Chapter Seventeen
While his year of punishment gathered momentum, Karl’s personal relationship with his redeemer became ever more mutually rewarding.
The routines Nurse Drake established rolled along undisturbed, setting a rhythm of predictability that was comforting when living at such extremes. And rather than stale with exclusivity their joy in each other’s company grew undiminished.
Infrequent interruptions like deliverymen aside, they might have been marooned away from civilization somewhere, the last survivors of a blasted habitat. They were almost the only people either of them ever saw, and yet every minute spent together remained a treasure. In love, enraptured, in awe of and utterly enthralled by her authority and allure, Karl wanted to pinch himself every time this icon smil
