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worked like a son of a gun right beside me to handle all the business we added. He lived in the little house out back—well, little by Newport standards—and we worked like dogs, maintaining the boats, captaining them, doing the paperwork at night.” He grinned wryly and went on.
    “Eddie…he lived my dreams with me. A lot of people thought I was crazy—still do, but I’m rich now, so I get to be eccentric—but I study the past, and Eddie and I…we’ve followed Bridgewater’s trail. He was heading south with dispatches for the Continental Congress and a hold full of English coins, and he managed to hide both before the British caught up to him. He was hanged without ever giving up the secret of where he had stashed everything. There’s bravery for you. You see, I don’t think he was just holding out on the money. Like I said, I think the papers he was carrying would have condemned some of his fellow patriots, so he died in silence. I mean, that was honor. Real honor. I’ve always dreamed of discovering just where he hid that cache, and maybe even writing a book about it.” He laughed suddenly. “Listen to me. I’m just a rambling old man, taking advantage of a beautiful young woman who has no choice but to sit and listen to me.”
    “No, this is fascinating,” she assured him.
    “But you have other patients,” he reminded her.
    “The floor is well staffed. I’m all right, really. Trust me, if someone wants me, they’ll find me.”
    His story was fascinating. She liked him, and she enjoyed sitting with him. She wasn’t quite sure why he had wanted to acquire a wife like Amanda, but then again, who was she to judge?
    “I’m worried about Eddie,” he said, and there was a deep sadness in his eyes. Then he saw her watching and tried to make himself look strong again, but he couldn’t hide his troubled thoughts. “…I have a bad feeling something’s happened to him, and I owe it to him to find out the truth,” he said firmly. “They’ve found the boat—and no sign of Eddie, I have to get back. I should have known something was wrong when everyone was there to see us off—except Eddie. He never missed a party, and he’d promised he would be there…. Something must have happened. Maybe he’s in hiding.”
    “In hiding? Why?”
    Sean waved a hand weakly. “Who knows? I just know I have to get home, though I’ll bet I won’t find a nurse like you back there.”
    Silently, she agreed. No, he would never find another nurse quite like her. Deciding she needed to change the subject—now—she said, “Tell me about your family.”
    “Family. It’s really all that matters in the end,” he said softly.
    She felt a tug of emotion at her heart. She felt a strange ache to belong to someone’s family and be spoken of with such love. She’d never really known a family.
    “They were what called me back,” he said.
    “Pardon?”
    He glanced up at her sheepishly. “It was strange, when they brought me here—to the hospital, I mean. I suppose I was dreaming, but I felt like I was a boy in the hills again. I’d forgotten how right they are when they call this the Emerald Isle. The wind was blowing, setting up a real howl. And I was running back to the cottage where I grew up, like I was a kid going home. I heard someone—I think it was my mother—singing an old Irish song, crooning in the old Gaelic. The sun seemed to be setting. There were bursts of light, and shadows falling, but I didn’t feel scared of them, even though I knew I should. It was beautiful, and I felt like I could run forever…but then I heard my daughter’s voice, and suddenly I was aware that I was in the hospital, and that I had to fight, had to live. I had to live because I had to go home. To my daughter.”
    “Ah,” Caer said.
    “Caer?”
    She started, looking up.
    Michael was standing in the doorway, summoning her. He was in a white lab coat with the name “Dr. Michael Haven” embroidered on the