Morning sickness kept Amber at home the next morning. Wyatt had family court, and she’d wanted to see him in action, but not even crackers would settle her stomach enough to make her feel safe about going out.
Regretfully, she watched him drive off, then ran to the bathroom again, fearing the crackers were about to be lost. She sat on the stool in the powder room while cold sweat beaded her brow and her stomach churned, but she held her food down and eventually felt well enough to head for the kitchen and think about eating a few more crackers.
By lunchtime, just before she expected to see Wyatt’s return, the doorbell rang. He hadn’t said anyone might be stopping by, but she hesitated only a moment before going to answer it. He might be expecting a delivery.
She opened the heavy door with its stained-glass inset to see two very drab-looking women standing there. She blinked, wondering if they’d stepped out of a black-and-white movie—there wasn’t a hint of color about them, their hair drawn severely back under old-fashioned hats with net that covered the tops of their faces. Their coats were just as drab, gray wool, fully buttoned up. Their dresses reached well below their knees and their feet were shod in sensible black oxfords. They might have come from another era.
“May I help you?” she asked.
“We’re here to help you,” said the older of the two women, her face stern.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t need help.”
“You do,” said the older woman, stabbing her finger at Amber. “Living in sin with Judge Carter, not even married and carrying his child!”
“It’s not his…” Amber began, her first impulse to protect Wyatt, even as a sense of unreality began to overtake her. Surely she had become unmoored in time.
“Lying, too,” remarked the younger woman. “But it’s not too late. Come with us. We’ll help you find your way again.”
Amber didn’t care if she was rude. She closed the door in their faces.
What in the world?
Heavens, that had left her shaking. Unreal. Not like her to be so slow to react, but she soon forgot her nausea and trembling as anger replaced her initial reaction. Was that what they were saying about Wyatt around here?
She needed to leave. Now. He had that election coming up and if people were talking this way… The urge to run was almost overwhelming. She didn’t want to harm Wyatt, no matter how unconcerned he’d seemed about it. Living in sin? She supposed some people still thought that way, but how many of them were around here, and how could that affect Wyatt?
He’d been kind enough to take her in, now she had to be kind enough to leave. It didn’t matter where she went. The only thing that mattered was that she not mess up his life as well.
She had her foot on the bottom stair, prepared to pack and leave quickly, when she heard another knock on the door. If it was those women again, she was going to give them a piece of her mind. Her chin set with determination, the surprise that had kept her from responding before now gone, she marched back to the door and flung it open, ready to do battle.
It was Earl. “I see Wyatt’s not home yet,” he said cheerfully. “Mind if I come in, Amber?”
Her anger deflated instantly, and she felt her stomach roll over again. “Not at all.” She tried to smile.
After he crossed the threshold and closed the door, he peered at her. “What’s wrong?”
Like his son, he seemed to miss little.
“I had some visitors. They weren’t very pleasant.” She could talk to Earl, she realized. She knew he would be concerned about Wyatt’s position as judge. He’d already offered to get out in front of rumors. Yes, she had to tell him.
“I didn’t make coffee,” she said frankly. “Too nauseated.”
“I’m not surprised. My Beth had the morning sickness something bad. Well, come on, I can do with a beer as well as coffee.”
He urged her into the kitchen and made her sit at the table. “Maybe not beer,” he said, eyeing her face. “Might not smell good to you right now. Can you eat anything?”
“I was considering more crackers.”
So Earl brought her the box of crackers and a plate and started a pot of coffee going. She liked him, just as she liked his son.
“So tell me about it,” he said as he joined her at the table. “It must have upset you.”
“Mostly for Wyatt’s sake. These two women in very drab clothes…”
“Say no more,” Earl interrupted. “I know them. I know the whole lot of them. Followers of Fred Loftis, who unfortunately owns our only pharmacy or I suspect he and his would have been ridden out of town a long while ago. Anyway, you don’t need to worry about them. I’ll see that they don’t bother you again.”
“I’m not worried about me,” she said vehemently. “It was what they implied. I don’t want to cost Wyatt his retention.”
Earl sighed, rose and went to get a cup of coffee for himself. “Are you thirsty?”
“Water, please.”
He brought both drinks to the table. “Wyatt told you he’s not worried, right?”
“Of course. But should he be?”
