In the Shadows

mured, giving a suspicious glare at Minnie’s and Charles’s linked

arms. This filled Minnie with a spark of hope she tried to stifle.

“And how,” she said, ignoring Arthur’s glare by walking even

closer to Charles, “does one transport air once it’s been taken? I

should think your luggage quite full of clothes.”

Cora tugged on the lock that always fell down over her fore-

head. Sometimes Minnie found herself brushing her own forehead

as though Cora were a distorted mirror. “Please pay them no

mind,” Cora said to Charles. “They can never end until one of

them has said something so silly the other cannot beat it.” She was

all jangling nerves, spooking any time a bird called, watching the

familiar lanes as if at any moment something would jump out at

them. It gave Minnie both a triumphant thrill and a pang of con-

science to see how scared she was.

Charles was not going to be left out of the fun, though. “Air is

best transported in lungs, which is why I brought Thom with me.

He’s going to store the extra I can’t fit. My father likes to get his

money’s worth.”

“He certainly does . . . ,” Thomas muttered. He was neither

scared nor excited, and watched Charles like he feared his brother

would drop dead at any moment. Minnie didn’t care for Thomas.

He was decidedly too much like the new Cora.

Cora’s hand went to her apron pocket, worrying a stone worn

smooth these last two years. The line between her brows deepened

as she let go of Arthur’s arm and looked back toward the boarding-

house, now out of view. “We were given specific instruction to be

very careful of Charles’s health.”

Charles gallantly took her now-free hand and put it on his

other arm. “That’s easy, then. I’ve left my health upstairs in a

trunk where it can’t possibly come to any harm.”