With Gabe’s stabbing fresh in our minds, we were all on alert as we crossed the gravel drive to the Vauxhall. I climbed into the back seat while Willie retrieved the crank handle from the floor. She didn’t crank the engine, however. She joined Gabe, standing with his back to the vehicle. He scanned the property, taking in the lawn, beds of roses, and the row of trees marking the eastern boundary. I didn’t need to see his face to know what he was thinking.
There was too much land. The commissioner wouldn’t authorize the entire estate be dug up to search for a body. Without any record of Robin Reid being in the hospital, there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed.
Dr. McGowan knew it, too. As he stood on the hospital’s front porch, there wasn’t a hint of concern on his face as he watched us leave. We were an annoyance to him, just another thing he had to deal with in his busy day, nothing more.
Willie cranked the engine then tossed the handle onto the Vauxhall’s floor. “Smug prick. Look at him! He thinks he can do as he pleases here and get away with it.”
“He has gotten away with it.” Alex indicated the lawn, dotted with patients and staff oblivious to our reason for being there. “Where would we even start to look for a body?”
I hated that McGowan wouldn’t be held accountable, but our investigation hadn’t been entirely fruitless. “At least we can tell Bernard Reid what happened to his son.”
None of them responded. With a sigh, I turned away to watch the scenery slip past as we drove along the drive to the gate, the police vehicle behind us. A white flash between the trees at the property’s perimeter caught my eye.
“There’s someone there!” I pointed at the trees.
Alex slowed down. “Are you sure?”
“I…I don’t know. I saw a white coat or pajamas…something like that.”
“Going in the same direction as us?” Gabe asked.
“I don’t know. It happened so quickly. I might be mistaken, but I don’t want to take that risk. Not after yesterday.”
Gabe’s hand covered mine, resting on the seat between us. “No one will try anything now. We have a police escort.”
Willie removed the gun tucked into her belt. “I’ll check.” She opened the door.
Alex reached over and grabbed her arm. “Stay here. Gabe’s right. No one will try anything now. It’s too exposed.”
“You reckon the attacker yesterday thought it through logically? You reckon the next one will? Some of these men ain’t got all their marbles and don’t know what they’re doing. Don’t assume they think like us.”
“Stay here,” Alex growled again. “If there is an attack, you’ll be more useful near Gabe than halfway across the lawn. I’m driving, and Sylvia won’t be able to fight off a strong man on her own.”
“I still have one good arm,” Gabe told him. “I’m not entirely useless.”
Willie closed the door again. “All right. But drive faster.”
Driving fast was all well and good, but we still had to stop at the gate. The guard on duty was frustratingly slow, and quite oblivious to our agitated state. He whistled as he ambled to the gate, a bunch of medieval looking keys jangling at his hip. The whistling became as jarring as fingernails down a blackboard and I wished he’d hurry up. Gabe’s thumb tapping didn’t help my nerves either.
I focused on the trees and shrubs skirting the perimeter. They grew along the fence, coming right up to the gate. It was ample coverage for an attacker to spring at us at the last moment before we drove away.
The click of Willie’s gun cocking was almost drowned out by the guard, shouting at us to drive through.
Alex revved the engine.
Willie, Gabe and I kept our gazes on the trees. So, when the nurse burst out from behind them and slammed both hands on the bonnet, we weren’t taken by surprise. I still gasped, however, and my heart tripped.
Alex pulled on the brake lever. “I almost killed you!”
“Careful!” Willie snapped. “Don’t dent the bonnet.”
The nurse sucked in great gulps of air, her chest heaving with her breaths. She must have run all the way from the hospital or lawn, and she wasn’t a young woman. I recognized her as the nurse who’d stitched Gabe’s wound. She’d also been the one to fetch Dr. McGowan the night we broke in.
Gabe got out of the vehicle. “Are you all right, Sister?”
Willie swore loudly and scrambled to get out, too. “Gabe, what are you doing? Get back in.” She pointed at the backseat with her gun.
The nurse slapped a hand over her mouth, smothering her cry.
“Put that away,” Gabe growled at Willie.
“What if she tries to stab you?”
“She’s not going to attack me. Put it away.”
Willie narrowed her gaze at the nurse.
The nurse smoothed her hands down her uniform and blew out a shuddering breath. “I am not going to harm anyone. You can search me, if you like. There’s nothing on my person except this.” She tapped the fob watch attached to her uniform at her chest. “I suppose the pin could be used as a weapon, but I don’t think it would do much damage.”
