Daniel Jeffers met his mother coming out of her room at the boardinghouse. “But I have always made your breakfast, and at least I can pretend, can’t I?” Daniel shook his head and held out his bent arm to escort her to the dining room. “After breakfast, what do you have planned for today?” “I have been invited to a tea being held in my honor. Mrs. Wiste says this is the best way for me to meet some of the women of the town. During the winter they meet monthly for quilting but take a hiatus in the summer, thus the tea.” Daniel tucked a smile behind his mustache. Now she sounded more like the woman he’d known all his life, rather than the ghost who’d inhabited that body since his father disappeared. “I’m glad to hear that. Where is the tea to be held?” “At Mrs. Wiste’s house. Two o’clock this afternoon. She said someone would come to walk me over there. Isn’t that dear of her?” “Yes, it is. It is indeed.” He patted his mother’s hand on his arm. “I know that Mrs.
