Margot glanced down at her arm and the cast applied there. That wasn’t the only work done on her, she realized. Bandages had been strapped around her ankle to stabilize it. A gauze pad was taped across her other shoulder. Tiny spots of pink were beginning to bleed through it.

“A…vet?” she managed.

“I’ve set casts on animals a hundredth of your size,” Dr. Maynard said. “That one’s as good as you’d get in any hospital.”

Kant’s shoulders shifted in something that might have been a shrug, and Andrew, still resting against him, began to stir. “None of the local doctors will make house calls to Gallows Hill anymore. And we couldn’t move you.”

“Dr. Maynard’s been helping the family for years,” a soft voice said. Margot turned, squinting in the dull light, and saw they weren’t alone. Nora and Ray sat against the back wall, pressed tightly together, holding hands. Nora’s smile was tiny and broken. “She’s very good.”

“Dr. Maynard’s misplaced sense of empathy works against her better interests,” Dr. Maynard said. She took a quick, deep breath, her chest rising under layers of loose clothing. “I know some of what’s going on here but probably not even half of it, and I’d like to keep it that way. Am I safe to go?”

“Sun’s up,” Kant said. “You’re safe.”

“Don’t get the cast wet.” She directed that to Margot. “It can come off in six weeks. I left pain tablets on the counter over there. You can take one in another two hours, and then every four to six hours after that, as needed.”

She hitched her kit under her arm and strode to the door without looking back. A block of glaring sunlight came through, cutting around her silhouette and revealing dust and several tiny, fluttering insects, and then Dr. Maynard was gone, the door closed firmly behind her.

“We can open the windows now, right?” Andrew, bleary, rubbed sleep out of the corners of his eyes. Kant nodded without looking up from his hands.

Andrew rose with a sigh. He crossed to each window, and Margot realized the covers weren’t blinds but metal shutters. They clattered as they retracted into coils.

Silence fell across the space as Andrew snuffed out the lantern. Margot felt lost. She couldn’t stop running her fingers across the edge of the cast, where it looped around her thumb and finished just short of her knuckles. It was real. She knew that. But it didn’t seem real.

Not much did.

Nora was the first to break the silence. She hung close to her husband, both of her hands wrapped up in both of his, her lips pulled down at their corners in a way that didn’t look right on her. “I’m so sorry. We…we should have warned you.”