Before the poor besieged clerk might answer, Nora said coolly, "The reservation I made has been given to my husband and his girlfriend. Roberts says there are no other rooms. I have my confirmation, and I will wager that no confirmation number was checked when Jeff arrived. I want my room. And I want it now."

"We can give you a room in the annex, madame. We do keep a few vacant for emergencies," C. Elders said. He glared at the check-in clerk.

"But I don't want to be in the annex," Nora replied, and she gave the man a steely smile. "I want my reservation that is next door to my friends. Put Mr. Buckley and his tartlet in the annex."

"Madame, we are doing our best," the assistant manager sputtered.

"I am Mrs. Buckley's attorney," Rick broke in, "and I should hate to see this incident become any more public than your inefficiency is making it. Mrs. Buckley will wait in our room while you remove Mr. Buckley and his friend from her room. Is that clear, Mr. Elders?"

"Yes, sir," the assistant manager said, and then he turned to the hapless check-in clerk. "See to it, Roberts! Immediately!"

Nora and Carla looked at each other and swallowed back their laughter.

"Doncha just love him when he get tough?" Carla said, grinning.

"He's quite amazing," Nora agreed. "It's a whole 'nother side of Richard Johnson, and I have to say I like it."

They went upstairs, and Nora listened with a large grin on her face as she heard Jeff bitching when he and Heidi were moved out of the room next door.

"Does this other room have a fireplace?" Jeff demanded to know. "I want to speak with the manager!"

"I'm sorry, sir. The manager isn't here this weekend, but you can speak with Mr. Elders, his assistant," the bellhop said.

"I've already spoken with that moron," Jeff almost shouted. "How the hell could this kind of a mix-up occur?"

"I don't know, sir," the bellhop said, and they heard the elevator doors closing.

The trio burst into laughter.

"He'll figure it out soon enough," Nora said with a chuckle.

Shortly afterwards there came a knock on the door, and Mr. Elders himself was outside it. "I've had the bellhop bring up your luggage, Mrs. Buckley. The room has been cleaned, and is ready for you. I apologize for the distress this mix-up has caused you. May I escort you?"

"Thank you," Nora said quietly. Then she turned to her friends. "What time are we meeting the kids?" she asked.

"Six. Downstairs. We've got a reservation in the Colonial Dining Room for dinner," Carla said.

"I'll see you there," Nora told her, and followed the now-unctuous Mr. Elders.

When he had left her Nora looked about the room. It was beautifully done with a tester bed and faux Chippendale furniture. On the table by the fireplace were a small basket of fruit and a box of chocolates. She pulled the card from between an apple and a pear. "Thank you for your patience. C. Elders," the card read. Nora tossed it into the fire, and picking up the telephone, asked the answering operator, "Do you get The Channel?"

"Yes, madam," the operator said. "Would you like to order it?"

"Yes. This is Mrs. Buckley in room 320."

"No problem, Mrs. Buckley. It will be available after ten p.m."

Well, Mr. Nicholas had said The Channel was available just about everywhere. Nora grinned to herself.

J. J. met her two hours later in the lobby. He hugged her hard, and then said, "Dad's here with Heidi. I told him he didn't have to come, that you were coming. He just called me this morning to tell me. I didn't have the time to call you, and I was afraid you wouldn't come if you knew he was here."

"It's okay, honey," Nora assured him, and then she told him about the botch with the room reservations.

J. J. laughed. "Does he know he got kicked out for you?" he wondered.

"I suspect they just told him it was a mix-up because of the nature of the weekend. I was in Carla and Rick's room when they moved him out. He wasn't being very gracious," Nora chuckled.

It would be difficult seeing Jeff, especially knowing what she knew now about the house, Nora thought, but she didn't share her news with J. J. She had promised herself when this all began that she wouldn't build a wall between father and son. Not that Jeff had been a great dad. He hadn't. But he was still J. J.'s male parent. She set her mind on having a good weekend with her child.

And it was good. They all had dinner together that night. The Johnsons, with Maureen, Nora and J. J. They had breakfast the next morning at the inn's wonderful and justly famous buffet. Jeff and Heidi were there. Nora sent her son to sit with them, although he objected. For me, she had told him. At least Jeff couldn't claim she was keeping their son from him.

They went to the football game together, and State won. Nora showed her son the different dorms she had lived in when she was at State. But things had changed a lot over the years since she had graduated. J. J. showed her his dorm, where the soccer team resided. But Pagano's was still there, and they had pizza for dinner that night- Rick, Carla, Maureen, J. J., and Nora.

