Shall I compare theeeeeeeeeee to a summer’s daaaaaaaaaay!

Mrs. Kraft had given Allegra a D, but there was Allegra, beaming an angelic smile anyway, saying, “Hiya, Mrs. Kraft!”

Mrs. Kraft said, “And how’s our summer going?” Something about the way she sang it out made it sound like she was fishing for information. Was it possible that Mrs. Kraft had heard about Allegra getting caught drinking and smoking pot while modeling her underwear for Ian Coburn? If Mrs. Kraft knew, then it was official: everyone knew. Had Mrs. Kraft seen the photo? Hope felt seriously bad for her sister. News like that would quickly make its way around the faculty room in the fall, and Allegra would have no one to ask for letters of recommendation. Last week, Hope would have found this gratifying. But now, she and Allegra were like the Corsican Brothers; someone kicked Allegra in the shin, and Hope felt the pain.

“The girls were just talking about all the books they’ve been reading,” Grace said.

“Speaking of reading!” Mrs. Kraft said. She turned her attention now to Grace. “Have you heard about the new Madeline King novel? It’s supposed to be quite scandalous.”

“I haven’t heard a thing,” Grace said. And with a hand motion like the one Father Declan used at Mass, she indicated that the girls should both stand up. “I’ve been busy with the garden and the hens.”

“I just figured you would know about it,” Mrs. Kraft said. “Since you and Madeline are such close friends.”

“Actually,” Grace said, “Madeline and I aren’t speaking at the moment.”

This seemed to throw Mrs. Kraft for a loop-de-loop. She answered in a normal speaking voice. “Oh, I’m so sorry… open mouth, insert espadrille. I should never have brought it up.”

Grace smiled ruefully and fiddled with the clasp of her purse. “Probably not.”

Hope studied her mother. She wasn’t speaking to Madeline? This was outrageous news, so outrageous that Hope thought her mother was lying—but then she realized that there had been an absence the past week or so; her mother hadn’t been locked in her study on the phone with Madeline, like she usually was. Was it because of what had happened between Allegra and Brick? Or was it because Grace was so engrossed by Benton and the garden? Every once in a while, it occurred to Hope that her mother was a human being with her own complicated set of emotions. She wondered if Grace and Madeline had had a fight, like Allegra and Hollis. But weren’t Grace and Madeline too old for that kind of behavior?

Hope shifted her weight. She wanted to tell Mrs. Kraft to buzz off, go sing her arias or recite her sonnets, leave their mother alone. As if sharing this very same thought, Allegra spoke up.

“It was nice to see you, Mrs. Kraft. Enjoy your lunch.”

“Oh,” Mrs. Kraft said. She seemed so taken aback by this polite rebuff from her worst student that she wobbled on the wedge heels of her espadrilles. “Yes, thank you, I will.”

Hope gave Mrs. Kraft a second little wave—this one of farewell—and followed her mother and sister out of the restaurant.

GRACE

Nantucket had a week of heat, and when Grace said heat she meant temperatures in the high eighties and low nineties. It was hot enough that the girls would come home from their volunteer jobs and jump right into the pool and Grace would stay inside with the central air-conditioning cranked unless she was tending the chickens or Benton was around.

Benton came only for a perfunctory hour, and he was all business. He couldn’t stay for lunch or for any other reason. His other gardens were in crisis, he said.

Because of the heat.

Then the heat broke, and they got two and a half days of relentless, pounding rain.

On the first rainy day, Benton texted: Not coming today. Staying home to catch up on paperwork.

Grace curled up in bed and fought off a migraine. Was she really going to consider leaving Eddie for this man?

The second day, he texted, Not coming today. Doing bills. BTW, I have a substantial one for Eddie, you might want to warn him?

Migraine. Grace thought, Not coming today to see the woman you love, or your pet project; sending Eddie a substantial bill, which would send Eddie through the roof. He was still complaining about Hester Phan’s fee, and when Grace had broached the matter of Madeline and Trevor’s fifty thousand dollars, Eddie had glared at Grace and said, Honestly, Grace, what do you think I do all day?

Madeline hadn’t responded to Grace’s voice mail, and Grace began to worry that she’d done further damage to the relationship. She went back and forth between believing that Madeline was writing a novel about her and Benton—Two of the women at this table will betray the person on their left—and thinking that it was just a bad rumor cooked up by Blond Sharon.

But then Ruth Kraft mentioned Madeline’s book, and Grace wondered how ditzy Ruth Kraft would have found out about it?

It must be true?

It couldn’t be true. Madeline would never, ever do that, no matter how angry she was.

Would she?

If it were true, Grace would… she would… well, she would be so mad that she couldn’t fathom what she would do. She had shared everything with Madeline in confidence! They had been friends for nearly twenty years!

Madeline would never, Grace decided. It was just a rumor.

Unless Madeline was exacting some kind of revenge.

Allegra is a cheater, and you, Grace, are a cheater.

What Madeline clearly didn’t understand was that Grace was in love. There was nothing she could do about it!