“I do understand,” I said. “And I know why you felt so guilty.”
She looked up sharply. “Of course. The portrait. Ned told you?”
“No. I guessed.”
She sighed. “My father forced me to make a good marriage, you know. But Ned and I—you can’t just stop loving someone, can you?” Then she smoothed down her lovely silk gown and got to her feet. “I’m going to make it up to my daughter. The doctor says she can lead a perfectly normal life in time. It will be fun bringing her out into society. She’s a pretty girl, isn’t she? Who would have thought she’d turn out so pretty?” And she left.
As Kathleen’s speech returned she was able to tell us the truth about what happened to Mrs. McCreedy. She had watched Patrick as Mrs. McCreedy spotted the open trapdoor. She had watched as he crept up behind the caretaker and then given her a mighty shove to her death. Kathleen had rushed back to hide under her bed and Father Patrick had never known he had been observed. We’d never know exactly why he had to kill Mrs. McCreedy. Had she caught him trying to sneak up to Kathleen? Personally I think he wanted to make Kathleen appear guilty of a second murder. A coldhearted man indeed! What a lot of traumatic memories that child would have to work through before she could start to live a normal life. I was glad that Dr. Birnbaum and Gus would be helping her.
Sid, Gus, and Daniel’s mother left to go home and Daniel and I finally had the place to ourselves until the ship arrived. We sat together on the lawn, looking out at the whitecaps on the ocean and I thought how lucky we were that we had our whole lives ahead of us now. When Daniel was forced to take a rest I found time to visit Miss Gallinger and give her all the news. She was most excited to hear what had transpired.
“So I was right then, wasn’t I?” she said. “The child was already dead when she went over the cliff. I remember how resilient one was as a child. I fell off that cliff once. And you see, now her sister survived the fall too.”
We took tea together and she thanked me profusely. I’d obviously given her something to talk about with her maid through the long winter evenings ahead. I saw her watching me wistfully from behind the lace curtain as I left.
On the day of our departure Daniel and I were driven to our boat in the family motorcar. As soon as the steward left our cabin, Daniel took me into his arms.
“At least you can say that our honeymoon wasn’t dull,” he said. “I hope we can look forward to a more peaceful life together in the future.”
“Peaceful lives can be awfully boring.” I smiled up at him.
“What am I going to do with you, Molly Murphy?”
“Just love me for what I am.” Then I asked abruptly. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What I haven’t been strong enough to do for the past few days,” he said firmly.
“Are you up to it?”
He started to laugh. I laughed with him and we didn’t even hear the toot of the siren as the ship slipped away from its berth, back to New York and our new life.