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.You even have a crystal ball, for God's sake.How could you have missed something as important as this?""I didn't miss it.I just never knew for sure.""But he was your brother.""I know you want an explanation, but I'm not sure I can give you one."Kara paced restlessly around the space, wishing she had more room, wishing she could break something, wishing she wasn't continually caught off guard by the people in her life."I thought my parents loved each other," she said finally."I thought everything was perfect when we lived here.They were happy together.I remember them sitting on the couch, listening to you play the piano.Dad would stroke Mom's hair.She would kiss him on the cheek.They would laugh together.Was it all just an act?""Not all of it," Josephine said."But your parents obviously had problems.They got a divorce.""But not till they left, not till the Gatehouse was flooded and the theater couldn't be rebuilt.Dad couldn't start over with us in the city.He was too depressed, too restless.That's why he took off.""I don't think that's how it happened," Josephine said gently."I think your father and mother had problems that went much deeper than where they were to live.I can't tell you what they were.Harry didn't confide in me.Oh, I would hear them argue now and then, but I wasn't privy to their confidences."Kara tossed her hair in an angry, frustrated gesture."I don't understand.I came back here to find the happiness I once had, only to discover now that it was all an illusion.My father was screwing Mrs.Hunter.""The letter doesn't say that, and you don't know that they ever acted on their emotions.Love is sometimes beyond our control.""Not when you're married.Then you have to control it.""Yes, but I rather doubt that Harry and Isabelle had an actual affair.When she writes of him in this letter, she speaks almost poetically.In her words he's more than a man, he's practically a god.Now, Harry was a lot of things, but he definitely wasn't a god.Which leads me to believe they didn't know each other all that well.""I don't understand.""I think Isabelle loved the way Harry made her feel more than she loved him.And that was probably the attraction for Harry, too.Isabelle was a beautiful, passionate woman.She was warm and affectionate, all the things that your mother wasn't.Not that I didn't care deeply for your mother.She wasn't a bad person, just difficult to get close to."Kara didn't need to be reminded of that fact.When her father left, so had all the warmth in their family.Not that her mother was mean.She just didn't touch, and she didn't like to be lazy, and she didn't have a loud laugh that made you feel as if you had told the best joke in the world.But she had been a good mother in her own way."Another thing I don't understand is where Mrs.Hunter went.She supposedly left with my father, but he never showed up with her, and I distinctly remember him spending the night with us in San Francisco.Where was she?""Maybe they split up once they got to the city.""No wonder Mom couldn't stand to talk about him," Kara said after a moment, retracing the past as quickly as she could."She must have known that he had fallen in love with someone else.I wish she had told me, maybe not when I was a child; but later there were so many opportunities.Right before she died, I told her I thought Michael was cheating on me.And do you know what she said?""I can't imagine.""She told me to look the other way, to accept the good with the bad, to try and hang on to him.How could she give me such advice?""Maybe she wished she had hung on to Harry."Josephine walked over to the hot plate and picked up the kettle, which was beginning to steam.She poured two cups of tea and handed one to Kara.The aroma of herbs, cinnamon, and spices soothed her jangled nerves, and Kara took a grateful sip of the tea."Where did you get the letter?" Josephine asked as she settled onto a stool behind the counter."From Andrew, who got it from Ryan, who apparently stole it from Jonas all those years ago.""That's what Ryan stole? My goodness.All these years Jonas made it sound like Ryan had taken his life savings, when in fact all he had taken was a letter from his mother.""Andrew broke up with me.He said he can't bear to touch me, knowing that my father was with his mother.""He's a damn fool," Josephine said sharply."What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?""Apparently it means a lot to him.""Andrew wasn't the right man for you anyway," Josephine said."Especially when you're in love with his brother."Kara stiffened."That's absurd.I barely know the man.Besides, Ryan has probably left town by now.Speaking of men, I noticed you didn't come back to the Gatehouse last night."Josephine flushed like a teenager in love."I couldn't leave Ike -- not after what he did at the picnic.""He was pretty magnificent," Kara agreed.Josephine looked ashamed."Ike was right.I was being an old fool.He doesn't have to like tea or believe in my fortune-telling
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