had come to America with only one goal in mind: to build a singing career. Thinking about love and family was put off. When I looked at them now, I told myself, Emma, get going. Get back to New York. You’re going to lose your perspective. You’ll be in danger of falling in love with someone in Hillsborough and shelving anything else.
When Samantha was ready to go, I picked up Ryder and followed her to the door. Parker had taken Dr. Davenport to the hospital, and she had wanted to be on her own, anyway. She was still being quite mysterious about her shopping plans. I was suspicious, because she was always marking one sort of anniversary or another when it pertained to my being at Wyndemere. Almost every week, she would tell me that this was when we first did this or that and then give me something that was hers, something she claimed she rarely used, like a scarf with the tag still on it.
Tracking our little anniversaries came easily to her. She remembered far more detail than I did. Perhaps I was still feeling like someone caught in a whirlwind. Everything happened so quickly that events ran into each other, but not for her. She could sit down and relive every moment in a recitation that resembled a fairy tale: Once upon a time, the perfect surrogate came to Wyndemere…
It looked like a day for fairy tales. The sky was so blue that no one would think we’d see another cloud for a week. Ryder and I said good-bye to her at the door. He had learned how to wave his little right hand. We watched her drive off, and then I took him with me to play in his playpen while I practiced some songs on the piano. He was fascinated with that, and sometimes he would just sit and listen for hours.
About an hour after lunch, I noticed that the sky had surrendered most of its blue to a rising tide of darker clouds. Wave after wave of them came out of the northeast. Mr. Stark told Mrs. Marlene that he thought the weather was undergoing a rapid change. I looked at my watch. Samantha said she was going to have lunch out and would probably head back about three. Head back from where? I wondered. She wouldn’t reveal anything, but it sounded like she was going farther than usual, perhaps to Centerville, which was a bigger city with more upscale stores.
Three o’clock came and went. At four, I went to the front windows to look at the weather. The sky was completely overcast, the clouds swirling with high winds. Fifteen minutes later, a slight rain began and gradually thickened into something that resembled sleet. I could hear it scratching at the windowpanes.
Ryder was having his nap. I was pacing about the mansion. Mrs. Marlene and I looked at each other, each reflecting the other’s worry.
The phone rang at a quarter to five. I was trying to keep myself from thinking anything bad by reading, but my eyes drifted off the page constantly. I held my breath and listened. Then I heard footsteps rushing down the hallway toward the library.
I sat frozen.
Mrs. Marlene appeared, her hands clasped against the base of her throat.
I stood up slowly. “What?”
“She’s been in an accident. They were looking for Dr. Davenport. They wouldn’t tell me anything.”
I went to her and took her hand, or she took mine.
“I’ll go get Mr. Stark,” she said. “He’ll know what to do.”
I nodded and walked out behind her. Mrs. Cohen was coming down the stairs.
“What is it?” she asked immediately.
“Samantha has been in an accident. They’re looking for Dr. Davenport.”
She glanced at her watch. “He’s out of the operating room by now,” she said. She continued down and to the kitchen to get something for Mrs. Davenport.
I went to check on Ryder. He was still asleep.
Another hour passed. And then, close to six thirty, we heard the doorbell. I hurried ahead of anyone else to open it. Franklin was standing there.
He didn’t have to say a word. His face spoke volumes, all of sadness and dread.
“She went off the road, at a turn, and hit the edge of a guardrail. Her car… it didn’t stop her…”
“Will she be all right?”
He shook his head.
I felt as if I had submerged myself in the icy waters of Lake Wyndemere, but I wasn’t cold so much as numb. Every muscle in my body seemed to lose