Willie tucked the gun back into her belt. “It could if you stabbed someone in the eye. Or the neck.”
“Only if I managed to hit a vital vein.”
“I reckon I’ll still check you, if you don’t mind.” Willie ordered her to put her hands in the air then patted her down. It was clinical and methodical, yet she did it twice to make sure.
The nurse smiled as Willie stepped back. “Find anything of interest?”
Cyclops joined us. “Something the matter?”
Willie waved a hand at the nurse. “She followed us from the hospital. I’m making sure she’s not carrying any hidden weapons. Can’t be too careful after what happened yesterday.”
“Why were you following them?” Cyclops asked.
The nurse was unfazed by his terseness. She glanced back along the driveway toward the hospital several times, however. “If he knew I was here talking to you, he’d dismiss me without references.”
Gabe removed some bank notes from his pocket and handed them to the guard who pocketed them and walked off, whistling. “No one need know you were here, Sister…”
“Wallbank. Matilda Wallbank.” She patted her cap, ensuring it was still in place. “I wanted to tell you about a conversation I had with Dr. McGowan soon after I started work here. I was admiring the gardens, and the roses in particular, and he happened to mention they’d all been established many years prior, when the property was still a private home. Except for one. He pointed out the garden bed furthest from the house. It was planted in 1894, he said.”
We exchanged glances.
“Which one?” Gabe asked.
“It’s to the west and set back compared to the others. You can’t miss it. All the other rose bushes are situated for best viewing and sunlight, except that one bed. It doesn’t seem to belong there.” She cleared her throat. “If I were looking for something that went missing in ’94 and suspected someone buried it in the grounds to hide it, I’d look there.”
So she had been listening at doors. I’d wondered if she was the same nurse who’d hurried away from Dr. McGowan’s office the day we met him.
Cyclops thanked her and ordered his men to turn their vehicle around.
One of the constables removed his helmet and scratched his head. “We’re going to dig it up now, sir? But we haven’t got any shovels.”
“There are shovels in the old stables,” Sister Wallbank said.
Both constables sighed before returning to their vehicle.
Sister Wallbank refused Cyclops’s offer of a ride. “I’d rather not be seen with you. I like this job and don’t want to lose my place here. The men need me. If you don’t find what you’re looking for… Well, I need to look after myself, since I have no husband to provide for me.” Her gaze flicked to Willie before she disappeared into the trees again.
Willie watched her go with a curious expression, until Alex ordered her back into the Vauxhall.
We returned to the hospital behind the police vehicle. The constables went in search of shovels, while we went in search of the garden bed the nurse referred to. It was easy to find, based on her description. The only view of it from the house would be from the service rooms. While I liked the thought of someone planting roses for the staff to admire, I doubted they would.
“What is the meaning of this?” Dr. McGowan marched toward us, the thick wave of gray hair at the front of his head bouncing with every step.
“We’re digging up these roses.” Cyclops indicated the area.
“You have no right to do that!”
Cyclops showed him the order again. “This gives me the right. Would you like to save my men some trouble and point to the area where the body is buried?”
Dr. McGowan crossed his arms and shot a defiant glare at Cyclops.
The defiance didn’t last long, however. The two constables returned with shovels, along with an orderly. I recognized him as the man Stanley Greville was speaking to the day we saw him here. The orderly touched the brim of his cap in greeting then set to work, digging. Alex and the constables removed their jackets before joining him.
A mere fifteen minutes later, a skeleton wearing striped hospital pajamas was revealed. When they uncovered the skull, I turned away.
Gabe rested a hand on my lower back. “Do you need to sit down?”
I shook my head. “Poor Robin.”
Dr. McGowan grunted. “You don’t know it’s him. That could be anyone.”
Cyclops crouched by the body and pointed to a gold tooth in the skull. “Robin’s dentist should have records about his teeth. There will probably be other telling signs on the skeleton, too. A good pathologist can find all sorts of identifying marks on bones.”
Gabe crouched beside him and pulled a cloth out of the top pocket of the pajamas. He unfolded it to reveal a handkerchief with “R. Reid” stitched into the corner. “There’s also this.” He straightened. “You were working here at the time Robin died, McGowan.”
