Shelly knocked on Sacha's door softly, ever-so-softly.

"You'll need to knock louder than that" Hannah told her, standing behind her. "How do you expect her to hear you when I can hardly hear you from here?"

"That was fine" Shelly said, and she waited with an air of anticipation that made Hannah become suddenly, respectfully quiet as well. "Okay I don't think she's going to answer" Shelly murmured, almost a whisper. "Let's go in."

She opened the door and the sudden pressure change forced the curtain on the far side of the room to suck against the open window. Shelly looked at Sacha carefully, gently, as if even the weight of a glance could bruise her; Sacha was lying in bed, facing away from them, almost completely cocooned in her bed-clothes, and Shelly crossed the room to the bed and knelt down next to it to make her inspection of the patient.

Even from the doorway Hannah could hear the Sacha's faint snoring, and Shelly stood up and confirmed, in an even quieter voice than before: "She's asleep."

"Told you she would be" Hannah said.

"Well it's good, that's the best way for her to get better. But when she wakes up we've got to make sure she eats something. Something healthy, give her body strength." Shelly shivered and hugged herself. "Christ, it's freezing in here." She looked at Sacha again. "Poor thing, no wonder she's all rugged up like that."

"But that's good, right?" Hannah said. "Means she doesn't have a fever."

Shelly walked across to the window and reached behind the curtain to pull the sash down.

"I thought she could use some fresh air" Hannah explained. "This morning, so I opened it."

"It was warm this morning" Shelly pointed out, "but it's not any more." She turned around to face Hannah, and said in a kind of stage whisper: "Didn't you notice that? Didn't it even occur to you?"