“Hon, you’ve spent the last five years of your life trying to undo the previous fifteen. And you still don’t quite know yourself yet.” Becca squeezed her hand and let go. “That’s okay, but I sometimes think you’re waiting for this trip to tell you.”

Ouch. Did anything hit as hard as the truth? But on the other hand, if a divine visitation…or whatever that had been…couldn’t tell you who you were meant to be, then what could?

Therapy, Becca would say for the hundredth time, and for the hundredth time, Madeleine would reply, Maybe later. The days were gone when they could lock you up for babbling about angels, but that didn’t mean a therapist wouldn’t try to talk her out of believing it.

“There might be some truth to that,” she said slowly. “Maybe that’s the question.”

“The question?”

How was she to put this into words, when it was so hard to articulate even to herself? “I’m going to Jorsay to find answers. But if you asked me what the question is, I don’t know that I could tell you.” She propped her elbow on the table and frowned at the pink dregs of her drink. “I wasn’t meant for this philosophical stuff.”

“Sometimes the philosophical stuff finds us.”

“I like to take action. I’ve had to twiddle my thumbs over this for years. Now I can finally go, and…” Madeleine looked at Becca, silently pleading for her friend to have some answers. “And I wonder if I even know what to look for. If it’ll come in a form I recognize. What if I miss it?”

Or what if it’s not there at all?

No. She wouldn’t go there. Something was calling her back to Jorsay. It had literally said, “Return to me.” How unambiguous could you get?

“You won’t miss it.” Becca spoke so sincerely that it was easy to believe her. “I think you’ll find what you’re looking for, even if it’s not what you were expecting. And then you’ll come home and tell me all about it. Or while it’s happening,” she added. “You got that international phone plan, right?”

“Yes. I’ll keep you updated,” Madeleine promised. “And I’ll send pictures. It’s beautiful even when it’s overcast. Which seems to be most of the time.”

“But it’s June! Won’t it be nice and sunny?”

Madeleine only shook her head and laughed.