“That doesn’t mean I killed him or authorized his burial! It was the director, or another doctor. It wasn’t me!” The higher his voice went, the less I believed him.
“When did you become director?” Gabe asked.
Dr. McGowan frowned. “Why?”
“Answer the question.”
“I don’t remember.”
“I know.” Sister Wallbank had approached from behind us, walking so softly on the grass that no one heard her. “It was in 1911.”
Dr. McGowan tilted his chin. “What has that got to do with anything?”
It meant he was the doctor Bill Foster mentioned to Mrs. O’Brien, the one who authorized the burial of Robin’s body the night he died. Bill told her the doctor became the hospital’s director in 1911 or ‘12.
Cyclops signaled to his constables. “Dr. McGowan, you’re under arrest for the unlawful death of Robin Reid in 1894.”
Dr. McGowan backed away, hands up to ward off the police. “No! You can’t arrest me! I’m the most senior doctor here. This place is nothing without me. Important work is carried out here. Ask the Home Office! These patients need me to cure them.”
“You’re not curing anyone,” Sister Wallbank snapped. She was obviously no longer worried about being dismissed, now that it was clear Dr. McGowan was guilty. “Mr. Jeffries is worse off than when he arrived, as are a dozen more you’ve put on that new drug. I researched it and found out it hasn’t passed clinical trials yet.”
“What do you know about medicine?” he sneered. “You’re just a nurse.”
“He’s experimenting on the patients?” Cyclops asked.
She nodded. “I’ll give you a sample of the pills before you go.”
“You experimented on Robin and the others, too, in the nineties,” Gabe said to Dr. McGowan. “Was that also drugs, or was it a particular treatment, as Bill Foster believed?”
“This is absurd. I’m a doctor! My work is innovative, so of course things go wrong, at first, but that’s how we learn and improve. It’s common scientific practice to experiment!”
“You experimented on people.”
“Look around you, Mr. Glass. Look at those men with their damaged faces, their wits gone.” He hammered his finger into his temple and bared his teeth at Gabe. “What sort of life are they going to have anyway? If I don’t cure them, they won’t survive out in the world. At least they can be of some use here, by helping me test the latest pharmaceuticals and therapies. Out there, they’re of no use to anyone. Not even their families want them.”
His tirade was shocking. He was playing God, deciding who should receive untested medicine and therapies. The worst of it was, he believed he was doing good, that the sacrifice of a few sick men was worth it.
Cyclops had heard enough. He didn’t wait for his constables to handcuff Dr. McGowan. He did it himself. “Take him to the motor and wait for me there. I need a word with Sister Wallbank.” Cyclops shoved Dr. McGowan toward one of the constables who marched him to the police vehicle.
“This is outrageous!” the doctor cried. “I’m a medical professional! Unhand me, at once!” When he realized he wouldn’t be released, he shouted insults at Cyclops until the constable punched him in the stomach.
“Didn’t your mother teach you that if you haven’t got something nice to say, don’t say anything at all?” the young constable growled.
Cyclops asked Sister Wallbank to fetch a sample of the medicine Dr. McGowan had prescribed to the patients.
“I’ll keep you company,” Willie said, falling into step alongside the nurse. As they walked off, Willie could be heard telling Sister Wallbank how impressed she was with the way she’d stood up to Dr. McGowan. “You’re real fierce. Want to have a drink with me later?”
I couldn’t hear the nurse’s response.
Cyclops told his second constable to stay with the body until the coroner’s officers arrived to transport it to the mortuary. The orderly agreed to help him fill in the grave site while he waited. With that organized, there was just one more thing to do.
“Now I need to inform Robin Reid’s father,” Cyclops said heavily.
“We’ll come with you,” Gabe said. “We started this investigation, so we should be the ones to see it to its full conclusion. If it’s too much for you, Sylvia, you don’t need to join us.”
“I want to.”
I stared at the pajama-clad skeleton again, a mixture of emotions tangling together inside me. Robin Reid wasn’t my father. Aside from the letters from Bernard Reid to John Folgate, nothing connected Marianne to Robin and the date of his death was wrong. Besides, the Reids were woolen magicians, not paper. Finding Robin had also not led us any closer to discovering why my mother was so secretive about her past, although I’d begun to form an opinion about why we moved from city to city so often. Bill Foster, or William Collins, had left Liverpool to escape prosecution. Had my mother also been in trouble with the police? Was she trying to stay one step ahead of the law?
