Kat opened her eyes again but not as widely. She looked at Amala with great effort. “I need you to know that a day did not pass when I didn’t feel that you had sacrificed your own happiness for mine, the same way you had protected me when your parents were killed, and the way you’ve protected me all of my life since. But I believe now that this is how it was always meant to be.” She squeezed Amala’s hand, and Henry noticed that both women were crying, with their gaze locked firmly. “Now it is your turn to be fully happy, my dearest sister.”

“I am happy,” Amala insisted. “It is only losing you that breaks my heart. I have made peace with all of that.”

“I know,” Kat said. “But you must trust me when I tell you there is a kind of happiness that you’ve never known, and that is my last wish for you.” She turned her head slowly and with effort to look at Henry, and he could tell she was becoming more lost in her pain and her burst of strength was now depleted. “Love her, Henry, the way you have loved me. Let her be a mother to our son, as she should be. You mustn’t be alone, my darling. You’re far too sensitive and tender a man to be left alone for so much of your life. I must know you have someone, and no one but Amala could ever understand the beautiful mixture of life and culture that makes you who you are.”

Henry couldn’t speak. He too was now crying. And what could he say? He still hadn’t recovered from the shock of everything she’d just told them. Kat sighed deeply, and peace washed over her countenance as she settled her head back into the center of the pillow and closed her eyes. “Now you both know how I feel, and I will come back to haunt you if you disappoint me.” The hint of a smile touched her weak lips. The smile faded, and she said in a voice that was severe in spite of becoming raspy, “Mother and Father already know my wish; they are completely in agreement that it’s the right thing. And on the chance that I was never able to tell you how I feel, it’s all in writing . . . a part of my will.”

“What?” Henry blurted before he could think that it might be better to remain silent. He felt suddenly more angry than sad, even though he knew that expressing anger to Kat at such a time would be completely inappropriate and something he would regret. Still, he had to say, “You left us to each other in your will?”