by Beth Byers
Victor laughed and Vi gave him a pleased grin. She needed him to be all right. Jack leaned down and pressed a kiss on her cheek before he said, “Stay out of the worst of the trouble.”
Vi scrunched her nose and shook her head. Jack laughed again and left and then Vi sat up for real. Her humor faded as she faced her twin and she asked, “Well?”
“It’s Kate,” Victor said. “I’ve upset her.”
“How?”
He paused, struggling for the words and then said, “I told her I didn’t want more children. I told her that you managed to not get pregnant and I needed her to figure that out as well.”
Vi gaped.
“I know!” Victor groaned. “She cried. I’m a fool.”
“Victor,” Violet started and then closed her eyes. Her brother didn’t need her to tell him that he was, in fact, a fool. He also didn’t need her to point out that he’d been as involved in those baby-making moments as Kate. Or the fact that he only wanted the children to stop, when they were so eminently fertile, because he was terrified of losing Kate to childbirth.
“After she cried?”
Victor didn’t answer.
“You aren’t normally so likely to put your foot in your mouth.”
Violet’s twin nodded. “It scared me. What happened to Rita. She fell on the stairs, Vi. But what if she had the baby early and bled too much? I could survive losing Rita, as much as I care about her, but I couldn’t survive losing Kate.”
Violet could well imagine. They were, both of them, far too inclined to imagine up something horrible. They could make it so real. It helped with their writing, and it was a real problem after something alarming, in the middle of the night, or when there were odd noises to decipher. How easy it was to hear monsters in the walls when you could imagine the shape of the claws, the sound of their growls, and the exact color of their eyes.
“Did you apologize?”
Victor nodded. “At least a thousand times.”
“She forgave you,” Vi said, certain it was true.
“She did.”
“Then?”
“I can’t shake the guilt, Vi.”
Violet laughed and then patted him on the head again. “Your suffering is just what she needs.”
“But you’ll buy jewelry with me all the same?”
“I will,” Violet agreed easily. “Come, come. Let’s find Kate a bucket of apologies to match the ones you’ve already given her.”
Victor groaned and then said, “How do I make her believe that I’m sorry, Vi?”
“Surely this isn’t the first time you’ve made her cry?”
“I don’t know,” Victor muttered. “She’s sneaky like you are.”
Violet laughed. “Probably why you adore her.”
“Jewelry?”
“I’m not going to tell you how to persuade your wife to forgive you, but I would suggest that you start with something a little more in her line.”
“She likes jewelry?” Given that it was a question, he scoffed at himself. “I should know that, right?”
“Victor.” Vi lifted a brow and put her hands on her hips. “Quit being a ninny. It’s painful.”
He moaned. “What do I do?”
“You are not this slow.”
“Jack buys you jewelry.”
“I adore jewelry and wear too much.”
Victor grinned at her. “Sometimes you do clang a bit.”
“But I’m shiny when I do.”
“You are,” he said, holding his arm out to her. “Like a chandelier.”
She gasped and elbowed him.
“Or like…a peacock feather.”
Vi groaned and elbowed him harder.
“Or a spider’s web with dew.”
“I hate you.”
“On a sunny morning,” he added and then giggled like a schoolgirl when she huffed. “Vi, the walking spider’s web.”
“With dew,” she added dryly, rolling her eyes.
“On a sunny morning.”
When they were in the auto, Violet said, “Think now, brother mine.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. I keep replaying making Kate cry.”
“Think,” Vi snapped. “Quit being a baby. You laid some blame at Kate’s feet that is at least half yours. It was a delicate time, and you feel badly.”
“I do,” he agreed.
“Mostly because she doesn’t cry in front of you.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t make her cry.”
Vi lifted a brow at him.
“I do?” The squeak in his voice made her laugh, but she nodded firmly, so he’d understand.
“I—”
Violet waited. Vi had cried often enough when they were living together that he should have been aware. Kate wasn’t some automaton.