Surely if that were the case, we’d know. Cyclops would have found outstanding charges against Marianne Folgate, yet neither the London nor the Ipswich police force were after her. So, what was she running from?
Or, rather, who?
Despite my disappointment at being no closer to discovering more about my parents, I was glad Robin Reid wasn’t my father. I didn’t want to be related to Bernard. Robin’s desperation to be a worthy son to his magician father had led him to try radical, untested cures, even after his first stint at Rosebank Gardens failed and left him quite altered. He'd done it to be loved and accepted by a family that wanted him to be something other than what he was.
I glanced at Gabe, wondering if he felt an affinity for Robin and his situation as the apparently artless child of a magician parent. But he was looking intently at me, his expression full of concern.
“We’ll find him,” he said.
It took me a moment to realize he meant my father. “Perhaps.” I didn’t tell him that it might be better that I didn’t find him. If Evaline and Walter Peterson’s father was also mine, and he’d not wanted to help raise me, then wouldn’t it be better not to know for certain?
We left the constable and orderly with the body and trudged across the lawn to the Vauxhall. Alex kept close to Gabe’s side, his gaze sharp as he took note of every patient, every orderly and nurse. I was reminded of something that had occurred to me earlier during the confrontation with Dr. McGowan.
“He chose which patients to give untested medicines to, which ones would endure which cures,” I pointed out. “His choices brought death to some and had devastating effects on others. He was playing God.”
Cyclops slowed his pace. “The attacker said God spoke to him and told him to stab Gabe.” Their gazes connected over my head. “Sylvia’s right. He could have been talking about McGowan.”
“Possibly,” Gabe said. “But McGowan would know that stopping me wouldn’t stop the investigation. It would only bring unwanted extra attention to the hospital.”
Alex agreed. “The attack was related to the kidnappings, I’m sure of it. Whoever instructed that patient to stab you didn’t want you dead, just incapacitated. With your attention preoccupied, they must have thought it would be easier to kidnap you.”
I chose not to remind them of our other suspects—the Hobsons. I suspected they didn’t need reminding anyway, and simply chose not to mention them.
Once Willie rejoined us, we piled into the Vauxhall. It was a tight squeeze, with the addition of Cyclops, but we managed it, although Willie couldn’t sit still. It was more from excitement than discomfort, however. She couldn’t stop smiling.
“Does this mean you have a new love interest?” Gabe asked her.
“Maybe. Tilda—that’s Matilda Wallbank—and I are going to have a drink later.” Her smile turned secretive. “I sure do like nurses. There’s something about ‘em. Ain’t that right, Alex?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alex said from the driver’s seat.
Cyclops, seated alongside him, faced his son. “You’re seeing a nurse?”
“No.”
“He is,” Willie piped up.
“I’m not.”
“What about the one you met at the dance hall? She was real pretty.”
“I didn’t pursue it further.”
“Didn’t you kiss her?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t want a relationship with her and kissing her would have sent the wrong message.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what’s got into you. You’ve become a prude.”
“I am not!”
“The old Alex wouldn’t have cared about mixed messages. He would have kissed her, and more.”
Cyclops turned in the seat to face us. “Leave him alone. Maybe his interests lie elsewhere now.” He winked.
“You mean Daisy?” Willie blurted out.
Cyclops stared at her before turning back to face the front.
“Since when did that matter to him? Used to be that he’d kiss two girls in the same night and not care.”
“I’m not like that now,” Alex growled. “I’ve got more respect for women.”
Willie snorted. “Respect is fine, but Daisy wants nothing to do with you, so you should have taken up the nurse on her offer, at least until Daisy sees sense.”
“Can we stop talking about my love life now?”
“We ain’t talking about your love life because you ain’t got one.”
Informing Bernard Reid that his son’s remains had been found wasn’t the difficult experience I thought it would be. He didn’t break down or get angry. His eyes remained dry, his voice even. He was mechanical and unemotional, as he had been when we first met him. Our last encounter must have been an aberration.
Cyclops showed him the handkerchief to prove we’d indeed uncovered his son’s body. “This was found in the pajama pocket. Do you recognize it?”
Bernard traced his thumb over the stitching. “My wife made it. She was very skillful with the needle. Very skillful. Some used to think she was a silk or cotton magician because her stitching was so fine, but she was artless. I never blamed her for that, of course. It’s not her fault. I loved her anyway.”