Earl smiled. “Not about that lot. Judgmental bunch, and hardly anyone can stand them. You might give old Loftis an excuse to spout fire and brimstone for a few Sundays. And if you need anything from the pharmacy, send me to get it, because old Fred’s not famous for keeping his yap shut. But put them out of your mind.”
Wyatt walked in just then. As usual, he’d worn jeans and a gray sweater to court. Amber was surprised she hadn’t heard him enter the house. “Put who out of her mind?” he asked.
“A couple of Loftis’s women showed up here and upset Amber. I’ll deal with them. They won’t come round again.”
Wyatt’s face darkened. “They’d better not, or they’ll be dealing with me.”
“Trespass,” Earl said. “I’ll warn ’em. Then I might even enjoy watching you have them arrested.”
At that the cloud passed from Wyatt’s face and he laughed. “That would be a pleasure.” He joined them at the table with a mug of coffee and reached out to lay his hand over Amber’s. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to take care of them for you.”
“I’m not worried about me,” she said again. “But if people are talking about you like that…”
He shook his head. “People might be curious, but most of them won’t take that tack about you visiting me.”
Earl sniffed.
Amber looked at him.
Wyatt said, “Let’s not do that again, Dad.”
“Do what again?” Amber demanded.
Earl looked a little sheepish. “Well, before you got here I was telling Wyatt it wasn’t a great idea right before the election. People will talk.”
“See,” said Amber, jumping in before Wyatt could respond, “I’ve got to leave. If I’d known you had this election coming up I’d have gone somewhere else.”
Both men spoke simultaneously. “No.”
She blinked. “No what?”
“You’re not leaving.” Again they both spoke, sounding like a chorus.
She wrapped her hands around the glass of water she’d barely tasted and looked from one to the other, trying to figure this out. “Okay,” she said finally. “I get that this never concerned Wyatt, but why did you change your mind, Earl?”
“Because I was wrong to be concerned. I told you when we had dinner, I think it’s better if you stay. And I’m right. I’ve been poking my nose around since you arrived, and most people think it’s nice that Wyatt has a friend visiting. Almost nobody seems inclined to criticize him for it.”
“But if those women…”
“Those women won’t be listened to by anyone outside their poisonous little group.” Earl shrugged. “And, as usual, most people just don’t give a damn one way or the other. Might make a nice topic of conversation for a few minutes, but… Wyatt was right. It’s just not a big deal.”
“Told you,” Wyatt said.
After all the tension she’d been feeling, she almost giggled at the smug way Wyatt said that to his father. Earl grinned at him.
“In fact,” Earl said, “the whole seven-day-wonder aspect of this may already be wearing off. Ellie, though…” Earl shook his head. “She can’t make up her mind which story to try to spread. After what she said a year ago when she and Wyatt broke up, there’s not a whole lot she can say about you being pregnant by him. This is fun to watch.”
“Just as long as those women don’t come back to bother Amber, I’m fine with it.”
Glancing at him, Amber thought she wouldn’t want to have to deal with an angry Judge Wyatt Carter.
“Bah,” said Earl. “Now look, Amber, I know you don’t have a license in this state, but I sure could use a little help at my office. You can practice under my license, help with motions, research and so on. Say, Monday afternoon?”
Wyatt snorted. “I should have known you had an ulterior motive.”
“What ulterior motive? I can use help, and this lovely lady is hardly going to be happy rattling around in this big old house all by herself while you’re in court.”
Amber didn’t even have to think about it. “I’d enjoy that, Earl.”
Wyatt smiled. At first she couldn’t imagine why, then she realized—she had just committed to staying. At least for a while.
Oh, boy. She hoped she hadn’t made a bad decision.
* * *
That evening after a dinner of Wyatt’s homemade chicken soup, he suggested they take that walk the doctor had recommended. Amber liked the idea. Now that her stomach had settled, she wanted some activity. She’d been here for five days now, and all she’d seen were a couple of pretty streets, the courthouse and a diner.
Donning jackets, they stepped out into the cooling night. The last signs of twilight were fading over the western mountains and the streetlights cast golden puddles of light on the sidewalks and streets. The air smelled amazingly fresh. She could even detect sage on the gentle breeze.
