In the Shadows

Alden’s room, only to be ambushed by Mrs. Humphrey and

regaled with tales of her various medical maladies. She seemed

to think because he was caring for his sick younger brother he

had an intense fascination with all the ways a body can break.

It was only by promising to play her favorite songs — Brahms,

horrid, boring Brahms — that evening that Thom was finally

able to break away.

And now Minnie was here.

“Won’t you come in?” Charles asked, as though it were per-

fectly normal for a girl to come knocking at a second-story

window.

“Of course not,” Minnie said, sitting down with her feet

hanging into the room, banging her stockinged heels against the

wall. “It wouldn’t be proper.”

Charles laughed, then tried to stifle a cough that rattled

through his chest like something had come unstuck in there. It

hurt Thom to hear it.

Minnie pretended not to notice the cough. “Cora has gone to

nap. Apparently whe

n she gets the summer off, she doesn’t know

what to do with herself besides sleep. And I’m not to bother you, as

she insisted Charles needed to be doing the same.”

“He does,” Thom said, trying to convey with an urgent

expression and a jerk of his head that his brother needed to tell

Minnie to leave.

Charles grinned, willfully ignoring him.

“You look as though you’ve seen a ghost, Thomas,”

Minnie said.

Thom paced a few steps, nervous energy too big for the

room, then stopped and fixed his eyes on her. Well, if she was