I woke early, the predawn light seeping into my dreams and pulling me out of them. Mikhail had at some point rolled over onto his stomach, and he lay there sleeping, facing away from me but with one arm still flung across my legs. As I stirred, half asleep and confused by my surroundings, Mikhail awoke. His hand twitched slightly, presumably due to the unfamiliar contact. Then he curled around to look at the source of the strange sensation.

His eyes widened when he saw me, then softened as his lips curved into a smile. "Good morning," he said softly. "Am I still dreaming?" I shook my head with a smile. He reached up and stroked my cheek softly, then pulled himself up to sit next to me.

"How do you feel?" I asked anxiously.

His brow furrowed for a moment as he thought. "A little confused. I... I remember seeing you... with Cam...." he looked away, a pained expression on his face, then he continued. "I remember grabbing my violin and running up the mountain to a little hidden glade I had discovered on one of my walks. And playing.... And then... then suddenly you were there. And you were... you were distressed. And when I saw you, I felt so angry, and hurt, and so full of despair. And...." Then he turned pale and quickly looked at me in dismay. "I grabbed you and kissed you. I-I hurt you, didn't I?"

"N-not really," I murmured, instinctively pulling my hair down and around my neck.

He pushed my hands away as he lifted my hair and pulled the neckline of my top aside, a strangled groan escaping him as he saw the dark bruising and the tiny wounds along my neck and shoulder. He flushed and looked away, releasing my shirt and hair. He drew his knees up and buried his face against them, stammering a muffled apology.

I reached out a hand to him and gently stroked his head and rubbed his back. "It's okay, Mikhail. You didn't mean to hurt me. It's not so bad—it looks worse than it is. And no one else has seen the marks as far as I know, if that's any comfort. I've just worn my hair down instead of pulling it back as usual, pulled my coat collar up, that sort of thing. So please don't fret about it." I put my arm around him and held him, afraid he'd slip back into his depression at this rate.

After a minute, he lifted his head and rested his chin on his knees, and with a deep sigh, he said, "Anyway, that's about all I remember. I don't know how I got back here—I don't remember returning at all." Then suddenly he rose up in alarm. "My violin! I must have left it up on the mountain! How long has it been?" he asked, turning frantically to me as he started to climb out of bed.

I put a hand on his shoulder to calm him, and said, "Relax, your violin is fine," as I pointed to the case sitting where I'd left it, on the shelf where he normally kept it.

He looked at it, then slumped back down into his bed in sheer relief. "Anyway, I don't remember anything after that. What happened after... after I attacked you?"

I reached out and held his hand in mine, and I related the events that happened afterwards to him. He sat and thought about it, then said, "When I... when I saw you and Cam... it felt as though something inside me snapped. I love you so much, Alice," he said piteously, turning and looking at me with eyes pleading for understanding, "and I do want you to be happy, but... but I'd greatly prefer that you be happy with me. I'm sorry for being so selfish...."

"No, Mikhail," I interrupted, "if anything, I'm the selfish one. I don't want to be, but I just don't know what to do. I love you so very much," at which his eyes grew hopeful, "but I love Cam just as much as I love you." His face fell and he sighed. I gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "So, you see, I just don't know what to do. I feel as if I'm perfectly happy and would die without you when I'm with you... but then I feel the same way when I'm with Cam. I can hardly marry you both, so I have to find a way to pick one of you... or else neither. And I'm just... I just don't know what to do. And I'm so, so sorry for causing you so much pain, Mikhail. I hope you can forgive me."

He looked at me in surprise, and said, "You want me to forgive you? After everything I've done, I'm the one that needs to ask forgiveness, not you."

"Then let's just call it even, okay?" I said with a faint smile and another squeeze to his hand.

He nodded, then he put an arm around me and pulled me close to him. "You know," he said, after a while, "while I was... unwell... I felt as though I was lost in a dense fog. Nothing penetrated it, everything was dim and hazy and silent. But... then I could see you. I could hear your voice, and your songs soothed me. And I could feel your touch. You were the only thing I had, the only thing real to me. And when you weren't there... I had nothing. Just the cold, silent fog." He shivered, and I leaned my head against his shoulder and held his hand as we sat there.

After a little while, Ina again peeked in, then seeing Mikhail awake and sitting up, she stepped in, looking relieved. "Mikhail? How are you feeling? You look much better this morning, I must say," she exclaimed.

Mikhail smiled, and said, "Thank you, yes. I do feel better today. But I'm still very tired, so I will probably spend most of the day resting." She nodded and withdrew, after assuring him she'd do her best to keep visitors at bay, leaving us alone again.

I sighed and swung my legs off the bed as I said, "I'd better get going, too, Mikhail. I have so much work waiting for me to do. Let me get some breakfast for you, then I'd better take off. I'll come back later today, though, and see how you're doing. Okay?"

Mikhail clung to my arm tightly for a minute, reluctant to let me go. Then he sighed and nodded as he released me. "Please do, Alice. I'll look forward to seeing you again." Then he lay back down and closed his eyes as I crept out the door.