“I should really show you around my town,” Wyatt remarked, tucking her arm through his. “You haven’t seen much of the good that keeps me here. A morning in court, a visit to a doctor and two women hell-bent on salvation…”
She giggled. “Do you realize how that sounds? ‘Hell-bent on salvation’?”
He laughed quietly. “I meant it exactly the way it sounds. Most of the time that group is just a minor irritant around the fringes. People hardly pay them any mind. We may like our gossip around here, but few people are cruel about it. Anyway, our city police chief, Jake Madison, is married to Loftis’s daughter, Nora. That got a little attention. And then one of Loftis’s followers tried to poison some of the chief’s cattle as an expression of his displeasure, so for a while they had everyone’s attention. Then things settled down again.”
The streets were quiet, inviting. Lights glowed from the houses, giving Amber a few twinges of loneliness. So much life behind those windows, maybe a whole lot of love, and she’d never felt more on the outside in her life, not even as a too-young student in college and law school.
“There’s the library,” he said, pointing to the instantly recognizable facade of a Carnegie library. “Emmaline Dalton, the sheriff’s wife, has been the librarian there since she left college. Her dad was a judge, too. Anyway, if you hear anyone mention Miss Emma, they’re talking about her. No one knows when it started, but that’s what everyone always calls her.”
“Miss Emma. I like the sound of it.”
“You’d like her, too. And the sheriff, Gage Dalton. Now there was an interesting story.”
“Yes?” Her curiosity piqued.
“Back when he first arrived here, Gage was a loner, a complete unknown. All anyone knew was his face was scarred from burns, he had a wicked limp and he lived above Mahoney’s Bar. Every night he’d walk into the bar, have a shot, then take a long, painful walk. People started calling him Hell’s Own Archangel.”
“Really? Wow. He must have looked awful.”
“A little scary, too. Anyway, he eventually took a room with Miss Emma…she was running a boardinghouse mostly for women. I never heard the details of why she rented a room to Gage. Anyway, it was just after I left for college, so I don’t know much about it, but I heard he wound up saving her life. Then marriage followed.”
“And Gage? What had happened to him?”
“He used to work for the DEA. A car bomb killed his family and he barely survived.”
Amber thought about that as they continued to stroll. “I guess he would have looked like Hell’s Archangel after that.”
“That would be my guess. Things have changed for him since Emma, though. Anyway, he went to work for our old sheriff Nate Tate… I hope you get to meet him. An icon in this town. When Nate retired, Gage was elected to replace him.”
Amber could almost feel the threads that knit this town together. She envied the people who lived here. They had something she’d never had—a community and lifelong friends. All the while she’d been pursuing her parents’ goals and then her own, it seemed she had missed a huge chunk of life.
“You’re lucky,” she blurted.
“Me? Why?”
“Because you live in a place like this. Oh, I get it isn’t perfect. I met some of the imperfection this afternoon, but…you must know so many people, have so many friends, it’s… Well, I’ve never known anything like this.”
“It’s not Currier and Ives,” he warned her. “Plenty of warts to share around.”
“I’m sure.” She sighed. “I guess I’m feeling…adrift. And like I missed something important.”
He didn’t answer as they continued down the block and rounded a corner onto another tree-lined street. Here the wind had ripped most of the autumn leaves from the branches. Bare fingers stretching upward and outward. She refused to consider them skeletal.
“Must be awfully pretty in the spring when the trees leaf out,” she remarked.
“You’re welcome to stay and see.”
“Wyatt! I can’t put you out like that.”
“Who says you’d be putting me out?” he answered quietly. “I like coming home to see you. I hated how empty that house was before. Anyway, where will you go? To your father?”
“Oh, God, no.”
“A friend?”
She fell silent. When she’d needed a friend, whom had she called?
“I thought so. You can stay with me. I’m not being a male chauvinist when I say a woman shouldn’t have to face pregnancy, birth and a newborn without some emotional support.”
Actually, the thought of facing all that alone had terrified her when she allowed herself to think about it. She was a strong woman, able to take care of herself in the man’s world of the law, but this?
“Women all over the world have a community of support,” he continued. “You could have one here.”
She glanced at the lamp-lit houses again and wondered if he could be right. If just a piece of that could be hers.
“Amber?”
She turned her head toward him, trying to drag herself out of the wisps of dreams that were probably unattainable for her. “Yes?”
“Remember what you said about having a pretend engagement?”
