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“Elizabeth,” I said. “I’m glad you asked me to come.”
She looked over my shoulder and eyed Isabel. “Thank you, Izzy. You can go now.”
Isabel blinked. “You don’t want me to stay?”
“It’s okay,” Elizabeth said. “Andrew and I have some catching up to do.”
Isabel didn’t look pleased about being dismissed, but after a second or two she turned on her heels and exited the room.
“You think she’s hiding behind the door, listening?” Elizabeth asked, a hint of mischief in her eye.
“You want me to check?”
She nodded. I went to the door, opened it half an inch. Isabel was not there.
“All clear,” I reported.
“Pull up a chair,” Elizabeth said. I did and, leaning in, got as close to her as I could. “You look good,” she said. “Considering everything.”
I smiled. “I suppose.”
“Don’t even bother to tell me the same. I know how I look. I look like shit.”
“You still have that sparkle in your eye.”
“You were always my favorite. I mean, of the ones my children married. Favorite in-law. Oh, I don’t mean to put down Norman and Dierdre, but I always had a soft spot in my heart for you.”
I sighed. “Until.”
Elizabeth’s eyes closed for a moment. “I know. I allowed Izzy to let me believe the worst about you. But now I realize I misjudged you, wronged you.”
She held out her hand and I took it, gave it a gentle squeeze. Her fingers felt like twigs cloaked in old linen.
“I’ve seen her,” Elizabeth said. “So I know you never did her any harm.”
“Isabel told me. In the night.” I felt obliged to add, “Isabel thinks you imagined it, and she might be right.”
“I know what I saw.” She returned the squeeze. “I can’t explain it. I don’t know where she’s been, and I don’t know why she’s been in hiding. The whole thing is a huge mystery, but knowing that she’s alive, right now, it’s enough for me. I wasn’t prepared to believe it at first. It was just too fantastical. But now … Anyway, that’s why I’ve brought you here, to tell you I’m sorry. So very, very sorry for doubting you, for thinking you could have done something so horrible.”
Accept her apology, or not? I did some quick ethical calculations, the way a math whiz might solve a complicated equation in his head in seconds.
I said, “All is forgiven.”
She smiled. “Thank you, Andrew. That means more to me than you could know.”
I thought maybe we were done, but when I went to pull my hand away she clung to it.
“Don’t go so soon,” she said. “This is probably the last time I’m ever going to see you. I want to talk.”
“Okay.”
“How are you doing these days?”
I shrugged. “You probably know this, but I changed my last name. I’m Andrew Carville now.”
“Oh, that has a nice ring to it,” Elizabeth said. “You don’t have to tell me why. I can guess. Whatever it cost you to have it done, you should send the bill to Izzy. And what about work?”
“I manage,” I said.
