Alice has always regretted that she does not possess her sister's fortitude. Cora could spend sleepless nights in the infirmary, plugging her fingers into torn arteries and wrapping bandages around amputated stumps. Sometimes she would return in the dark hours of the morning with her sleeves rolled to her elbows and her forearms covered in blood. Always the same heavy circles under her eyes when it was through, but she went where she was needed without flinching. Hard, indomitable Cora. The mere scent of blood is enough to make Alice dizzy.
She shudders now, in the shadow of wizened trees and jaded mountains. There is no one blocking her view tonight. And no one is looking at her; they have far more important things to attend to. Her legs are sore and her eyelids are heavy. She wants very badly to sink into a warm, black abyss. But everyone else in the grove is working under a tight-lipped terror and Alice knows if she does nothing else she must stay awake and she must not look away.
It is gruesome when Cora cuts away his shirt, exposing shredded skin and bloody strings of muscle across his stomach. Alice has to fight off a wave of nausea. (Did she ever really think that chest handsome?) His torso resembles a piece of raw meat mauled by a wild animal. It is because of her that he is like that, though she cannot think of what she ought to have done differently. She did not ask him to pursue her to the cliffs alone...
Her throat feels as though she has swallowed something sharp and awful. He barely knew her; what made it his prerogative to come to her rescue?
An hour ago Cora had ordered Nathaniel Poe to start a fire so she could sterilize her needles. The audacity of ordering that harsh man to do anything! Only Cora would be so bold. While her sister sews the gashes shut, Alice watches his upper body contract and his fingers clench. Uncas should not be conscious, she thinks, but some part of his mind must be able to register the pain they have no way to dull. Her sister wipes away the rivulets of fresh blood when they are finished, but Alice has visions of black and yellow bile oozing beneath his skin.
Then Cora puts her needles away and there is nothing to do but wait. As night crawls its way into the pale silence before dawn, Alice watches his stomach continue to rise and fall. A sprinkle of cool dewdrops begins to condense behind her neck, but she is determined to stay awake.