A newborn always has a particular scent, the kind of thing that changes from person to person like a magic released to seduce and intoxicate. Caroline Kai Davis had long forgotten the sweet smell that reminded her of her mother, and hinted at roses from a garden long dried and dead somewhere west of Central Park. But now the round, maybe slightly square, small bonnet set against her breast wafted the smell up to her nose. Caroline bounced the baby softly, ducking her head down trying to inhale the memories greedily.
She smiled reflexively back at the wandering black gray eyes of the tiny creature in her arms. Letting one of her hands tuck the long train of the child's gown inwards, tightening around his plump legs and keeping the winter chill away.
"He is quite perfect, Casey." Caroline crooned.
"The little devil has everyone rather charmed, I suppose he'll be just like his father." Casey smiled indulgently at the baby.
"The shape of his eyes are yours," Caroline glanced up to confirm her words.
"Thomas thinks so too, but mother and I believe he'll take his father's coloring."
Caroline nodded politely, dropping the child lower into her lap as his eyelids drooped. As all the women that had been calling before her, Caroline couldn't keep from staring and fussing over the boy, she was simply enthralled with the newborn.
It had been almost two years since Casey had seen Caroline, not since her own wedding day. The woman looked well, composed and collected as she had always been. She was dressed in a modest clean gown and with her hair prettily tied up in a fashion reminiscent of the Gibson Girl. Studying her guest, Casey Longfellow was confident in her belief Caroline had come to call as Kai and not as a Davis. Her hands were in soft laced gloves, slightly antiquated but well cared for and undoubtedly expensive. She wore jewelry that Casey could only imagine she had run away with, Kai family heirlooms not lost to financial ruin.
"How is my sister?" Caroline asked, clear and precise in a tone implying she was due the knowledge and not merely asking for it. Society ladies, Casey mused, were much like Brooklyn Birds creatures unable to shake their trainings.
Carriage wheels were creaking to a stop out on the street and the voices of newsboys had dropped to a distant hum. Casey shifted a bored glance to the window, as if inspecting the time and not absorbing all the details of her surroundings.
"She's the only one who can calm the babe when he takes to screaming in the middle of the night." Casey conceded, unsure what to share of her ward's behaviors.
"I use to hold her like this," Caroline whispered, the scent and the memories of richly decorated parlors and plush French furniture whirling in her mind. Casey had never met Audrey as a baby, hadn't known Caroline until just before she had run away to marry.
"We all start out small, soft, warm bundles. Don't we?" Casey hummed.
"I held her for the first time in our parlor, I don't know if you ever saw it? It was a grand room, with a piano that my father loved to play and I took endless lessons on."
Caroline was sitting ramrod straight, the practice manner of a woman that sat through at least one summer season with books atop her head to ensure near perfect posture. Casey dropped her hands into her lap, leaning forward warmly.
"I never had any siblings, William is the first child I've ever held for longer than a moment."
"I would hold Audrey for hours, as a baby. But when she was a toddler she wouldn't let anyone hold her, or even hold her hand unless it was Bryan." Caroline recalled.
"Now it's Thomas." Casey snorted. "Or Christopher."
"When I held her like this, I thought she would learn to play the piano and grow up in that fine house. I imagined being her sister, there to go shopping for her summer gowns and teach her how to properly catch dance partners at balls. I never imagined she would want for anything." Caroline sighed sadly.
"You could not tell the future, none of us can." Casey murmured so softly, the words may have been imagined. The two ladies were seated in the front parlor, facing the corridor that fed to the entryway with the grand staircase and the double doors to the street. A burst of light bounced in the room, followed by a draft of winter air signaling the front door had been opened.
"Now I read about my sister, Miss Audrey Alexandra Kai in the pages." Caroline retorted sardonically.
"You know the pages are written by old busybodies and gossips." Casey impatiently waves the tone away with a hand.
"I do, though most of the time those busybodies and gossips aren't far from any truths." Caroline murmurs while rocks the now sleeping child in her arms.
"Oh aren't they, did you see the news about Mrs. Astor?' Casey barely finished the question as Audrey Alexandra Kai, bundled in a fine emerald coat and soft ivory scarf and wool hat sweep into the room.
"That little tidbit about Grace Vanderbilt managing to be the esteemed host for the Kaiser from right under Mrs. Astor's nose at the Opera came from me. I happened to see the Kaiser speaking to Mrs. Vanderbilt the other night." Audrey explained conspiratorially, not seeming the least bit surprised to see her older sister in the parlor. Casey suspected the birds had informed her ward of her relations calling.
