up in that nonsense, I will not hesitate to get rid of you. I’m not sullying my family name because someone is softhearted.”
“Of course, Monsieur,” Rainier said and bowed. “I will not sully your name, though I cannot promise that my heart is as hardened as yours.”
“Leave it.” Charles gently smacked Sébastien’s shoulder and shooed him away with Rainier. “You walked into that one.”
Laurence let Charles and me wander the infirmary. It was a comfortable routine, the two of us walking in silence. Unlike the stifling atmosphere of the university, Charles and I felt no need to fill the void with idle gossip or assertions of our innocence, and the most we spoke was to exchange notes on a patient. We checked over those who were still recovering and stayed out of the other’s way. Until today.
“Not like that!” Charles smacked my hands away from the young girl I was working on. “Too much power. You’ll wear yourself out and them before you even notice.”
I froze. The magic gathered in my palms dissipated, leaving a slight red flush in my fingers. Charles spread his hands wide, magic so carefully collected that I could barely feel it, and urged the skin along the patient’s sliced arm to heal much more slowly. I had never bothered to take my time, but I had only ever healed myself before this month. It had never worn me out before.
The patient recoiled and wouldn’t let me near them for the rest of our time there.
Before we left, Laurence held Charles back. I lingered, cleaning up the table slowly.
“I know you haven’t been taught how to teach yet, but let this be the first lesson—do not correct people in front of others unless the mistake is dangerous or rude,” Laurence said. “They will eventually be glad for the correction. They will never be glad for the humiliation. And never strike them like that. Did I ever do that to you?”
Charles shook his head. “Was it humiliating?”
Laurence cocked his head to the side and raised one eyebrow with the graceful aloofness of someone who practiced the move in a mirror. Charles groaned.
“Emilie, stop eavesdropping.” Laurence patted Charles’s shoulder and walked to the door. “Talk it out before supper, you two.”
We stood, silent, for far longer than necessary.
Finally, I said, “You don’t have to apologize.”
“No, I do.” He dropped his face into his hand and pushed his hair from his eyes. “I should not have slapped your hands. I just—”
“I know.” I knew exactly what he had been thinking and probably would have done the same thing. “Remarkably, we are quite alike.”
“I had noticed.”
“Actions mean more than words,” I said. “Please don’t do it again.”
“I won’t.”
We stood, silent again, and he cleared his throat.
“There’s a public autopsy tomorrow if you would like to watch it,” Charles said. “I’m sure Laurence won’t notice if we’re late to laboratory.”
“I would like that.” I gestured to the door. “Hacks don’t get much in the way of real anatomy training.”
* * *
The next morning, Charles met me at the infirmary with a box full of financiers speckled with tea leaves and blueberries. I hated sweets.
“Thank you,” I said, “but you didn’t have to.”
“I definitely shouldn’t have smacked you, but none of it was called for.” He pushed them into my hands. “Please take them.”
“Thank you,” I said again because I had no idea what to do. Of all the hours I had spent learning propriety, my mother hadn’t taught me how to handle this situation. “Would you like to pretend it never happened and go back to work?”
“Lord, yes.” Charles let out a long breath and held open the door to the infirmary for me. “I enjoy our competition.”
“Yes, I imagine you do.” I slipped past him and set the box on one of the tables Laurence had stolen to use for supplies. “It must be so freeing to finally be able to show off your knowledge to a hack a year behind you in education.”
“You’re right.” He smiled. “I should stop letting you answer the easy ones.”
I glanced at him, eyes narrowed, and his smile widened.
“Are you the cadaver for the autopsy?” I asked.
“No?”
“I’m not sure I’m interested anymore.”
He laughed and escorted me through the halls I never got to see in the section of the medical school solely meant for physicians- and surgeons-to-be, and we passed the rest of our time together in more comfortable quiet. The anatomy theater was small, and we sat in the back, out of sight