A beat passed—Stan was surprised. Surely she didn't...

"You are not the first young lady to take ill, Miss Alardice," the healer returned carefully, flashing a quick smile at a waving acquaintance (who would hopefully assume he was too busy with a pretty young lady to be interested in conversation with a plump male healer in his middle fifties). "Some take so ill they disappear to the countryside for a year. Others find it... renews their interest in marriage. I have seen the occasional babe born 'prematurely' to newlyweds."