After Asher left the kitchen, Emma spent the next few hours with her great-great-grandmother. She found Endora in the room where she had made herself at home. The woman was lying in bed and did not look well. She seemed very ill.

"Are you feeling all right?" Emma asked.

Her great-great-grandmother struggled to sit up, but Emma stopped her. "There's no need to get up, granny."

She hurried over to the bed and sat down beside her. In such a short time, she had come to feel a deep love for that woman, perhaps because of the family ties that bound them together, or because she could not believe all...