“Maybe. But there’s nothing like a personal guide, is there?”
Elsa warmed to the compliment, happy that she’d been of some service to her. “I’ll tell you what. If you ever see me here again, please get my attention. I’m happy to bird-watch together.”
The group disbanded, and the smile Luke gave her reflected the joy inside her.
“You were pretty great at that,” he said. “Have fun?”
“And how! What a great way to end this day. Maybe it’s the adrenaline, but I feel good right now. Physically. I wonder if ...”
Luke watched the traffic, preparing to usher her across the street. “Don’t leave me in suspense. I’m all ears.”
“Well, the park officials and menagerie staff thought Zeus was too weak to fly because he hadn’t had the space to spread his wings and try for so many years, right? So I wonder if I’ve led such a sedentary lifestyle that I’ve actually made myself weaker than I have to be. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t believe for one second that a secret jealousy of my cousin either made or kept me sick. But have I caged myself, as Zeus had been caged, thereby clipping my own wings, so to speak?”
He looked down at her with a tenderness that far outshone his scars. “I don’t know.”
“I mean, chasing Barney was too much for me, but no one could expect to run a marathon without training, and I hadn’t run like that in years. Maybe what I need isn’t less activity but more—just not all at once. Could a gradual conditioning be the answer? There can’t be any harm in trying.”
Luke placed a hand on hers as she rested it on his arm. They crossed Central Park West and headed toward the Beresford. “Very gradual, Elsa. I don’t want you to overdo it in your eagerness, okay?”
“Yes, okay,” she agreed, even as her mind leapt to bright possibilities. Zeus was surprising everyone with his quick adaptation to freedom. No one believed he could survive, except perhaps Zeus himself.
What could happen if Elsa believed in herself, too?
“By the way, I saw Tatiana this morning at Elmhurst,” Luke said. “She told me she finally heard back from the executor of Mrs. Van Tessel’s will.”
Elsa nearly stopped walking, so abrupt was the change of subject and the shift from hope to dread. “And?”
“She showed me the letter. He said that since the land will go to the county, it’s up to the county whether to allow the Petrovics to stay in their cottage or not.”
“Even though the will clearly stipulates Birdie’s wish for them to stay?”
“That’s what he said. Tatiana took it on the chin, though.”
Elsa swallowed a groan. This was not the news they’d been hoping for. “Do you know if she’s told Danielle yet?”
“She’s waiting for word from the county on what they’ll decide to do.”
Elsa sighed, dismay settling heavily on her shoulders. “I hope they don’t make her wait too long. If they have to move, they need time to find a new situation, and Danielle will need time to adjust to the idea. The change will be enormous.”
Luke agreed. “I know a little something about real estate from working with clients decorating their homes with our salvage. It takes about thirty days to close on a house sale. I’m not sure how different that timeline would be for transferring ownership of an estate as a donation. But Mr. Spalding set the wheels in motion two weeks ago, so it could be another two weeks.”
“Two weeks!” Elsa gasped. “That’s practically no time at all! It might take longer than that, though, right? Wouldn’t the county officials need to convene and vote after evaluating whether they want to take on such an estate? If it’s so beneficial for Mr. Spalding to get Elmhurst off his hands, surely there will be considerable cost to the county to accept responsibility. They’ll need to do some kind of analysis first ... won’t they?”
“That would be prudent,” Luke said. “The Petrovics really matter to you, don’t they?”
“Yes, they really do.” They reached the Beresford, but she wasn’t ready for Luke to leave quite yet. She sat in the middle of a bench outside the revolving doors, and Luke joined her, choosing the left side of her again. “My job at Elmhurst involves reading notebooks and files from the Van Tessels,” she went on. “I was only looking for expedition details. But I learned how close Birdie had been with the Petrovics and how they looked out for each other over the years. Linus considered Danielle defective, and even said his own wife had proven defects in her family history, hinting that she shouldn’t have more children.”
Luke’s brow rippled. “Morechildren?”
Briefly, Elsa explained the cards she’d found in Linus’s eugenics files. “As an ‘imperfect human product’ myself—according to those standards—I’m so sad for how Linus made his wife feel. And ensuring she never bore children again—whether through neglect or sterilization—was monstrous enough without Birdie’s added grief at Sarah’s loss.” She paused, aware she was talking too fast.
Luke pressed his lips together, the lines of his face turning sharp in the light of passing headlamps. “Eugenics.” He spoke the word as if it were a curse—and maybe it was. “What does eugenics call the soldiers returned from war with tremors, nightmares, overactive nerves, or scars inside and out? I suppose Tom and I are defects, too.”
Elsa’s gaze softened on the man beside her. “Applesauce. You’re heroes, the both of you, and if you don’t already know that, shame on the rest of us for not saying so. And please don’t ever let me catch you trying to hide any part of your face from me again.”
In response, he angled so he sat sideways on the bench, turning to face her straight on. A taxi pulled up to the curb, its headlamps shining on him while the rider paid the fare. The homburg brim cast only a thin crescent shadow. “Better?”
“Much.” With a firm nod, she steered the conversation back to the Petrovics. “I can’t do anything about Birdie’s suffering now, but I can try to carry out her final wishes for the Petrovics, if at all possible. Knowing about Mr. Spalding’s career at the ERO makes me feel protective of Danielle and her mother. Their champion is gone, and they’re in trouble. If we can at least help them find the aviary, they’ll be okay.”
