A/N: this chapter is dedicated to my pal Sedryn, for betaing and listening to my ramblings, and my friend I-AM-SiriusLOCKED for helping with colons and semicolons- 'Yes that works but not because of how you think it works'

One week later

Ever since her parents' demise, Anna had asked herself, 'what is death?'

Perhaps death was a full stop. Sudden. Final.

Death could, of course, just be a brief interval between life and afterlife, the comma that separated corporeal body from metaphysical soul. Alternatively, it was possible that death was a semicolon; a long, deep sleep before the promise of Heaven. Did death teleport you like an asterisk, or enclose you like a bracket?

What is death?

Pressing a finger against the wound, Anna believed she was about to find out.

I'll be with Mama and Papa again… It will be good to see them…

No! I just need to hold on a little longer… Just hold on…

...

But I can't…

'Miss Smith! Oh! You're bleeding!'

'I've been bleeding for about five minutes,' Anna huffed. 'You were too busy sewing to notice my peril.'

'Your peril? There is no need to be so dramatic!'

Anna blinked.

'But-'

'Everyone pricks themselves with the needle when they sew! Even I do, on very rare occasions…'

Miss Winters handed her a handkerchief. Anna wrapped it around her finger.

'Now, where were we?' Miss Winters said, as if Anna had not been dangerously close to exsanguination.

Anna groaned.

'Can't you see that I'm utterly hopeless at this? Let me give up, I beg of you!'

Miss Winters ignored her.

'How you got to the age of eighteen unable to sew is quite a mystery. Every accomplished woman should know how.'

'Ugh, you sound like Joan. Why shouldn't men be expected to sew?'

'Joan?'

'...Nevermind.'

'It… it's not bad, for a novice,' Miss Winters conceded some time later, holding Anna's bonnet trim up to the candlelight. 'I think your problem, from what Mr. Oaken told me, is that you were far too ambitious with your first project. You are only a beginner, Miss Smith. Don't expect to be at my level straight away.'

'I can go to bed satisfied by your high praise, and in the knowledge that your sense of self worth is not inflated in the slightest.'

'Ha! I take great pride in my sewing, that is all. Were I not a member of the gentry, I dare say it would be my livelihood.'

'My livelihood would be painting,' Anna declared. 'I've taken a real shine to it.'

'I can tell.'

Miss Winters laughed suddenly.

'What?'

'Oh, nothing.' She patted her nose with her index finger.

Anna was lost.

'What?'

'You have paint on your nose!'

Hands flying to her nose, Anna gasped.

'Oh, Miss Winters! How cruel not to tell me! I must have come back from the river looking like such a fright!'

Her companion shook her head.

'You do not look a fright. It's… endearing.' Miss Winters smiled at her. 'Why did you go down to the river?'

'It's my latest muse. It's quite fascinating how the river can change appearance from mid morning to late afternoon, or how it looks so different in sunshine and rain. I have four different paintings, but I will show you the one I am most proud of.'

Anna fetched the painting, and they admired it together.

'"The River Itchen, In Summer: 3"', Miss Winters read. 'Why, Miss Smith, it looks exactly like it!'

'How would you know?' Anna blurted out. 'You never go outside!'

She clapped a hand over her mouth.

'I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean-'

'I'm not offended,' Miss Winters said. 'You are quite correct, after all.'

'Why- why don't you go outside?' Anna hedged.

Putting Anna's painting down on the table with the rest of their needlework, Miss Winters sighed.

'My world used to be very large,' she said to Anna's painting. 'I had no brothers or sisters, and indeed no mother, but what I lacked in immediate family I more than made up for in aunts and uncles and cousins, particularly on my father's side.

'We would travel to visit them all over the country- and once we even travelled as far as Norway!- and I was quite happy doing so. I could go into the market in my hometown, and even to the market in many strange towns I had never once seen before, and peruse and buy and be happy as a lamb. I could take long walks with cousins and aunts each and every day without complaint. But I was different back then. Things have changed now.'

Miss Winters looked up and gave her a sad smile.

'I moved to Winchester, and at first I did the walks and the market and the carriage rides to other nearby towns, for I felt that I would go crazy if I did not go outside every single day to get some fresh air. Then I became very ill last winter, and did not leave my room for one whole month. After my illness…'

She sighed, shoulders slumping.

'You just couldn't go outside again?' Anna offered.

'I don't know what happened to me to make me this way. It is quite a curse. I do sometimes wonder if God is punishing me-'

'For what?'

