We have no sooner pulled into the gravel approach than the screened front door opens and a young man steps out. He is tall and slender, with curly reddish brown hair. He is not handsome, but he has a kind face and gentle features. He stands there for a moment, head cocked, wondering, I suppose, if we’ve come about a room. I know without Belinda saying it that this is Elliot. I step out with Kat, and the driver assists Belinda and the baby out the other side. Belinda comes around the back of the carriage and I behold the second Elliot recognizes her.

The man is at Belinda’s side in seconds.

“Thank God!” he says, wrapping her in a gentle embrace so as not to crush the infant. “I was so worried when you and James didn’t come home! I told him where you’d gone, and he went looking for you. I expected you both back from San Francisco that night. And you’ve delivered the baby!” he says. “What happened? Where is James? Why isn’t he with you?”

Belinda opens her mouth to answer him, but even I would have trouble answering these questions, though I know all the answers to them. Her friend seems to sense she doesn’t know where to begin.

“Are you all right?” he says in a less agitated voice. “Are you hurt? Is the baby all right?”

“Yes,” she says. “I am all right and so is the baby. Sarah came nearly a month early but she’s strong and she’s healthy even though she’s small. We’re all right.”

“What happened? Did James find you?”

“I . . . I missed the train Tuesday night and I stayed with . . .” She pauses and then nods at me. “My good friend Sophie here. At her house in San Francisco. We . . . we were awakened before dawn by the quake, and then the baby started coming and there was no way to stop it. We . . . couldn’t get out of the city and the fires were everywhere. If it wasn’t for Sophie I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

Elliot seems to notice me for the first time. He extends his right hand in greeting. “Elliot Chapman. Pleased to meet you.”

I shake his hand. “Sophie Hocking. Likewise.”

“Sophie got me to the hospital, Elliot, when all the world was caving in around us, and nearly delivered the baby herself. She looked for me after we were evacuated. And she brought me here. Brought me home even after she herself lost everything.” She turns to me and there is so much she is saying to me without words. Her eyes are shining as she looks at Kat standing next to me and continues. “And this is her—” Belinda struggles for a moment and then the word slips out. “Her daughter, Kat.” I hear the catch of emotion in her voice as she says this while holding her own child close to her breast. Tears pluck at my own eyes and I blink them away.