I said. “Do you think he will?”Kate and I were shopping at the Old Mill.“Yes,” she said, picking up another hat. “That’s what he said anyway. He’s coming back here in February.”It wasn’t like I had completely given up on Dr. Mortimer returning to Bend, but I had stopped holding my breath. He had been in India now for almost a year and he felt even farther away than that.“So did he say he was coming back to live here and work at the hospital?” “Ben didn’t say,” Kate said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”I thought about the last time I saw Dr. Benjamin Mortimer. He had helped to rescue me from Nathaniel, who had kidnapped me. The brothers had struggled and a gun went off. Nathaniel was shot and killed. Dr. Mortimer blamed himself. Soon after, he left the country.Kate and I had promised each other to not discuss the upcoming trial of the other kidnappers that was scheduled for February until after New Year’s. I wanted to enjoy the holidays and not think about Seattle and having to testify in front of the scientists who did experiments on me for medical research.
