Chapter 24: The Door

Winifred had the christening in the Harbor Hall, because nowhere else held everyone who wanted to come.

Three hundred people crowded under the lanterns, and the baby slept through all of it.

Her name was Winnie.

Nobody had asked Winifred whether she minded.

She had said she minded very much, and cried into her handkerchief for ten minutes.

The pale line through Winnie's left eyebrow had not faded.

Jude checked it every morning and never said why.

At eight o'clock, Neil stood by the cedar cradle in a dark suit that fit him again.

The brass chain lay on his chest and his daughter slept on his shoulder.

"You've been looking at the door all night," Jude said at his ear.

"I've been looking at Gran."

"Same thing."

Winifred was crossing the hall toward them with her cane tapping and a key ring in her fist.

She stopped in front of them.

"Boathouse," she said. "Both of you. Bring the child."

"Gran, there are three hundred guests."

"They'll manage without you for ten minutes. They managed without you for twenty-eight years."

She took Winnie from Neil's arms, kissed the baby's forehead, and handed her to Britt, who had materialized at her elbow.

"Britt will hold her," Winifred said. "And Britt will not drop her, because I will tell her father."

"I've never dropped anything in my life."

"You dropped a trophy in 2019."

Britt took the baby with the stunned look of a woman who had just been handed something priceless.

Neil and Jude walked down the long lawn to the old boathouse in the dark.

The harbor lay black and silver beyond the dock.

The office door stood open, with the lamp lit on the desk.

It was the same desk, the same window, the same worn chair that had been there when they were eight.

They stepped inside.

The door shut behind them.

A key turned.

Jude closed his eyes.

"She didn't."

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