"I don't know," I said. "There's been so much going on. I guess we just never asked."

"Ask," Taylor said.

"You ask," I said. "It won't sound so dumb coming from a kid."

Manda was standing in the doorway. "What won't sound so dumb?"

"That we don't know your baby's name," Taylor said.

Manda grinned. "Her name is Grace. After we'd bored everybody to death asking for advice and bought every book, we named her after Craig's mother."

I looked at the baby. Her hair was dark and silky, and her mouth was as delicate as a rosette on a Victorian Valentine. "Grace suits her," I said.

Lunch was fun. When Craig came home, he set up a table in the family room, so we could watch the birds at the bird-feeder while we ate. Manda had warmed up a ca.s.serole of tofu lasagna, so I was glad Taylor was distracted. When we'd had our fill of tofu, Craig and I cleared the dishes, and Taylor played with the cats while Manda fed Grace. Then we all drank camomile tea from thick blue mugs and talked about babies.

"If Grace had been a boy, what were you going to call him?" Taylor asked.

"Craig, Jr.," Manda said, shifting the baby on her hip. "We'll save it for the next one if that's okay with you."

"That's okay with me," Taylor said. "It's not a good name for a cat."

"Did I miss something here?" Craig asked.

"Taylor still hasn't named her kitten," I said.

Manda shrugged. "I've got a stack of baby name books over there, Taylor. If you like, you can take them with you when you go. We've already got a name for Kid Number Two, and when Number Three comes along, I'll get the books back."

Craig turned to Taylor. "You're welcome to the books," he said, "but I think I know a name that might work. It's the name of the man who's the patron saint of artists: 'Benet.' "

"Benet," Taylor repeated the name thoughtfully. "What do you think, Jo?"

"I like it," I said.

"So do I," Taylor said. "Because if my cat's name is Benet, I can call him Benny for short, and I really like the name Benny."

The wind was coming up as Taylor and I walked home. When we got to our corner, I saw that the boys had turned the outside Christmas lights on. The day had turned grey and cold, and the lights in front of our house were a welcoming sight. Even Jack O'Lantern looked good. During the long mild spell, his centre of gravity had shifted. From a distance, the lights inside him made him look like an exotic Central American pot.

Taylor ran ahead. She couldn't wait to tell Benny that, at long last, he had a name. Halfway up our walk, she wheeled around and waved her arms at me. "It's snowing," she yelled. "We're going to have snow for Christmas."

I looked up at the sky. Storm clouds were rolling in from the north, and with them the promise of a world that would soon be white and pure again.

GAIL BOWEN's first Joanne Kilbourn mystery, Deadly Appearances (1990), was nominated for the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada Best First Novel Award. It was followed by Murder at the Mendel (1991), The Wandering Soul Murders (1992), A Colder Kind of Death (1994) (which won an Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel), A Killing Spring (1996), Verdict in Blood (1998), Burying Ariel (2000), The Gla.s.s Coffin (2002), The Last Good Day (2004), The Endless Knot (2006), The Brutal Heart (2008), and The Nesting Dolls (2010). In 2008 Reader's Digest named Bowen Canada's Best Mystery Novelist; in 2009 she received the Derrick Murdoch Award from the Crime Writers of Canada. Bowen has also written plays that have been produced across Canada and on CBC Radio. Now retired from teaching at First Nations University of Canada, Gail Bowen lives in Regina. Please visit the author at www.gailbowen.com.

OTHER JOANNE KILBOURN MYSTERIES.

BY GAIL BOWEN.

The Nesting Dolls.

The Brutal Heart.

The Endless Knot

The Last Good Day

The Gla.s.s Coffin.

Burying Ariel

Verdict in Blood

A Killing Spring.

The Wandering Soul Murders.

Murder at the Mendel.

Deadly Appearances.