Free SelfSame by Melissa Conway

inquiringly.
    “I will fall asleep by then. The spirit in this body cannot be woken while the spirit in my other body is awake.”
    She’d confirmed that she had two lives, and he must have had no trouble believing it because her revelation didn’t faze him. “Must you sleep?”
    “I’m afraid it cannot be helped.”
    He frowned and squinted at the house. “Have you ale?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good.”
    The hours passed slowly. As Joseph predicted, the men in her house found her father’s ale, and if the noise and laughter echoing out over the field was any indication, drank a good quantity of it. Enid had begun to shake uncontrollably from the cold, so Joseph pulled her impersonally into his arms. He was dressed less warmly than she, but the heat emanating off his body astonished her. She threw modesty to the wind and snuggled up against him. He kept a close eye on the house, but every few minutes checked to make sure she was still awake.
    The last thing she remembered was the feel of his rough shirt against her cheek and the sound of his slow, steady heartbeat.
     
     
     

Chapter Nine
     
    Sorcha
     
    She sat up abruptly in bed and cried, “No-no-no-no-no!” Enid couldn’t have fallen asleep at a worse time. Sorcha grabbed her pillow and buried her face in it, swearing profusely into its softness.
    Her door burst open and Grammy Fay rushed in. “Are you alright?”
    Sorcha dropped the pillow and responded in a plaintive whine, “ I’m fine. Not so sure about Enid, though.” She filled Fay in on the events at the farm; her words pouring forth with her emotion.
    Fay sank down onto the side of the bed with a heavy sigh, patting Sorcha on the leg. “There’s nothing you can do about it, so I suggest you pull yourself together, Sweetling.”
    “I wish I could go back.” It was the first time Sorcha had ever uttered that sentiment. She gave Fay a hopeful look and said, “Maybe if I take a sleeping pill..?”
    Fay pursed her lips disapprovingly. “None of the medications your doctors gave you as a child made any difference,” she reminded her. “You said you thought Enid could trust this Joseph fellow, right?”
    Sorcha dropped her head in her hands and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes with her index fingers. She saw Joseph’s fierce face and kind eyes. “I suppose.”
    “And he said the Mohawk are just passing through, so I’ll bet when you go back it’ll all be over and everything will be fine.”
    Sorcha had her doubts, but as Fay had pointed out, there was nothing she could do. She got out of bed and into the shower, trying to downshift from the excitement of Enid’s world to her mundane existence in this one.
    The rest of the day started out just as ordinarily as any other, except the ride to school with Paula was like picking a scab off a fresh wound. Paula coaxed her into talking about Elizabeth, and as much as she’d rather push the painful feelings aside, at least she didn’t have to explain about Joseph and the Mohawk and Enid falling asleep in the midst of it all.
    After History class, Mr. Lee made her stay after to discuss the ‘D’ she’d gotten on her test.
    “The first month in class you were averaging an ‘A,’ Miss Sloane. What’s going on with you?” he asked.
    The first month of class they’d studied the Revolutionary War. She was briefly tempted to tell him her grandmother died, but squelched the urge. She couldn’t very well back it up if he were to contact her parents, and besides, it seemed disloyal to Elizabeth to use her sadness as an excuse, even though it was true.
    “I’ll try harder,” she said.
    Mr. Lee offered to give her extra credit to make up the ‘D’ and she took it, mostly to get him off her case. She wanted to care about her History grade, but in the big scheme of things, it just didn’t rate very highly.
    By noon, she was on edge to the point of being twitchy. She and Paula ate their respective lunches as the minute hand of the clock taunted her