I was in. People just took in foster kids to work them like slaves. A few of them were nice but not many. They took us for the money the state paid them. I never had a real Thanksgiving or Christmas or a birthday.” But that had changed now, and he finally had the family he had dreamed of all his life, with Kate, not as the foreman, but as her partner in life. They had so many good things in store for them. Gemma was trying to convince them to come to London too, but they said they were too busy on the ranch to go that far and stay away for long. Gemma wasn’t going to give up easily, and intended to harass them until they did. She was going to be back in time for their father’s monument installation too. They agreed to delay it a few weeks until the end of May, so she could be there during her summer break.
* * *
—
Everyone was so full they could hardly leave the table at the end of the meal, and the weekend went by too quickly. It had seemed sad to Morgan and Billy at first not to have their father there. But Thad and their aunts kept them so busy that by the day after Thanksgiving they were in good spirits and having fun. Peter had called from New York, and had finally admitted to his parents that he and Caroline were separated. He told them that he was entirely to blame and didn’t go into detail. He called Caroline and the children on Thanksgiving, and they talked to their grandparents.
They left on Sunday morning to go back to San Francisco. Gemma left shortly after, to go back to L.A. and finish packing. The movers were coming that week to remove the furniture she was keeping and put it in storage with her art, and she was leaving for Zimbabwe in two weeks to start work.
That afternoon, Juliette left to catch her flight to L.A. and then Paris. It was a deeply emotional moment when she left the ranch, as she and Kate clung to each other with tears running down their faces.
“Take care of yourself,” Kate said through her tears, “and come back if you’re not happy there. We love you. You always have a home here.”
“And you too. Come to visit me.” She patted Kate’s face as the two women cried. “Be happy, Kate. Your father didn’t understand many things and he was a stubborn man, but he loved you, and he wanted all of you to be happy. I don’t think he ever knew what he did to you, telling you that your mother was dead.” Kate nodded. She thought that too, and wasn’t as angry as her sisters about it. “Be happy with Thad. There is nothing more wonderful than the love of a good man.” She smiled through her own tears then. “I have no regrets with Jimmy. It was everything we wanted and needed. He was my world,” she said softly, “and my sun and moon. I wish that for you and Thad.” In a way she had been Kate’s role model for how to love a man, with gentleness and loyalty and pride, and forgiveness for his failings. They had been good for each other, and she hoped that she and Thad would be too.
Kate stood and waved as the car drove away with Juliette, with Thad standing next to her with an arm around her shoulders. Kate hoped that she would be happy now, even without Jimmy, and that his love would carry her into the future, with the years they had shared.
“I’m going to miss her so much,” Kate said, still crying when the car was gone. Her quiet presence had been a blessing to all of them, not only to her father. He had been a lucky man to have her.
“I’m here for you, Kate,” Thad said gently. And they walked slowly back to Kate’s house. They were moving into her father’s house in a few weeks, after they gave it a fresh coat of paint. They would be officially living together then, until they moved into his house in a year, when it was ready. They had much to look forward to. And Juliette’s warmth and daily presence on the ranch would be long remembered.
* * *
—
Gemma’s arrival at Harare international airport in Zimbabwe, after a thirty-six hour trip from L.A., with stops