Page 52 of Rainshadow Road

“I’ll get it.” Mark brushed past them.

“Make way, guys,” Sam said to the child and the dog, and they scuttled to the side. “I’m going to take Lucy upstairs.”

They went into an entrance hall with dark floors and a high coffered ceiling, the walls covered with cream paint and hung with framed botanical prints.

“Maggie’s making dinner,” Holly said, following them. “Chicken soup and yeast rolls, and banana pudding for dessert.Realpudding, not from a box.”

“I knew it smelled too good to be Mark’s cooking,” Sam said.

“Maggie and I changed the sheets on your bed. She said I was a good helper.”

“That’s my girl. Go wash up for dinner now.”

“Can I talk to Lucy?”

“Later, gingersnap. Lucy’s exhausted.”

“Hi, Holly,” Lucy managed to say over his shoulder.

The child beamed at her. “Uncle Sam never invites anyone here for a sleepover. You’re his first one!”

“Thanks, Holly,” Sam said under his breath as he carried Lucy up the sweeping mahogany staircase.

A breathless laugh shivered in Lucy’s throat. “I’m sorry. I know Justine made you do this. I’m—”

“Justine couldn’t make me do anything I didn’t want to do.”

Lucy let her head fall to his shoulder, unable to look at him as she said, “You don’t want me here.”

Sam chose his words carefully. “I don’t want complications. Same as you.”

As they reached the landing, Lucy’s attention was captured by a huge window that afforded a view of the front drive. It was a striking stained-glass work, a bare tree delicately holding an orange winter moon in its branches.

But when Lucy blinked, the colors and patterns disappeared. The window was bare. It was nothing but clear float glass.

“Wait. What’s that?”

Sam turned to see what she was staring at. “The window?”

“It used to be stained glass,” Lucy said dazedly.

“It could have been.”

“No, itwas. With a tree and a moon.”

“Whatever was in there was knocked out a long time ago. At some point someone tried to make the house into apartments.” Sam carried her away from the window. “You should have seen it when I bought it. Shag rug in some rooms. They’d knocked out support walls and put in some flimsy chipboard ones. My brother Alex came in with his crew to rebuild load-bearing walls and put in support beams. Now the place is rock solid.”

“It’s beautiful. Like something from a fairy tale. I feel like I’ve been here before, or dreamed about it.” Her mind was tired, her thoughts not connecting properly.

They went into a long rectangular bedroom paralleling the bay, the walls paneled with wide beadboard, a fireplace in the corner, abundant windows revealing the shining blue flat of False Bay. The window on either end of the row had been fitted with screens and opened to let in the outside air.

“Here we go.” Sam set her on a large bed with a seagrass headboard and quilted blue covers that had already been folded back.

“This is your room? Your bed?”

“Yes.”

Lucy tried to sit up. “Sam, no—”

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