Free THE IMPERIAL ENGINEER by Judith B. Glad Page B

towels, she almost ran to the kitchen.
    Some time later, calm and in control of her wayward emotions, Lulu returned to
the bedroom. He still lay as he had, prone, his face turned away from the window. His hair,
usually combed back in a careless wave, covered his forehead. Fresh blood stained the
pillow under his mouth. She set the basin on the table and went to see why he was
bleeding, kneeling beside the bed.
    The deep scratch from the corner of his mouth to the middle of his chin seeped
blood. He must have scraped the scab loose against the pillow. It didn't look deep enough
to be dangerous, but she'd clean it anyway, as soon as she put fresh compresses on his back
and calf. Before she rose, she smoothed his hair back, to make sure there were no burns on
his forehead. His face was warm and her hand wanted to linger. Long ago she'd traced the
thin, white scar with her fingertips, and she did so again, gently, tenderly.
    Pay attention! she told herself. With great deliberation, she pulled the
sheet up and covered him to the waist, leaving his left leg bare. It did no good. She could
still see his naked body.
    Lulu had not reached the ripe age of twenty-eight without learning self discipline.
She banished the vision of golden skin and strong legs and set herself to doctoring an
injured friend.
    * * * *
    Oh, hell, I fell asleep in the sun again , was his first thought. His back was
on fire and his left hand felt as if he'd pulled a burning stick from the fire. Aunt Hattie was
going to skin him alive. She'd warned him time and again to stay in the shade this time of
year.
    He opened his eyes, and looked upon white linen instead of grass. What the
dickens?
    The light was dim, the air cool. Have I been sleeping here all day --
    A door opened and he turned his head toward the sound. Just in time to see a
woman enter and pull the door closed behind her. A small woman in a slim skirt, a woman
with tousled curls. "Lulu?" His voice was a croak.
    "Good. You're awake. We need to see if your front is burned as badly as your
back." She set a basin on the stand beside the bed and laid a stack of towels beside it.
    Still confused, he said, "What are you doing here?" He tried to turn to face
her.
    His back screamed. He gasped and fell face down.
    A soft hand touched his upper arm. "What is it? Are you in pain?"
    He heard the words but couldn't answer. All he could see was flames, surrounding
him, licking at his back, roaring higher and higher, until the whole world was aflame. He
was trapped. Don't breathe! Don't move! Stay there!
    But the flames devoured the wooden box that covered him and licked at him, at
his back, at his leg, at his hand. He pulled himself into a ball, but the flames still saw him.
Still ate at his back as he rolled away and tried to make himself even smaller.
"Aaaahhhhhhh!"
    "Tony! Tao Ni! You're safe. Please. You're hurting yourself."
    No. No. Nononono! He fought the hands that wanted to feed him to the fire.
"No! Let me go!" His fist struck soft flesh.
    "Ouch! Darn you, it's me. Lulu. Now hold still, or I'll tie you to the bed."
    "Let me-- Lulu ? What...where...?"
    "You're in my bed. You're burned and exhausted. You said there was a fire. That's
all I know. Now will you lie still and let me take care of you, or shall I tie you down?"
    His mind finally made sense of what his eyes were seeing. The dim room where
he lay was unfamiliar, but the woman who bent over him was not. "Lulu." Somehow just
the feel of her name on his tongue gave him a great sense of wellbeing. He rolled onto his
back.
    And rolled right back again as pain exploded from his upper back. "Whoosh!
What happened? You said a fire?" With a bit of experimentation, he found a relatively
comfortable position, on his right side. "I've been burned?"
    "Blistered. I had to soak your shirt off. Can you remember what happened?" While
she spoke, she dipped a towel into the basin, wrung it out. Now she laid it across his back.
The pressure hurt, but the cool moisture