*Penny*
I drift in and out, kicking off the covers, only to have Lucy put them back into place. During the day, Lucy forces me to drink warm tea laced with honey and gargle some horrible concoction the physician has given her for me.
"It's your throat causing the fever," Lucy confirms. "It's festering or something, but the physician says it should all clear up within a few days, and you'll be right as rain."
When night falls and all grows quiet, Lucy leaves me to sleep, and then he comes. The first night, he looks as awful as I feel. He sits in a chair beside the bed and simply holds my hand. Whenever I awake, it's to find his gaze on me, watching the corners of his mouth lift slightly. My name passes softly and quietly over his lips. "Pettifur." A benediction and a prayer, as though if
