Molly was seated in our living room, reading a book when I arrived. She looked up with a smile as Betsy met me with a kiss.
"I'm going to show Molly our library this afternoon," my wife said. "She only brought one book from home." She turned to the young girl. "Would you please take Bumpus for a walk before we go?" Bumpus jumped from his nap at the sound of the familiar word. Molly joined him at the door. As soon as the two left, I turned to Betsy.
"Spit it out; what did you and Julie discuss that now makes you Aunt Betsy?"
She laughed, and then became thoughtful. "I realized Julie was being honest and that earned her points on the positive side of the ledger. She was seriously disturbed at keeping secretes from Howie; perhaps more so than he was, doing the same thing. Yes, what she did early on was despicable in our minds, but put yourself in her position. Does she truly love him? I'm not sure she knows the answer herself but a lot of marriages are built on far less. I believe she'll stick it out and be good for him. Whether her being in the picture will blow everything we're doing; I just don't know. God knows, there are enough threats to our operation's survival without her coming on board."
I told Betsy about the flare up between Quinn and Martha before Quinn decided to go to Santa Barbara alone. While she was concerned about the rift in our associates' relationship, she felt Quinn and Howie getting together might produce some positive results, in spite of how acrimonious they might be to each other.
"It tears my heart out to know there are missing children we could be helping," she said. "As big a pain Quinn is at times, I know he's as committed as the rest of us to helping as many kids as possible." She placed no blame on Martha for remaining here. "Motherhood is a driving force. Just look at what Julie is doing in its name."
The balance of our afternoon and evening was spent in domestic bliss. It was fun having Molly around. Once she was comfortable with us she opened up, displaying a sharp and inquisitive mind. Molly helped Betsy prepare dinner. She was no stranger around the kitchen. My wife was as thrilled to entertain our guest as Molly was to be there. Her choice of library books was telling; the young girl was fascinated by a variety of subjects and was reading far above her grade level. No picture books for Molly O'Malley.