“That’s right.” Smiling, Laura flicked a finger down Ali’s cheek. “You’re stuck with me.”

“I felt bad, and I wanted it to be your fault.” She had to swallow before she could speak again. “Did he go to bed with another woman?”

Just when you thought it was safe, Laura thought with a jolt. “Where did you hear a thing like that?”

“At school.” The flush rose up into Ali’s cheeks, but she kept her eyes steady. “Some of the older girls talked about it.”

“That’s nothing you—or the older girls—should be talking about.”

Ali’s mouth firmed. “He did.” She nodded and, leaving a small, lovely part of her childhood on the bench, rose. “That was wrong. He hurt you, and you made him go away.”

“There were a lot of reasons I asked for a divorce, Ali.” Tread carefully, Laura warned herself, even as her heart was breaking to see that too-adult look in her baby’s eyes. “None of them is appropriate for you or your friends to discuss.”

“I’m talking to you, Mama,” Ali said so simply that Laura had no response. “It wasn’t my fault,” she continued. “It wasn’t your fault, either. It was his fault.”

“No, it wasn’t your fault. But two people make a marriage, Ali. And two people break it.”

No, Ali thought, studying her mother. Not always. “Did you go to bed with another man?”

“No, of course not—” Laura stopped herself, appalled that she was discussing her sex life with a ten-year-old. “Allison, that question is completely inappropriate.”

“Cheating is inappropriate, too.”

Weary again, Laura rubbed her brow. “You’re too young to judge, Ali.”

“Does that mean it’s all right to cheat sometimes?”

Trapped. Trapped by the unbending logic and admirable values of a ten-year-old girl. “All right—no, it’s not.”

“He took our money, too, didn’t he?”

“Oh, good God.” Laura rose. “Gossip isn’t attractive, and it’s irrelevant.”

She understood now, Ali thought, understood the titters from other girls, the murmured conversations of adults. And all the pitying glances. “That’s why you had to go to work.”

“Money is not an issue here.” She refused to let it be. “I went to work because I wanted to. I opened the shop because I wanted to. Templeton Hotels has always been part of my life. So have Margo and Kate. Working is sometimes hard, and it’s sometimes tiring. But it makes me feel good, and I’m good at it.”

She took a breath, struggled for the right angle. “You know how you’re tired after a long rehearsal for a recital? But you love it, and when you’ve done well, when you know you’ve done well, you feel strong and happy.”

“That’s not an excuse?”