“She’s too kind to me. She probably doesn’t want her emotions to come into our tiffs, and I suppose—”
Vi lifted her brow, waiting.
“Well, many couples fight over money or where they live, or family, but Kate and I don’t need to argue about those things. We’re spoiled, Vi.”
“You are,” Vi agreed. “We both are.” Violet patted his leg as he muttered to himself.
“She’s easy, isn’t she? She just wants books, to be with family…she puts me first so easily.”
Vi let him talk it out, and he mostly just muttered from then on while they drove through London. Finally, he got to it. “She doesn’t want jewelry.”
“Maybe you could leave the twins with Jack and I and take her somewhere for a few days.”
Victor paused, and she could see the instant rejection in his eyes, but he waited long enough to process that feeling. “We could use some time, the two of us.”
“You could,” Vi agreed.
“And no one would take care of them better than you and Jack while we were gone. We’d come home to spoiled babies.”
“You would.”
“Once Nanny Jane is done looking after Rita and if Kate says it’s all right.”
Violet laughed. “Look at you. Already making progress.”
“I’d have said that before, Vi,” Victor crossed his arms over his face, and he was about one quarter inch of lower lip from full pouting.
She patted his leg as if he’d done something just right.
“Stop it,” he grumbled.
She lifted a brow at him. “Where to, brother mine?”
He sniffed, eyed her sideways, and then frowned lightly as he said, “The bookstore.”
“There we go,” Vi laughed. She patted him again, and he shoved her hand off.
“You’re being condescending.”
“Only because Kate held back,” Violet laughed. “The universe needs balance.”
“You’re a horrendous brat,” he told her.
Their favorite bookstore appeared to be a hole in the wall until you walked inside. Then, the scent of books, the curving staircase, the windows that poured in enough light to curl into a chair and ravenously consume books was all they needed, though Vi had suggested more than once that coffee would also be in order. It seemed the bookstore owner did not feel the same.
Back before Jack and Kate, Violet and Victor had spent many an afternoon in the store and much of their pathetic pin money. Now, they spent an excess there and weren’t quite able to keep their reading time in step with their to-be-read pile of pulp, classics, and travelogues.
“Something Greek?” Vi suggested.
Victor met her eyes and nodded. “She misses the time she spent studying the language.”
The two of them worked together and found a stockpile of books that someone else had requested and not picked up. Victor was nearly walking on air when they left the bookstore and she paused and took his cheeks between her hands. “Say it with me.”
He gave her a long-suffering look.
“The reason I said what I did,” Vi trailed off and then patted his cheek, letting him go, “is because the thought of losing yo
u makes me feel panicky, and Rita’s close-call has sent me into a spiral of what-if-scenarios.”
Victor stared at Vi. “It did, didn’t it? I know that.”
Vi nodded, waiting.
“Vi—” She could hear the panic in his voice, the sickness that came just from loving Kate and being terrified. The worry that maybe Rita wasn’t all right. The fear of being a man with twin orphans as their father had been. Father had failed them, but would Victor fail if that were his lot? He didn’t say any of that. He didn’t need to.
Violet squeezed his hand. “Victor, Kate needs to know what you know and what I know.”
“I don’t want her to worry about my worry.”
She nodded and then waited, hoping he’d say it on his own, but he didn’t, so Violet helped. “Kate deserves to know that you find her so important and necessary to your existence that the idea of losing her made you lash out. She needs to know the why. She needs to feel it in her heart, or she will be making up her own reasons for why you acted like you did.”
“She knows me, Vi,” he said. The was a quiver to his voice, and it was her instinct to step in and help, but Kate needed to hear it from Victor, not Vi.
“Do you want her doubting your love?”
“No,” he said.
“Do you remember when you proposed? When you begged her? When you were terrified she’d say no and you’d spend the rest of your life loving her and needing her and wanting her while she carried on, unseen and unwanted with her mother?”
