How do you know? she's about to ask, but he's from near Barrayar, and he's a professor. That's probably how. Shutting her mouth, she finishes up and gives a little nod to Duv as she draws her hands away. "Tell me when it's cold. Okay?" she says to the woman, who's coughing too much to respond--maybe even to hear her.

Seeing that, the way they can't do much of anything for people who're wheezing, feverish, that's what makes this hard. It wears on her in a way it hasn't in the past. She's been in places where there was medicine to spare--if at an often terrible price--and places where she wasn't the one trying to save the sick. Never places where she's on the front lines with nothing to offer except wet rags and hopes.

Beth puffs out a hard breath and straightens up, looking for the next task they can accomplish. "Maybe we could get some from them."