Anna with relief and without prevarication, leading her into a more private room looking onto a small inner court. There were no murals except one simple picture of vines, but the proportions were so perfect that they seemed to form the walls rather than be added to them.
"I am afraid the pain is worse," Eirene said frankly, standing with her arms limp at her sides, as if even in front of a physician she was embarrassed to mention something so personal.
Anna was not surprised. There had been an awkwardness in the way she moved and a stiffness that betrayed locked muscles, and above all fear. Now that she was still, she lifted her left arm and cradled it in her right hand.
"And in the chest also?" Anna asked her.
Eirene smiled. "You are going to tell me that my heart is weak. I shall acknowledge it and save your searching for comforting words." There was a bitterness to her humor, but no self-pity.
"No," Anna replied.
Eirene's eyebrows shot up. "Sin? I'd heard better of you than that. Zoe Chrysaphes said you were no lover of obedient thoughts and the safety of men's beliefs."
"I had not imagined her so sharp of vision," Anna replied. "Or that she looked at me at all, beyond my professional ability."
Eirene smiled widely. In her ugly face, it was like a blaze of sunlight across a bleak landscape. "Zoe looks at everyone, especially those she judges can be of use to her. Don't take it as flattery. It is merely that she weighs every tool to the fraction of an ounce before she considers using it. Now give me a candid answer: What is wrong with me? You looked at me thoroughly enough when you were here before."
Anna was not ready to answer yet. She knew that Eirene's husband was still alive, because his name had been mentioned in her first visit. "Where is your husband?" she asked.
Anger flared up Eirene's face, her eyes burning. "You will answer to me, you impudent creature. My body is my affair, not my husband's."
Anna was stung by surprise and then the instant after by how revealing Eirene's answer had been. What had her husband done to lacerate Eirene so profoundly that the wound bled at a touch?
"Much of your illness comes from anxiety," Anna said, lowering her voice, trying to keep pity out of it. "I know from last time I was here that your son is in Constantinople. I wondered if your husband was traveling, perhaps in dangerous regions. Although I am not sure how many are safe. The sea never changes its shores or its rocks and whirlpools. Pirates come and go."
Eirene blushed. "I apologize. My husband is in Alexandria. I do not know whether he is safe or not. I do not worry about it, because it would be pointless." She turned away and, with an effort, walked upright toward the archway into the court and the high, bright flowers beyond.
So Gregory was still in Egypt, even so many years after most other exiles had returned to Constantinople from every other region.
Anna followed Eirene to the courtyard. It too was sparsely beautiful, clean-lined. The fountain fell into a shaded pool, the water catching the light only at its peak.
She spoke to Eirene of the usual things a physician addresses: food, sleep, the benefits of walking.
"Do you imagine I haven't thought of all that?" Eirene said, disappointment dragging her voice down again.
"I am sure you have," Anna replied. "Have you done them? They will not cure you, but they will allow your body to begin curing itself."
"You are as bad as my priest," Eirene remarked. "Would you like me to say a dozen Paternosters?"
"If you can do it without your mind wandering off to other things," Anna replied perfectly seriously. "I don't think I could."
Eirene looked at her, a beginning of interest in her eyes. "Is that a rather abstruse way of saying that it is sin at the heart of this after all? I do not need to be sheltered from the truth. I am just as strong as Zoe Chrysaphes." A flash of light, almost like a moment's laughter, glanced in her eyes. "Or did you wrap up the truth for her, too, like a child's medicine, hidden in honey?"
"I would not dare," Anna replied. "Unless, of course, I was sure I could do it well enough that she would never know."
This time Eirene laughed outright, a rich sound with layers of meaning, at least some of