“Oh, my goodness!” Oliver said and slapped his knee. “It seems I lost track of how long it’s been since you were here last. Now that it’s become old news here, I’d forgotten you didn’t know.”

“Know what?” Henry asked, proud of himself for sounding only politely interested—as opposed to how he really felt: utterly terrified of what her absence could mean.

“Well, Paulina—you met my sister, Paulina.”

“Yes,” Henry said, trying not to sound impatient.

“Paulina got it into her head that she was off to the continent; she does that. Just suddenly decides it’s time to move on and she’s gone before you can say boo. And she invited Amala to go with her; thought it would do her good to get away.”

Henry found it difficult to breathe and even more difficult to not allow Oliver to see how the news was affecting him. He was glad that Oliver kept rambling without paying too much attention to Henry.

“I dare say Paulina was probably right; she does have that extra sense, you know.” He chuckled. “I don’t understand it, but she certainly does have a way of knowing things. Anyway, it seems she had a sense about it being difficult for Amala and Kat to be at this season of their lives and be in such dramatically different situations. At least that’s what Paulina told me when we spoke privately about it before they left. She put it a little more delicately when she spoke of it in front of the girls. But I suppose a father misses the clues about such things, and perhaps their mother is just too close to them every day. And Paulina swoops in and tells me it’s obvious that Kat is hesitant to attend social events and seek out potential marriage suitors because she doesn’t want to hurt Amala, who is determined that she will never be able to marry—and unfortunately none of us can argue with the challenges in that regard. So, Paulina thought it would be good for Amala to do some extensive traveling while Kat focuses on her social life. I guess that about sums it up. Paulina announced her plans one day and they were off before dawn the next morning. I’m sorry you didn’t get a chance to tell her good-bye.”