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fine.”
    He is lying, Sarah thought. Her heart felt heavy with dread.
    Thomas began to shiver horribly.
    â€œIt is the fever,” Dr. Pierce explained, when Sarah turned to him with a pleading look.
    â€œI am so cold,” Thomas murmured.
    â€œYou feel cold,” Dr. Pierce agreed, “but I’m afraid you are running a high fever, my good man.”
    Sarah hurried to the closet. Yesterday, she couldn’t help him when he needed her most. She would try to make up for it today, try to see to his every whim and need.
    She found an old robe hanging in the closet, one which she could not remember him wearing in months. She pulled so hard on the robe that the wooden hanger snapped back against the wall with a loud crack.
    As she hurried over to the bed with the robe, something fell to the floor at her feet.
    She bent down. An envelope had fallen from Thomas’s robe. An envelope addressed to Sarah Burns.
    Sarah glanced at her husband. So frail and sickly and shrunken as he lay in the bed.
    He must have slipped the envelope in his pocket and forgotten to tell her about it.
    She returned to his bedside, studying the stamps. She was hoping the letter had come from Europe. From her best friend. But it was not the case.
    Dr. Pierce and Thomas were both watching her. They looked as curious as she felt.
    â€œIt’s a letter,” she explained. “I found it in your old robe, Thomas. You must have forgotten to give it to me.”
    â€œI am so sorry,” he murmured in a faint voice. “I only barely remember it coming for you.”
    She smiled. “It doesn’t matter, Thomas. Please. We have enough to worry about.”
    â€œHere,” Dr. Pierce said. He took a letter opener from Thomas’s desk and handed it to Sarah.
    â€œThank you.” Sarah carefully slit open the envelope.
    She began to read.
    Then she began to scream.

Chapter
7

    D r. Pierce rushed to her side.
    Thomas struggled to sit up in his sickbed. He reached toward her.
    Sobs welled up from deep inside Sarah. She couldn’t control herself.
    No! No!
    Through her tears, she could see Thomas staring at her in alarm.
    She stumbled to a chair and sat down. She rocked back and forth.
    No, it couldn’t be true!
    And yet it was.
    Thomas and Dr. Pierce waited for her to explain. She forced herself to sit up straight.
    She clutched the letter to her chest, as if for comfort. She bit her trembling lip.
    â€œI have often told you about my best friend … Jane Hardy,” she began. “Jane set sail for Europe at the same time I came to Shadyside.”
    â€œThe woman to whom you have been writing,” Thomas said.
    â€œYes. And from whom I have never had a response. Well, this letter is from her stepbrother,” Sarah said in a tiny voice she barely recognized as her own. “It seems that my friend, my dearest friend—”
    She began to cry all over again. Thomas put his hand on hers.
    Sarah knew she must be strong. For Thomas. Thomas was so sick. Thomas needed her.
    She wiped her face with the back of her hand. Fresh tears wet her cheeks an instant later.
    â€œJane never got to London,” she told her husband. “The ship sank. Everyone—”
    She felt her face crumple.
    â€œOh, Thomas. It is too horrible. Everyone drowned.”
    â€œI’m so sorry,” Thomas said softly.
    Sarah wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand again. “Thomas! It is too awful. And just think. This happened while you and I were on our nuptial journey to Niagara Falls. While we were being foolish and carefree.”
    â€œYou mustn’t think that way,” Thomas said. Then he began to cough.
    But Sarah couldn’t help feeling a horrible stab of guilt. Niagara Falls. She had been so incredibly happy then. While her best friend—
    There was a knock at the bedroom door.
    Sarah looked at Thomas in surprise. Dr. Pierce had ordered Thomas not to see any visitors until he was