Bram returned without the medical bag he had borrowed.
He stopped in the clinic doorway, saw Tessa watching him, and looked toward the stairwell as if there might be another route through the question. She waited until the patient beside her had finished explaining his prescription. Only then did she ask where the bag was.
“At the back desk.”
“Empty?”
“I haven’t taken anything.”
“Then why did you ask the assistant for field dressings and a fever measure?”
Bram’s shoulders settled into the stillness Eli had learned to distrust. Not because it meant a lie was coming. Because it meant Bram was trying to make himself small enough to carry a problem alone.
“For a visit.”
