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occupied the top floor of the house. Mitch looked into each of the four rooms lining the hallway, then chose the one closest to the master suite.
    He dropped his bags near the double bed, then immediately went back out into the hall and opened the door of the master bedroom. He didn't feel guilty at what she would likely consider trespass; if he was going to find out about the woman she'd become, he'd have to take every opportunity.
    As soon as he walked into the room, he smelled Kelly. He'd noticed the scent before, downstairs, but with all his senses focused on her, it hadn't hit him like this. It was her perfume, so familiar that for an instant he could only stand breathing it in and remembering. Her fifteenth birthday, and his present had been her first bottle of "grown-up" perfume. He'd spent a long time choosing the fragrance, amusing the helpful salesclerk because he'd been so careful to find exactly what he'd wanted.
    Oddly enough, the light, spicy scent with just a hint of musk suited her now far more than it had then. It was a little mysterious, quiet, and yet held the promise of things unseen, emotions untapped. She was still using the perfume he had chosen for her. Another habit? Or another tie to the past?
    Mitch looked around the room slowly, and found it had changed more than any other part of the house. Heavy furniture and neutral fabrics and colors had been replaced by gleaming antiques, colorful rugs and wallpaper, and delicate fabrics. It was clearly and indisputably a woman's room, and yet a man wouldn't feel the least bit uncomfortable in it.
    He stepped to the doorway of the bathroom and found it, too, had been remodeled. The old white tiles had been torn out and replaced by mosaic tiles in a muted pattern, the small window replaced by a three-sided bay window half wrapping a sunken tub that replaced the old claw-footed one and providing a spectacular view of the ocean. A glass shower stall had replaced the large linen closet. There were neat tile cubbyholes for towels, and an antique bureau was placed against one wall.
    Now, that, Mitch thought, was definitely odd. Placing a bureau in a bathroom was not a standard decorating choice, but it was something Kelly had always preferred; since he had spent so much of his time with Keith during their high school years, Mitch knew that the small bureau in the Russell bathroom, which he'd asked about on his first visit to the house, had always contained underwear and sleepwear belonging to Kelly and her mother.
    She could have moved the bureau in here since she'd arrived, but Mitch didn't think she had. That piece had the look of belonging, as if it were an integral part of the room. Coincidence? How could it be anything else? His father had been so adamantly opposed to the idea of his only son marrying into a working-class family—never mind the fact that he'd considered Mitch too young and Kelly far too young—that he'd taken no interest at all in finding out any of Kelly's habits.
    Frowning to himself, Mitch turned around and studied the bedroom again. It was neat; that didn't surprise him. The small wooden antique jewelry box on the dresser was something he remembered because he'd given it to her. There was also a hairbrush and comb on the dresser and a bottle of perfume. A photo of her parents and brother in a silver frame.
    He could still smell her perfume, as elusive as a dream.
    After a long moment Mitch left her bedroom and returned to his own. He hardly noticed what it looked like, beyond a fleeting interest in more antique furniture. Unpacking occupied him for a few minutes, then he went out into the hall to the linen closet and found sheets and blankets. He heard the delivery men leaving, but ignored the urge to go down to find out how Kelly was coping with the equipment they'd brought.
    He stripped the bedspread from the bare mattress and made up the bed, frowning to himself as he struggled mentally with the feeling of disorientation he'd been