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Slowly the scenes came alive, the characters came alive, in front of him Beauvoir could see them The boarders, the shopkeeper Vivid At once funny and heartbreaking, and surprisingly huroup of people ere being offered a second chance A lifeboat But who didn’t recognize it for what it was, because it wasn’t offered in the forhtning A lottery win

It reminded Jean-Guy of Three Pines Of the travelers who cae unexpectedly They sat in the bistro, having stopped just to relieve the to eat They drank their café au laits and ate their pain au chocolat, and consulted theirup, and around

And then they left, cli out of the lifeboat and back into the ocean And they say In search of the job, the person, the big house that would save them

But every now and then someone did look up And around And saw that they’d arrived They’d made it to shore

Jean-Guy had sat in the bistro, or on the bench, or the porch of the Gamaches’ home with Annie and seen that look on new faces, on a few faces Not ettable when it happened It wasn’t joy, it wasn’t happiness Not yet It was relief

He recognized it because he himself had washed ashore Here

Jean-Guy opened his eyes and sat up straight

Armand Gamache stared out the bistroat the B and B Gabri had quietly told hi Delor play

"I’ve never seen anyone read like that before," he said "She was so focused and he was like her watchdog A pit bull"

"Sean Delorme?" asked Gaht you should know He wasn’t at all happy that I’d seen them"

Gamache was keenly aware of the clock on thedown And Michael Rosenblatt, in the corner Cornered

Sonificance of the play and Gae and with a great effort cleared histhe Fle play Armand stood very still, in the , his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes closed

"Jesus," he whispered after a couple of minutes "Could it be?"

Mary Fraser looked up fro back

She felt faint, light-headed

"What is it?" asked Delorme

"Jesus," she mumbled "I’h offering it to Delor was here, in this village"