'-but no matter how hard I try, I cannot go outside. My chest gets so tight that I feel as if I might die that very second. I cannot breathe, and it is only once I am inside this hotel that my lungs allow me to inhale again.'

'That sounds most awful!'

'Oh, it is dreadful, absolutely dreadful. I have seen a physician, of course, and he said I was suffering from hysteria. I declined the treatment.'

'Why? Is it unpleasant?'

Miss Winters stared at her.

'Why, surely you know the treatment for hysteria?'

'Enlighten me.'

To Anna's surprise, Miss Winters turned bright red.

'The physician brings the patient to hysterical paroxysm.'

'...He what?'

Miss Winters' blush grew deeper, something Anna hadn't thought possible.

'Well, hysteria is caused by the womb, is it not?'

'...Yes…'

Anna gasped. 'You mean he gets you pregnant?!'

Miss Winters frowned. 'What? No! Of all the suggestions…'

'Well, what happens, then?'

'The physician…'

Miss Winters swallowed.

Anna waited.

'The physician… makes the female patient… orgasm.'

'...Was he attractive?'

'I'm sorry?'

'Your physician. Was he attractive?'

Anna winked.

Miss Winters stared at her. Then she gasped.

'Miss Smith- you can't be saying-'

'What a wonderful treatment! Oh, I thought it was going to be some ghastly surgery or something of the like! Miss Winters, you really should try it! It is most enjoyable!'

Smoothing her hair back from her red face, Miss Winters said, 'did you used to have hysteria, then?'

'What? Oh, no. I just enjoy bringing myself to… hysterical pary-whatever.'

'Paroxysm.'

'Yes, that.'

'Miss Winters, why are you staring at me like that?'

'...Miss Winters? Are you quite alright?'

Her companion shook herself out of her daze.

'I…'

'I overshared, didn't I?' Anna said. 'I kind of knew it was taboo, but then I thought, well, we're both women here! Nothing to be ashamed of!'

Miss Winters was staring at Anna's right hand.

'Quite.'

'Sit still now, children. I am sure Miss Smith will not be much longer.'

'I'm almost done!'

Anna selected a pale pink pencil and began shading in their faces, tongue sticking out in concentration.

'I must thank you for doing this,' Mr. Linden said. 'It is most kind of you to spend your morning like this.'

'Oh, it's nothing! Think of it as my way of repaying you for your excellent hospitality.'

'You make me blush,' Mr. Oaken said, trying not to grin. 'You already pay us in money!'

'This is something more personal,' Anna argued, as she coloured in the buttons on one of the children's shirts.

'I will give you another chocolate cake as a thank you,' Mr. Oaken argued back.

Mr. Linden rolled his eyes at their antics.

'Miss Smith, will you make me look pretty?' the smallest child asked.

'You are already quite pretty enough,' Anna told her. 'If I made you any more pretty, no one would look at anyone in this portrait except for you.'

The child giggled.

'...And… done!'

The family crowded round to view the portrait.

'Look papa! That's me!'

'Yes it is, my little snowball. And that is your father and I, ya? Don't we look most handsome, Mr. Linden?'

'We do indeed, Mr. Oaken. Thank you very much, Miss Smith.'

'Thank you!' the children chorused.

'It's my plea-'

Anna stopped, staring at the door.

'Did Miss Winters just go past? She sounded like she was crying.'

Anna's hosts exchanged a look.

'Miss Winters went outside today, Miss Smith. It is a big step for her.'

'Oh! How wonderful! I'll go and see if she's alright.'

She hurried off before Mr. Oaken could object.

RAT-TAT-A-TAT-TAT

'Miss Winters? I heard you went outside! I just wanted to say that I'm so proud of you. Do you want me to leave you alone?'

Silence.

No, not silence.

Sobbing.

'I'll bring you your lunch in a couple of hours, okay?'

Anna hated leaving her like this, but what could she do?

Miss Winters clearly wanted some time to herself, back in the safe haven that was her room.

RAT-TAT-A-TAT-TAT

'Do you like carrot soup?'

Silence.

'I'll leave it by the door, then!'

RAT-TAT-A-TAT-TAT

'Miss Winters? Mr. Oaken wants to know if he should fetch the physician?'

Silence.

'Miss Winters, I know you're in there! I've been wondering where you've been. Did you make it down to the river? It's nice and quiet there, isn't it? Or did you go to the market?'

'I'm fine, Miss Smith.'

Miss Winters' voice was quiet, but not weak.

'Are you really?'

Silence.

No, not silence.

Sobbing.