“Then let it be, for now. Give yourself some time to figure out how you feel about it. When the time feels right, have a talk with Alexa. That’s what I would do. Wait here for a sec,” he said.

Daniel climbed the few small steps to the rose gardens, and Rebecca stayed behind with Bernice, who was sniffing around the small pet cemetery, where the estate owners had purportedly buried favorite horses and dogs. Rebecca at first imagined that Bernice was paying homage but then she saw that actually she was relieving herself.

Every time Rebecca was in Maudslay she thought about all of the lives spent on the grounds, where once people had lived grandly and where now there remained only a few scattered outlines of structures: parts of the stone foundation of one of the homes, a thicket-choked understructure of a swimming pool, a root cellar. These surroundings at once gave Rebecca a sense of peace and well-being and shot her through with a reminder of the smallness of her life in the vast historical landscape, where one day they would all be rubble and dust.

Wow, that was morbid. She looked up to see Daniel coming toward her with a rose plucked from one of the bushes.

“A rose for my rose,” he said.

“That’s illegal!” said Rebecca, delighted and horrified. She looked around to see if a ranger might be lurking. First her dog had desecrated the pet cemetery, and now this. “This is a state park! You’re going to get us arrested.”

He tucked the rose behind her ear and kissed her, in front of God and Bernice and everyone else. “I don’t care,” he said. “It’s worth it. I’ve missed you, Rebecca Coleman. I’m glad you’ve come back to me.” Then he said, “Are you free today? Maybe we can find a summer adventure.”

54.

Alexa

Alexa’s mother rapped on her door at nine in the morning, which was about ninety minutes earlier than Alexa generally considered acceptable, and then opened the door without being invited to do so. Alexa, who had been sleeping deeply, raised her head and said, “What?”

“I’m sorry to wake you,” said her mother. “But I have to be gone for a lot of the day and Morgan will be at loose ends. Do you think you could keep an eye on her?”

Alexa had the day off from the Cottage. She flopped back on her pillow and pulled the comforter over her face. “Okay,” she said, her voice muffled by the comforter. “I can do that. But where are you going?”