And now that her grandfather was dead, it was. Deserted by the remarkable spirit that had made this emptiness her home and seemingly held the life of the Valley in the palm of a powerful and graceful hand.

She hadn’t realized just how much she had loved Francis Hatton. Not even in his last illness. Or rather the final heartbreak—for no mere illness could have struck him down so ruthlessly as the deaths of the cousins.

Beside her, Mrs. Lane said in a voice still thick with tears, “I don’t know how we shall get along without him!”

“We shall have to try,” Francesca answered the housekeeper, in an effort to offer comfort. I’m the head of the household now. Such as it is. It’s my duty. . . .

“Yes, Miss Francesca. But it won’t be the same. First the five lads, and now Himself.”

“Well. We must go on. He’d want that. We aren’t the only family in England to suffer—”

“No . . .”

But one could tell, Francesca thought, that Mrs. Lane believed that the Hattons had carried the heaviest burden.

“Did you know,” she asked, suddenly reminded, “that my grandfather owned land in other parts of the country?”

“No, Miss.” The finality of the word indicated that Mrs. Lane didn’t care. Like so many of the Valley’s inhabitants, her universe was here. The rest of England might as well be across the Channel.

Silence fell between them.

Behind them the carriage rumbled over the rough, winding road like a ship wallowing in the sea. Mr. Branscombe had pressed Francesca to stay the night in Exeter, but she had chosen to travel home with her grandfather’s servants. Hers . . . Hers, now. She must remember that.

Below the road the Exe ran like a tangled ribbon, meandering of its own will, sometimes dark in the heavy shadow of trees, sometimes bright with slanting sunlight. A pretty, secretive river that cleft the hills, dividing neighbor from neighbor. Most of them preferred it that way.

When the funeral was over, Francesca told herself, she must return to London and her duties there, interrupted by her grandfather’s illness and death. He would expect it.