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"Au revoir, chérie," the dai "You ain soon"

"One day," she , of course, and her heart felt heavy as she locked the barrel of seed and rolled it back into place Bertram had loved Piccadilly

When she pushed past the curtain to the parlor, she found Casper asleep on her couch, his untouched tea growing cold on the table After sneaking upstairs, she hid the velvet bag of silvers and changed into an uglier hat She couldn’t turn Casper out, but she wouldn’t give hier slept the day away, and she was free to go about her regular, boring routine In the past few years, since she had been forced to cut expenses and let her assistant go, she had developed a certain way of doing things It was al a spinster at twenty-four, but she didn’tup the wet towels she’d just washed, a fa pair of eyes watched her over the brick wall She s exactly ould coravelly voice muttered

"I couldn’t turn him away, Maisie He looks like--"

"Any fool can see that But he ain’t Bertie"

"I’ forever"

The old woman harrumphed and shook her head "Be careful Reve said he smells like trouble"

It was Frannie’s turn to harruic Tell me you don’t believe in that folderol?"

Maisie’s boots shuffled slowly to her back door "I been running this lodging house since your papa was in a pinafore Kept just as ers as Pinkies, and I tell you now that when a dai, I take it Remember what happened last time somebody told you to be careful around a round with a splatter of mud as Maisie’s door slammed shut

"I remember," she whispered in the silence

Casper slept until evening He sprang up fro a plate of bread, cheese, and fruit on the table by a fresh cup of hot tea

"Simmer down, duck," she said "Did you have sweet dreams?"

"Not in years What tirouchy face that reer brother

"For a pretty little thing, you act like an old lady And what’s with the ‘duck’ thing?"

He didn’t touch the food, but she sat down in her favorite chair and began eating anyway She was always starving after a day on her feet a the animals, and business had been brisk

"When my parents passed on in a conveyance accident, I was only seventeen I becauardian, and he followedOld Maisie next door told me I had to treat him just like a troublesome creature--with unconditional love and complete dominance"

"What happened to him?"

She dropped the piece of bread that she’d been unconsciously shredding "He died"

No ht it, it was never any easier The silence deepened, and she looked up at hi sappy so she could tear him apart as easily as the bread

"That sucks" was all he said, and although she was unfa terribly true

"It does suck, yes Itsucks very much"

"You should probably eat," he said softly, and in response, she threw the bit of bread at hiht in the face

"You first"

His ers as if he had forgotten how to eat "Not hungry And I have to get to the Vauxhall before dark"

"You’d best run, then," she said, staring at the clock on the mantel

When he saw the time, he leaped to his feet and ran off without a word--or his spoiled waistcoat and fancy jacket He wasn’t wearing nearly enough clothes to be on the street after dark, but he was already gone, and she wasn’t about to chase after the fool

Frannie stared at her dinner for aloneliness in the silence for the first ti with Casper wasso very strange She wanted to help him, order him around, keep him safe But he wasn’t Bertram, and the way he looked at her made her all skittery