Though she couldn’t have been more thrilled with her Christmas present, she soon began worrying about how Claudia was going to react when she found out. They hadn’t talked about Henry much; she’d sensed that Claudia didn’t want to, so Marcy hadn’t pushed it. However, she obviously couldn’t just take off for New Year’s without saying where she was going and who with, nor could she feel happy about leaving her daughter to spend the time alone. Jasmine would almost certainly be seeing friends, although if she thought her mother was going to be lonely she might well cancel. So, if she, Marcy, accepted Henry’s wonderful gift she could be spoiling the New Year for her family.

“You’re looking troubled,” he told her as the waiters left the table.

With a sigh, she picked up a fork and said, “I am. I promise, it’s not that I don’t want to come with you . . .”

“. . . you just don’t want to leave Claudia.”

Her expression showed how right he was and how wretched she felt. “I know you’re going to say that she’s old enough to take care of herself, and of course you’re right, she is, but . . . She’s been through a lot, a heck of a lot . . . It’s why we came here, so that she and Jasmine could start again, put it all behind them. I could say I felt it was my duty to come too, but it wasn’t a duty. They’re my family and they need me, so of course I want to be with them.”

“And you don’t think Claudia’s ready yet to stand on her own two feet?”

She realized how preposterous it must seem when Claudia was doing so well with her business—since finishing the show house she’d received several more commissions, and she was doing wonderful things with the coach house. Apparently, it could be ready as early as February or March, and Marcy suspected that if it wasn’t, they’d move in anyway. “When she’s working,” she said softly, “she is a much stronger and more capable person, but inside she’s still damaged by what happened to her.”

He looked concerned and curious as he waited for her to continue.

With a regretful sigh she said, “There are things I really can’t tell you. Not because I don’t trust you, but because Claudia wouldn’t want me to.”

“It’s OK, I understand, and I’m not trying to make you. I’m simply going to say that I don’t think she’d want to stop you having a life of your own.”