Declan got slowly stronger and by the seventh day was sitting up part of the time on the driver’s bench with Kevin. Some days they found meat and some days they didn’t. But nobody ever went to bed hungry and there was a routine to their days. Sarah made her peace with Fiona and even with Mike to a certain extent. They didn’t talk about their differences and Sarah wasn’t sure they ever would. She tried not to think any further than the day she was living although in the back of her mind she knew she would be traveling back down this road within weeks. Either with Mike or alone, she would return to the convent and by God and all that was holy, she would find John there waiting for her. It was this thought that allowed her to take each day as it came. It allowed her to let out the long breath she’d been holding and relax into the rhythm of her days on the road. She even found herself laughing a few times and there was a look every now and then that Mike gave her—deeply loving and caring—that reminded her of how things used to be.
