“There was guilt, I’m sure. But there was love, too, and more of that than anything.”

Grace sat quietly for a moment and seemed to collect her thoughts.

“I know you may not believe me, but I’ve loved Zachary all this time. Even during the worst days. Even those awful nights with Ian…that’s when I missed him the most.”

“I believe you.” Nora tried to give her a reassuring smile. “Five years ago I left the man who had been the center of my universe for thirteen years. Trust me, I believe you.”

“Thirteen years.” Grace sounded stunned. “How did you survive?”

“I wasn’t sure I would. Sometimes I’m not sure I did.”

Grace nodded her understanding. “Ever since Zachary left I’ve felt like a shade. I walk through the empty house and catch glimpses of myself in the mirror or the windows, and I’m surprised to find I’m still there.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. Her eyes held unshed tears. “I scare myself sometimes.”

Nora took a sip of her tea and found she could barely get it down.

“I scare myself, too.”

“I suppose I should be glad Zachary and I stayed married as long as we did. I never believed he loved me. I wanted to. And he certainly did everything he could to show that he loved me. But even after seven years, eight years, I still doubted it. So I pulled away hoping—”

“Hoping he would come after you.”

“And I let him go…”

“Hoping he would come back.”

“But he didn’t come back…” Grace finished the thought.

“I’m sorry,” Nora said, not knowing what else to say.

“I think…I don’t know what I was thinking at the time…. I believe I had the idea that we had to end before we could start again. Nonsense, of course. A romance novel fantasy, I see that now. No offense.”

“None taken. I write erotica, not romance novels.” Nora grinned but her smile faded from her face. “Ask me, Grace. I know you need to.”

“I rang his flat. No one answered. I stopped by this morning and knocked. No one came to the door. Was he with you?”

Nora sensed her claws instinctively wanting to show themselves. But for some reason she harbored none of the hostility she usually felt for a rival.

“I won’t lie to you, Grace. He was with me.” She leaned forward to gaze earnestly at Grace. “But I won’t lie to myself. I think he was with you, too.”

Grace stood up slowly and walked to Nora’s kitchen window.

“When I called him…” Grace began and exhaled. Her warm breath steamed up the cold glass of the window. “He didn’t call me Gracie like he always had.”

“Gracie,” Nora repeated. “That’s cute. You should start calling him George.”

“For King George?”

Nora laughed. “ For George Burns and Gracie Allen. They had a legendary marriage. Might work.”

“I fall in love with him a little bit more every time he calls me that. We’d been married a year and one day it just came out—‘Gracie, come read this.’ It was the first time I felt truly married to him. And it was such a relief after a lifetime of being called ‘princess.’”