The town hall had a small kitchen, used mainly for food preparation for various events held at the hall, but also available for boarders to use. I headed back there and found enough supplies to make Mikhail some tea and an omelet. I loaded everything onto a tray, took it back to his room, and left it on his table, urging him to eat up while everything was hot. He sighed and sat up, then came over to the small table.

He smiled and thanked me as he sat down to eat, and I kissed him on the top of his head and rushed off. I hurriedly cleaned up my mess in the kitchen, then ran out the door and towards home. There I changed into work clothes and hurried through my chores, then I grabbed the bags of seed I'd purchased from Gombe the day before and planted and watered them. It had warmed up considerably by then, leaving me hot and dripping sweat, so I showered and changed, then saddled up Nimbus and hurried over the mountain to Bluebell.

Once there, I stopped first to visit Cam. I must have looked as tired and worn out as I felt, because he looked concerned as he greeted me. He asked how Kana and Mikhail were doing, and I filled him in. He seemed slightly perturbed at my description of spending the night in the same bed as Mikhail, but he said nothing except that he was glad to hear he was better this morning. Then with a smile, he pulled out a small cluster of lily-of-the-valley from among his buckets of flowers and handed them to me, saying, "Here, I think you need these today."

I took the flowers with a cry of delight, "Oh, how sweet! These are one of my very favorite flowers." I sniffed deeply of their sweet fragrance, then smiled wistfully at him, saying, "A 'return to happiness'... yes, I could use that right now." Then I thanked him and hurried off to finish my rounds.

I hadn't taken the time yesterday to deal with any of the messages on the board, so there were more than usual when I checked through them. In response to a message from Eileen, I hurried over to her house. I needed to see if she could join us camping, too, so I eagerly knocked on her door and went on in.

As usual, she was in her workshop. She grinned broadly when I walked in, saying, "So, you've come about my message? I think it's time to finish this tunnel—what do you say?"

I gave an excited little shriek as I danced a happy dance, saying, "Really? You think it's ready to finish? Oh, that's wonderful! What can I do to help?" She gave me her list of necessary supplies, but this time I didn't have everything—I had been too busy lately to do much in the way of gathering materials. So I told her I'd get everything together as quickly as possible and get back to her.

Then I told her about our plan for a girls' camping night. Her whole face lit up, and she excitedly accepted my invitation. She said that she had tons of canvas laying around, so since she'd learned to make bender tents as a child, she'd make our shelter. I grinned and accepted her offer, and asked her to let Laney know about the tent. Then I rushed off to head back home.

On the way back home, I kept my eyes open for wild spring herbs and berries, as well as for timber and stone. I didn't want to spend a lot of time foraging right then, though, so I decided to look around a little more tomorrow on my way to Bluebell. I returned to my farm, left Nimbus grazing in the small pasture with my other livestock, and hurried inside. I put the lilies in a small vase and grabbed a sandwich for a quick lunch. Then I headed back to the clinic, dropping off a few parcels along the way in response to various requests I'd seen posted up on the board earlier.

When I arrived, I first checked in with Dr. Ayame, and when I told her about Mikhail's improvement, her eyebrows shot up. "Well, kiddo," she said with a smile, "looks like you found the one medicine he needed: a healthy dose of you." I turned red and hastily asked about Kana. "He's fine. He's itching to get back to his horses, though, and going nuts because he's stuck here!" she replied with a laugh. I laughed, too, then went back to visit.

Georgia was there again, but this time they were just chatting, so I grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to Georgia to visit for a few minutes. We chatted about how Kana was doing, the farm, his horses, and so on, until Georgia caught a look from Kana and hastily excused herself, saying she'd go grab them something to eat from Yun's and would I mind keeping him company for a few minutes while she was gone?

After she left, Kana turned and looked at me, a serious look on his face. After a long pause, he said, slowly, "Alice... I, uhh... I just want to say, don't, uhh... don't worry about me, okay? I think that fall knocked some sense back into me. Let's just be friends now, yeah? I'm good with that."

I smiled at him and put my hand on his, and said, "Kana, you're one of my very best friends, and you'll always be dear to me. I'm glad you think you'll be okay." Just then, I heard Georgia's slow, sweet drawl call something to either Hiro or Dr. Ayame as she returned from the tea shop across the street. I smiled at Kana and added, "I think you will be, too."

Just then, Georgia opened the door and stepped in, holding a bag of delicious smelling food. Kana sat up eagerly, exclaiming, "Wow, that smells amazing! I'm starving!" I laughed and left them to their meal.

I stopped in at Gombe's to see if he'd gotten any new seeds in yet, since he'd run out of some already by the time I made it in to buy my spring crops. He had a few new ones, so I picked some up to plant the next day. Next I went to Yun's and picked up a tofu salad and a thermos of steaming, fragrant sencha tea to go for Mikhail.

I stopped and chatted with Ina at the front desk of the town hall on my way in. She seemed much cheerier today as she went about her mayoral duties—apparently she'd been very worried by recent events. She was a stern person by nature, but she genuinely cared for the village and its residents. After we had talked for a few minutes, she left to tend to some matters about the village before stopping to enjoy some tea at Yun's. Wishing her a good day as she left, I returned to Mikhail's room.