Louisa’s face fell a bit at his mention of stitches. She’d honestly never even seen anyone with stitches, but was quick enough to pick up the concept. “Will it hurt?” she asked quickly. She’d pricked herself a few times when she briefly thought embroidery might be an amusing way to spend the time and she could only imagine it would be quite worse.
“A bird? Not in the slightest– not even an ostrich,” she assured him. “They’re quite silly birds, aren’t they? Regina has this picture book of strange animals and she was simply fascinated by ostriches there for awhile… I must have had a dozen drawings of those birds shoved under my door over the course of a month!”
She stopped herself suddenly. Here she was, chattering away to this southerner about Xavier’s daughter as if they were old friends– as if these people weren’t possibly planning to try and kidnap the girls next! She knew, rationally, that Regina’s short lived obsession with birds from her picture book was useless information, but she still felt odd speaking about the girls here.
“There is actually a library?” Louisa asked, completely shocked. Both she and Rebecca assumed there would be no need for a library in such a place as this. “I asked this fellow… Mitchell, I think his name is? Or perhaps Winston? I can’t remember. Either way, I asked him about acquiring books a few days ago and he sort of just… grunted at me, which lead me to assume there wasn’t such a building here…” she was rambling on once again, eyeing the needle in his hand suspiciously. “But yes, I would so greatly appreciate it if you’d find the time to show me,” she continued, looking away from the needling and smiling at him.
“Where did you study medicine?” she asked, continuing her unending series of questions. “The doctor who… who cares for us back home studied with his grandfather before the outbreak, so I suppose its a family trade of sorts for them. Was your father a doctor?”
“A bit, yes,” He warned, “But if you give me your hand and look away and concentrate on other things, it won’t be so bad. I promise. You only need one or two. It will be over soon.”
Ren took her hand gently in his own and settled about to work, hoping that their conversation would be distraction enough to keep her from feeling too much pain. He laughed, “I’m happy to hear you say so,” He said. Ren never thought he had much to offer in that department. He always felt scrawny and awkward standing next to Seb and Will.
He tilted his head, “Who is Regina?” He asked. It was clear that she was a child, but he thought that there were only the three Priors. Perhaps he was wrong. “Do you have another sister?”
Ren paused for a moment, wondering who she had meant. But when she said that he had simply grunted in response to her question, he smiled, “Oh, you mean Will, I suppose.” He had been assigned to guard the Priors and he wasn’t terribly happy about it. “He can be a bit ... unapproachable and unsocial at times,” He explained, “Actually, that’s an understatement ... he’s rarely anything else. But ... don’t let him fool you, he’s one of the best people I know. He saved my life once. It was wasn’t for him, I would have been dead a long time ago.”
He hesitated a moment before answering her next question, “I taught myself,” He said and then, laughing, “I know that isn’t what you want to hear from the man who is treating you, but ... as it turns out, I’m the best we’ve got.” It didn’t surprise him that she had been under the care of someone who had learned from someone who had properly learned medicine. If there was such a person in the entire world, Vardon would have been sure to find them.
He made a final cut, “There, all done.” He announced, carefully placing a bandage over her hand. “Keep it dry for the next two days ... and only get it moderately wet afterwards. In about four days, I will take them out and then you will be as good as new.”
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