Her mother looked at her as if she’d only just realized Leah was sitting there. “You want to do what?”

Oh God.

Should she just say never mind? Nothing?

But her lips began to move and words came out.

“Wendy’s mom is going out of town,” she said, her heart beating faster even as the words came out slower. “So Wendy is staying overnight with Mrs. Leone, and she asked me to come and stay too. Can I?”

She braced herself so she wouldn’t flinch when her mother snapped at her.

But her mother didn’t snap at her. She stared at Leah for a moment, then went back to staring at the toast. She was silent for so long Leah began to wonder if she was ever going to respond. Finally she did.

“Is it all right with Mrs. Leone?” she asked.

“Yes.”

Leah held her breath. She hadn’t been allowed to stay with a friend since forever. The prospect of having her mother say yes was like dawn breaking, like a cell door opening.

“I’ll have to speak to Anne directly,” her mother said.

She was thinking about it, Leah could see.

Come on, Mom, say yes, say yes, say yes . . .

If she could have read her mother’s mind, she would have been coming up with counterpoints to every argument against letting her go, but she had no idea what her mother was thinking as she stared at her toast.

Finally her mother said, “All right.”

Leah practically gasped for air. The shock rendered her speechless.

“I’ll pick you up at the barn—”

“You don’t have to. Wendy is coming out this afternoon. Anne is bringing the kids out to watch her ride. We’ll all go back in Anne’s car.”

“I want you to call and let me know when you get there.”

“I will.”

Leah held her breath again, waiting for the change of heart. It couldn’t possibly be this easy after all this time of not being allowed to do anything.

After a moment, her mother found a faint smile, got up from her chair, and came around to give Leah a weak hug and kiss the top of her head.

“I’m glad you have a friend, sweetheart,” she said.

Then she walked out of the room, leaving her toast untouched.

Chapter 13

13

The Thomas Center for Women near the center of Oak Knoll had been built in the late 1920s as a private Catholic girls’ school—which it had remained into the sixties.

The buildings had been modeled in the style of the old Spanish missions that studded the length of the California coast like jewels in a necklace. Gleaming white stucco and red tiled roofs; arched corridors and curved, pedimented gables; a terraced bell tower standing tall above the thick walls.