She almost flushed. “And you went all moral on me.”
“Well, I’m not much fond of pretense. But it just occurred to me…you’re about to have a baby without a father. Don’t kids need fathers? If you married me, we could get you through this and I could help take care of the child in any way you think best.”
She froze in her tracks and faced him. “What about pretense?” she demanded even as shock flooded her all the way to her toes. She was going hot and cold faster than she could believe.
“You suggested an engagement to end after the election.” He faced her, too. “Amber, there’s no pretense in a marriage. It’s real.”
Her jaw dropped. Words almost deserted her. Her heart hammered wildly. She had no idea how long it was before she could speak. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Maybe,” he answered. “It just popped into my head. Not like it’s something I’ve been thinking about. But now that it popped out…well, I could take care of you and the child. So think about it.”
Think about it? With difficulty she turned and started walking again, but this was no gentle stroll. She strode quickly, and when he took her arm again, he kept pace with her. A marriage? All because she was having a baby?
God help her, it sounded like a solution to all her fears and worries. Which, she supposed, made her despicable.
Wyatt deserved better. Much better.
* * *
They didn’t speak again until they were back inside the house. Wyatt was still trying to figure out what had caused him to blurt that without thinking it through beforehand. He wasn’t usually the type. He was also worried about the apparent shock he’d given Amber. Damn, what had he been thinking? Even if he wanted to ride to the rescue, there ought to be some easing into a question like that. But no matter how badly he had brought the subject up, it was out there and he wasn’t backing down. He’d be lying if he told himself the possibility hadn’t crossed his mind more than once over the years. A fantasy, just a fantasy, but now it somehow felt right.
He urged her into the kitchen for a warm drink and suggested a few cookies. She merely nodded. Apparently she was still stunned. Maybe even working up to a good rage. She’d have every right. She’d offered a pretend engagement, he’d gotten on his high horse and embarrassed her, and now he was offering marriage out of the blue.
She must wonder if he’d gone mad. He was certainly wondering.
He settled her at the kitchen table with chocolate chip cookies and asked if she wanted her milk warmed. She simply shook her head.
Oh, man, next thing she’d be packing up to escape this insane asylum. First those women this afternoon, and now him. Really?
She drank half her milk while he downed a beer and waited for whatever was to come. Weirdly enough, he had no desire to withdraw his proposal, even though her reaction told him the thought had never entered her mind, unlike his. But the attraction he felt was strong enough that he was sure it could grow. Whether it became love, who could tell right now? He just knew he needed to protect this woman and her child in any way he could.
“You know,” she said finally, “the other day you didn’t want us to make love because I needed time to settle.”
He almost winced, because it was true.
“Now all of a sudden I’m settled enough to decide whether to marry you?”
She had a point. When she started drumming her fingers on the tabletop, he braced himself.
“Wyatt, you’re not a knight-errant. You can’t go around acting like Don Quixote and expect any better outcome than he had. Maybe this seems like a perfect solution for my problems to you. I admit, it’s attractive to me. But marriage? That’s a hell of a commitment for both of us when I’m just in a spot of trouble. A temporary spot of trouble.”
One thing he had to say. “A child isn’t temporary, Amber.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Her voice rose a little. “I’ve been spending the last month trying not to think about how untemporary this is. How to deal with it. How to change my entire future to accommodate it. I’ve spent more time denying my pregnancy than planning for it.”
He nodded, not wanting to interrupt her.
“You’ve already hinted that I’m not of sound mind right now. Well, what about you? What the hell are you thinking?”
He took a moment, closing his eyes and searching deep within himself. He rarely blurted things. Being a lawyer and a judge had taught him to be very considered in all he did and said.
But thinking back to when he’d first known Amber, he faced something else, something she needed to know, even if it was uncomfortable for him. He opened his eyes and looked at her, glad to see her color was returning. For a little while there she had appeared pale.
“Wyatt?” she asked.
“You know, back when we were in law school, I was really attracted to you. My dad and I both told you that. But I was eight years older, and you seemed like a lost lamb. No way was I going to take advantage of you. But if you’d been older, I’d have asked you out. And if we hadn’t been headed in different directions—me to the navy and you to the big law firms—we might be married right now.”
Her eyes had widened, and she drew several quick breaths. “What are you saying?”
