The clock chimed one. There was still time to catch the two o’clock train to New York. I didn’t care if Sullivan was waiting for me. He’d be raging that I hadn’t brought Lily, but he couldn’t hurt me more than Delia had. Nobody could.

There was a knock at the door and I jumped up to answer it. The driver was early. But it wasn’t the driver; it was Delia. I stood, unable to move. I thought maybe I was seeing a ghost. But then she spoke. “Hello, Nora. Can I come in?”

I nodded and opened the door wide. She came in and looked around at my luggage.

“I thought you might be leaving town. I’m glad I caught you in time.”

There was an awkward silence between us. I nodded to the sofa and she sat down.

“I’m sorry for what I said, Nora. It was unforgivable.”

“You had every right,” I said.

“No. I had the right to be angry with you for working for Sullivan, but I had no right to accuse you of stealing Lily when I didn’t have all the facts.” She paused, and I saw that she was fighting back tears. “And I had absolutely no right to say I wished you were dead.”

I shrugged. “It hardly matters now. I’ll be on my way to New York in an hour and I don’t suppose we’ll ever see each other again.”

I was trying to put on a brave face, but my voice faltered. Delia began crying in earnest. She stood up and put her arms around me.

“Please forgive me, Nora. I never wanted it to be like this. You don’t know how many times I wished you had survived, and we could be sisters again.”

I looked at her. “I wanted that too, Delia. I came to Texas to find you, but then I got involved with Sullivan—ah, ’tis a long story.”

Delia pulled me down on the sofa and sat beside me. “Tell me everything,” she said.

I looked at the clock. “But there isn’t time. . . .”

“You’re not leaving until I hear it. I’m going down to send your driver away; then I’m coming back to make some tea and you’re going to tell me everything.”

I managed a weak smile. She sounded just like the bossy Delia I remembered from the Titanic. I waited until she returned and went about making the tea. Then she sat down.

“Go on now,” she said.