Victor cleared his throat, but he didn’t speak. She knew it was because the emotions were knotted in his throat. She knew him well enough to understand him, but she worried that Kate didn’t understand him quite so intrinsically. But maybe she did? Maybe she saw what had happened to Rita, realized the depth of Victor’s worry, the reality of her own pregnancy and put the pieces together.
Vi didn’t care if Kate had figured it out though. What she cared about was that there wasn’t a doubt in Kate’s mind that Victor loved her and their children. And Violet hoped her brother would be able to tell his wife himself.
Chapter 9
“So who are we seeing again?” Violet asked her husband.
“Ham is going to the Golden Unicorn to linger for Meyers while we go to the house of Reverend Sinclair.”
Violet nodded, her mind more fixed on her brother and Kate than on Jack’s case. She knew he was bringing her along because she had scared him. Violet paused and then said, “Jack, I love you.”
He glanced at her, and his eyes squinted as he half smiled her way.
“I just want you to know. I love you. You matter to me. Having you in my life is the greatest blessing.”
Jack frowned at her for a moment. “Is Victor all right?”
Vi shook her head and then nodded and then shrugged. “He’s fine.”
“And Kate?”
“She’s fine.”
“Then…” Jack trailed off, asking the question about why Victor had been upset.
“Everyone’s all right, Jack. I promise.”
He squeezed her hand and then parked outside of a small, grey house. It was a lovely little place with flowers and a stained-glass window. As they walked up the path, Vi saw a girl watching from the window. Not a girl really, as she was older than a girl in her school days.
A uniformed woman opened the door and let them in. She took them to the office where the reverend was waiting. She knocked once and then stepped back. “You’re expected.”
Violet and Jack entered the office, with Vi just a step behind. She delayed when she saw a form appear in the doorway of the parlor. It was the young woman with dark hair and eyes. Her face was pale, her eyes wide and worried, and she took in the sight of Vi and Jack with apparent horror.
Vi nodded at her and then stepped into the office behind her husband. He had lingered near the door expecting her to be just behind him, and she could see the inquiry in his gaze, but they both turned to the reverend.
“Reverend Sinclair, may I introduce my wife, Violet Wakefield?”
The man rose and held out his hand, pressing Vi’s fingers for a moment before turning to Jack. “You’re looking for Jason Meyers?”
The reverend wasn’t so old, really. Perhaps ten years older than Ham, and with a distinguished air. His dark hair was peppered with white, his brows were thick, and his eyes were concerned. His face was lined with streaks of worry and very little smile lines around his face, but he had a peaceful air, and Vi liked him.
Jack nodded and then seated Vi before taking the chair next to her. “I am.”
“And your wife?”
Jack glanced at her, his eyes lighting with approval when they landed on her before he turned back to the reverend. “Mrs. Meyers seems to be more comfortable with my wife present than she was with me and my partner, Mr. Barnes. As you know, Mrs. Meyers has asked for our help in finding her grandson, and your family was suggested as being someone who might be able to help.”
The reverend leaned back and steepled his fingers, and a part of Vi wondered if this were all an act. What was it about the people in Mrs. Meyers’s life that made Vi wonder which one of them was lying? She attempted to hide her frown as the reverend lingered too long in silence.
“I know why they might have referred you to me, but I fear that you were misinformed.”
“Were we?” Jack asked.
Vi stayed attentive and quiet, realizing that the good reverend didn’t quite approve of her presence.
“Indeed I fear so. It has been clear to me for some time that young Meyers has an eye on my daughter and what he thinks she might bring to him.”
Jack lifted a brow and asked, “What that might be?”
“My daughter has had the good fortune to have been blessed by her great-aunt with a little money, and she is my only child. I suppose young Jason believes that I’d allow him to ruin her life and steal from me if he can convince her to wed him, but my daughter will not be married to a crook.”
“That’s quite the assumption that young Meyers has made.”
