“I doubt that,” Charlie snorted.

“Well, they don’t want their world to end,” Auntie Catherine acknowledged. “It amounts to much the same thing.”

“There’s a lot of people in that qualifier.” She watched dawn tint the ripples in the pool pink and orange. “I’m not ready to stop trying to save them.”

“You’ve made that quite obvious. If you’d pressed your point, Bea couldn’t have stopped you. All four of them working together might have been able to, but I’m not sure they’d have realized that in time. I’m not sure Gwen wouldn’t have stepped away in the end.”

“I have never used my voice against the family.”

“Of course you haven’t. Isn’t that what I just said?”

Her half smile looked entire false. “Did you challenge Auntie Jane? Is that why you left?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Charlotte. I’ve challenged her authority on numerous occasions, but I’ve never challenged her. I play the long game and my sister is as capable of holding a grudge as my granddaughter. Someday, when I’ve Seen enough, I’m going to want to go home.” To die. For a moment, Auntie Catherine looked old. “But that’s me.” The moment passed. “You, however, you need to stop sitting around, watching your ass spread, and feeling sorry for yourself.”

“I’m . . .”

“I still haven’t Seen the impact.”

The words dropped between them like pebbles dropped down a well. Charlie listened to the echoes for a while, then she said, “So there’s still hope.”

“There’s always hope, Charlotte, that’s the point of the story.”

“Yeah, well my story’s a little more complica . . . Oh, crap!” The lounge rocked back as she stood, scraping against the concrete tiles loudly enough to flush a pair of birds from the shrubbery. “I told Jack I wouldn’t leave again without talking to him first.”

One hand raised to shade her eyes, Auntie Catherine grabbed the open edge of Charlie’s jacket with the other, her grip strong enough that her fingers dimpled the leather. “I find it interesting that mentioning hope leads you to Jack. And Jack, if anyone, should understand trouble with relatives.”

“I’m betting Auntie Bea has the courtyard staked out, waiting for me to come back.” Charlie refused to be drawn into a discussion of Jack and hope because there wasn’t any. Nor was she going to mess up the fragile relationship they’d managed to balance between friendship and the happily ever after they couldn’t have by talking about it with Auntie Catherine. “Can you take me through the mirror in his room?”

“Alysha has me blocked. I can’t get into Calgary.”

That wasn’t a no. “You don’t need to. Just point me in the right direction and give me a shove.”

She smoothed out an imaginary wrinkle in her skirt. “Alysha will know you’re back.”

Still not a no. “I’m not worried about Allie.”

“Given the block, it’s possible that the others will feel the way open and once they’ve pinpointed the location . . .”