He turned to look out of the window, but I doubt his distant gaze took in any of the streetscape. “Marriage has nothing to do with love, apparently.”
Poor Oscar. Although he’d been the one to end their relationship, Lady Louisa had given him no choice after he realized she only wanted to marry him because he was a magician. Oscar wanted to be loved and to love in return. She’d wanted to be the mother of magician children and hadn’t particularly cared who fathered them.
His cynical declaration about love and marriage was proof he must still be struggling to move on from his ill-fated romance, despite outward appearances. The more I got to know Oscar, the more I’d come to realize he wasn’t as cavalier as he liked everyone to believe.
Chapter 2
I was used to seeing Matt and India’s Park Street residence full to the brim. Their friends and family members often stayed there, but now the babies made it seem even fuller. The inquisitive minds of little Gabriel Glass and Alexander Bailey sent them wobbling off on chubby legs as soon as their parents’ backs were turned. Small fingers found their way under sofas, inside vases, and twisted in the fringes of the rug. If they couldn’t see what was on a table, they reached up anyway and grasped whatever they could touch. At one point, Gabriel managed to climb onto an armchair then helped his slightly younger friend up by hauling on an arm and then a leg. The boys looked rather pleased with themselves. The adults in the room commented on how adorable they both were, then fell into conversations about other things. With the attention no longer on them, Alexander grasped Willie’s brandy glass from the nearby table and sipped while Gabriel bit down on one of her cigars. Both boys spat out their mouthfuls onto the carpet after discovering the tastes not to their liking.
“Willie!” India cried as she scooped up the mess with a cloth she kept at hand. “Have you not learned to keep things out of their reach?”
“It ain’t my fault they want to try all my favorite vices.” Willie tousled the tuft of dark hair on Gabriel’s head. “Just wait until you’re older, young man. I’ll take you to the racetrack, dockside taverns, and…” Her gaze flicked to India and Matt, standing side by side with matching scowls for Matt’s irresponsible cowgirl cousin. Willie bent and whispered something in baby Gabriel’s ear.
He gurgled in response before slipping off the armchair, feet first and backwards, Alexander right behind him.
Catherine Bailey intercepted her son while her husband, Cyclops, gathered Gabriel into his arms before both boys had a chance to escape from the sitting room. Gabriel tried to remove the patch covering Cyclops’s damaged eye, but the big man distracted him by tickling his tummy.
Catherine tried to hand Alexander to me, but I backed away. “No, no. You keep him. I’m not very good with babies. Send them to me when they’re older and I’ll teach them all about the history of magic. Until then, I’ll admire their energy from afar.”
Alexander wriggled and his mother had trouble holding him. She was tall, slim and terribly pretty. Both she and her friend, India, were lovely inside and out. Their husbands were lucky men, and both knew it, going by the soft gazes they bestowed on their wives when they thought no one was watching.
I’d thought Willie would be like me and prefer to have nothing to do with the babies, but she proved me wrong. She put her hands out and accepted Alexander from Catherine. Tucking him under one arm, she held him firmly against her side, like a keg of beer, then asked for Gabriel. Cyclops handed him to her, and she tucked the second child under her other arm. Then she whisked them around the room, making whooshing noises as she swooped them up and down like birds flying through the air. The boys squealed with delight.
“You should have one of your own,” Matt told her, smirk firmly in place. “I’d wager Brockwell wants children.”
“You wash your mouth out, Matthew Glass,” she said without breaking stride. “I want to be the fun older cousin, not the boring mother.”
Duke, who’d remained silent as he watched the exchange from where he stood by the window, snorted. “The much older cousin, you mean.”
Willie suddenly stopped to glare at him. “I ain’t talking to you.”
“Seems to me that you are,” Duke drawled in an American accent that was as thick as Willie’s and Cyclops’s.
She pulled a face then set the boys down on the floor. “You’re dead to me, Duke.”
“Good. That’ll make it easier for both of us when I leave. No unnecessary tears and long farewells.”
“Tears? From me? Ha! I’ll be throwing your luggage onto the boat as fast as I can.”
“You’re coming to the port to see me off? Seems you do care, despite the show you’re putting on for everyone else’s benefit.”
“It ain’t a show.” Willie pointed at her own face. “This is me not caring what you do with the rest of your life. You go on home to America, find a little wife, have some brats and raise horses. I’ll take care of everyone here, because I don’t abandon my family and friends.”
Cyclops spread his arms out wide. “I’m staying, too, and I can look after everyone better than you, Willie, now that I’m in the police force.”
Willie ignored him. She only had eyes for the stocky figure of Duke, her long-time friend who’d decided to return to his homeland. Willie wasn’t yet used to the idea. Going by her antagonistic reaction, I suspected she’d be angry with him for a long time, despite pretending to be unfazed.
“Don’t expect me to write,” she went on.
“I won’t,” Duke said. “Your handwriting’s illegible anyway.”
She thrust her hands on her hips and jutted her chin forward. “And don’t expect to come back, either. Once you’re gone, you’re gone.”
“Willie,” Matt chided. “Duke will always be welcome here. If you miss him, perhaps you can visit him when he’s settled.”
Willie wrinkled her nose. “Why would I, when he’s dead to me?”
India wrapped her arm around Willie’s waist. “You’ll regret it if you continue to talk to him in this manner. Be happy for him, as he is for you. You’ve got Brockwell now, and Cyclops has Catherine, and Matt has me. Let Duke have his turn.”