The reverend nodded, but Vi could see the lie in it. So she said, “Mr. Meyers must be quite charming.”
“His pretty lies have turned Hepzibah’s head, but she’s a good, obedient girl.”
Violet hated that statement and she had to turn her gaze to the floor to hide the sudden blaze of anger. She fiddled with her wedding ring and then made a little whimpering noise because it was nearly nauseating, but she said, “I wonder if you might have a place where I can refresh myself?”
The reverend took the expected weakness in stride and kindly told her where she might go. Violet glanced at the hall bath and then walked towards the parlor. She knocked on the doorway and found the woman glancing up.
“You’re looking for Jason?” she asked.
Violet nodded. “His grandmother is worried.”
The dark eyes moved across Violet’s face, examining her, and Vi—in her turn—examined Hepzibah. She was older than Vi had expected when she got closer. Hepzibah Sinclair had dark hair, dark eyes, and looked very much like her father. His harsher, manlier features did her no favors, and Violet guessed that the pride in her eyes was engendered by knowing what her father had said. The woman, Vi thought, was rather aware of her father’s thoughts about Jason Meyers.
“I wouldn’t have married him, no matter what he or my father thinks.” There was a firmness in her tone, but what impressed Vi was the way Miss Sinclair met her gaze and the direct strength behind those eyes. The younger woman gestured to a chair across from her, lifting up embroidery. Vi glanced it over and noticed a Bible verse surrounded by vines and flowers. How very Victorian, Vi thought, with a wince. She was sure a day of embroidery would drive her mad.
“Do you know where he is?”
Hepzibah shook her head. “He finds me. I don’t seek him out.”
Violet delicately licked her lips, wanting to ask why Meyers found Miss Sinclair if the woman wasn’t in love with him, but
she needed to be careful not to offend the obviously upright woman. “May I ask why he seeks you out if you don’t have a relationship?”
Miss Sinclair smiled slightly. “I have my pride.”
What did that mean? Vi didn’t ask the question because she wasn’t sure that she’d be able to keep from offending the woman. She hoped that in waiting, Miss Sinclair would explain. Instead, however, she slowly formed a ribbon flower on her Bible verse and kept her silence.
“Miss Sinclair,” Vi finally asked, “if you were looking for Mr. Meyers, how might you find him?”
A slightly sardonic smile was Miss Sinclair’s only answer and then her gaze moved to the doorway. “Father, I fear I found your Mrs. Wakefield and monopolized her. They seem to think that I might know how to contact Mrs. Meyers’s grandson, and I’m not sure why.”
That avowed innocence in her tone shocked Vi. Slowly, Miss Sinclair snipped her ribbon and said, “Perhaps you were able to help them? You know young Mr. Meyers far better than I.”
The reverend crossed to his daughter and placed his hand on her shoulder, patting lightly. “You know that Jason has something of a puppy love for you, my dear.”
Hepzibah Sinclair laughed lightly. “I’m sure that’s not so, Father. I’m a good five years older than he, and he’s always loved Tessa Tapper. How these rumors get started, I’ll never know.”
Her father patted her shoulder once again. “As you can see, Mr. Wakefield, my daughter has little to offer and I have told you what I know.”
Jack’s gaze landed on Violet and he said, “Thank you for your time, sir.”
As they were genteelly booted from the reverend’s house, Vi kept her thoughts to herself. The moment the door closed, however, she said, “Those two are odd.”
“You heard her father say that Meyers had set his sight on his daughter’s expected fortune and that his daughter was obedient and good and would do as he said. After you left, the conversation was only variations of the same theme.”
Violet didn’t bother to hide her groan. “Miss Sinclair is not the tepid flower her father thinks, but I don’t think she’s hiding him in the shed either.”
“Tepid?”
Vi laughed and said, “Oh, it’s going into my and Victor’s next book. A tepid hero and the heroine who outshines him.”
