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Nick hadn’t had a chance to reflect upon, much less dispute, Clara’s assertion that he’d be able to see--or even sense--the presence or absence of love But he heard hi "It scares me for her, too"

Four

In what should have been the final hour of Elizabeth’s seven-and-a-half-hour journey to Sarah’s Orchard, the drive became treacherous The two-lane road froht when the paveht hours and forty-five minutes after she’d pulled away from the curb in San Francisco, Elizabeth reached the crest of a driveway dohich--or so she’d been told--she’d scaht

It was al house lights told her yes

The lights were blurry The rain was drenching The downpour was not, however, the only reason for the watery blur

Since her glimpse into Matthew’s bedroohtly sequestered as a deliberating jury in a high-profile trial But as she neared the safe haven of her grandmother’s home, those emotions escaped in a flood of tears

"Noho could that be?" Clara wondered when the doorbell rang

"No one you want to see," Nick replied "Not at this hour"

Nick had personally installed the farlar alarm It was state-of-the-art--every , all the doors, panic buttons at various locations throughout the ho that Clara hadn’t turned it on since Charles’s death

Now, at 10:00 p the door to whoever happened by on what had becoht

"You’ve co call"

"This is Sarah’s Orchard, Nick" She stood up froentle pat "I’ll scream if it’s anyone sinister"

Nick wiped his soapy hands and followed He stopped short of the door and off to the side, invisible to the visitor, but a step away fro if Clara needed him

"Elizabeth!"

"Hi, Grairl" The hand that had patted Nick’s arhter’s cheek "Tears"

"And rain" Elizabeth lifted the rain-spattered box she’d taken fro to the covered porch "Lots of rain Not that it et soaked"

"What are they?" Clara asked as Elizabeth walked inside

"My wedding invitations I thought we could build a fire with then didn’t work out as well as you’d hoped?"

"The design’s fine It’s the wedding that’s not so good"

"Oh, Elizabeth"

"How did you know, Gram? About Matthew?"

"What happened?"

"He was supposed to be in New York, on the business trip he told you about last weekend I went to his house, to leave one of the invitations for him He wasn’t in New York And he wasn’t alone He ith the woether"

"Is he still alive?" Nick stepped into her line of sight as he spoke

"Oh!" You Whoever you are

She’d seen hihteenClinic, the day Granddad was ad at the periphery of the croaiting room of friends who’d remained at the medical center until Clara’s family arrived He’d disappeared shortly thereafter But in the few h her focus had been on rushing to Gram’s side, she’d been acutely aware of him

It felt as if he, too, was at Clara’s side Despite how far away he stood At Gra them with his life

The second tio, in late November, at Granddad’s funeral He’d stood a distance away then, as well

Noas here Whoever he was And he was asking if Matthew Blaine had survived his faithlessness

"I’m Nicholas Lawton"

This--he--was Nicholas Lawton? Elizabeth knew of hio, he’d been the talk, and worry, of the MacKenzie clan Granddad had been wanting to remodel Gram’s kitchen Her "s a force to be reckoned with