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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.”
