He had wanted to confess his own doubts to her; it had been his sincere intention to tell her everything. Caroline Rose, utterly meticulous and uncompromising in her scholarship, would ask hard questions and he would answer them honestly, and when that conversation was over, he would no longer be engaged. That would be the worst of it, though he knew the week would bring many difficult conversations: with each of the Rose sisters, with Miss Junie and Father Bruce and every male in Ogilvie who was in any way related to Caroline. But together they would come to an agreement on how to handle that, he and Caroline. They could work together still.

“John Grant,” said Miss Zula. She was sitting beside him in the car and he had been so lost in his thoughts that he had forgotten her completely.

“Yes, Miss Zula?”

“You know I love Miss Junie like a sister, and her girls are like daughters to me. Caroline most especially.”

He cast her a quick glance and saw that she was sitting as she always did, straight of back, hands folded. He had never seen her in anything but neat dresses, most of them in somber colors; he had known her all his life, and he had the idea that he didn’t really know her at all. Now Miss Zula was looking straight out the window, and didn’t turn her head toward him.

“Yes, ma’am, I know you do.”

“You did a good thing today, letting her go without making a fuss. You did the right thing.”

There were many questions that came to mind, but John couldn’t think of where to start without revealing too much of his own mind-set, something he could not do out of fairness to Caroline. Something he would not be able to do until Friday, when she came home. The day before the wedding. Until that time he would have to pretend that everything was just fine, which would be one of the harder things he had ever done.

It occurred to him just then that maybe Miss Zula was trying to tell him something else.

He said, “You make it sound like she’s not coming back.”

At that she did turn to look at him. “She’s coming back,” said Miss Zula. “Sad to say, but she will most certainly come back as she promised.”