“It’s going to happen, Myra, and it’s going to happen soon. I’m ready to go out into the world under my own steam. I am going to blaze a trail that will scorch the earth. You are way too negative for me. I can see it now. You and Charles will go back to the farm, and from time to time, maybe once a week or so, you’ll have dinner with Nellie and Elias or Pearl, if she can find a way to sneak back into town. You might go riding a few afternoons a week. You and Charles will undoubtedly go into town to dinner on the weekends. I suppose you might take up gardening or something equally silly. Maybe finger painting. Think about it, Myra. What are you going to do with all the rest of the hours? Watch TV? Wait to hear from the girls, who will be so busy with their own new lives, they won’t have time for you or me? That sounds pretty damn deadly to me.”

Myra had to agree that it did sound deadly. Even though she didn’t want to ask Annie what she would do if a pardon was forthcoming, she found herself saying, “And what are you going to be doing, Countess de Silva?”

“Well, I can’t go home to the family homestead, since I more or less turned it over to Joseph Espinosa’s family, and no, I do not regret that for one moment. My mountain in Spain has a tenant, but I imagine once we vacate Big Pine Mountain, Pappy might return with his family.

“I thought I would stick my nose into the Post’s business and pester Maggie. I can just see several rip-roaring headlines with my byline underneath. Now, that’s a goal to aspire to, Myra. I think I’ll make an excellent roving reporter. I’ll go dancing with Tee and blow his socks off. When I get bored with him, I’ll head to Vegas and take a shot at running my casino. Cha-ching! I’ll dally around with Fish and teach him a thing or two, assuming I learn something along the way. If nothing else, Myra, I’ll be limber, and I’ll be living, not stagnating. Ah, here come the girls!”

Myra digested Annie’s dialogue and had to admit Annie’s new life, if she managed to make it happen, did sound exciting. She wondered when her old friend would sleep. Knowing Annie as she did, she’d probably go on the Net and find a tutorial about power naps. She smiled at the thought.

A flurry of activity followed as the girls shed their ski boots, skis, and poles and stashed them under the mountain of dead evergreen limbs that now housed the snowmobile.