PENNY HELD THE BABY as they drove down the darkening road. Phoebe's head rested against her shoulder, a thin trail of drool dampening her new winter coat. Cora drove fast, gravel flying against the fenders. A rabbit darted across their path, then leapt to safety on the other side of the road.
"Where will you go?" Penny asked, turning to catch Cora's face in the last of the fading light.
"I can't tell you. It's safer if you don't know."
Penny's heart thudded with a hollow sound. The baby's weight was so solid and substantial in her arms. It seemed impossible that anything could separate her from Phoebe and Cora.
"Later on I can write to you," Cora said. "Maybe in a few years. I'll write in care of your mother at the Hamiltons' address."
"But why do you have to run away? I'm the one who did it." She shouted so forcefully that Phoebe began to cry. "Hush," she whispered, kissing her. So many things were flying through her head. She imagined great flocks of birds circling in chaos. "What about your brother?" She remembered how still he had sat in that rocking chair. Unnaturally still.
"I asked him not to report the crime for a day or so. Just to give me a head start." Cora spoke evasively.
Something awful plucked at Penny when she recalled the drained wine glass beside him on the floor. "Did you ... did you do something to him?" She couldn't frame the word kill.
"Remember my grandfather's sleeping powder? I mixed two packets in with his wine. He'll sleep for a while, that's all. It seemed my best chance of calming him down so I could get away."
Penny's thoughts began to race again. "But what happens when he wakes up? He'll call the police."
"He can't. I cut the phone wire. And I slashed his tires. He won't be going anywhere unless he starts walking."
"You did that to your brother?"
Cora bit her lip. "He was so upset, I didn't know what he would do. He might never forgive me for it, but I couldn't take any chances."
"Why didn't you tell him that I did it?"
"Oh, Penny." She took a quick swipe at her eyes. "You think I'd let them put you away?" She paused, breathing deeply. "I want you to listen to me. When we get to Sandborn, I'm going to let you off, and that's the last we'll see of each other—for a very long while at least. So please pay attention."
Penny hugged Phoebe tighter, allowing the baby to close her hand around her braid and pull hard. It hurt, but she made no noise.
"I've left a letter behind for the police. I've taken full responsibility for ... for the shooting. I signed my name, and said that you and Jacob had nothing to do with it."
"But why? Why do you have to run away because of what I did?"
"He ... Adam would have put me away. Taken Phoebe away. I don't know if I could have done it, even if I had gotten the rifle away from him." Beneath the urgency in her voice there was something fragile and raw. "He just broke me down, Penny. Broke me until I was the same way I'd been before I left him. But you did it for me. What I couldn't do. Deep down I just wasn't brave enough."
Penny sobbed aloud. She saw Adam Egan, lying on the floor, painted in his own blood, his dead eyes staring at her.
"You're too young to get dragged down in my mess. Let me be the criminal. I was on the run from him anyway." Cora paused to steady her voice. "There will be a police inquiry. They'll call you in to give evidence. I want you to promise me that you'll tell them I did it. Say you came in when you heard the shot, saw me with the rifle. Then you got on your bike and fled because you were scared."
"No. It's wrong. I'm going to go to the police and tell them the truth."
"Honey, please listen to me." Cora pulled over to the side of the road. "Your life is brand-new. You could be anything you wanted. I want you to go out and be a heroine. Live your life and be someone great. I ruined my life when I was only twenty-one, married a man I didn't even know very well. I don't want your life ruined. You should get an education. Sometimes I think you're my true soul, Penny. You're so strong and unspoiled. I want you to be a heroine for both of us."
Penny wept while Cora stroked her hair.
"Promise me, Penny. Promise me you'll do all those things you talked about. You said you wanted to be a nurse. It would make me so proud. Just think. We would share the same profession."
The sun and moon had vanished, but the truck's headlights provided enough illumination for her to see Cora's eyes as they reached deep inside her, drawing forth her dreams like jewels. Everything she had ever longed for. A road stretching before her into an unknown landscape with mountains and towering trees.
"If you're my friend," said Cora, "do this for me."
Penny threw her arms around her neck.
"You still haven't promised me."
"I promise," Penny said faintly.
"A friend is someone you never lose," Cora told her. "One day when everything is better, our paths will cross again. Who knows?"
She clung to Cora until Phoebe, squeezed between them, began to protest. Then Cora started driving again. Penny looked to the horizon, where she could already make out the distant lights of Sandborn.
"There's one thing I want you to do," Cora said, "as soon as you've had a chance to calm down. I want you to go see your mother."
"She loves you. Believe me, Penny. I saw it on her face. When she came out that time. Just go and have a talk with her." Cora switched off the headlights and cut the engine. "If Phoebe ever turned away from me, it would break my heart."
"You're going to Mexico, aren't you?" The thought came to Penny with marvelous clarity. Cora spoke Spanish. Maybe she could join Antonio—she wondered if it was too late to ask if Cora had really kissed him. "Once you're across the border, they can't get you anymore. Can they?"
Cora was silent.
"Or Canada." As long as she kept talking, she could make time stand still. Keep Cora with her a little longer. "That's even closer." If Cora drove all night and day, she could cross the border before anyone caught up with her. "Can I come with you?" For a moment, it seemed not only possible but necessary, essential, the thing Penny wanted more than anything else. "I want to go with you."
Cora spoke sternly. "That's crazy talk, and you know it."
She winced, turning her head to the passenger window. She could just make out the streetlights, a string of houses with lit-up windows.
"I think it's best if I let you off here. It's better if no one sees you getting out of my truck." Cora let herself out and went around to the back. Penny could hear her hauling out her bicycle and suitcase. But she stayed where she was, holding Phoebe securely on her lap, running her fingers over her downy head.
Cora opened the passenger door. "Come on, Penny." She took her daughter and walked a few paces away. Penny stumbled out of the pickup. The black sky swam with stars. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she made out the shape of her bicycle.
"I put your suitcase in the rear basket," Cora told her. "You're about a quarter of a mile from town. Go to Swenson's Ladies' Guesthouse on Main Street. I've heard it's clean and respectable. In the morning, you can take the train to Minerva. Once you're back in town, you can start going to school every day like a regular student. Here." She placed an envelope in Penny's hand. "Put that away carefully. Your wages are in there. I put in a little extra to tide you over for a while. There's a pocket with a zipper inside your coat. Stick it in there." Cora hovered close until Penny tucked the envelope safely away.
"Good luck," Cora whispered, hugging her, Phoebe nestled between them. "Remember our promise. You're going to live a good life." She kissed Penny's cheek and then stepped away. It was over so fast. The pickup started up and drove off. Penny swung her leg over the bicycle seat. Her feet found the pedals and pushed off, letting the distant lights of Sandborn draw her into town.