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“And wealthy,” Ben added.
The doctor bowed his head. “It’s fortunate for me that you are both. Now if you would sit down I will earn my fee.”
Ben set himself back in his chair and the doctor removed his bandages, revealing his clean muscular chest. There wasn’t a single scratch on him, and with that relief came the reminder that he wasn’t the only one who had been injured the previous evening.
“Your face betrays your thoughts, Miss Millie,” Amanzi teasingly scolded me as his twinkling eyes fixed on me. “But you needn’t worry about anyone else. Some of them are a little bandaged and a few will have a scar or two to brag about, but that’s about it. I dare say all of them will return to the race course, though with their nerves slightly frayed, they may not participate in the race.” He returned his attention to Ben. “And what of you? Will you be bouncing yourself along the tract today?”
Ben smiled and nodded at me. “I’m afraid I’ve been outvoted on that matter.”
“You will be better able to stop the magic if you are not distracted by the bumps in the tract,” Sofia pointed out.
“Perhaps their allure may blind me still,” he teased.
Amanzi finished packing the gauze into his bag and snapped it shut. “Well, I must be off to the races myself and see to my other patients.”
Ben rose and led him over to the doorway. “My thanks for caring for Millie and me.”
“Not at all,” the doctor replied as he turned to Ben and held out his hand. “That will be three barons.”
My jaw dropped, but Ben merely reached into his pocket and drew out his ever-present coin purse. He handed the doctor a few coins that chinked loudly, and the doctor tucked them away without looking at them.
Amanzi bowed his head. “Much obliged, and keep safe, if only for the sake of the two lovely women at the table.”
Ben clapped a hand on the doctor’s shoulder and nodded. “I swear it.”
Amanzi smiled and nodded his head at us before he slipped out of the house. Ben returned to the table and I finally shut my jaw to ask him something. “Did you really give him three barons?”
Ben nodded. “Yes, but that’s for the charity cases around the local area. Amanzi is a good sport and never refuses treatment to anyone, even those unable to afford it.”
A faraway look slipped into Sofia’s eyes as she stared at her empty plate. “He was always a gentle soul, even when I knew him at the Academy.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Enastros Academy? You went there?’
“A great many years ago,” she replied as she set her napkin on her plate and stood. “That is where I met my husband, you see. Alden was there to oversee a grant to the school and I was chosen as the welcome ambassador.”
I turned my face to Ben. “So Alden was your dad’s name?”
He nodded. “He was a rare breed in name and his constant attention to everyone around him. He is very much missed.”
Sofia turned away from us with her plate in hand and nodded. “Very much so.” She hurried into the kitchen.
I winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”
Ben smiled at me. “It gives me pleasure to speak about him. For those who are gone, speaking about them to someone who didn’t know them is the only new memories that can be made of them.”
I picked up my plate and gathered up my utensils. “But I think I made your mom cry.”
He looked to the kitchen door and sighed. “She will grieve for him the rest of her life, but she is strong enough to bear that pain.” Ben turned back to me with twinkling eyes. “I do try to distract her from her sorrow, and there is her work in the Covenant.”
I poked him gently in the arm with my fork. “So was that your intention last night? A distraction?”
It was his turn to flinch a little, and not from the fork. “It did prove to be an unexpected distraction, but we’ll forgo any more of those types, at least for the time being.”
I nodded as together we strode into the kitchen. “Good, because my ticker couldn’t take much more of that, either.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT
An hour later,we found ourselves at the tract grounds, a trio among thousands of spectators. I gaped at all the people, a bigger throng than any other day I’d been there. “Where did all these people come from?”
