As usual, heat leaped to her face, and in a couple of other places too. Was that better than icy misery? Lord have mercy. She really would have to work to keep from making a fool out of herself on this trip.

“And the hotel’s all lined up?” Becca continued. “Everything’s ready to go?”

“Totally ready,” Madeleine said. She’d be staying at the same bare-bones hotel the Sacred Heart group had stayed in. Six years on, and it was still the only hotel on Jorsay.

“Sounds like you’re all set. We’re leaving for the airport at…” Becca winced. “Six-thirty, you said?”

It took well over an hour to drive from Lancaster to the Philadelphia airport, and there was no way Madeleine was missing her flight. “Yes. God bless you. I appreciate it.”

“Happy to do it, sweetie. That’s what friends are for, right? Helping each other.”

“Yes.” Madeleine glanced through the window at the headlights of passing cars, at the lit-up shopping center across the street. Ordinary people living ordinary lives. The life she’d come back to in a month, hopefully with her head sorted out at last. “That’s what friends are for.”

Philadelphia International Airport was nobody’s idea of heaven, but at least it was familiar. Right now, standing at the curb while she said goodbye, Madeleine thought it would take all her courage to leave her friend and step into the unknown.

“You got everything?” Becca asked anxiously. “Passport?” Becca had no children, but she seemed to have a maternal instinct to lavish on Madeleine.

Madeleine patted her purse. “Passport’s at the ready.”

“Great. If you got that, your boarding pass, and your credit card, then you can figure out everything else as you go.” She clapped Madeleine on the shoulder. “Text me when you land. Every time.”

That would be several texts, considering there were no direct flights to Orkney from Philadelphia, or pretty much anywhere else. “Sure, I’ll…”

A car behind them honked, anxious to pull up to the curb in their spot, and Becca called to it, “All right, already!” She turned back to Madeleine with a smile. “Be careful, hon. But also have some fun, okay? This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and you deserve to enjoy yourself.”

That didn’t sound easy. “I’ll do my best.”

“And try not to sleep on the plane. The time difference⁠—”

Another honk, longer than the first one.

“I hate Philly,” Becca groaned. “Okay, come here.”

She and Madeleine threw their arms around each other. For just a second, Madeleine permitted herself to squeeze her friend, to take all the comfort in the embrace that she could, before the voice that had haunted her for a lifetime whispered: Stop it. It’s wrong.

“Give Booster extra pets for me,” she whispered.

“You got it.” Becca held her tighter.