“What?” he asked.
“Would you indulge me? There is something I’d like to try even if it might sound a little silly. Would you shut your peepers? Just for a moment?”
If anyone else had asked Leo to close his eyes, he would have balked. But this... this was Mattie. He trusted her not to harm him. So he did as she asked.
“What do you smell?” Mattie asked.
He inhaled deeply, trying to detect what she wanted him to notice. For the first time, he paid attention to the perfumed air buffeting his skin. A part of him had already recognized and dismissed the smell, as it contained no vital information to his or Mattie’s well-being, but now the sweetness filled his nostrils.
“Roses,” Leo said.
“How many?” Mattie asked.
He breathed in again, noticing how heavily the scent hung in the air. “Lots of them.”
“Full bloom?”
“Probably,” Leo said.
“What do you hear?” Mattie asked.
He listened carefully. “The lake. Some birdsong. It’s nice. Pleasant, I suppose.” The lapping current had a quiet, rhythmic quality to it. Peaceful. And the avian calls reminded him of the roses, honeyed and pleasing.
“Open your eyes,” Mattie instructed. “Now what do you see?”
Her.Mattie stood amid a patch of cream-colored roses, fireflies twinkling about her. The pale, dim light from the moon illuminated the white of her cotton shirt and the petals of the flowers surrounding her. He thought about how he’d gone with her and the rest of the McAdams siblings to see the film version ofTheSecret Gardenshortly after the war. He’d never completely understood why all the characters found the walled-in, forgotten plot of land so darn intriguing. In fact, he’d fallen asleep in the middle of the picture show. But now... now he wondered if he should have paid more attention to the message it had been trying to convey.
“Maybe I spy just a bit of that magic you were talking about,” Leo admitted gruffly.
Mattie rewarded him with a bright smile that, to him, outshone any pretty posy. “There’s always a bit of enchantment in the world as long as you know how to look for it.”
Leo had no idea why he decided to blurt out the next words. Perhaps because he felt so oddly comfortable in a way he hadn’t felt since before the war. Possibly because Mattie’s eyes looked so kind. Or maybe because he needed to say it. To someone. ToMattie.
“The last time Alfred and I were stationed together, it was at a fancy house like this one.” The words rushed from Leo’s mouth before he could dam them up.
Mattie instantly froze. Although he could not see the color that her eyes turned, they grew wider. She obviously hadn’t expected him to mention her twin. Heck,hehadn’t expected to blurt it out either. He jammed his hand in his hair and spread his feet as a new guilt gnawedat him. Had he ruined Mattie’s enjoyment of Vera’s estate with his thoughtlessness?
But then... then her lips formed another smile. A tremulous one. A soft one. But arealone. “I remember him describing the château in letters he sent home. He was so excited to be in a place like that and living shoulder to shoulder with millionaire flyboys.”
Alfred hadn’t minded that most of their fellow aviators had been from rich, privileged backgrounds, but then Alfred had always been able to get along with anyone. It hadn’t been that way at all for Leo. He’d always felt like an interloper.
“I’m sorry I mentioned it,” Leo said quickly.
Mattie gave her head a firm, emphatic shake. “No. I’m glad you did. I want to talk about Alfred. Iliketo speak of him. But sometimes I feel like I’m the only one.”
Leo had tried, and failed, to push away his memories of his best friend. The good ones. The bad ones. Even the seemingly trivial ones. But despite all the years of trying to shove those feelings aside, it struck Leo that it feltgood, right even, to discuss his fallen comrade.
“He would have thought this place was the bee’s knees,” Leo admitted, and it felt like something—another little something—broke loose inside him again.
“Oh, would he haveever,” Mattie agreed. “And can you imagine how he would have flirted with Vera? Those two would have been shameless, each trying to upstage the other with outrageous flatteries.”
Leo’s lips did something that they hadn’t for a very long time during discussions of his best friend. They stretched upward into the barest hint of a grin. And hefeltthe smile too. A touch of bittersweetness bursting through all the layers of numbness, guilt, and remorse.
It was—as Mattie was beginning to discover—very difficult to conduct a private conversation at the foot of a staircase, even in a mansion. The phone at the flight school was also in a high-traffic position, but she rarely had any need to use it.
Mattie didnotappreciate being pulled from a rather scrumptious breakfast spread to talk to her eldest brother... or rather tosoothehis worries for her.
“No, Jake.” Mattie tapped her well-worn oxford against the marble floor. “I am not going to drag Leo from his bacon, pancakes, and spiced peaches just to confirm I haven’t been trying any harebrained stunts.”