"And this time I can legally order a pitcher of real beer," Nora said, laughing. "It was only three-point-two percent back when I was here."

On Sunday the soccer teams played. While the varsity lost, the junior varsity won. J. J. was elated that his mother had been there to see him play, and win. They had Sunday dinner at the inn. Then they bid their kids good-bye, and drove home, arriving in Egret Pointe in a dusky mid-October twilight.

"I'll bring over the manicotti," Carla said. "I froze it for you. You can have it for supper tomorrow night."

And when she came with a dish big enough to feed a family, tucking it into Nora's fridge, Nora told her all of her Friday meeting with Rick. Carla sat down, and burst into tears. "No," she said. "You can't move. You can't! I know I said you would be better off without this big house, but I never meant it."

"I don't have a choice," Nora told her friend.

"There has to be a way," Carla wailed. "I'm going to tell Rick he has to find a way, Nora. You can't lose the house."

"Honey, Rick has done his best. I don't want to lose the house, but at least J. J. gets his college money, and Jeff has got to ante up for me for the next five years. That will give me plenty of time to get on my feet."

"A thousand a month isn't much," Carla said. "And where are you going to live? If you spend the money you get on a condo, you won't have a helluva lot left for investments for your old age."

"I'll inherit something from Margo one day," Nora replied.

"What if she gets a catastrophic illness, and runs through the money?" Carla said. "You need the house to be safe. The taxes aren't too bad, but they will go up when the name is changed on the deed. You can still manage."

"Maybe Jeff will die in the sack with Heidi before the divorce," Nora teased her friend. "Then it's all mine."

"From your lips to God's ear," Carla replied fiercely. "Oh, God! I can't bear to think that you won't be next door this time next year." And she cried a little more.

I can't bear it either, Nora thought, comforting her best friend. I'm not going to go. There has to be another way. There has to be!

Rick had said that Raoul Kramer would have the papers for her to sign in a few days. "Get me a few more weeks before I have to sign," she instructed him.

"How?" He knew she was stalling to avoid the inevitable.

"Ask for more alimony! Try for Jill's tuition again. And then say I'll sign after the New Year. I don't want to spoil the kids' holidays. They'll both be home, and I don't want them to know that it's the last Christmas they'll celebrate in this house. Jeff has got to understand that, hard-hearted bastard that he is! Both Jill and J. J. have lived every Christmas of their lives in this house. Please, Rick. Appeal to Kramer, and let him convince Jeff."

"I'm not going to haggle with them at this point," Rick said. "They could withdraw the deal, but I'll speak with Kramer. I can vouch that you've always been a woman of your word, Nora, and Jeff knows it too."

"You're certain she'll do it after the New Year?" Raoul Kramer asked Rick Johnson after the call had been made.

"Look, I've known Nora Buckley almost twenty-five years, Kramer. If she says she'll do it, she'll do it. But look at it from her standpoint. She doesn't want her kids to have a miserable time when they come home for Christmas. Is it really that much to ask? He's agreed not to put the house on the market until April first anyway. Signing after the holiday isn't going to change anything, but maybe this little bit of extra time before she signs will let Nora come to terms with her situation. You know she's getting the short end of the stick."

"Usually I like my business," Raoul Kramer said, "but in cases like this I don't. He's a real piece of work, my client, but you never heard me say it. Relax. I'll get Mrs. Buckley her time. But tell her I want you both in my offices at ten a.m. on January second to sign those papers. Deal?"

"Deal," Rick replied. "And, Kramer, thanks. I owe you for this one."

Raoul Kramer laughed. "What the hell could a little country mouse of a lawyer like you do for me?" he asked.

"Hey, you never know," Rick said, feeling better already. "Remember, the turtle won the race over the faster hare."

Raoul Kramer laughed again and hung up.

Jeff, however, wasn't happy. "I wanted this thing tied up fast. You promised me it would be, Kramer. That's why I'm paying you the big bucks. But instead I've ended up paying a bridge loan, and Heidi has me in debt up to my ears furnishing the place!"

"Look, if you hadn't defrauded your kids of the moneys for their college educations, Buckley, it would have been a done deal. I could have gotten you off almost scot-free. But you got greedy before you hired me, so you're paying for that blunder. When the first Mrs. Buckley signs the papers doesn't matter. The timetable we've set up will remain in effect. Let her and let your kids have one last peaceful Christmas in their home. She isn't going to tell them until after she signs the papers on January second. What the hell difference does it make to let her and your kids be happy? You act as if she's done something wrong, and you want to punish her for it, but if the truth be known, she's the innocent party in all of this. If I were her lawyer, I'd have hung you out to dry."