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Natasha had had a real marriage. They had formed a real family, and if the fates had been just a little bit kinder, it would have been Natasha sitting here with Sara watching their children play in the heather on the night of the summer solstice.
    She had never given much thought to William’s loss. It had happened before they met, and he had made his peace with it. Or so it had seemed to Joely. And if there was one thing she had learned growing up, it was to take things as they presented themselves and not ask questions. She wasn’t an explorer. The dark and murky waters of emotion were foreign territory to her and, she had assumed, to William as well.
    But maybe that hadn’t always been the case. Maybe with Natasha things had been very different.
    A skirl of pipes drifted up from the valley below, and Joely shivered. There was something timeless about the Highlands that even she, with her practical mind, couldn’t help but acknowledge.
    “Nobody back home would believe this,” Joely said. “Annabelle says she hears the pipes every morning, echoing in the hills.”
    Sara laughed. “And Louis claims he saw William Wallace last week coming out of the cinema.”
    “Are we sure there isn’t Scots blood running through their English veins?”
    “Speaking as the mother of a seven-year-old, I am most certainly not sure of anything.”
    Annabelle and Louis finally ran out of energy. They threw themselves on the blankets and lay on their backs, looking up at the soft indigo sky. Before long the kids drifted off into sleep, and after a bit even Joely and Sara found themselves hiding yawns behind their hands, and it wasn’t even nine o’clock.
    “Safe trip,” Joely said as they hugged good-bye at the foot of the hill. “I’ll miss you.”
    “It’s only until September, love.” Sara hugged her back. “You and William and Annabelle must come down for a weekend. Promise me you will.”
    She tried to speak, but an onslaught of unwelcome emotion grabbed her by the throat and cut off her words. September was a very long time away, and almost anything could happen. Sara was a good friend and a very wise woman, and she was able to read between the lines of Joely’s silence.
    “It will work out,” Sara said as they all parted company. “I know it will.”
    The long, eventful day finally caught up with Annabelle, and she clung to Joely like a spider monkey. She smelled of grass and heather as she pressed her face against the side of Joely’s neck. Her warm, moist breath was sweet as clover.
    “I want to talk to Daddy,” Annabelle said a few minutes later as Joely closed the front door behind them.
    Joely slid the lock into position and dimmed the lights. “I think we should get you ready for bed, don’t you?”
    “Can we call him? Why can’t we call him right now?”
    “Brush your teeth and change into your pajamas,” Joely said. “I’ll bet he phones us before you climb into bed.”
    Annabelle brightened. “Can I sleep in your bed tonight?” she asked as they climbed the stairs to the second-floor bedroom.
    “Since when do you ask first?” Joely said, placing a kiss on top of the child’s head. “Brush your teeth, and we’ll negotiate.”
    Annabelle dashed into the little bathroom adjacent to her bedroom. A second later the sound of running water drifted through the closed door. Stifling a yawn, Joely walked slowly down the hallway toward the corner room she shared with William. She was exhausted through to her bones, a deep yawning exhaustion that sapped both energy and hope.
    The bleat of the phone, followed by Annabelle’s squeal of “Daddy!” from the bathroom, almost jolted her out of her shoes. She darted across the room and grabbed the receiver before it could ring again.
    “Your timing is perfect, William,” she said by way of hello. “We just got in a few minutes ago.”
    “Honey, it’s not William,” a familiar voice said in return. “It’s Cat, and I’ve got some bad