Free Healer (Shifter Island Book 5) by Carol Davis

the heat seeping into her muscles and joints. Dimly, she heard Cara say something about needing to fetch something, and a moment later the girl was gone.
    And Jed took her place.
    “I was too rough,” he said, and it too sounded distant. “I’m sorry. I let the wolf get a little too close to the surface, and it was determined to claim you.”
    “It’s all right,” she muttered.
    “But there you sit. I’ve never known you to go running for the tub. You can’t tell me this isn’t due to—”
    “Hush,” she told him sharply.
    “My apologies.”
    Her eyes had drifted shut; she forced them open again long enough to see the repentant look on his face. “I’m not some fragile human,” she told him with some impatience. “My wolf wanted it as much as yours did. I’m not laid up in bed. I just wanted a soak.”
    “I’ll go, then. We’ll talk later.”
    She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk at all; at least not for an hour or two, particularly if it had anything to do with her relationship with Jed, or with Gregory. She was sure her son was at home waiting for her, having worked himself into some higher-yet state of adolescent outrage. He’d failed at battling Jed; what he might conjure up to do next, she had no idea. Break something, maybe. Maybe a lot of things. Or maybe he’d refuse to speak to her for the rest of his life.
    She thought she might enjoy that. It would be very tranquil.
    “I’ll leave you in peace,” Jed said after a minute.
    “Hmm.”
    She drifted for a while after that, just conscious enough to keep herself from sliding under the surface of the water. That might actually be pleasant too, she thought: letting the warmth surround her from head to toe, as if she were lying in liquid sunshine. Sunshine always improved her mood, particularly if it came after several days of gloom and rain. And that was contradictory, wasn’t it? Water falling out of the sky made her pensive and sluggish, but water in a tub was rejuvenating.
    The world made no sense.
     
    She let Cara help her up out of the tub after her fingers and toes had wrinkled, after the water had gone cool enough that it was no longer enjoyable. Cara had offered to keep adding kettles of hot water, but it was nearly noon, and like it or not, the healer had responsibilities.
    She refused Cara’s offer to help her get dressed. While the girl was tending to her fires, Deborah toweled herself dry, then pulled on her clothes and shoes and tried to decide whether to go home or to the gardens.
    Or somewhere else.
    Anywhere else.
    Her bed seemed like a good choice. As an alternative, someone else’s bed. Or anything that might serve as a bed.
    “You look as if you’re going to fall asleep in your tracks,” Cara said with a frown. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
    No , Deborah thought, but she said, “I’m fine.”
    “A good day to you, then.”
     
    Gregory wasn’t at home, nor was he anywhere near the classrooms. His teachers hadn’t seen him since the day before, and that had only been for a few minutes. His senior teacher, Randall, said the boy had become restless almost immediately after taking his seat, and at the first opportunity he’d snuck away from the group and disappeared.
    “It happens,” Randall said. “They think everything is very dire at that age.”
    He didn’t say anything about Gregory challenging Jed, but Deborah could see in his eyes that he’d heard all the gossip. He seemed regretful, as if he felt he was at least partly to blame for Gregory’s behavior.
    “Will you let me know if you see him?” she asked.
    “Of course, healer.”
    She went then to Victor’s mother and sister, thinking that Gregory might have gone to them for sympathy, but neither of them had seen him for almost a week.
    At a loss, she asked her own mother, who began to chide her for losing track of her son—as if Gregory were a wayward toddler who was likely to wander off a cliff or into a nest of snakes within the next few