“I’m just saying that we’ve been friends for a long time. That if things had been different back then, we might have become more than friends. Honestly, I’ve even thought about it more than once. But now we’re here.”
“And once again you want to protect me,” she said sharply.
“No,” he said levelly. “I want to take care of you and this child. There’s a difference. Anyway, marriage would guarantee that you’d be cared for even if something happened to me. You and the child. Who else am I going to take care of, Amber?”
Her face changed and he wished he could read what had suddenly made it so soft and sad all at once. “Just think about it,” he said. “Like I said, marriage is real. This would be no pretense. You can tell me in the morning. If you say no, I’ll never mention it again. And now you know the last of my secrets. I’ve always hankered after you.”
Then he rose. “I need to go do some work. Come get me if you need anything.”
The walk to his office, his ears straining to hear her call his name, seemed a lot longer than usual.
But she never called his name.
* * *
Amber ate a cookie absently, hardly tasting it, sipping some milk to wash it down. What in the world had possessed Wyatt? He said he wasn’t concerned about the election. Maybe those women earlier today? Maybe he felt he needed to protect her from any more of that kind of attention? But wasn’t marriage an extreme solution?
Then she remembered what he’d said: marriage was real, not a pretense. That he wanted to care for her and her child. That he’d sometimes thought about it in the past. So he meant it. But why?
Sure, she’d been attracted to him in law school. She’d had no idea back then that he reciprocated. None. He was always a perfect gentleman with her. Of all the men in law school, he was the last one she would have thought felt any sexual interest in her.
Had it lingered over the years? Apparently. When he’d kissed her, he’d said he’d wanted her all those years ago. So maybe having her back in his life—and not just at the other end of a phone call or email—had awakened those feelings again. They’d certainly preserved their friendship. Why not the rest of it, especially since it had never been expressed?
But marriage. That was such a huge commitment. He said he liked finding her here when he came home. He’d said something else, too, and it had tugged at her heartstrings: Who else am I going to take care of?
There was such loneliness in those words. Reaching for another cookie, she bit off a small piece, trying to focus on just that one thing. Wyatt was thirty-seven, maybe thirty-eight now. That was young in this day and age. But maybe he was longing for a family to fill this house, and maybe after Ellie he’d felt too burned to start over again with another woman. Or maybe there weren’t a lot of prospects around here.
Regardless, the loneliness of those words reached through all her preoccupation and touched a part of her she’d thought would remain frozen forever. After Tom, she’d told herself she wanted nothing to do with a man ever again. They were liars and cheats.
And then there was Wyatt, in a class by himself. He’d always been in a class by himself. Unfailingly honest and upright. If Wyatt said he’d do something, you could count on it. If he made a promise, he kept it. All these years he’d been a sort of touchstone for her, keeping her straight when the twisting paths of the law might have led her to take some turns that, while not illegal, would have made her ashamed later. And how many cases had he helped her think through over the years?
A good sounding board, a good friend and now…while he said he wanted to do something for her, she felt he needed something from her.
Rising, she walked down the hall to his office. The door was open. He turned at once from the papers in front of him. “Yes?”
“Tell me all about Ellie, Wyatt.” Picking up the beautiful shawl he’d lent her, she seated herself on the comfortable chair and wrapped the delicate tatting around herself.
His brow furrowed. “Why? She’s in the past.”
But Amber thought she was very much in the present. That woman had wounded him deeply. Maybe as deeply or more deeply than Tom had wounded her. Certainly deeply enough that he was considering marriage to her. It wasn’t the same as asking a total stranger to marry him, but the years had still flowed down the stream with the two of them apart, and did emails and phone calls make up for face time?
“I loved her,” he finally said. “Or at least I loved the woman I thought she was. Who can tell the difference? But it’s over.”
“Except that she’s evidently still mad at you, according to your friend Hope. Maybe it’s not over.”
“It is for me,” he said flatly. A spark appeared in his eye. It seemed he didn’t like being questioned as if he were on the stand. What judge would?
She could have laughed if she hadn’t been so concerned about him. And herself, too, but right now he was at the center of her worries.
Then he said something that struck her deeply. “I can honestly say that I think I know you better than I ever knew Ellie. All the conversations over the years… I know your moral compass. I know a lot about what drives you. I think you know me as well. Marriage is always a risk, Amber. Nobody can honestly promise that the vows will last forever, that the love will last forever. I see it in my courtroom all the time. So love isn’t the only reason to get married. In fact, there may be better reasons.”
