″‘Where is my necklace?’ she asked. ‘What did you do with it?’
‘I hid it in a safe place,’ Annemarie told her. ‘A very secret place where no one will ever find it. And I will keep it there for you until it is safe for you to wear it again.’
″‘What’s happening?’ Annemarie asked when she and Ellen were alone with Papa in the living room. ‘Something’s wrong. What is it?’ Papa’s face was troubled. ‘I wish that I could protect you children from this knowledge,’ he said quietly.”
“For a moment, to Annemarie, listening, it seemed like all the earlier times, the happy visits to the farm in the past with summer daylight extending beyond bedtime, with the children tucked away in the bedrooms and the grownups downstairs talking.”
“Annemarie felt a surge of sadness; the bond of their friendship had not broken, but it was as if Ellen had moved now into a different world, the world of her own family and whatever lay ahead for them.”