“ ‘I had a child,’ she said, ‘and it wasn’t what anyone would call a normal child. It was . . . it was different. Very precocious, yes, and perhaps what is best called a mutation. I loved it with my whole soul, it was a beautiful child. But . . . it was taken away.’ She paused, then went on. ‘It was taken far away, and I just can’t come back from that. I can’t stop thinking about that.’

“ ‘You mean they made you give up your baby! A family that size with all that money.’ I was appalled.

“ ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t the family. Let’s just say that the child was taken away, and I don’t know what happened to it. It wasn’t the family’s doing.’

“ ‘The father’s doing?’ I asked.

“ ‘No. I told you this was something terrible. I can’t tell you all of it. I can only say that at any time I might hear about that child.’ She chose her words carefully. ‘That child might be returned to me. Some news might come, good news or bad news. But for now there’s nothing but silence.’

“ ‘Do you know where the child is?’ I asked. ‘Mona, I’ll go get the child! I’ll bring it back.’

“ ‘Quinn, you’re so strong, so confident,’ she said. ‘It’s really totally marvelous just being with you. But no, I don’t know where the child is. I think the child is in England. But I don’t know. And when we were in Europe I was sort of looking for it. There’s no word from the man that took it.’

“ ‘Mona, this is ghastly.’

“ ‘No,’ she said, shaking her head, the teardrops hanging in her lashes, ‘it’s not the way it sounds. The man was a loving man, and the child—the child was exceptional.’ Her voice broke. ‘I didn’t want to give it up, but I had to. It had to go with this loving man, this gentle man that could care for it.’

“I was too perplexed to ask a sensible question.

“ ‘If you have an inkling where this man is, then I’ll go to him.’

“She shook her head. ‘We used to know how to reach him. Rowan and Michael—those are my cousins and foster parents now, they knew the man very well. But now we don’t.’

“ ‘Mona, let me protect you in this, let me go after this man and let me go after the baby.’