Page 56 of Crown of Tides and Fury

“Look what you did,” Persi hissed. “Now he’ll know! It’s ruined!”

“Oh, honey.” Everly got up on her knees and wrapped her arm around Persi’s shoulders. “Don’t be silly. If he was reading aloud for hours every night, he’s known all along.”

“Besides,” I said, “your hair makes a whooshing noise when you move. Like a breeze nudging a field of wheat.”

Persi’s eyes widened.

“There’s an easy way to know,” Ivy said. “Can you remember him passing any gas while you’ve been in his room?”

Disgust and surprise, then Persi shook her head. “Never.”

“He knows,” the three of us said in unison.

22

Felling Walls

Wickham was a completely different man the next morning--nervous, like he thought we wouldn’t approve of having his family join the household. Starting at breakfast, he made excuses for his boys or apologized when someone shouted.

After a while, I began to realize it was only me who made him nervous. The majority of the team had already lived with the Muirs, on their ranch, or worked for them. It looked like I was the only odd man out. So when we broke for lunch, I pulled him aside.

“I don’t know why you’d think your boys might make me uncomfortable. I like kids just fine. The noise doesn’t bother me.”

He dropped his attention to the floor, embarrassed. “I know your…situation. I don’t want my lads being…painful reminders—”

“Wickham. What are you talking about?”

“The fact that you cannae have children of yer own. Everly mentioned it to Urban…”

“And he told you.”

“Aye.”

“And you assumed—”

“I ken another woman in a similar situation. Hates bairns with a passion.”

I laughed. “Do I strike you as a child-hater?”

“I worried—after that house, at Muirsglen, with two bairns in the backyard. It seemed to…set off a temper.”

“Yeah, well, slaughtered children would probably have the same effect on anyone.” Then I remembered what followed, when I started calling out…like the Child-catcher onChitty Chitty Bang Bang. I did it again, just for him.“Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

“Precisely.”

“You can relax. I won’t be luring your sons with ice cream and lollipops, I promise.”

He sighed, nodded. “I should have discussed it with ye sooner.”

“That seems unlikely. Seems like a last-minute decision.”

He told me how Ivy had called him out, when he went to visit. “Said she didn’t appreciate the idea of being suspended in time—possibly forever.”

“It wasn’t my place to warn you, but I was tempted.”

He gave me a funny look, then shook his head. “Said if we’re destined to perish together, no need to stay apart.”

“Well, she’s not wrong.”

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