“How are you going to spend all that money, then?” Cal cocks an eyebrow.
Cora scowls thoughtfully. “Well, maybe not aslongas I live. That pink chiffon was rather nice.”
“And what about you?” Béa cocks her head to gaze at Alice.
“You mean ‘us’?” Alice peeks out the window. “I’m tired of deciding everything. I thought I might let you pick.”
They are dropped off just outside the Brooklyn Bridge. The driver tips his hat and steers the carriage away, no doubt realizing what a wash the fine vehicle will need after braving these mucky downtown streets. After the tip they just gave him, he can afford to buy several new ones instead.
Alice breathes in the salty air of the river. She takes in the incredible feat of engineering with a wave of wonder, of aliveness, that she hasn’t allowed herself to feel for as long as she can remember. It’s almost humbling, this marvel of a bridge.
Almost.
Alice smiles, thinking of the tangle of confusion they left behind. Even if, as she expects, their ruined victims have made their way to a police constabulary to demand the identification and arrest of a group of flagrant frauds, it will take untold hours to sort through their muddled story to reach the heart of it. A Württembergian duchess, you say? Here because of a resistance, and emerald mines and a called-off engagement to which far-flung prince...?
By the time anyone even believes them, Alice and her funnylittle family will have disappeared into the middle of this sprawling continent like so many anonymous others, only the stories of the great confidence game they pulled remaining in this shining sham of a city.
Nowthatis a feat of engineering.
Béa comes to stand beside her. Alice slides close, so their wrists and pinkies touch.
“A school,” Béa says quietly.
Alice looks at her.
Béa smiles out over the shining river. “For girls of all stations. Not to teach them how to quiet their voices and select the right fork at dinner, but real things.”
“Such as?”
Béa thinks. “Financial management, for one.”
“World history, current events?” Alice suggests, only half sardonically.
“Why not? We’ll make independent young ladies out of them. Nobody’s victim. Nobody’s fool.”
At that, Alice glances at Cora, standing beside her brother, the two of them the picture of innocent courtship, their fingers idly playing in each other’s as if no one else can see—just as her own fingers play against Béa’s.
“Where are you headed then, Cal?” Alice calls.
He lifts his hat. “Why, wherever Miss O’Malley goes.”
Cora’s cheeks turn pink.
“Then I suppose you’re headed to Topeka, Kansas,” Alice replies.
“Topeka, you say?” Cal smiles. “I like the ring of that. Sounds far away, for one thing.”
“I’ve heard it’s known for its beautiful countryside, birdsonggalore, endless horizons,” Alice muses. “The perfect place to go unnoticed for the rest of one’s days and not mind one little bit.”
Cora’s eyes spark warm as they meet Alice’s. “Not to mention a very long and shining creek running through it all. Enough room for several houses. And... Béa, did I hear you mention a school for girls? Well, as a matter of fact, you might have just helped me solve the biggest problem I’ve got with my plan to buy back the family farm, one I simply couldn’t come up with a solution to until now.”
Cora links arms with a smiling Béa as Alice cocks an eyebrow.
“Oh really? What’s that?”
Cora grins, cheeky as the day Alice met her. “Ihatefarming.”
Encore
