She would have liked nothing better than to curl up in the sagging, flea-bitten armchair in her shabby front room and cat-nap all day, if she could. But she couldn't afford another day off this week. So instead she was trudging around the Hog's Head doing her chores more mutely than usual, and planes away in her head from the jovial banter down in the pub.
Her legs protested weakly as she climbed the stairs, but Leila gritted her teeth and made for the airing cupboard on the landing, to dig out some fresh sheets for the beds she had to make up. She had scarcely put her hand on the door handle when a voice said her name behind her; Leila's shoulders jerked up in surprise. She'd been too out of it, then, to have even heard the footsteps.
Gritting her teeth a little harder, to force herself through what was plainly about to be someone demanding something of her, be it fetch me a drink from downstairs, or a my headboard needs dusting, there's a good girl or a rat's pissed in my shoes again from one of the guests or maybe her boss, or else someone who had only come to gawk, Leila turned around.
It took everything she had not to flinch in shock a second time. Her eyes widened in astonishment, her head reeling and a strange lump taking form in her throat. There wasn't much, day to day, to remind her of her former life any more. But this man's face had managed it, propelling her back five years in an instant; simultaneously, somehow, to her very first week at the hospital, and to the day those dreams had been dashed - which left her with a dizzying feeling in her chest and an unpleasant churning in her stomach, as though she had just apparated too far.
"Healer Belby," she blurted out, her mouth working faster than her mind.
Her legs protested weakly as she climbed the stairs, but Leila gritted her teeth and made for the airing cupboard on the landing, to dig out some fresh sheets for the beds she had to make up. She had scarcely put her hand on the door handle when a voice said her name behind her; Leila's shoulders jerked up in surprise. She'd been too out of it, then, to have even heard the footsteps.
Gritting her teeth a little harder, to force herself through what was plainly about to be someone demanding something of her, be it fetch me a drink from downstairs, or a my headboard needs dusting, there's a good girl or a rat's pissed in my shoes again from one of the guests or maybe her boss, or else someone who had only come to gawk, Leila turned around.
It took everything she had not to flinch in shock a second time. Her eyes widened in astonishment, her head reeling and a strange lump taking form in her throat. There wasn't much, day to day, to remind her of her former life any more. But this man's face had managed it, propelling her back five years in an instant; simultaneously, somehow, to her very first week at the hospital, and to the day those dreams had been dashed - which left her with a dizzying feeling in her chest and an unpleasant churning in her stomach, as though she had just apparated too far.
"Healer Belby," she blurted out, her mouth working faster than her mind.
