Chapter 9Friedrich, all told, was out for the count for three nights, including his night off spent waiting to get ill. By long-standing house rule he quarantined himself in his room, Tomas bringing him food and drink and letting him whimper without judgment.
The fever left him just before the end of working hours on the third night since Nathan had broken his heart. Friedrich stumbled to the bathroom to bathe before the other jades could fill the facilities, washing the sweat of illness off his still-tender skin and out of his hair.
Back in his bedroom, toweling his curls dry before he made up the bed with fresh sheets, he took a moment to regard himself in the mirror. “I will get through this,” he told himself. His reflection looked skeptical.
Tomas put him back on the schedule, and w
