Slaying is Such Sweet Sorrow Read Free

enumerated, “Papa-Danda-Zanny-Vofe!” He pointed at Tom and said, “Dat?”
    Rose ran over to embrace him, tears running down her cheeks. He ignored her, still pointing at Tom and demanding, “Dat? Dat?” until Tom realized what was needed and said, “Oh—Tom.”
    “Ta,” said Archie with satisfaction.
    He started squirming, trying to get down from Emily’s arms. Her father stepped over and took him, raising him way up over his head. Archie shrieked with delight, Emily gave a strangled cry, and I yelled, “What do you think you’re doing, he’s got a head injury!”
    Shock and anger forced my eyes to Quin, although I’d sworn I would never look at him again. There was the same cocky grin I knew so well, the thick, wavy hair, not yet all gray like mine, but grayer than the last time I’d seen him, the sharp blue eyes that met mine with an expression I’d never seen in them before, like a challenge he wasn’t sure that he could carry off or that I would meet. He lowered the baby against his chest.
    “Calm down, Kit,” he said quietly. “He’s okay. When Emily hit her head on that swing it swelled up just as big and it went away within an hour. Remember?”
    That damned overconfident grin, the nerve of that demand that I share a memory with him, and, most of all, that blur of green attached to his side, filled me with poisonous vapors that threatened to explode and take the whole room out, until I released it in a voice that betrayed me by cracking: “Shut up!” I shrilled.
    “Shup!” Archie echoed with delight.
    “Archie!” Emily cried. “No, no, nice little boys don’t tell people to shut up.” She glanced at me indignantly.
    The doctor, obviously anxious to be rid of the lot of us, broke in, “As I was saying, it will be quite safe to take him home so long as he’s watched for signs of concussion. Those would be excessive drowsiness, confusion—”
    “That’s ridiculous,” I interrupted, driven into a fury at everybody, myself included. “You haven’t had him x-rayed for a fractured skull, and something has to be done about that swelling! How can you say people with no medical training can recognize symptoms of concussion? He needs to be here, with proper medical supervision!”
    “I assure you, this child does not have a fractured skull,” the doctor said with growing annoyance. “He is anything but lethargic.” He gestured toward Archie, now bouncing up and down in Quin’s arms, chortling, “Shup! Shup!”
    “He shows no sign of dizziness or disorientation, his pupils are normal—in short, he doesn’t require an X-ray and, as we do have other patients waiting to be seen, I feel quite confident in releasing him.”
    “What are you, an intern?” I demanded. “I want him evaluated by a specialist.”
    “Come along, Catherine,” said Peter, obviously embarrassed. “You’re making too much of a bit of a bump. I’m sure we can trust the doctor’s diagnosis.”
    “Yes, Mother,” Emily said. “He is our child after all, and if Peter and I are satisfied that he’s not seriously hurt, that’s an end to it.”
    “We’ll be with him till it’s time to go to Peter’s award ceremony,” Quin had to put in, “and we’ll watch him all the time. And of course little Rosie will call us if there’s any problem later.” Rose, standing across from me, blushed and smiled shyly. “You can even come back with us, Kit, and help us watch him. How about that?”
    I hadn’t thought the level of anger inside me could rise any higher, but now I felt the way Krakatoa must have just before it leveled Sumatra.
    I shouted, “Don’t you tell me what I can do! And don’t call me Kit!”
    “Mother, stop it!” Emily commanded.
    “I really must ask you to take your discussion to some other area,” the doctor said stiffly, “as this room is needed. And should you require a consultant—”
    Blundering out the door, I heard Emily saying earnestly, “Certainly not, Dr. Barnes, and do