“Because I gave him something that led him to the instructor instead of back to James, like he hoped. So naturally Fred thinks he has to spend the rest of his life with that teacher. He cracks me up sometimes. He’s soon going to realize that he makes his own decisions. All I do is give people things. What they do with them is out of my hands. You know, he even asked if I would sneak him an apple from your tree tonight, as if that would tell him what to do.”

Claire shivered slightly, even though she was encompassed by the steam from the boiling pot in front of her. “You can never know what that tree will tell you.”

“That’s true enough. We didn’t know what it showed your mother until she died.”

The kitchen went still. The water stopped boiling. The clock stopped ticking. Sydney and Claire instinctively moved closer to each other. “What do you mean?” Claire asked.

“Oh, Lord.” Evanelle put her hands to her cheeks. “Oh, Lord, I promised your grandmother I would never tell you.”

“Our mother ate an apple?” Sydney asked incredulously. “One of our apples?”