Maybe ever-ythin "To show me the way."

Lily's eyes never wavered from hers.

"Back to Graham' heart?

The question surprised her.

That was it, in a nutshel "Yes."

Then she didn't know, Lily thought.

"You are alread there."

Caitlin shook her head.

There his mother was wrong, Very wrong.

She might have been there once, but she wasn' there now.

Gray wouldn't let her in.

She stared down at the blanket on the bed, a beautif design of blues,

reds and blacks.

Caitlin ran her hand over it slowly, absorbing the texture, the workmanship.

Touching part of what Gray was.

"No, he's made that perfectly clear. He thinks what ha pened between

us was for the best."

Lily thought of her own marriage.

Of the sadness that ha engulfed the happiness, swallowing it whole

until it was a if it had never existed at all.

"Perhaps he is right."

When Caitlin looked up at Lily, her eyes were sure, d termined.

Almost fierce.

Lily was impressed.

"No, he's not. I'm sure of it. I just have to find a way t convince

him that I'm not happier on that damn pedestal h keeps trying to put me on."

She rose, her thoughts making her restless.

"That he thinks I belong on."

Caitlin took the woman's hands in hers.

The urgency she felt was silently telegraphed to Lily.

"And I won't be able to if he thinks that his own mother doesn't want to remain in the same house with me. If he thinks that I chased her away."

"No one chases me away."

For a moment Lily allowed her hands to remain in Caitlin's.

She studied the young face before her.

Silently she withdrew her hands.

And then, turning, Lily removed the ceremonial dress she, had just

placed in the suitcase.

Relieved, Caitlin once again covered the small, delicate hands with her

own.

"Thank you."

The woman nodded, a princess granting a petitioner a boon.

Caitlin edged toward the door.

"I'll just leave you to unpack."

There was no acknowledgment of her words, so Caitlin slipped out of the

room.

"You may call me Lily."

The words, addressed to her back, trailed after Caitlin.

She turned, smiling.

Her gratitude and relief were in her eyes.

"Lily," Caitlinrepeated,savoringthefavorthatwasimplied.

"It's a beautiful name."

The woman vaguely lifted her shoulders and then let them fall as she

worked.

"It is just a name."

Caitlin left her to her unpacking.

Hope was pushing -open the door that Graham had attempted to shut on

her.

One down, one to go.

Jake's room faced the front of the house.

Caitlin approached it with the same unsettled feeling she'd experienced

approaching Lily's.

Just because he was younger didn't mean that this was going to be any easier.

She smiled to herself just before she knocked.

She felt like Jacob, toiling for seven years in the desert for Rachel.

Caitlin wondered how Gray would like being thought of as Rachel.

Caitlin knocked on Jake's door and then slowly turned the doorknob,

easing the door open.

He was sitting crosslegged on the floor, playing with carved figures

that were resplendent in ceremonial garb.

One of them looked to be half-man, half-eagle.

She ventured a smile.