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you." T
he phrase popped out of her mouth almost before she understood it.
"You seem well enough for a bath today, Selena. Edith will give you one soon."
She didn't remember what a bath was, but she wanted him to give it to her. She tried to tell him, tried to find the words. "No ... you."
He laughed, a low, throaty sound that struck her as magic. "Even a rake like me knows that's not proper. I don't think so, Selena."
Rake. Gardening. She frowned, trying to understand. "Confused," she whispered.
"Shhh, it's okay." He touched her swollen jaw, his finger lingering for far too short a time. "Soon, Selena," he whispered, stroking her puffy, discolored cheek. "Soon you'll be able to tell us what you want and who you are."
But she knew what she wanted. She'd known it from the moment she first heard his voice in the darkness. She wanted Ian beside her, forever and always. She tried to tell him. "Want ... God . . . need ..." She lost her train of thought completely. "No ... Aagh!"
"Don't worry, Selena. We'll get you fed and bathed and then we'll try again. It'll all come back. I promise."
She worked so hard to understand what he was saying. She recognized one word pattern; over and over he said it to her. It was part of the first word she remembered, fightselena. She concentrated with all her effort to force the single word up her throat. "S ... Selena?"
"We've been calling you Selena. Until you tell us your name, we have no other."
She was hopelessly confused. He was talking so fast___
He touched his chest. "Ian." Then he touched her, a breezing caress beneath her chin. "Selena."
She understood. He wanted to be called Ian. And she was Selena.
"Selena." This time the word rolled off her tongue
I?
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like a song. It was beautiful, this name, and Ian-God had given it to her. "Selena. Nice." She started to say something else, but she couldn't remember what it was.
Chapter Six
"Is her bath ready, Edith?"
"Aye, Doctor."
Selena didn't understand the words. Ian-God was talking to one of the strangers?a fat, gray-haired lady with a wrinkly face.
Ian-God moved toward her and sat on the edge of the bed. "Would you like to walk?"
She gazed up at him, mesmerized by the incredible hue of his eyes. She remembered suddenly that they were the exact color of a blue jay's wing. A giddy happiness bubbled up in her, and a sound slipped from her mouth. It wasn't laughter, not quite. Something else, something softer, but she couldn't give it a name. It felt good, though. Wonderful. She was so happy that even the pain in her head seemed insignificant. God was here, beside her, smiling at her and asking her something.
Asking her something. She'd forgotten. She blinked up at him, trying to remember how to ask him to repeat what he'd said and to do it more ...
"Slow," she said, suddenly remembering.
"Certainly," he answered, easing back the coverlet that hid her body. "Would ... you ... like ... to ... walk?"
She forgot to listen to him again. She was enthralled by the sound of his voice and the sight of her own body.
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