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"Oh, please don’t, Mrs Lander," Sophie said, hating the honorific "Please call me Sophie I’ve known your husband since ere"--she looked to the little girl--"your age" She leaned down "What is your nairl, riveted by the tray of sweets Her little throat moved as she sed in anticipation

"I reirl," Sophie said, thearound the words When she’d been sure of herself She stood quickly, willing away the tears that threatened without warning Willing away the sadness that this little girl, this little fa to Mossband, but never sadness Never this sense of loneliness "What a fine family, Robbie" She corrected herself "Mr Lander"

"It is, isn’t it?" He laughed

It was perfect A perfect life

"Lady Sophie and I were play," he explained to his wife, who turned an interested gaze on Sophie

"Oh?"

Sophie nodded, the weight of the moment heavy in the room "It’s true"

Silence fell, aard, and Sophie wondered how quickly she o What cairl, unaffected by the arrival of the newcohter "Well A promise is a promise"

A proo, hated theassurance that this situation would never end happily She’d known she wouldn’t leave it as Robbie’s wife But she’d never iined she’d leave it with such doubt for her own future

Her heart began to pound She clutched her basket to her skirts and took a deep breath "You’ve things to do I aze as he lifted a hot bun froain?"

The si her that there was nothing for her here in Mossband--just as there was nothing for her in London

She shook her head "I don’t know"

Jane’s brow furrowed "Are you in town?"

"I a that she did not knohere she was Where she would be

"Are you in rooms at the pub?" Robbie’s brilliant wife offered

"Yes," Sophie lied, grasping at the solution She had to sleep somewhere "At the pub"

"Excellent," Robbie said "Then ill see you again"

"For buns," Sophie replied

"Take one now? For breakfast?" Jane offered, holding one out to Sophie

She hated those buns then, their warm temptation Their promise of happiness and memory and restoration She didn’t want the bun She didn’t want the strange ee e it

And so she stood there in the center of the bakery, staring at that outstretched pastry, wondering just how on earth it was that the smartest of the Talbot sisters had beco to do with the rest of her life--the life that would begin when she left this place and faced a great, yawning future

How does it end?

King’s question echoed through her on a wave of uncertainty