I wasn’t sure if he was extending that feeling toward Robin until he went to close the door and I saw his chin tremble and his eyes fill with tears. It seemed he cared, after all.
We drove Cyclops back to Scotland Yard. Before he alighted from the motorcar, he invited me to join his family for a picnic the next day. “If the weather’s as nice as it is today, we plan to go to Richmond Park. You’re more than welcome to join us. Daisy, too.”
I accepted on behalf of both of us.
I’d never been to Richmond Park. It was quieter than Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath, but just as pretty with its rolling green hills dotted with deer, and ducks and swans gliding lazily over the lake. We found a spot under a large tree and spread out the blankets. I’d brought a cake, but I wasn’t sure it was needed. Catherine had packed two large baskets full of sandwiches, cold meats, and salads, and Gabe had another with Mrs. Ling’s pies and some fruit.
Before eating, Ella and Alex picked up tennis rackets and hit a ball back and forth. She’d received tickets for Wimbledon’s opening day from her parents as an early birthday present and had excitedly told Daisy and me all about her favorite players.
Catherine sat nearby, watching on. “Ella could have gone on to play at a tournament like Wimbledon.”
Cyclops handed her a glass of lemonade. “She wasn’t interested. She wants to keep tennis as a hobby, not a profession. You know why that is.”
Catherine sighed. “Not this again.”
“Not what again?” Gabe asked. He’d helped unpack the baskets and spread out the blankets and cushions. I was relieved to see he moved easily and didn’t seem in pain from his injury.
Cyclops shook his head at Gabe in warning, but Lulu, the boisterous youngest child, didn’t heed it. “She wants to join the police force.”
“But she’s a woman,” Daisy said.
Cyclops filled another glass with lemonade and handed it to her. “The Met have just had their first intake of females. They’re called WPCs, and they work with female and child victims, mostly. Ella won’t be patrolling in bad areas or after dark. It’ll be safe.”
Clearly this was an ongoing discussion in the Bailey household, one that I suspected Catherine would ultimately lose. “I don’t like it,” she said. “I know some of the things you see every day, Nate, and what Alex saw, too, when he served, and I don’t want my little girl experiencing that.”
“She’s not little anymore. She’s twenty-two. If any of us are equipped for police work, it’s Ella. Do you agree, Gabe?”
Gabe nodded. “She’ll cope well.”
“You got to let her join, Catherine,” Willie said. “Women can’t hold other women back. It ain’t right.”
Catherine bristled. “I’m not holding her back, I’m just concerned for her. It’s a mother’s prerogative to worry about her children.”
Mae had been plucking daisies to make a chain, but now turned to her mother. “You shouldn’t worry about Ella. She’s very capable.”
“That’s nice of you to say, Mae.” I gathered from Catherine’s tone, that the sisters didn’t often say kind things about each other.
“If you want to worry about one of us, worry about Lulu. She stole my diary and read it. That’s an arrestable offence, but Father wouldn’t put her in cuffs. Honestly, what’s the point of having family members work for Scotland Yard if they won’t arrest people who do the wrong thing?”
Lulu had been lying on the grass with her eyes closed, but sat up when she heard her name. “Mae has been walking with a boy.” She poked her tongue out at her older sister.
Catherine scolded her youngest for tattling, but Cyclops frowned at his middle daughter. “Who is the boy? Do we know him? Who are his parents?”
Mae glared at her sister. Lulu smiled smugly.
By the time their argument fizzled out, Alex and Ella had rejoined us. We tucked into the food, chatting as we ate. Catherine asked Daisy how her novel was coming along, and Daisy sighed heavily.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not a writer. I couldn’t get past the first chapter. Not only was the chapter rather boring, but I got bored sitting all day.”
“What will you do next?” Ella asked.
“I don’t know, but I hear you’re thinking of joining the police force as a WPC.”
Ella frowned at Catherine. “My mother won’t let me.”
“I could be swayed,” Catherine said.
Ella brightened. “Really? Father, can you bring home an application form tomorrow?”
“I wish women could join the police force when I was younger,” Willie said. “I’d have made a great detective.”
“They can’t be detectives,” Ella told her. “Just constables.”
Willie pointed her egg and cucumber finger sandwich at her. “You can be the first.”
Ella liked the sound of that.
