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  Olivia had to pause, closing her eyes for a moment. “For weeks we were a very happy family. We were joyous that Uncle Freddy was alive, that Ace’s mother was hanging on, and Kit and I were...were full of laughter.” She gave a one-sided grin. “We used the well house as our private place. Kit bent some galvanized siding to make a sort of tunnel so we didn’t get torn up by the thorns, and he put lots of cracked corn by the entrance.”

  “So the peacock would be your guard,” Elise said.

  Olivia nodded. “It was a divinely happy time. All of us lived very well together. To this day, Kit thinks we didn’t know it, but dear little Ace started sleeping with him. The child knew what was coming and he needed comfort.”

  “But it all ended,” Kathy said.

  Olivia took several deep breaths. “My life changed because I went to Richmond. No, that’s not true. It changed because the day before, I said those words. ‘I love you.’ I hadn’t meant to, but it was just before I was to leave and they came out. Kit kissed me but he didn’t say the words back to me.”

  She paused. “That afternoon he nearly killed himself clearing a half acre where Uncle Freddy’s swimming pool was going to be put in, and the next morning he slept late. I was so annoyed with him for not telling me he loved me that when Mr. Gates said he was taking Uncle Freddy into Richmond for his six-month checkup, I said I’d go with him.”

  She was silent for a few moments. “As I was leaving, I tiptoed into Kit’s room and looked at him sleeping. He had scratches on his face and soft black whiskers. He looked so good that I almost stayed. But unfortunately, my anger overrode my passion. I bent over and kissed his forehead, then left the room.” She turned away and whispered, “I didn’t see him again for over forty years.”

  She looked at Kathy and Elise. “When we got back, Kit wasn’t there. Clothes, books, records, everything. It was as though he’d vanished. Poof! The completeness of his disappearance almost made me doubt that he’d ever existed.”

  “You thought he ran away because you told him you loved him,” Kathy said.

  “I am ashamed to say yes, that’s exactly what I thought. The kids said that Kit’s father came to get him in a big black car. I thought that’s what Kit had told them. I was too upset, too angry, to realize that was their childish interpretation of what they’d seen. Man in a suit equals father.”

  She paused. “I thought Kit had called his father and said, ‘Come and get me out of here’ and he came running. Uncle Freddy said he called Kit’s family and they said they didn’t know where he was, but I thought they were lying. None of them knew that I’d said those three little words, so how could they know anything?” Her voice was rising.

  “What was the truth?” Elise asked softly.

  Olivia took a few breaths. “The military came for him. That’s why he was there, hiding from his nosy family, and tanning all over. He was preparing to go on an undercover mission. They knew what he’d taken with him and they made sure they got it all. But he did manage to leave a message for me in the well house. Actually, it was a marriage proposal—along with his grandmother’s ring.”

  Olivia held out her hand to show the beautiful ring. White gold lacework with a big round diamond in the center. “I didn’t see it because I was so angry that I refused to ever again enter the well house. I didn’t want to hear his name, to think about him. Or...” When she looked up, her face was white. “My stupidity still angers me, and regret eats at me.”

  “Love is stupid.” There was venom in Elise’s voice. “Why does Kent love Carmen and not me? And why do I lust after—” She sighed. “There is no sense in love.”

  “I agree,” Kathy said. “My husband is one gorgeous hunk but I wanted Andy, an ordinary-looking little man who has never so much as glanced at me.”

  The three women were silent for a moment.

  “You went to Broadway?” Kathy asked.

  “Just days after Kit vanished, I was on a plane to New York.”

  For a moment, the women were silent, but then Kathy spoke, her voice puzzled. “You trained to be an actress for most of your life, but you left your lifelong dream and returned home.”

  “And married someone else,” Elise said.

  Olivia seemed to be considering what to say—but in the end, she didn’t reply. She stood up. “I really do need to go to bed.” Abruptly, without another word, she turned on her heel, grabbed a flashlight, and went out the front door.

  “Wow,” Elise said softly. “Forty years.”

  Kathy was staring at the door. “I think she left out a lot of the story.”

  “Like what?” Elise asked.

  “Remember how she started? Nixon, Vietnam, and...”

  “That no one was using birth control pills,” Elise said as she began to gather up dishes to take to the kitchen, then she halted. She and Kathy exchanged looks.

  “Let’s leave this mess,” Kathy said softly. “I don’t want Livie to be alone. We can clean it up tomorrow.”

  “That’s a good idea.”

  They walked back to the summerhouse in silence, each with her own thoughts. What had happened to Olivia’s life was a travesty—and they wanted to prevent something similar happening in their own lives.

  The cottage was quiet, and upstairs, Elise paused outside Olivia’s door but she heard nothing.

  That was because Olivia had had forty years to learn how to cry in absolute silence.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The next morning Kathy woke to a silent house. It had that feeling of people in it, but they were far away. She got up, dressed, and went outside. It wasn’t full light yet, but she liked the early morning. The grass was damp with dew and it felt good on her sandaled feet.

  Young Pete was raking a patch of lawn and she waved at him. He stopped and smiled at her in a way that would have made her blush if she hadn’t been so pleased. With as much time as she spent with Ray, she nearly forgot how good it was to feel desirable and womanly.

  She went past the yawning vacancy of Camden Hall and through the rose-covered wall to River House. For a moment she stood looking out at the stream with the curved bridge and the pretty island. She was sure most people would think how they’d love to live in a place like this, but all Kathy saw was maintenance. The ten acres she and Ray owned in Connecticut were as beautiful as this. A treat for the eyes. One of Ray’s clients said it was “Serenity personified.”

  She’d trade every perfect flower that took so much of her time for an apartment in New York. She’d happily exchange birdsong for the scream of an ambulance siren.

  The front door of the house was unlocked and she went in. On the floor was a small box, neatly wrapped in brown paper. The label had the names of all three women on it, but no return address. It must be from Ray, Kathy thought. Only he knew that the women were there. Or maybe Young Pete had left it, Kathy thought with a smile.

  She picked up the box, set it on a table by the front door, then began cleaning up from last night. Olivia’s story of her past had made Kathy think about her own life. Ray had said she should stay here so she could have a vacation. “Enjoy yourself. Go shopping.” He seemed to think that shopping cured every woman’s problems. But right now, the last thing she wanted was a new blouse. What she really and truly wanted was a new life.

  She turned on the dishwasher, then walked through the house. There were art objects from around the world, beautiful things, but as she looked at them, she thought of Olivia’s story. Regret, Olivia had said. She regretted so very much.

  “So do I,” Kathy said aloud.

  “So do you what?” Elise’s voice startled Kathy.

  “Nothing important.”

  Behind her was Olivia and she was holding the box. “What’s this?”

  “I found it on the floor. I guess it’s from Ray. A thank-you gift.” I taught him to say thanks, Kathy thought but didn