“It’s probably not related. She was young, like nineteen. Local girl. Grew up in Hastings. People thought she disappeared but then it turned out she left on her own. Didn’t want her boyfriend to follow her. She wrote to him after a while, but I remember people thinking something bad happened.”

“Did she ever come back?”

“Would you?”

“Fair enough.”

“I guess she was trying to get away—from Hastings. Maybe from her boyfriend. Or both. I didn’t know her that well.”

Nic was more than curious now. “Which do you think it was?” she asked. “Running from the town or from a man?”

Kurt shrugged. “I’ve got no idea.”

She looked at him until he met her eyes.

“Who would know?”

“Just one person I can think of,” he answered. “Her sister.”

“Where can I find her?” There was something about this that had her full attention. Another woman who’d disappeared, assumed to have walked away.

Kurt glanced out the window, across the street at the inn, then back at her.

“I’ll take you,” he said. “After my shift.”

Chapter Eleven

Day two

We sit at a small table in the kitchen. It is round and has four chairs. We eat sandwiches. Alice drinks milk. Milk sits before me as well, but I do not drink it. I should have asked for water, but I did not want to upset Alice. She poured me the milk. I hate milk.

The man drinks a beer. His mood has been the same since we walked back from the edge of the property. Helpful. Kind.

Alice makes us hold hands because she wants to say grace. I feel my right hand taken by the man who reaches across the table. I feel my left hand taken by Alice. As she says her prayer, I say my own. I pray that neither of them can feel the blisters on my skin.

“Thank you, Lord, for these blessings. For the food, and the milk,” she says. Her eyes are closed as she speaks. But then she opens them and looks at me.

“And forgive us for our sins. Amen.”

She was angry when the man brought me back to the house. I had been gone for well over an hour. I had no idea, and I didn’t care. I wasn’t planning to return. Now I don’t know what to think or feel. I cling to hope.

When we returned, the man brought me more clothes from his dead wife. I have not seen my clothes since last night, but he told me he put them on an outside line to dry since the sun was strong today. After dinner, I will offer to retrieve them.