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"A whole world of trouble is what’s out there for you, blondie," the head cook says "Your place is up on that frilly floor of yours, lounging in satin sheets and painting your toenails Now go on, before you get us all in trouble"

"Come on," Gabriel says "I’ll take you back up"

Back on the wives’ floor, Rose’s door is shut, and all the attendants and do alone in the hallway, playing soers She was singing to herself, but when the elevator doors open, she stops and watcheswith that attendant?" she asks, once Gabriel is gone

She hasn’t seen the paper bag of candies, and I tuck it intowith es of a romance novel I took from the library There are so many books that I don’t think anyone will miss this one

I turn just as Cecily appears infor an answer We’re sister wives now, and whatever that h I can trust her I also a tone, always i with him," I say

I sit onfor me to ask her to join me Sister wives can’t enter one another’s bedrooms without permission It’s one of the few privacies I have, and I won’t relinquish it

There’s nothing to stop her froh

"Lady Rose is dead now," she says "Linden is free to visit us anytime"

"Where is he?" I can’t help but ask

Cecily exa displeased with it or the situation "Oh, he’s in her bedroom He made everybody else leave I knocked, but he won’t coin to brushto look busy so that I don’t have to make conversation, and there isn’t much else to do in this rooers for a while in the doorway, idly twisting in ways that make her skirt ripple

"I didn’t tell our husband that you went off with that attendant," she says "I could have, but I didn’t"

And then she skips away, a trail of bright red yarn following after her

That night, Linden comes to my bedroom

"Rhine?" he says softly, just a shadow inalone in the darkness for hours, steelingawful night Though she’s gone, I have been listening for the sound of Rose at the end of the hall, yelling at an attendant, calling for me to come brush her hair and talk to her about the world The silence issleep or denying him, I open the sheets for Linden

He closes the door and cliers encase my cheeks as he settles beside me He advances for ill be my first kiss, but his lips fail He sobs, and I feel the heat of his skin and his breath "Rose," he says It is a choked, frightened sound

He buries his face in rief After hts resembled this So just this once, I won’t resist him I allow hi to me as the worst of it coown Terrible sounds I feel theoes on for what feels like hours, and then his breathing becoown eases, and I know he’s asleep

I spend the re in and out of a fitful sleep of ray coats and Rose’scolor Eventually I fall into aof the doorknob awakens ht and the sounds of early birds fill the roo my usual breakfast tray, and stops in his tracks when he sees Linden in ht Linden turned away fro over thea finger totable

It’s impossible to read Gabriel’s expression as he sets my breakfast where I’ve indicated; he so and bruised

I’ine how this must seem to him Rose is dead not even a day and I’ve already replaced her But what does that matter to him? He said himself none of the attendants really liked Rose anyway

I mouth a silent thank-you for the breakfast, and he nods and leaves Later, perhaps when he sees me in the library, I’ll explain what really happened Rose’s death is starting to sink in, and I have a feeling that very soon I’ll need so out of bed Best to let Linden sleep He’s had such a rough night, and I’ve had better ones htstand open and retrieve one of the June Beans fro and head to theIt still won’t open, but the ledge is wide enough to be used as a seat

I sit and watch the garden as I suck on the candy, which is as green as the mowed lawn beneath myFrom here I have a perfect view of the pool, and I see so into the water with a long net The water catches the sunlight and breaks into dia the piers in New York Long ago there used to be beaches there, but now there are concrete slabs that stop where the ocean begins You can put five dollars in a rusty telescope and see all the way to the Statue of Liberty or one of the gift shop islands beahts and key chains and photo opportunities You can take a double-deck ferry along the pier while a tour guide talks about all the changes to the cityscape over the centuries You can slip beneath the railing, take off your shoe, and stick your bare foot into the bleary water that’s ripe with salt, and fish that aren’t safe to eat--fishermen catch them for sport and throw them back

I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a li eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again

Somewhere beneath it lie the ruins of colorful Japan, and Rose’s favorite, India, the nations that could not survive