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bicycle tour across New England the following summer. And the last summer she was in college, before law school, Lizzie was the au pair to the children of the man who was the senior partner in the law firm in which she now was a partner. While in law school she didn’t come home except briefly at Christmas. Yet she was still their mother’s favorite.
    So Annie never went anywhere alone, because Phyllis cried that she couldn’t let both her girls leave her, and because Annie was the oldest she had to stay home with her mother. Her father had rolled his eyes in sympathetic amusement, but Bill Bradford had learned long ago to save the battles for the important stuff. Annie would have to fight for herself. But Annie had been content to remain at home. Or had she? she wondered now. Maybe she just hadn’t wanted to fight with her mother. Phyllis never fought fair. She flung threats and guilt about with wild abandon. “But this is my summer, thanks to you, Lizzie,” Annie said softly.
    “Mrs. Miller? It’s Devyn. Time to get going.” He came out onto the terrace. “Hey, you aren’t ready.”
    “Sure I am,” Annie said. “What are we doing?”
    “You’re not in your Spa robe,” he told her. “It’s in the bathroom closet, ma’am.”
    “Unless there’s some rule about it, call me Annie,” she said. “That ‘ma’am’ is a killer, kiddo. Okay, give me a minute. What should I wear beneath the robe? I don’t want to make a faux pas.”
    “Just briefs and your Spa slippers will do,” he told her. “I’ll wait in the living room for you.”
    Just briefs? This really was going to be an adventure, Annie thought, amused. Dressed in what was considered appropriate, Annie followed Devyn to the elevator. “Tell me I’m not going to have to walk through the lobby in this getup?”
    “Nah,” he said. “We’re going to the terrace level. The house is built on the hillside, and so we can utilize what would otherwise be a basement. The treatment rooms all look out on the gardens and lawns. Ah, here we are.”
    Her soft Spa slippers, which were emitting the smell of lavender, didn’t make a sound as she followed him down a subtly lit carpeted corridor. Devyn stopped before a door with a brass number one on it. Opening it, he ushered her inside, where two pretty young Asian women waited.
    “Mei and Pei,” Devyn said. “They’ll be doing your mani and pedi. I’ll get you something to drink. It’s important to keep the toxins flushed from your body.”
    “I think the toxins got me long ago,” Annie said with a chuckle. She settled herself in a large chair.
    Almost instantaneously Mei and Pei began to work on her. The toenails on one foot were pared and filed before being smeared with cream and her foot plunked into a stone basin of perfumed hot water. Annie winced.
    “Too hot?” Pei wanted to know, and when Annie nodded the girl reached for a china pitcher of cold water and poured a little into the basin. “Better, yes?”
    “Better,” Annie agreed as Pei took up her other foot and began to work on it as Mei was following a similar program with Annie’s hands.
    Devyn set a cut-crystal goblet next to Annie. “Pomegranate juice,” he said. “It’s excellent for the heart. Your mother has a small heart problem, and those things are hereditary, you know.” He stood attentively by her side.
    “How do you know my mother has heart disease?” Annie asked him, surprised.
    “The contest entries asked for a brief health history,” he told her. “It’s the kind of thing we need to know in advance. Anyone making reservations at the Spa has to fill out a health history so they can be treated accordingly. We’re not a one-size-fits-all establishment. Each of our guests is treated individually.”
    Annie was silent. Interesting, she considered, and very smart marketing .
    “The reason I booked your first spa treatments today is that I knew you would be having dinner tonight with Ms. Buckley. You’ll want