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Show Page 159 check on Sarah. She pulled back the fur wrap I had given the twins and placed the back of her hand upon Sarah's cheek. It was only a soft, strangled cry, yet the sound chilled me and I leaped up to go to Anne. I knew before reaching out to touch the babe's soft, pale skin. Sarah was dead. For a breath, Anne stood silent, then she began to keen. I made no move to quiet her, but quickly took the still infant from the cradle. I undressed her and tried to rub some life into the cold limbs with my hands, yelling loudly for Cisly even as I did so. I dimly recalled Margaret saying how she had rubbed the Carter baby to life when it had been born blue and still. I knew even as I worked it was too late. The door swung open and Cisly ran into the house, Twig following behind. "What is it, Anne?" he asked, his hands upon her shoulders. "What has happened?" Anne did not answer, though her cries turned to heaving gasps and she rolled her eyes to show where I sat on the bed holding little Sarah. I rose with the babe in my arms. "I'm sorry, Cisly," I told him, my throat aching with tears unshed. "Sarah never awoke from her nap." I had never seen a grown man cry. Cisly held out his arms, and when I placed Sarah in them, huge tears rolled down his face. He made no sound, simply stood looking into his |