She had to admit that was a novel idea to her. At least he wasn’t trying to persuade her that he was in love with her. She wouldn’t have believed it. In lust? Oh, yeah, they both were. But that was a long way from love.
“Anyway,” he said, “I’m not withdrawing my offer. It might benefit us both…or not. Think about it. I could have us married by noon tomorrow, we could have a long engagement or we could just continue as we are for as long as you need and want. Your decision.”
Which did nothing at all to help her parse through what had happened. What had propelled him to this offer? She looked at him and realized he was studying her, almost drinking her in. She could see the hint of passion in his expression, and her own body responded to it. Maybe if they just answered that need, everything else would become clearer.
But she knew one thing for certain—she didn’t want him to take her under his wing the way he had during law school. If they were to move forward in any direction, she had to be an equal.
Oh, God, this was all a mess. He was a natural caretaker. A natural knight on a white horse. She’d seen it before. But she wasn’t some helpless miss who needed rescuing. Yes, she needed help at the moment, and he was providing it. But that wouldn’t be forever.
But right now…hell, it sounded so good to her. And she knew it would help protect him from the ugly gossip. Oddly enough, she wanted to take up her lance in his cause as well. She wondered if he even guessed that.
She almost smiled. Two knights-errant, charging forward. Each wanting to help the other.
Maybe he was right. Maybe there were better reasons for marriage than love.
“Sorry,” he said finally. “I told you just to think about it. I’m not trying to pressure you one way or the other.”
“Assuming arguendo,” she said, using a lawyer’s familiar Latin term to indicate a hypothetical, “that we marry. You’ve told me what you’d like to give me in terms of security. But what exactly would you expect from the arrangement?” She hoped she sounded clinical, because she was feeling anything but. Marriage. While it terrified her, it also meant that they’d share a bed, something she’d wanted to do with him for a long time. An old desire that had been growing larger since her arrival, despite everything else.
He steepled his fingers beneath his chin and regarded her steadily. “I’m going on thirty-eight years old. I live in a small town where there aren’t any marital prospects that have caught my attention. Ellie’s been the only one, and that was a helluva mistake. Then there’s you. I think we’d have a chance to build something that would last. And frankly, Amber, I’d really like to have a family. The older I get, the more I seem to want it. Not that I’m trying to pin you here. I mean, I get that you might want to go to a practice elsewhere, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t still have time together, here or wherever. The point, I guess, is that I’m sick of a solitary existence, and you and I have been friends for such a long time…well, I’d like to keep you rather than lose you. Like I said, I’ve always wanted you. That hasn’t changed. I’d like to give it a try.”
She thought over what he was saying. Wyatt, ever logical and truthful. He’d admitted he was lonely. Her trip here had awakened feelings long left behind for both of them. Whether they were enough…
She knew one thing for certain, though. Desire was muddying these waters. They’d both think more clearly once they’d satisfied it.
Without another thought, she rose from the chair, dropped the shawl and went to sit in his lap, twining her arms around his neck.
“So, Wyatt,” she said quietly, “make love to me now.”
He didn’t reject her, but wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. Then, gazing into her eyes, he said, “Why? Why now?”
“Because the smoldering between us is getting in the way of rational thought. I want to be sure neither of us is considering this for the sake of sex.”
He continued to study her face, as if he were looking deeply into her being. She felt her heart racing, her breaths coming rapidly, her body turning into warm honey. And through it all an almost painful hope and expectation. Like teetering on a cliff edge, not knowing if she’d fall or find solid ground, but ready to fly.
He leaned in, taking her mouth in the gentlest of kisses. She let her head tip back, begging for more as her heartbeat seemed to strengthen in every part of her. Her thighs instinctively clamped, trying to find the answers she didn’t yet have.
Then, slowly, gently, he eased her off his lap. Disappointment crashed through her, and her eyes began to burn with unshed tears.
“I’m going to lock up the house,” he said quietly. “My bedroom is at the far end of the hall from yours. If you still want this, meet me there.”
Crashing disappointment transfigured into amazing exhilaration and nervous hope. Yes. Oh, yes. She turned and headed for her room, filled with anticipation.