Treasures Lost, Treasures Found by Nora Roberts Page B

“Yes, that’s the only reason.”
    Linda wondered why Kate should want her to believe what Kate didn’t believe herself. “What if I told you he’s never forgotten you?”
    Kate shook her head quickly, almost frantically. “Don’t.”
    “I love him.” Linda rose to distract Hope who’d discovered tossing blocks was more interesting than stacking them. “Even though he’s a frustrating, difficult man. He’s Marsh’s brother.” She set Hope in front of a small army of stuffed animals before she turned and smiled. “He’s my brother. And you were the first mainlander I was ever really close to. It’s hard for me to be objective.”
    It was tempting to pour out her heart, her doubts. Too tempting. “I appreciate that, Linda. Believe me, what wasbetween Ky and me was over a long time ago. Lives change.”
    Making a neutral sound, Linda sat again. There were some people you didn’t press. Ky and Kate were both the same in that area, however diverse they were otherwise. “All right. You know what I’ve been doing the past four years.” She sent a long-suffering look in Hope’s direction. “Tell me what your life’s been like.”
    “Quieter.”
    Linda laughed. “A small border war would be quieter than life in this house.”
    “Earning my doctorate as early as I did took a lot of concentrated effort.” She’d needed that one goal to keep herself level, to keep herself…calm. “When you’re teaching as well it doesn’t leave much time for anything else.” Shrugging, she rose. It sounded so staid, she realized. So dull. She’d wanted to learn, she’d wanted to teach, but in and of itself, it sounded hollow.
    There were toys spread all over the living room, tiny pieces of childhood. A tie was tossed carelessly over the back of a chair next to a table where Linda had dropped her purse. Small pieces of a marriage. Family. She wondered, with a panic that came and went quickly, how she would ever survive the empty house back in Connecticut.
    “This past year at Yale has been fascinating and difficult.” Was she defending or explaining? Kate wondered impatiently. “Strange, even though my father taught, I didn’t realize that being a teacher is just as hard and demanding as being a student.”
    “Harder,” Linda declared after a moment. “You have to have the answers.”
    “Yes.” Kate crouched down to look at Hope’s collection of stuffed animals. “I suppose that’s part of the appeal, though. The challenge of either knowing the answer or reasoning it out, then watching it sink in.”
    “Hoping it sinks in?” Linda ventured.
    Kate laughed again. “Yes, I suppose that’s it. When it does, that’s the most rewarding aspect. Being a mother can’t be that much different. You’re teaching every day.”
    “Or trying to,” Linda said dryly.
    “The same thing.”
    “You’re happy?”
    Hope squeezed a bright pink dragon then held it out for Kate. Was she happy? Kate wondered as she obliged by cuddling the dragon in turn. She’d been aiming for achievement, she supposed, not happiness. Her father had never asked that very simple, very basic question. She’d never taken the time to ask herself. “I want to teach,” she answered at length. “I’d be unhappy if I couldn’t.”
    “That’s a roundabout way of answering without answering at all.”
    “Sometimes there isn’t any yes or no.”
    “Ky!” Hope shouted so that Kate jolted, whipping her head around to the front door.
    “No.” Linda noted the reaction, but said nothing. “She means the dragon. He gave it to her, so it’s Ky.”
    “Oh.” She wanted to swear but managed to smile as she handed the baby back her treasured dragon. It wasn’treasonable that just his name should make her hands unsteady, her pulse unsteady, her thoughts unsteady. “He wouldn’t pick the usual, would he?” she asked carelessly as she rose.
    “No.” She gave Kate a very direct, very level look. “His tastes have always run to the