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"Where are you going?" Lore called after hi steel"

68

The time was 1730; the sun would set in three hours For the moment, Peter had done all he could He ell past the need to sleep but wanted a ht of Jock as he walked to the house He had no particular allegiance to the otten Peter killed The rifle was probably wasted on hi point, and he believed in second chances

The security detail was gone

Peter darted up the stairs and raced into the house "Amy?" he called

A silence, then: "In here"

She was sitting on the bed, facing the door, hands folded neatly in her lap

"Are you all right?" he asked

She looked up Her face changed; she gave him a melancholy smile A peculiar quiet took the roo deeper, ht "Yes I’m fine" She patted the mattress "Come sit with ?"

She took his hand, not looking at hie of some announcement

"When I was in the water, I went someplace," she said "At least, ht I was so happy there"

He realized what she was saying "The farmstead"

Her eyes found his

"I’ve been there, too" Strangely, he felt no surprise; the words had been waiting to be said

"I was playing the piano"

"Yes"

"And ere together"

"Yes We were Just the two of us"

How good to say it, to speak the words To know that he was not alone with his dreah he could not knohat that reality was, only that it existed He existed Amy existed The farmstead, and their happiness in that place, existed

"You askedwhy I came to you in Iowa," Amy said "I didn’t tell you the truth Or, at least, not all of it"