“Why, for your brother and his new wife,” Elizabeth said. “We couldn't be there when Blue-Jay married, but we can certainly do our best to welcome his bride to Paradise.”

Annie looked away quickly, too polite and kind to say what she was thinking, though Elizabeth could read it very clearly from the way her mouth jerked.

“There is no need to worry,” Elizabeth said with all the dignity she could muster. “I have studied the recipe very closely, and this time I believe I will be successful.”

“I better come along and help,” Gabriel said solemnly. “There might be some mistakes and you'll need help cleaning up.”

“You know, you could just give up on baking, Auntie.” Annie's expression was all solicitous concern. “You don't have to be good at everything.”

Did the child realize that she was mimicking Elizabeth herself? She swallowed her smile and allowed that it was true that her cakes often went wrong, but she wasn't ready to concede defeat quite yet. Baking was far more challenging than chemistry, where measurements could be depended upon and any result, no matter how unexpected, was interesting and worthwhile.

“I heard that you shouldn't be out walking in the sun,” Gabriel said, when they had come about half the way. “Da said so.”

Elizabeth pulled up short in surprise. It was true that Nathaniel's hovering over her had increased in proportion to the expansion of her waist. At times he was so excessively considerate that she could hardly contain her irritation. Beyond that, he wasn't above issuing commands, something he would never dare to do in other circumstances. An unborn child was a tyrant, and it made Nathaniel into one too.

All that had eased a little since the homecoming. They were all of them so preoccupied with Daniel's health that her own was forgotten, at least temporarily.

She was just about to ask Gabriel who exactly had decided that moderate exercise and sunlight were detrimental when she realized that they stood at that spot on the path where the doctor's place was visible between the trees.

Annie, who could be more direct than Gabriel when she really wanted something, did not bother with diversions. “Can we stop and see Curiosity? I'll bet she's got something cool to drink.”

“You just want to see Martha and Callie,” Gabriel said, grumbling a little that his cousin had not gone along with what he had counted as a very fine distraction.

“Never mind, I see your plan,” Elizabeth said. “You two are hoping that Curiosity will talk me out of baking this cake. Oh, ye of little faith.”

“No,” Annie said. “Or not just that.” She blushed her apology. “I'm sure you'll make a very good cake, Auntie. It's just that there's a post rider come and he's standing right there talking to Curiosity—and maybe there's a letter for us.”

Elizabeth's heart lurched into a faster rhythm, and for a moment she lost the ability to put a sentence together out of simple fear.

“Maybe there's word of Jennet and Luke,” Gabriel said, hopping in place.

“Perhaps,” Elizabeth said, trying to control the tremble in her own voice. And then she gave in to the inevitable. “Go and see, then.”

Gabriel dashed off before the words had completely left her mouth, but Annie, sweet Annie, came closer and touched Elizabeth's hand.

“Are you coming, Aunt?”

“No,” Elizabeth said. “You go ahead. I'll continue on my way home, or your uncle will come looking for me.”

In the shade of a stand of beech trees Elizabeth stopped and lowered herself onto a stump. To catch her breath. To order her thoughts.

More than Daniel's health, more than Hannah's state of mind, Elizabeth was worried about Jennet and Luke, and so was Nathaniel. They often talked half the night, trying to work out from the little bit of information they had what might have happened. Nathaniel found the letter Luke had written so many months ago, and read the parts about the priest aloud.

“I should have paid more attention,” he said, mostly to himself.

Elizabeth didn't correct him, because it would do no good. And because he was right. They should have paid more attention, and insisted that Jennet put herself out of harm's way. But they had been thinking of Daniel's welfare, of Hannah and Blue-Jay, and they had been selfish.

Just a few days after the wanderers had returned home, a special messenger had arrived, one of the men whom Luke depended on to move back and forth across the border without detection. He brought a single item: a broadsheet folded into quarters. Elizabeth had read it so many times that she could almost recite it word for word, but in the course of the day she felt the need to see the ink on the page, as she did now. She took it out of her basket and read it again.

Substantial Reward!!!

For information leading to the apprehension of the liar, murderer, thief, and abductor of women calling himself Father Adam O'Neill.

This man has impersonated a Roman Catholic priest for more than a year, insinuating himself into military camps and garrisons from the Great Lakes to the Sorel. Once he had gained the confidence of the officers, it was his habit to rob the paymasters and disappear.

On June 25 the imposter Father O'Neill murdered Colonel Marcel Caudebec and three other officers in the garrison at Île aux Noix before disappearing with almost five thousand pounds. At the same time he abducted a young widow as a hostage.

The lady is by name Mrs. Jennet Huntar, originally of Scotland. She is twenty-nine years old, short of stature and slender, with blond hair in curls, cropped short. Her eyes are blue, and she has a small red scar in the shape of a star on her left palm. Her life is in danger while she is in this man's power.