Not four weeks after Jack and Justine road down the long drive surrounded by melting snow, the temperature soared, the sun shone bright in the cloudless blue sky and the first crocuses broke through the dark soil. In the first week of March, Mr. and Mrs. Porter and their daughter and son-in-law arrived from the village to assist with the plowing and planting of the sprawling vegetable garden behind the Cottage. Idyllwild in the spring was a time of renewal and rebirth. Mirabel dropped a gangly legged foal in late March much to Fanny and Charlie’s delight. The barn cat Sheba birthed a litter of seven mewling kittens in the hay loft, two of which were claimed by the children as pets and mousers for the house. Finches and magpies soared across the sky, building nests in the stately old oaks until the air was filled with the sound of baby birds chirping. When Olivia awoke before the dawn one morning to discover she’d begun her courses she was not surprised. Of course there would be no baby.