“I wonder what the training entails,” Daisy said. “Perhaps I should apply, too.”
“No!” Alex all but shouted.
Everyone stared at him.
“Why not?” Daisy asked. “Do you think I’m not capable of being a policewoman?”
“I, uh…” Alex appealed to each of us in turn. “Gabe, you agree, don’t you?”
Gabe plucked a grape off the bunch. “Don’t drag me into this. I think a woman should do as she pleases.” He popped the grape into his mouth. “Who wants to race paper boats?”
Lulu squealed with delight. “Did you bring enough paper for everyone?”
“Wait,” Alex said. “You misunderstand. I think women should choose any career they like, too.”
“Except policewoman,” Daisy shot back.
“No.”
“Just me, then?”
“Yes. No. That’s not what I meant.” Alex looked stricken.
Daisy waited for an explanation, but Alex didn’t give one. He simply took the piece of paper Gabe handed him from the stack he’d brought along in the bottom of the picnic basket.
Daisy shook her head when Gabe offered her a sheet. “I don’t know how to make paper boats.”
“Me either,” I said, taking a sheet anyway. “But my paper planes used to beat my brother’s all the time, so I’ll give this a try.”
Gabe began folding his sheet in a rather complicated way. “I should warn you, I’ve been the champion at paper boat racing since I was twelve. No one has managed to beat me.”
“It’s true,” Cyclops said.
“And he never lets us forget it,” Mae responded.
“He’s very annoying,” Lulu said with a roll of her eyes.
“I think he cheats,” Ella added.
Gabe got to his feet, boat in hand. “You’re all jealous.”
Gabe, Willie and the three girls raced to the lake’s edge where they waited impatiently for the rest of us to join them.
Catherine fell into step beside me. “They do these races at every summer picnic and it always brings out their competitiveness. You would think Willie was fifteen again from the way she behaves.”
Willie shouted at us to hurry up or forfeit.
“You forfeit,” Gabe said to her. “I’m going to beat you anyway.”
She pushed him. He pushed her back and she lost her balance. If he hadn’t caught her, she would have fallen into the lake. The three girls fell over each other, giggling.
I looked around to see where Daisy had got to and found her and Alex a few paces behind. For a moment, I thought they’d become friends, but then I realized he was doing all the talking and she was pretending not to hear him. She focused directly ahead, arms crossed over her chest. As they passed Catherine and me, I heard him tell Daisy that he said what he’d said because he knew firsthand how dangerous policing could be.
She finally stopped and rounded on him. “So you think I wouldn’t cope with the danger? You think I’d be afraid?”
“No. I don’t want you to join because I’d worry about you.”
Even Daisy’s stubbornness melted in the face of the sweet sentiment. She lowered her arms and muttered, “Oh.” She shuffled her feet. “You don’t have to worry. I’m not going to apply. Not because I’m afraid, you understand.”
“I believe you. You’re one of the bravest women I’ve met.”
She blinked wide-eyed at him.
He continued to the water’s edge, folding his paper into a boat shape as he went. She trailed after him.
Catherine and I shared a smile and continued on. I hung back a little, however, and put the finishing touches on my boat. It even had a little mast. I stopped at a patch of daisies and plucked a flower off its stem and placed it inside the boat. As I did so, I whispered the paper strengthening spell.
I joined the others and set my boat on the water. “How is a winner determined?”
“The one that travels the furthest before sinking,” Ella said. “Everyone places their boat in a row at the same time. It has to be at the same time, or it’s not fair. Ready?”
Alex handed his boat to Daisy. “You place ours.”
“Ours?”
“Hurry up,” Lulu whined.
Daisy hastily put her boat in the water at the end.
“Now you give it a little push,” Ella went on. “But not too hard because…” She pointed to Daisy’s boat, taking on water over its bow. “That happens.”
Daisy sat back on her haunches. “Oh no! I’m sorry, Alex. We didn’t get very far.”
He laughed. “Never mind. We were never going to win.”
“You’re conceding to Gabe already?”
“Not to Gabe.”
Willie let out a whoop as a breeze pushed her boat ahead of the others. She traipsed along the edge of the lake, treading on reeds and getting wet. She stopped to remove her boots and socks then rushed to catch up to her boat as it floated away. Ella’s boat soon caught up, and she followed Willie at the edge of the lake.
“I’m coming for you,” she teased.
