And Maybe.....

People clogged up in front of her like a log jam. Why here? Why now? Finally necessity made it impossible to be polite and she started using her elbows. People let her through.

Too late. The calla lily bell was gone.

There was no blue scarf anywhere. Astrid glanced back behind her, in case the girl had turned and gone back in. If she waited too long, and the stupid twit was wandering the streets, the distance between them was stretching and it would be all the more impossible to put things right.

And what would she tell Franklin? Yes, I caught sight of your daughter for all of two seconds and then she started moving as though she were running away from me.

It sounded ludicrous. It was ludicrous. What could the girl possibly be thinking?

Astrid's breath was coming in ragged gasps. She found a bench and sat down to rest and think. What could she do? She couldn't go home without the girl. She couldn't follow Zoe wherever she had half-jogged off to. Would she do the logical thing and come back to the train station? Was the best action to wait right here where no stray niece could go in or out without her noticing?

It was so like Franklin to put her in these kinds of situations. Nothing that had anything to do with her brother ever went smoothly or according to protocol. He was always bending and pushing at the rules and why would it be so hard to imagine that his daughter would do the same?

Why had he been so insistant that she return to the States, especially to her? Why had she not instantly told him to find someone else to take in his wayward daughter? Why had she agreed to put her life in turmoil for the sake of family who didn't really care about being a family?