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.He lifted the badarm and ran his hand over my shoulderto my neck again. I m pretty sure thisis Erb s palsy.You re lucky.Mostpeople who have it suffer aÀe it suftleast partial paralysis on an entire sideof their body.I ve never seen an arm inisolation before. What exactly is it? He closed his bag. When you wereborn, you suffered an injury.If you hadbeen born in a hospital, a surgeon wouldhave performed a procedure andrestored use of your arm.Since youwere born here, without medicalintervention, paralysis occurred. I had already reached the conclusiona demon was not the cause of my disability, but hearing it from someonewho was an authority brought meconsiderable relief.I was not and hadnever been a demon. I ll need to keep an eye on Anniefor a day or so.Who do I see aboutthat? He put his black bag on the seatunder the stained-glass window next tothe stack of books saved from my shed. Miss Ronan is in charge of thehouse, I said. Shall I get her foryou? He shook his head. No, you stayhere with our girl.She should be feelingmuch better soon and would probablylike it if you were here. He studied mea bit longer. I sat with her at dinner atthe wedding reception.She spoke of nothing but you.She s changed.Iattribute that to your friendship. Henodded and closed the door behind him. Liam, Anna said. Stay. I m here, I said, lying beside her. Forever, she whispered.* * *Muireann hadn t seen a single Na FirGhorm since the storm.As night fell,she repositioned herself off the beachwhere the couple had become bound soshe could watch the house and the cave.Not long after darkness fell, herlocation proved to be the right choice.Brigid Ronan, flashlight in hand, hurried to the end of the boulder where she hadmet with the Na Fir Ghorm before.Thistime, Muireann was determined tolisten.The Na Fir Ghorm usually swamas deep as possible, only coming to thesurface when they had to.Swimming awide circle, she zipped just under thesurface, coming up on the back side ofthe boulder.Brigid Ronan paced from one end ofthe flat outcropping of stone to theother, flashlight swinging loosely by herside.Her usual calmness was gone.Muireann had never seen her like this. News? a Na Fir Ghorm demandedimmediately upon breaking the surface.Muireann scooted farther to the farside so he would not see her. None, Brigid Ronan answered,switching her flashlight off. They haveonly grown closer.I beseech you toabandon this.The Bean Sidhes will nothold you to the wager.They willwillingly let go. Never.We will move to the nextstep. Muireann s breath caught whenBrigid Ronan began to weep. No.I begof you, no. You owe us a debt.We made abargain.You agreed to do our bidding. I don t want it any of it if itmeans her life.Take the boy s, shebegged. He s the one you want. Muireann couldn t see the Na FirGhorm from where she hid, she only had a view of Brigid Ronan, but shecould hear the smile in his voice. Whatbetter way to destroy him than bydestroying her? Brigid Ronan fell to her knees.Longafter the Na Fir Ghorm departed, shecontinued to weep. 38Her high-born kinsmen cameAnd bore her away from me. Edgar Allan Poe,from Annabel Lee, 1849you re fever free, Annie.How are youfeeling? Dr.Jackson asked, pulling thestethoscope from his bag.Anna coughed. Better. Then shecoughed again.He placed the stethoscope on her back. Take a deep breath for me. After a slow inhale, she coughed. You re going to be doing that for afew days maybe weeks, he said, takingthe stethoscope from his ears. You ll befine, though.You re fully hydrated, so I mgoing to disconnect the IV, okay? She nodded and took the handkerchiefDeirdre offered her.He pulled the tube out of the cylinderon her arm and threw the almost-emptybag and tubing into the trash can.Feeling utterly useless and helpless, Ipaced back and forth at the end of the bedwhile he pulled the needle from her armand dropped it in a container in his bag.He taped gauze over the place he hadinserted the needle. All done, he said. Do you have any questions or need anything else? I ve leftinstructions with your housekeeper alongwith some cough medicine should youneed it. Anna sat up. Yes.I need something.It s really important. She held thehandkerchief over her mouth and coughed. Deirdre, in my purse on top of myluggage, there is an envelope
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