"Penrose will follow the paper," Mark said. "Whatever she did at the end."
"Then we follow what we signed. Lydia included. She doesn't get to develop a conscience now that it's expensive."
"She'll develop one anyway," Mark said. "She always does, late."
They did not call her. That was the decision, made between the coffee urn and the door, not written down because they had learned, at last, that paper could be found. Helen told herself they were sparing Lydia a scene until they knew the facts. Mark told himself they were protecting a plan that was, after all, about fairness. Both of them knew a third thing and did not say it: that Lydia had loved Ruth without making a project of it, and that if the folder held a surprise, Lydia could not be trusted to treat the surprise as an enemy. They would hear it first. They would decide what the youngest needed to be told.