“I hope she leaves home and has wild times and adventures. I hope she lives her life to the full, and then comes home and tells you all about it. I hope that sometimes she’ll show up here for our summer vacation, or at least for part of it. Sometimes all you need to give you a feeling of security is the knowledge that home is there for you. That the people you love are there for you. You don’t need to be with them all the time.” She could virtually see his brain working as he thought about it.

“I understand now why me bringing Flora home might have seemed like the final straw.” He was making all the connections, seeing the pattern. “Still more evidence that she was losing her place in my life.”

“It’s frustrating what the brain can imagine, and how our thinking and judgment can be distorted by our own fears. I think she feels guilty about Becca. She’s taking responsibility for it.”

“I’ll talk to her about that, along with all the other things.” He seemed to make a decision. “We might have to postpone dinner.”

“Mealtimes are somewhat fluid in this house as you’ve probably noticed.” Because she knew he was anxious to get back and talk to his daughter, she walked across the deck and took the steps to the path. “I like Flora by the way. I’m glad you brought her here.”

Jack smiled for the first time since the conversation began. “She’s the best thing that has happened to me in a long while.”

“She might be the best thing that has happened to my garden in a long while, too.” Clare stepped along the path, her heart and mood lighter, freed from the burden she’d carried for the last year. She felt very strongly that she’d found a friend. That she and Flora would be more than two people brought together because of family tradition.

The path opened up onto the garden and they walked across the lawn to hear raised voices.

Jack glanced at her. “Any idea what’s going on?”

“No. But that’s Aiden.” And he rarely, if ever, raised his voice. Maternal intuition made her walk faster, and she reached the terrace to see Aiden gesturing to Todd. He had the car keys in his hand and they seemed to be arguing about something. “What’s wrong?” There was always something, she thought. Life was less a roller coaster and more a series of hurdles, with no breathing room in between them.

Aiden looked stressed. “I was on my way back and I passed Izzy going in the other direction.”

“I don’t understand.”

“In a cab! She was in a cab. She turned her head away when she saw me but I’m pretty sure she was crying. Did something happen?”