“Emma has noticed that about Lily. Even hearing Duncan's name makes her giddy. Her plain clothes and slouched shoulders seem to disappear, and she smiles.”

“When she had the strength, she began to fold the tiny clothes and blankets and cloth diapers and put them into plain brown boxes. She didn't stop working, but the sobs came and distorted her face, bleared her eyes, made her nose run. She didn't hear Jack come to the door. When she looked up he was watching her silently, and then he turned away, uncomfortable, embarrassed by her unharnessed grief. He didn't put his hand on her shoulder. Didn't hold her. Didn't say a word. Even these many years later, she was unable to forgive him that.”

“I noticed that she wore her evening dress, all her dresses, like sports clothes-there was a jauntiness about her movements as if she had first learned to walk upon a golf course on clean, crisp, mornings.”

“Lily kept her smile. She knew a little something about loss and what it was all about in the end. She searched for her answers in those items left behind.”

“Emma laughed, even though she wanted to cry and scream and run away all at the same time. Jake put his arms around her, and she felt calmer. He has a mellowness that rubs off on people, Emma has noticed. But it's not just being mellow. There is something kind about him. He knows when people need him, she thinks. He knows that she needs him.”

“It's a shame you know," he called over his shoulder."What's a shame?" Duncan asked."That I didn't capture her first."Duncan smiled. "Nay, Edmond, it was a blessing. God's truth, I would have taken her from you.”