Willie dipped her hand in the water and splashed Ella. Ella removed her shoes to wade into the shallows and splash her back.
Mae wrinkled her nose. “It’s muddy and reedy, and there are probably creatures swimming around wanting to nibble your toes.”
“You’re such a princess,” Ella shot back.
Gabe leaned closer to me. “Those two always want theirs to be fast so they make them lightweight. But it’s not about speed, it’s about stamina. Look. They’re already taking on water.”
Both Ella and Willie’s boats listed to the side as their bottoms became too soggy to keep them afloat. Catherine and Cyclops’s boats had already sunk, while Lulu’s and Mae’s were half underwater. Gabe’s and mine sailed along nicely until they were the only two left floating.
“Are you sure this is your first time making a paper boat?” Lulu asked me. “You’re very good.”
Mae rolled her eyes. “She’s a paper magician, silly. Of course hers is going to win. It’s the fun of the race that matters, not the winning.”
“Nah,” Willie said. “It ain’t the winning that matters, it’s seeing Gabe lose.” She beamed at him. “Best boat race we’ve ever had.”
Gabe watched his boat slowly sink, inch by inch, until it disappeared from view altogether. Then his face changed to a look of pure horror. “Oh God. What’s that?” He pointed at the calm lake surface. “Willie, get out of the water!”
I’d never seen Willie move so fast. Or, at least try to move fast. Her foot got stuck in the mud and she ended up tripping over and fell face-first into the reeds.
Everyone burst out laughing.
A bedraggled Willie traipsed out of the lake, dripping from head to toe. She shook herself out like a soggy dog and snatched up her shoes and socks. “Lucky for you, you’re injured.” She poked a finger into Gabe’s chest. “I won’t push you in the water. But I will do this.”
He arched his brows at her. “What?”
She threw her arms around him and gave him a fierce hug, then slipped a damp sock down the back of his shirt.
“You’re a child,” he told her as he untucked his shirt and let the sock slide out and fall on the ground with a wet plop.
“And you’re a loser at paper boats.”
“It wasn’t a fair race,” I pointed out.
Gabe gave me an innocent look, but it was all for show. He’d chosen an activity he knew I would win, even though it would see him lose a crown he’d held for years. It was a selfless act and I wasn’t entirely sure I would have been as kind if the situation was reversed.
“It doesn’t matter,” Lulu said. “He finally lost!” She picked up her skirts and skipped after her parents, walking hand in hand ahead of us.
Ella flung an arm around my shoulders. “I knew your paper magic would be useful.”
“That’s not all she can do with it,” Daisy said, falling into step beside her. “She’s about to help Huon Barratt invent invisible ink. Imagine the possibilities!”
“Invisible ink,” Gabe said flatly. “With Huon.”
“Yes,” I said. “Why do you say it like that?”
“Like what?”
I shrugged. “Like you’re a little annoyed.”
“I, er…”
“Nobody trusts Barratt,” Alex filled in when Gabe didn’t go on. “He only cares about himself. Gabe doesn’t want him taking advantage of you. Of your magic, I mean, and your generous nature.”
“I like him,” Willie announced. “He’s fun.”
“The last man you called fun, you ended up marrying.”
She tossed a rude hand gesture in his direction then set off at a run, barefoot with her boots in hand.
“Oh, you’re in trouble now, Willie!” Alex shouted as he ran after her. Not wanting to be left out, Mae and Ella picked up their skirts and ran off too.
“She really is a child,” I said, laughing. “As quick as one, too.”
When Gabe didn’t respond, I glanced at him, worried that his wound was troubling him after all this activity.
But he simply regarded me thoughtfully. “Be careful with Barratt, Sylvia.”
“I can handle Huon.” Indeed, I felt as though he was one of the few men I could handle. It was his lack of subtlety that made him easy to fend off. I always knew what he was thinking the moment he thought it. I also suspected he was a good man, underneath it all.
“I just don’t want you getting hurt,” Gabe said.
I reassured him that I’d be fine and left it at that, even though I could have gone on to say that he was more capable of hurting me than Huon ever could be. Saying so would only ruin the perfect day.
So instead, I removed my shoes and ran after the others. “Come on, Gabe, or you’ll lose for the second time today.”
Did you know the Glass Library series is a spin-off of the Glass and Steele series? Go back to where it all began with book 1, The Watchmaker’s Daughter by C.J. Archer.