He shook his head. “No, she couldn’t know I would be here.”
He stood up then. But as he moved Kate noticed that he took special care to stand between the windows where he could not be seen by any one who might be in the orchard.
“You have made a mistake,” he said. “I don’t think I can be the person you think. My picture wouldn’t be in your mother’s desk.”
But Kate nodded, perfectly sure of her facts.
“Oh, yes, you are. Mother’s always had you. You’ve been our talisman for years, both of ours. And that’s funny, for neither of us knew about the other’s feeling until just before I came away.”
His face had reddened. “Her talisman?” he asked, incredulously.
“Just as much hers as mine. It was very funny. But it’s even funnier—of course I don’t mean funny, I mean strange—that I’ve found you here.”
“But don’t you know who I am?” the man asked.
“Only that you’re the talisman. I don’t know your name.”
“Exactly. Your mother didn’t want you even to know his name. Well, time justified her. It fulfilled all their prophecies. He was a nobody first and a convict afterward. No wonder she didn’t tell you his name.”