“Something Greek?” Vi suggested.
Victor met her eyes and nodded. “She misses the time she spent studying the language.”
The two of them worked together and found a stockpile of books that someone else had requested and not picked up. Victor was nearly walking on air when they left the bookstore and she paused and took his cheeks between her hands. “Say it with me.”
He gave her a long-suffering look.
“The reason I said what I did,” Vi trailed off and then patted his cheek, letting him go, “is because the thought of losing you makes me feel panicky, and Rita’s close-call has sent me into a spiral of what-if-scenarios.”
Victor stared at Vi. “It did, didn’t it? I know that.”
Vi nodded, waiting.
“Vi—” She could hear the panic in his voice, the sickness that came just from loving Kate and being terrified. The worry that maybe Rita wasn’t all right. The fear of being a man with twin orphans as their father had been. Father had failed them, but would Victor fail if that were his lot? He didn’t say any of that. He didn’t need to.
Violet squeezed his hand. “Victor, Kate needs to know what you know and what I know.”
“I don’t want her to worry about my worry.”
She nodded and then waited, hoping he’d say it on his own, but he didn’t, so Violet helped. “Kate deserves to know that you find her so important and necessary to your existence that the idea of losing her made you lash out. She needs to know the why. She needs to feel it in her heart, or she will be making up her own reasons for why you acted like you did.”
“She knows me, Vi,” he said. The was a quiver to his voice, and it was her instinct to step in and help, but Kate needed to hear it from Victor, not Vi.
“Do you want her doubting your love?”
“No,” he said.
“Do you remember when you proposed? When you begged her? When you were terrified she’d say no and you’d spend the rest of your life loving her and needing her and wanting her while she carried on, unseen and unwanted with her mother?”
Victor cleared his throat, but he didn’t speak. She knew it was because the emotions were knotted in his throat. She knew him well enough to understand him, but she worried that Kate didn’t understand him quite so intrinsically. But maybe she did? Maybe she saw what had happened to Rita, realized the depth of Victor’s worry, the reality of her own pregnancy and put the pieces together.
Vi didn’t care if Kate had figured it out though. What she cared about was that there wasn’t a doubt in Kate’s mind that Victor loved her and their children. And Violet hoped her brother would be able to tell his wife himself.
Chapter 9
“So who are we seeing again?” Violet asked her husband.
“Ham is going to the Golden Unicorn to linger for Meyers while we go to the house of Reverend Sinclair.”
Violet nodded, her mind more fixed on her brother and Kate than on Jack’s case. She knew he was bringing her along because she had scared him. Violet paused and then said, “Jack, I love you.”
He glanced at her, and his eyes squinted as he half smiled her way.
“I just want you to know. I love you. You matter to me. Having you in my life is the greatest blessing.”
Jack frowned at her for a moment. “Is Victor all right?”
Vi shook her head and then nodded and then shrugged. “He’s fine.”
“And Kate?”
“She’s fine.”
“Then…” Jack trailed off, asking the question about why Victor had been upset.
“Everyone’s all right, Jack. I promise.”
He squeezed her hand and then parked outside of a small, grey house. It was a lovely little place with flowers and a stained-glass window. As they walked up the path, Vi saw a girl watching from the window. Not a girl really, as she was older than a girl in her school days.
A uniformed woman opened the door and let them in. She took them to the office where the reverend was waiting. She knocked once and then stepped back. “You’re expected.”
Violet and Jack entered the office, with Vi just a step behind. She delayed when she saw a form appear in the doorway of the parlor. It was the young woman with dark hair and eyes. Her face was pale, her eyes wide and worried, and she took in the sight of Vi and Jack with apparent horror.
Vi nodded at her and then stepped into the office behind her husband. He had lingered near the door expecting her to be just behind him, and she could see the inquiry in his gaze, but they both turned to the reverend.
“Reverend Sinclair, may I introduce my wife, Violet Wakefield?”
The man rose and held out his hand, pressing Vi’s fingers for a moment before turning to Jack. “You’re looking for Jason Meyers?”
The reverend wasn’t so old, really. Perhaps ten years older than Ham, and with a distinguished air. His dark hair was peppered with white, his brows were thick, and his eyes were concerned. His face was lined with streaks of worry and very little smile lines around his face, but he had a peaceful air, and Vi liked him.
Jack nodded and then seated Vi before taking the chair next to her. “I am.”
“And your wife?”
Jack glanced at her, his eyes lighting with approval when they landed on her before he turned back to the reverend. “Mrs. Meyers seems to be more comfortable with my wife present than she was with me and my partner, Mr. Barnes. As you know, Mrs. Meyers has asked for our help in finding her grandson, and your family was suggested as being someone who might be able to help.”
The reverend leaned back and steepled his fingers, and a part of Vi wondered if this were all an act. What was it about the people in Mrs. Meyers’s life that made Vi wonder which one of
