Carefully, she eased over onto her back and took in the surrounding area. It wasn’t the guestroom she usually occupied at the Blaidd compound. The walls were painted a pale blue with a few black-and-white seascape photographs hanging in small groupings. Unlike some of the other bedrooms she’d seen, this one had a fireplace. On the mantel rested several pictures of Blaidd family members and, set in the middle of the shelf, was a large photo of her and Keen playing in the grass backlit by sunshine. She remembered that particular event. She was trying to teach Keen how to evade a snakebite, but the funny thing was she couldn’t place when someone could have taken a pic. She smoothed the soft cover down and tried to gently wiggle up on the pillows. An oversize sofa and chair dominated the other side of the room, surrounding a wicker trunk coffee table. At least she wasn’t in a hospital room. The antiseptic smell and scrunch of a plastic mattress every time you moved got old quick. A lock of her hair fell forward and she absently brushed it back.
