Audrey was humming what Lara knew to be a Hank Williams song, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”—one of her favorites. She’d move on to Patsy Cline soon enough because she couldn’t yodel. Midway through the song, she stopped humming. “You took far too many chances in Paris. You know that.” Audrey’s voice was sharp and tight. Her berry picking came to an abrupt halt.

Lara couldn’t see her mother’s face. “I know.”

“I was out of my mind with worry,” said Audrey, her voice calm and measured. “You were gone three days. They said you were dehydrated and feverish when they found you lying outside a bistro.” The bushes shook again as Audrey pulled them, plucking the ripe fruit from the leaves. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“I didn’t think I was gone that long. It seemed like hours.” Lara tugged at the bushes without much enthusiasm, feeling she needed another coffee. “The place was indescribable.”

“Well, try.”

Lara studied a leaf with a ladybug on it.

The bush rattled from Audrey picking on the other side of it. Then there was a pause. The berry bushes were still, her mother thinking.

“When I was six, I first saw him in the field. He was with a woman—your mother, Margot. They were talking about whether I was ‘the one.’ Sylvie told me never to tell anyone.”

“You should have told me,” said Audrey.

“I know I should have, but Sylvie—Cecile—whoever—specifically said to tell no one. Also, the day you showed me the spell, I should have told you that he’d been at the gala the night before.”

“At the Rivoli gala?” Audrey shrieked, pulling the bushes back so she could see Lara’s face.

“He said I needed to come to Paris. If I did, he’d give me answers about Todd.”

Audrey laughed and shook her head. “Of course, he’d never do anything without something in return. I told you that I wanted no part of him. I wanted us to be normal.”

“He called you a clever little minx.”

“Did he, now?”

Lara could hear the contempt in her voice. “He honored his part of the deal,” she said, plucking at clumps of ripe indigo berries, the smell of them wafting up as she pulled them from their stems. After years of doing this, she was fast. Lara tossed the berries into her bucket and pulled two lawn chairs down from the tractor and unfolded them. “It’s just you and me out here, so can I ask you something?” To be safe, Lara had decided to keep the fact that Cecile was hidden inside her a secret from everyone. “Did you read Cecile’s diaries?”

“I did.”