Waiting for the Moon

Madness ...

Madness to care about her, to even pray for a complete recovery, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. He needed her to awaken, needed to save just one more person in his sorry life. Needed to be a doctor again.

He smiled down at her, his patient. He couldn't see her face at all because of the bruising, but it didn't matter. She was beautiful to him, the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. His goddess, his mystery, his chance to practice medicine again.

That's what he would call her. A name that reflected the magic and mystery of the moon.

"Selena ..." He brushed a matted, bloodied streak of hair from her cheek. "Fight the fever, Selena...."

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In the next instant, a Gatling-gun burst of whispers shot through the silence.

Ian spun in his seat and glared at the people huddled along the wall. Lord, he should have thrown the crazy lot of them out yesterday. They had no business here. "Shut up or leave."

Johann strolled forward. Flinging his angular hip to one side, he planted a thin hand on it and sighed with his usual drama. "Apparently, Herr Doctor, there's some dissension about your right to name the human sausage."

Ian's brows pulled together in a low, forbidding frown intended to silence the fool. He stood and strode toward the group. "Now, look here?"

"Where?" Maeve interrupted.

Ian glanced at his mother. Her eyes were clouded and vague, and she clutched one of his father's old hunting trophies against her chest. Today it was a badger, frozen forever in a defensive snarl, its padded body stiff and rock-hard. She was certain that Herbert's soul resided in one of the animals?she simply wasn't sure which one.

He looked away, disgusted, sweeping the rest of the misfits with cold eyes. Before he could speak, they started talking again, arguing among themselves like magpies.

"I found her?" someone said.

"I opened the door?" Edith argued.

"I believe I carried her to the sofa," Johann drawled. "Without me, she'd still be a bloody spot on the carpet."

"I'm the queen; I shall bestow a name on my poor, unknown subject."

"I-I believe we should vote," Andrew said softly, looking to Ian for confidence. The boy raised a cautious, shaking hand. "I vote for Selena."

"Weakling," Johann hissed. "I vote for Violet ... in deference to her skin color. What's your vote, Maeve?"

Maeve whispered to the stuffed badger in her arms,

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then gave Johann a serious look. "Ian's father votes for Colleen."

"Aagh! Guard! Off to the Tower with all of them," Queen Victoria said, puffing her mammoth chest out, rapping the floor with her pinewood scepter. "My subject shall be called Alberta."

"Enough." Ian yelled the word so loudly that everyone gasped. "Her name is irrelevant. When she wakes?if she wakes?she will tell us her given name. Until then, I shall call her Selena. You may each do as you wish."

"No!" Dotty hissed. "You must never use real names. It's too dangerous. Call her the seabird."

Johann rolled his eyes. "Someone has got to convince oatmeal-head here that the War Between the States is over. However, I do believe that we must choose one name. Otherwise she'll be confused."

"Who will?" Maeve asked, stroking the badger.

Ian forced himself to take a deep breath. He needed that scotch now more than ever. His mother's dementia was hard enough to handle without the whole damned circus. "I believe he's speaking of our patient, Mother."

"Oh."

"We must follow Dr. Carrick's lead," Andrew pleaded, looking at his housemates.