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return to me?” Willow’s sorrow was a warning.
     “How can you ask me that?”
    “You live in the world. I’m trapped here. Bit by bit Father is parting us.”
    “He never will.” Jeremy scowled at Hethering in the distance. I imagined his sharp eyes fixed on the window of Father’s study.
    “You’re distracted. Your letters are brief.”
    Jeremy took my hand. “I keep a distance, Clarissa, because you are still a girl.” He silenced my protest with a gentle kiss. “I will never leave you.”
    I kissed him back. I was more than a girl. “I’ll never let you go.”
    *****
     
    Father ordered Jeremy to spend the Easter holiday with schoolmates. He wanted Hethering’s master to have a broad knowledge of the world. He wanted to punish Jeremy for leaving school without permission to comfort me.
    Jeremy used his diplomatic skills to effect a compromise. He spent weekends with a congenial member of his study group, then invited the fellow home for the holiday. Our time together would not be diminished. I was curious to meet Christopher Fforde, a name that had figured in Jemmy’s letters since his days at the Darby School.
    On their arrival, Daisy and I were invited to tea at Leighton House. We entered the musty drawing room to find Jeremy standing with two young people. The young man was Christopher Fforde, I thought. The young lady turned to me and smiled.
    “I’m Caroline Fforde,” she said, “Chris is my brother. You must be Clarissa. You’re just as he described.”
    I had no thought of jealousy. I looked into her hazel eyes and found a friend. Daisy’s presence faded to a distant annoying buzz, which was just as well for she was smitten with Caroline’s brother.
    I liked Caroline. I liked everything about her. I liked spending time in her company, I liked her neat clothing and the little gold timepiece pinned at her waist. Like me, she loved to read and we sat under the trees sharing favorite books and gossiping about the characters as if they were real people. I wanted to be just like Caroline Fforde.
    We had many happy times. Daisy, Clifton and Blaise shared afternoon teas and picnics with us. Caroline was kind to Clifton and the tightness behind his eyes lessened in her presence. Daisy trailed after Christopher who doted on her pretty face and childish voice, but Caroline watched them with an amused, knowing look. Blaise was besotted with our cook’s tender pastry while Jemmy’s face, pale from study turned brown in the sunshine he loved best. My father approved of Caroline, and his occasional visits among us were benevolent.
    “These cushion covers are beautiful, Clarry,” Caro told me one rainy afternoon, when we sat together in the small sitting room connected to my bedchamber. “Did you make them?”
    “I had a teacher, a special person who helped me.” It was still difficult for me to talk about Willow. I hadn’t been able to look at her last gift to me.
    “Jeremy told me about your dear friend.” Caro was too kind to remark on my tears. Her sympathy helped me to speak about Willow’s artistry. I opened my workbag and Caro found the piece I’d been too sad to examine. Together we unrolled it and admired Willow’s exquisite stitches.
    My eyes were still filmed with tears, when Caro looked closely at Willow’s last design. “Is this a garden, Clarry?” she asked me. “Or is it, do you think it might be a kind of map?”
    *****
     
    Jeremy and Christopher returned to school the next day and Caroline went home to prepare for her debut. In a matter of months Jem would return to celebrate his twenty-first birthday on Mid-Summer’s Day.
    Life at Hethering was changing. Miss Prinn and Mr. Pickety had a quiet wedding in the vicar’s study and opened a day school in our village. Miss Prinn convinced Father to send me and Daisy to a nearby school for two years of ‘finishing’. We’d begin at the fall term. I didn’t dare hope for a debut, but Daisy teased her mother for one.
    After