“I didn’t do it,” cried Celeste, wrenching her arm free as she spoke. “And I didn’t see anything either!”

“Then why were you grinning like a fool when you came back into the dining hall? Why were you staring at the window that way?”

“Because something told me to.”

“Something told you to.”

“Yes.”

“When you say ‘something,’ do you mean one of your feelings?”

“Not really. It was a voice, a sad voice.”

Desdemona reached for her sister, gently this time, but no less urgently. “I heard a voice too, but I couldn’t understand what it said. Did you?”

“Of course I could, silly.”

“What did it say?”

“It said for me to stop and listen and not be sad, because it couldn’t come to me just yet, but that it would be with me again soon, as soon as it was brought all the way back.”

The vertigo was rising once again. Desdemona had to shut her eyes and wait for the world to get back on its axis. She inhaled deeply and then asked, “Celeste, why did you look so happy then? Describe the voice to me.”

“It just sounded funny.”

“The voice sounded funny? Explain.”

“Just funny, that’s all. Like it was talking underwater. Can I have the rest of my cake now?”

“Hmm? Yes, fine. But not in the dining hall! Eat it in the kitchen, please. And when you’re done I’d like you to amuse yourself for a while. I have some things of my own to do.”

“What things?” asked Celeste.

“Personal things,” she said.

The things to which Desdemona was referring were primarily sneaking back to the vault and digging up Mother’s card, but the fainting spell had taken far more out of her than she’d first realised and Desdemona instead spent the remainder of the afternoon drifting in and out of sleep.

Celeste, thankfully, remained within earshot and amused herself with various games and songs. At one point she even joined her older sister in the sitting room where she proceeded to play solitaire. Desdemona was grateful that Celeste was able to keep herself occupied but the sight of her carefully laying out cards unnerved her just the same.

She was about to ask Celeste to check the grandfather clock on the stair-head to confirm the time when the sound from somewhere beyond the rear of the house became apparent to them both. At first, a gentle purling noise, but gradually swelling to a rumbling.

Celeste leapt to her feet. Familiarity led both sisters to conclude that this was the sound of a boat’s motor.

Mother and Father had returned.

*

For the second time that day, Celeste went bounding through the large doors of the great house. Again, she managed to push back the great cedar barriers. She ran like a hare to where the water greeted the stones.