“There we are,” Marta said, giving the baby back to Ingrid. “We can hear ourselves think. Now for lunch. I saw the vegetable gardens out back. Are they for hotel use or family?”

“Both. And you’re hired.”

“For the afternoon,” Marta said. “We’ll discuss it more when we’ve had a bite.”

The Harvey Girls

“…And this is my room,” Trudy said, leading Astrid by the hand around the upstairs hall. “It has two beds because my friend Kirsten stays over a lot.”

“Kirsten’s practically our sister, too,” Little said. “Her mother died and her dad’s a fisherman, so he’s always away. Her only other relatives are in Syracuse, so she just stays here.”

“I see,” Astrid said. “I love your collection dolls, Trudy.”

“Little and Nalle share this room across the hall. It’s the biggest, but they can’t see the river from their windows. Here’s our bathroom.”

“We just had it fixed up,” Little said. “We had to get a whole new tub. The old one had a crack.”

“Look, it has a shower head attached to the wall,” Trudy said. “You can take a regular tub bath, or you can stand up and wash. Now over here, Kennet and Minor are in this room. They’re oldest, so they have the best view.”

Minor turned around from his dresser mirror where he’d been combing his hair. “We do?”

“Apparently,” Kennet said. He was leaning on the doorframe, watching the guided tour.

Astrid smiled at him, her arms stretched out long as the youngsters pulled her toward the other side of the landing.

“Paps sleeps in here,” Little said, opening the master bedroom door and quickly closing it again. “But it’s private. And along this way is our guest room.”

“We wanted you to stay in here,” Trudy said. “But Marta said it was more proper for you to stay in a room at the hotel. Because you’re a lady.”

Astrid was standing in the doorway of the guest room, a hand on the jamb. She looked back over her shoulder at Kennet. A perfect embodiment of her photograph, right down to the shared joke in her eyes. But in vivid, gorgeous color. Blue dress, blonde hair, grey eyes and red lips.

Kennet smiled back and died a little.

“Well,” Astrid said. “I’ll have to tell Marta that this lady would rather be in a home than a hotel.”