They came to the open gate of the grave yard and paused there. Sarah was suddenly self-conscious, realizing how freely she had conversed with Mr. Troy, nearly forgetting the event that had allowed them to meet. She squinted against the glare of afternoon sunlight as she looked for and found Leon. He was just approaching, with Annabel decorous but amiable beside him.

Rachel waited at the side of the open grave. She watched the others entering and wondered why those walking in a grave yard stepped so gingerly. Did they fear the dead would feel their tread?

At the conclusion of the graveside service Edna found Sarah and linked arms with her, steering her to the gate and on toward the grove where their carriages waited.

“We have had a letter from Bonard,” Edna said as soon as they passed through the cemetery gateway, as if she could not mention his name inside a holy place.

Sarah did not speak but looked her eagerness.

“Yes,” Edna continued. “They are in California. You have not heard from your sister?”

“Not for more than a year,” Sarah said. “They were then still in Texas.”

“Our letter is almost three months old. When he wrote it, Bonard was full of praise for that new land out there, and saying it is sure to break away from Mexico and join the United States.”

“What did he write of Lauretta?”

“Only ‘my wife is well.’”

Sarah’s voice was almost apologetic. “Practically speaking, they are husband and wife.”

“Legally speaking, they are not.” Edna sighed heavily. “He doesn’t mention any regular business he is engaged in. I fear me that since leaving us Bonard has made his way by speculation, if not worse. It is as if turning scoundrel he had to go the whole way.”

“Do you think we shall ever see them again?”

Edna shook her head. “Almost certainly not, I should think.” She looked into her friend’s face to read what was there. “Do you hope for your sister’s eventual return?”

“I do not.” Sarah’s tone was as cold as the corpse they had seen consigned to earth. “It would only make mischief and confusion.”

“Rachel thinks herself your child,” Edna said, and it was not a question or quite a statement either.

“She is our child. Before she was christened Rachel Kendrick, Uncle Felix started the legal process to make her ours. She was abandoned by her mother, the law says, and says truly. Anyway, ours.”

“I think people have forgot she was not born to you.”

“I think I have forgot it myself.”

Rachel, walking with Adam, came into the grove. They were laughing, and then suddenly they broke off and put their heads together seriously, as Rachel spoke words Sarah and Edna could not hear.

Edna said. “Will you ever tell her the truth?”

Sarah did not answer.

7