Lillian hunched her shoulders against the stiffening wind. It was even colder here than on Badger Rock, but Ashley supposed, in the middle of summer, it could be an inviting place, a haven for two women who wanted to have some time together, alone. In her mind, Ashley could almost see them, beautiful Judith Land and her mother, who must have been strong to have been attracted to a man like J. Land Crockett.

“Oh, you’ll meet Crockett,” Lillian said, and smiled briefly, knowingly, adding, “when it suits him.”

“What happened to Judith’s mother—Crockett’s wife?” Ashley asked, sensing Lillian wanted to talk.

The older woman gazed back out toward the water, and her clear eyes squinted against the glare off the bay. “She died when Judith was just twelve—of breast cancer. I didn’t know her then, but it must have been devastating. Even after her mother’s death, Judith would come out here—to be with her, I think. She always said she could feel her mother’s presence here, talk to her. They were both named Judith, you know.”

No, Ashley thought, I don’t know; I don’t know anything about Judith Land. She pulled her sweater more tightly around her, but she was still cold. And the eerie feeling wouldn’t go away. It clung to her and seeped into her bones, like the chill. “Why did Mr. Crockett want me to come here?”

With a shrug, Lillian turned, her clear eyes focusing now on Ashley. “He’s been talking about turning Jude’s Paradise over to a group like the New England Oceanographic Institute for years—as a memorial to his wife and daughter.”

It was horribly insufficient as an explanation, given everything else that had happened, but Lillian Parker seemed to make little attempt to make her words believable. Ashley said, “And you think that’s why I’m here.”

Lillian turned sharply away.

“It isn’t, is it?” Ashley asked gently. Demanding answers now, she felt, would do no good.

“I don’t think so.” The reply was barely audible, but there was a wistfulness in Lillian Parker’s expression that was impossible not to miss.

Ashley no longer knew what to feel. “Tell me more about Judith,” she said suddenly. “You were friends?”

“Best friends.” Lillian smiled and seemed reassured by the return to the subject of Judith Land and her memories. “We met when we were about thirteen, at a private girls’ school. Judith was the rebel from Texas and I was the blue blood from Philadelphia. That’s what we called each other, anyway. We were so different, and yet we got along right from the start.” She smiled, lost in memory. “We were infamous for our exploits.”

“What was she like?” Suddenly Ashley very much wanted to know.

Lillian’s shoulders went up as she laughed up at the sky, as if she were laughing at the cloud where Judith Land sat watching them. “Judith was incredible— beautiful, even as an adolescent, and just the biggest hot shit around. You’d have liked her, Ashley.”

Ashley wasn’t sure if that was a compliment. She said nothing, hoping Lillian would continue.