“Your knowledge of letters needs work, love. Shall I employ a tutor?” he joked softly, pulling back to look at her.

She gave a laugh. “’Twould be very generous of you.”

“I’d give you the world, Gwen. You know it to be true. Please talk to me,” he pleaded, unsure what else to do.

“Greylen, I…I—”

“Good God, Gwen—we’ve gotten that far already—you what?”

“I mend broken hearts,” she whispered.

“I know, Gwen, you’ve mended mine already.”

“No, Greylen, that’s not what they meant.”

“What who meant?”

“The prophecy,” she shouted. “I truly mend broken hearts, Greylen.”

“You’re an enchantress,” he accused. “How many hearts have you soothed—and how?”

“Greylen, you’re not listening. The reason I’m here is to mend your heart—literally.”

“But you already have, Gwen.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Greylen, I have the knowledge, the ability, to fix a heart. ‘From a different time…the reason is clear, she mends his broken heart’—Greylen, I was sent here to fix your heart!” As if unbidden images reeled through her mind, her fingers tangled harshly in her hair.

Her entire body shook as she walked to the window. She stared at the blackened sea as Greylen stood behind her. He divested her of her towel and wrapped her in her robe. “You’re shaking,” he said softly, pulling her against him.

“I won’t be able to help you, Greylen.”

She began crying again and he turned her. “If what you say is true, then—”

“I have no instruments, Greylen. Even if I had my bag, it wouldn’t be—” She gasped as he tensed. “Where is it, Greylen?” she demanded in a shout, hitting his chest with both of her hands.

He walked to the trunk at the end of the bed and withdrew a key from his pocket. He removed the lock before lifting the lid. “I feared ’twould change what happened,” he offered, raising the bag and holding it out to her.

Gwen hesitated, then she grabbed it. She hugged it to her chest and knelt on the floor, rocking back and forth. He sat before her, then wrapped his legs around her and tilted her chin. “You truly mend broken hearts?” he asked.

She nodded cautiously.

“Explain,” he asked, feeling more ignorant than he ever had. “Please.”

“I…” She released a breath as if wondering where to begin. “I’m a surgeon, Greylen, a doctor who operates on people.” She stopped, it seemed, to gauge his reaction but continued when he remained expressionless. “I’d just completed my residency and signed a contract”—she must have realized he didn’t understand and explained—“to become a doctor you have to go to medical school, it’s a four-year program after you’ve completed another four-year program. Then you work at hospitals under the supervision of other doctors until you complete your residency.”