A seagull picked its way along the shore. Maggie observed its progress without really seeing it. She was worried about Mom.

Her mother was not happy. She especially wasn’t happy with Carlton. And how much less happy she’d be if Maggie told her that she was considering returning to college there. Considering it. She hadn’t decided yet. Nor had she written back to Jane.

A return had never been part of Mom’s plan. Maggie knew that. The business of a sabbatical had been her mother’s way of making an eventual transfer to another college easier. To a safer college. The Safe University. As if there were such a place.

One thing was for sure: If she strolled into the cabin right now and mentioned a hankering for a women-only college in Alaska, Mom would be thrilled.

Maggie shivered and smoothed down her wind-ruffled jacket so she could zip it.

“You’re getting cold,” Linnie said. “Want to go in?”

“Not yet.” Anxious to put off her mother for a little longer, she said, “It’s neat to think about this Danielle, like, out of the blue—boom. Family.”

Linnie nodded once. She was gazing at the other end of the beach, where snow webbed the marshy stretch between the aunt’s property and the Blakes’. The wind battered the straggle of brittle brush there, and the brown remains of goldenrod and cattails shuddered stiffly. Across the marsh, Devil’s Tongue cut into the lake, a riot of rocks and thicket and trees. What had the mapmaker labeled it? Something about a graveyard for ships.

Linnie finally said, “It is neat, and, of course, I hope she’s nice … but if she’s not?” Her shoulders came up. “I already have a family. Kate, Sam, Thomas.” She smiled fleetingly. “You, Wren, Caleb…” Her voice died. A frown drew two lines between her eyebrows.

Abruptly, she continued, “I realized that there.” She indicated the wild bluff with a lift of her chin. Fear flashed across her face. “A lot of people have been rooting for me, covering for me. Helping me when I felt helpless. Fighting for me…” She looked away sharply. “Well, now I’m fighting for myself.”

Mom decided to stay for the weekend. When Linnie left and Maggie returned to the cabin, her mother announced the news, an unconvincing smile pasted on her face.

Friday passed, then Saturday, and hour upon hour, Mom’s fake smile persisted. Fixing meals with Wren, setting the table, walking with Maggie on the beach—during every activity, she stayed almost maniacally cheerful.