“I'm not interested in Manhattan—” She began, and stopped herself when she saw by his expression that she had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

“He's got four new families willing to settle here, take up the empty farmsteads, and maybe more. All of them got some kind of trade. All of them got children. I suppose he was thinking he needed to fill up the new schoolhouse.”

“Is he sending along a teacher too?” Hannah asked, a little unnerved by this unexpected turn in the conversation.

“Not yet, though he's looking. I got the idea he could scare up old Queen Bess if we asked him to, or that Mr. Kant your mother likes so much.”

“Ah.” Hannah wrapped her arms around her knees and put down her head. “And what about a doctor? Is that what you're thinking, you should ask Ethan to find a doctor for Paradise?”

Nathaniel Bonner was not easily flustered. He looked her straight in the eye. “That's a question for you to answer, daughter. I've been wondering, to tell the truth—”

She interrupted him again. “If I still wanted to give up medicine.”

“Pretty much.” And then, after a longer pause. “You needn't worry about leaving people here without a doctor, is what I'm saying. If that's on your mind.”

Hannah gave a sharp laugh. “What I need are answers, not more questions.”

Nathaniel pushed himself up, his long legs unfolding. “I know what you need,” he said, looking down at her. The sun was at his back and she could not see his face, but Hannah had the idea that he was smiling at her. “It just ain't in my power to give it to you. But I'll say this. Moving on ain't a cure either. There's something your ma said to me a long time ago, I never have forgot it. She said, every one of us has got a few demons that we carry with us wherever we go, whether we want to or not. They can't be shook off or run away from.”

“You want me to stay in Paradise,” Hannah said.

“I'm asking you not to run off for the wrong reasons,” he said, holding out a hand to help her to her feet. Then he smiled at her, and cupped her face with his hand. “And I'm hoping you'll stay around too. Right now, though, we got to get down to the village. Your stepmother has got this supper party planned, and she'll need some help.”

Hannah walked out on a rock that leaned over the lake, balancing there as she had done so many hundreds of times, as a girl and young woman, poised for the fall.

“Will you stop by and see Manny?”

Her father's question came to her above the roar of the falls and it followed her down into the water, cold and clear and absolute.

From the door Curiosity said, “Elizabeth Middleton Bonner, you promised.”

Elizabeth started and dropped the spoon in her hand so that it clattered on the table.

“You promised that you'd come to me next time you got it in your head to bake a cake. And now look at you. You ain't got the sense God gave a gnat, I swear. Stoking the oven in this heat.”

“But this time I think I have figured it out,” Elizabeth said, too pleased with herself to take Curiosity's grumbling seriously. “I went very slowly, really I did.”

“Hmmm.” Curiosity came closer and sniffed at the batter in the bowl. “Well, I suppose we got a miracle or two due we could call in.” And she laughed her deep, rough laugh when Elizabeth smacked her on the shoulder.

“Who tattled on me?” Elizabeth asked. “I suppose it must have been Gabriel and Annie.”

Curiosity raised her eyebrows so high that they disappeared beneath her headcloth. “Ain't nobody said a word to me about you and a cake. I would have been over here long ago if they had. I come to bring a letter.”

“Let me guess, Ethan has found another ten families to settle here.”

“Not yet, though I wouldn't put it past the boy. No, this letter here, this one for Nathaniel. Address was writ in a fancy hand and that's all I know.” Curiosity studied the writing as if there were something hidden in the curlicues that would reveal itself with enough contemplation. “I ain't sunk so low as to open a letter don't got my name on it, no matter how curious I might be.” She pushed up her sleeves.

“Hand me that pan, I'ma grease it for you.” And then, in a tone that was too carefully modulated: “Daniel come talk to you yet?” Curiosity said.

Elizabeth sent her a sharp look. “I suppose I was the last to hear about this newest plan of his, as usual. He gets permission from everybody else and then comes to me.”

“I think it will do the boy some good, Elizabeth,” Curiosity said. “He's got some demons to tussle with, and it's best he do it up there on that mountain where he come into the world. Many-Doves right there to make sure he don't starve, and Bears will see to it he too busy to feel sorry for himself.”

Elizabeth stopped and pressed a hand to her eyes.

Curiosity's tone softened. “I know it hard, with him just home and all.”

The tears she had been holding back for so many days loosed themselves without warning. They rolled down Elizabeth's face in great heavy drops that spilled into the batter before she could catch them.

“Never mind,” Curiosity said. “A little salt won't hurt it none. Might just do the trick too.”

“It's from a lawyer,” Nathaniel said, looking at the letter on the kitchen table with something less than enthusiasm. He had no love of lawyers, nor of anyone associated with the legal profession, a prejudice Elizabeth had never been able to cure him of.