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Jane hung up and sat down, forcing herself not to think about the will, spending a few ht of the woman who’d loved Harold’s face, who’d wasted three decades of loving, who’d ripped open Jane’s chest and laid out what she saw She had not known Carolyn well enough to grieve, only to feel softened, ht of Jane enough to scratch her naer relative? Carolyn had a large faain the ruh to h to retire?

Jane balked at that thought It wasn’t so raphic design at the azine, but it was, you know, a job She couldn’t knock such a nice piece of stability so (unlikeout fro But on the subway ride to the attorney’s, Jane wondered, if she were tee sum, would she fold? Would she quit her job and buy a house in the Hae who peed on the carpet?

These questions and alternate names for the poodle kept her ray building, up into the conservative burgundy and tan office, down into a stuffed leather chair to hear the extraordinarily pale lawyer say, "You’re not rich"

"What?"

"In fact, she didn’t leave you any money at all" His every blink was slow and deliberate, reet that out up front"

Jane laughed uneasily "Oh, I wasn’t thinking that"

"Of course" The attorney sat down and sorted through a stack of papers with no wastedin lawyer-ese, but Jane was distracted She was trying to figure out what besides themade him seem so amphibious His taut, shiny co so wide apart And his salad green tone (Okay, he wasn’t actually green, but the rest was true)

He was still talking "Our client waseclecticin her will She made purchases for a few friends and family members and left the bulk of her ed a vacation"

He handed her a glossy, oversized pae manor house A man in jacket, cravat, and breeches, and a wo in the foreground They seemed awfully content Jane’s hands went cold

She read the elegantly inserted text

Peuest co the country manners and hospitality---a tea visit, a dance or two, a turn in the park, an unexpectedwith a ball and perhaps soent still rules a carefree England No scripts No written endings A holiday no one else can offer you "I don’t get it"

"It’s an all-inclusive, three-week vacation in England Froather, you dress up and pretend to be someone in the year 1816" The attorney handed her a packet "It also comes with a first-class plane ticket The vacation is nonrefundable, my client saw to that But if you do need cash, you could exchange the first-class airfare for econoestions whenever I can I like to be helpful"

Jane hadn’t looked away froaze like a ed to be that woman but needed to stay firmly in New York City in the present day and pretend she had no such odd fantasies No one guessed her thoughts, not her mother, not her closest friends But Great- Aunt Carolyn had known

"Pocket the change," she said distractedly