world. Her clothes were hot as if the skin beneath it boiled, and the woman flinched.
“Your hands are ice!” she cried out, but she didn’t brush Beth’s hand off or try to roll away. In just a few seconds the tension in her arms began to release, one muscle fiber at a time. Perhaps she was too spent.
“Is there a friend—”
“He left me.”
It sounded like abandonment, though it could have been much less. He left me here to fetch the doctor.
There was no ring on the woman’s left hand. But there was blood coating her terribly thin legs, which looked like toothpicks protruding from her black skirt.
The woman reached up and put her hand on top of Beth’s. Her breathing leveled out.
“This helps,” she said.
“What’s your name?”
“Nova.”
“That’s pretty.”
“It’s a pointless name for an ugly life,” Nova said, and Beth felt all of the woman’s heartbreak in those words. She felt protective, maternal, even though she was the younger of the pair. She wondered if Nova’s parents had picked the right name for her.
“You need a doctor,” Beth said. It would be difficult to get this woman into the 4x4, if that was her car outside, but Beth could go quickly and come back. “Where can I find one?”
“I’m a doctor,” said a voice at the back of the sanctuary.
Beth stood. A severe-looking woman with pale features and dark, shining hair that stroked the bottom of her chin was coming down the aisle Beth had just traversed seconds ago. Her walk was more of a stalk, a weighty pounding of feet designed to make a pouting child feel powerful. She aimed herself at Beth. She carried a large purse.
Beth immediately disliked the doctor and simultaneously thought that it was unfair of her to make the judgment. But Beth disliked her heavy footfall. And she hated the distrustful look the woman shot at her, as if Beth had broken into her house to steal jewelry and secret files.
“I don’t know you.” The doctor said it like an accusation.
“The door was open,” Beth said, and then felt like a child. She shouldn’t have to defend her presence in this public place.
“Who are you?” the woman demanded.
Beth might or might not have offered her name at that point. She was thinking of asking for the doctor’s name first—an ID, credentials, all kinds of ridiculousness in a setting like this. But none of it mattered, because Nova started shrieking like the terrorized star of a horror flick, and she grabbed hold of Beth’s leg with both hands and started kicking out at the doctor.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!”
Beth tried both to calm her and to pry Nova’s fingers off of her boots. The sick woman’s screams drowned out all of Beth’s soothing words, and the doctor didn’t have a chance of getting close. Nova’s energy was fierce but brief, driven by a supply of adrenaline that had already been tapped. Beth’s was just kicking into gear. Should she protect Nova from this “doctor” or hand her over?
Where was Mercy to show her what she should do?
“This is your fault, you monster!” Nova screamed. Already her legs had given out, but she’d scooched herself off a spot on the floor that was an awful, sopping crimson.
The doctor’s attention had shifted from Beth to Nova, and her demeanor switched just as quickly from hostile to placating. The light in her eyes brightened and the lines of her brow smoothed out. Perhaps she was as protective of Nova as Beth felt. If Beth had walked in on a stranger with a sick friend, she might have reacted similarly. But Nova’s reaction made little sense.
“Nova, Nova,” the doctor cooed, ignoring Beth now. “I’m so sorry about your baby.”
A baby! All the blood looked freshly terrible.
“Get away!”
“Nova, honey, let me help you.”
The doctor had set her purse on a pew and withdrew a very small syringe out of her bag. She uncapped the needle and then held it slightly behind her, so as not to frighten Nova any further.
“I don’t want your help, Catherine. I’ll sue you!”
“But you’re bleeding,” Beth pleaded. She got down on her knees next to the frantic woman.
“Let us help you,” the doctor said, and in that “us” Beth understood that whatever the truth of this battle was, she and Catherine had just joined ranks, and Nova would soon come out on the losing side.
Nova grabbed Beth by the shoulders now and pulled their faces close. “You help me,” she said, and the words were