes," I said again. Evenly. Without apology.
I walked back down the corridor toward the east wing and found Lillian exactly where I expected to find her, in the small sitting room off our rooms, her medical bag open on the table in front of her, reorganizing her supplies with the focused patience of someone who reorganized things when she needed something to do with her hands.
She looked up when I came in. Read my face in approximately two second
