(eng) Paula Brackston - The Witch's Daughter 01 by The Witch's Daughter

Author:The Witch's Daughter [Daughter, The Witch's]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

2

It was after ten o’clock when Eliza at last reached the peace of her own room above the clinic. She had taken a light supper at her desk and now wished only to fall into bed. She took off her outer garments and sat a moment in her slip and petticoats at the dressing table by the window. She had never learned to feel comfortable in a corset and considered it one of the worst fashions she had had to endure. In the looking glass, her tired reflection gazed back at her. However satisfying she found it to help those who could not otherwise afford medical care, and however much she enjoyed her work at the Fitzroy, by the end of each day she was invariably weary. It was not simply the long hours that wore her down. It was the lack of companionship in her life. She had long since accepted that she could never have children of her own. She was as certain as she could be that her immortality had rendered her infertile. It had taken many years to fully come to terms with this, but she knew it was in fact a blessing. How could she raise children, only to watch them age and die as she continued her endless journey? No, she had come to see she was never meant to be a mother. Besides, she had her patients to nurture and care for. Many of them were indeed like motherless children, alone and unloved in the world. It was within Eliza’s gift to help them, and she did so willingly. But it was her own family she missed. Even after so many years, the pain of their deaths and the void they left in her life did not lessen. And as for a man to love, someone to hold her close, to make her feel like a living, feeling woman and not some unnatural creature … There had been lovers, of course, but Eliza had quickly learned not to let herself care deeply. How could she ever stay with one man, be his wife, his soulmate? How many years would it be before he realized she could not offer him children and that she was no longer mortal? What then? Would she nurse him through old age and then move on? She had never been faced with such a situation. Gideon had seen to that. Every time Eliza had come close to finding happiness, he had taken it from her. No matter where she went, how many times she changed her appearance and her name, in the end he always found her. It was just a question of time. How could she put someone she loved in the path of such danger, of such evil?

Eliza unpinned her hair and brushed it rhythmically, remembering how she had done the same for Margaret, whose hair shone like a blackbird’s wing. She climbed into the high narrow bed, casting off the covers since the night was almost as warm and airless as the day had been.

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