The next day, Honey found it difficult to concentrate in school. All day, her thoughts kept returning to the beautiful, detailed and carefully filled-in book that documented her earliest years. She couldn't stop marveling that she had never seen it before. Why, why, why, had her mother never shown her the book?

Immediately after arriving home from school, she set to work in the library at the Manor House. Homework had never been so mystifying. Every geometry formula was wrong; every sentence in her essay about "The Most Dangerous Game" ended in a preposition.

"Oh, woe! If I can't get this work done, I'll never get to hear Mother's story!" She pulled a lock of honey-colored hair in an attempt to change the direction of her thoughts. Seeing Miss Trask pass by, Honey called out, "Miss Trask, will you please help me with this homework? I can't seem to concentrate today, and nothing is coming out right!"

"Certainly, dear," replied the energetic woman who had come to the Manor House as Honey's governess, and now oversaw the smooth running of the Wheeler estate. Her blue eyes twinkled as she looked fondly at her erstwhile charge. Honey was a lovely, kind girl who would make any parent proud, and Margery Trask knew the Wheelers were proud of their daughter. She often wished she could find some way to help Honey and her mother to develop a closer relationship.

The two worked steadily for another hour, until Honey declared that every assignment had been completed. More importantly, she understood what she had done. "Miss Trask, you're the most perfectly perfect tutor anyone could have!" she exclaimed. "I am so lucky you agreed to come here!"

"Your parents love you very much, my dear. I'm happy they thought I would be useful to you. I'm glad I came, too." She gave the young girl a spontaneous hug.

Honey did not see her mother pass by the open door of the library. Madeleine glanced inside, but turned away when she saw Honey embracing Miss Trask.

At the dinner table, Honey found that she again felt almost too excited to eat. Her mother looked better today and exerted herself to ask Honey about her day. She also shared a letter from Jim, Honey's adopted brother, who was a sophomore at Harvard. As Madeleine read from Jim's letter, Honey heard a note of animation in her voice that she rarely noticed. Although she enjoyed the letter and laughed at several of Jim's anecdotes, she began, once again, to feel like an outsider from her mother's perspective.

Finishing the letter, Madeleine looked straight at Honey, and said, "Darling, I'm ready as soon as you want to come to my room for our talk. Matthew" she turned to her husband "I promised Honey I'd go through her baby book with her tonight." Her lovely hazel eyes, exactly like her daughter's, were bright.

***********************

"Come in, dear," Madeleine called in answer to Honey's knock on her door twenty minutes later. Honey carried the lovely keepsake book under her arm as she walked over to the elegant sitting area of her parents' bedroom suite, which held a comfortable armchair and a chaise lounge, with a small table between them. The table held a carafe of water and two small glasses. When Honey started to sit down on the chair opposite her mother, Madeleine patted the comfortable chaise she occupied and beckoned for her daughter to sit with her. A floor lamp cast a bright circle of light in the room, otherwise dimmed in the evening twilight.

"Honey, you know that I was very ill just after you were born, and that was the reason we never had more children. I think what really happened has had a huge influence on our relationship -- or lack of relationship. You are growing up now and you have a right to know about that time." Madeleine's face took on a sad, but dreamy expression as she recounted her story.

"Your father and I were married a month after I graduated from college. He was already becoming established in business and was profiled in Forbes Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. I had my degree in Romance languages and art history, but I only wanted to start a family. We both wanted to have several children. We knew we could afford to give them every advantage and I enjoyed being around little Benjamin, even though your dad and I privately thought he was terribly spoiled by his parents!" Amazingly to Honey, her mother giggled over this revelation and her eyes sparkled.

"We didn't really mean to have a baby immediately, but I was still overjoyed to learn that I was pregnant just six months after our wedding. We joked that it was the best Christmas present we could have received. I was tired and had some morning sickness, but after the first couple of months I really felt good. I threw myself into learning about pregnancy, infant care, even breastfeeding. Although bottle-feeding was all the rage - so scientific, you know - I read that the mother's milk provided the perfect nutrition for a human baby. Cow's milk was for calves! Your father and I walked every day, and I spent hours with a decorator and a seamstress, designing my nursery and choosing the fabric and style for the curtains and bedding. Ben's mother, my sister Natalie, even helped me find classes on infant care, even though your grandmother thought it was ridiculous for me to learn to care for my own child. She said a trained nurse would be much better and I wouldn't be tied down to a child, as Natalie was." Madeleine's voice trembled at this last sentence and she paused to take a sip of water.

Honey glanced at her mother, and saw that her eyes were very bright; her slender hand clenched a handkerchief in her lap. She reached out to touch Madeleine's arm with her own hand. Madeleine pressed her other hand to her lips for a moment, then took a deep breath and continued.

"My labor pains started early in the morning on a hot July day; in fact, they woke me up. My doctor had told me to wait until they were five minutes apart and lasting for about a minute. It didn't take long for them to get that close, and we called a taxi to take us to the hospital. When we got there at about nine o'clock, I was taken to the labor hall, and your father was sent to the Father's Waiting Room. I had known he wouldn't be with me, but still I was frightened to be facing this without him. The last thing I remember is the nurse telling me not to worry, and giving me a shot to ease the pain."