Henry’s head jerked up in surprise. Clara blinked, as if this were a trick.
“We want Mama,” she said, after a beat.
Oscar nodded. “That is impossible.”
Clara’s eyes narrowed. “Then we want to go outside. We want to see the horses.”
Oscar gestured at the window. “There is nothing stopping you.”
Clara’s mouth twisted. “Miss Waverly says we are not allowed until we behave.”
“Miss Waverly does not work here anymore,” Oscar said. “She left this morning.”
Henry’s voice was a ghost. “Why?”
Oscar paused. “Because she did not know how to help you. I am looking for someone better.”
Clara said nothing, but a tiny tremor ran through her. “You’re always looking. But you never find anything that works.”
Oscar stared at her. Five years old, and already a master of the cruelest truths.
He stood. “If you wish to see the horses, you may. I’ll instruct the staff to let you roam the stables at will. But you must try to eat. Or you’ll have no strength for mischief.”
Henry sniffled. “Will you come with us?”
Oscar’s heart constricted. “I have…matters to attend to.”
Henry’s face fell, while Clara raised her chin and sniffed. As if testing him, she asked, “Will you race us, then?”
Did you not hear what I just said?
“I will win if I did,” he replied.
Clara arched a disapproving brow. “You won’t.”
They stared at each other in a silent challenge. Then Henry asked, “Will Lady Nancy come back?”
Oscar froze.
Clara took up the refrain, but louder: “We want Lady Nancy. She’s nice. And she knows how to tell stories.”
Oscar swallowed. “Lady Nancy is… busy.”
“She said she’d come back,” Henry whispered.
Oscar did not answer. Instead, he crossed to the window and looked down at the gray courtyard, the rain slicking the cobbles. He could feel their gaze burning into his spine.
“I will see what I can do,” he said at last.
Clara and Henry exchanged a glance—a language built from shared pain, and something else Oscar could not name.
He left them then, closing the door quietly behind him.
In the hallway, Oscar pressed his palms to his eyes. The futility and dread settled in the base of his skull like a bad tooth. He had not told the children he was marrying Lady Nancy lest they got their hopes up and something went wrong.
Something had to change, and the sooner the better. For the twins. For everyone.
CHAPTER 10