"You've turned my sister into a busybody and a gossip it seems Casey." Caroline quirked a brow at the girl in question. Audrey looked radiant, her cheeks had rounded out and were flushed with such a healthy color that Caroline blinked back her own surprise.
"Hardly, if anyone did that it was Christopher." Casey let one of her shoulders pop in an indignant shrug, the kind of gesture she would have rapped Audrey for immediately.
"Also, Caroline," Audrey smiled widely as she leaned down to drop a loving kiss on the baby's forehead before warmly greeting her sister with a peck on the cheek. "You must know, to be a busy body or a gossip you have to be the heralder of the news to all the people. I'm merely observing and recounting to one, more a shadow than busybody."
Casey clicked her tongue, as Audrey started unwrapping her scarf and undoing her cloak buttons. Nancy appeared with a tea tray ready for all three ladies.
"How is dear William Bryan Lewis Longfellow this afternoon?" Audrey asked, stretching her fingers impatiently towards the baby. Having settled the tea service, Nancy tapped Audrey's shoulder to help the girl out of her cloak.
"You've named him Bryan? Caroline squeaked.
"Caroline, dear, you've been calling since the afternoon edition came off the presses and you don't know his name?" Audrey teased.
"That's enough out of you young lady, mind your tongue." Nancy chastised lightly as she nodded to the empty spot next to Caroline on the loveseat.
"I've been minding my tongue," Audrey settled in her seat with a gracefully flip of her skirts. Nancy handed tea to Casey, placed a teacup next to Caroline.
"Miss Audrey, you were to be home over an hour ago. Care to explain yourself?" Casey glared at the girl over the edge of her teacup.
"I was delayed…" Audrey flashed a brilliant smile, as she leaned over her sister to coo at William. Ignoring Nancy's attempt to hand her a teacup.
"Do not say by the nest," Casey warned shortly. Nancy slipped from the parlor.
"Oh, Miss Audrey would not have been so disobedient as to be out on the lower east side today. Would she?" Thomas Longfellow walked into the parlor, in just his shirt sleeves and a ratty old pair of suspenders.
"Thomas, shouldn't you still be in bed?" Casey clicked her tongue at her husband. The man coughed and then promptly sneezed on cue.
"And miss the Kai sisters? Together, prettily cooing over my son?" Thomas winked at Caroline, ran a hand through his messy locks, as he trudged across the floor to find the whiskey decanter.
"Tommy never was one to stay in bed," Caroline smiled indulgently at the man. He looked so young, suddenly just a boy standing in front of her, as he used to be in her family's parlor. Caroline couldn't catch her breath from half expecting Bryan to stroll in after the boy.
"No one has called me Tommy in a lifetime, Lina." Thomas poured whiskey into a glass. "I'm quite well, fit and fine, Casey."
Audrey jumped to her feet, gliding across the floor and tugging at the whiskey glass in her guardian's hand. But Thomas held it tight.
"You were not to be near the nest…" He grumbled at her, stumbling on the words for a cough.
"I wasn't seen." She whispered.
"Then how is it I know about it dear?" Thomas croaked back.
"Birds, do not count."
Thomas shook his head and tugged at the whiskey glass between them once making her release it. He began to sip at the amber liquid, haltingly. Audrey leaned forward towards him, hovering in the space as if seeking something. Caroline watched her sister, standing tall enough to reach Thomas' jaw, looking every bit the toddler she remembered.
"I see Audrey isn't behaving any more than Tommy." Caroline laughed.
"She behaves when it suits her." Thomas laughed, conceding the glass to his pretty ward. Audrey took a dainty, though deep, gulp of whiskey before setting the glass down. Caroline found herself wondering when her baby sister had started drinking.
"Not even then. Audrey, you are to attend the Livingston dinner this evening on behalf of Thomas and myself." Casey began.
"But…" Audrey began. Before Caroline could think to react, Thomas held up a finger to silence the girl.
"Young Mr. Canterbury will be here to escort you just past 5 PM."
"Jacob Henry Canterbury?"
"That is the only young Mr. Canterbury." Audrey quipped quickly, glancing back down at the whiskey glass again.
"Honestly, Audrey. Sit back down and drink your tea." Caroline snapped impatiently at her younger sister.
"Why are…" Audrey twirled to glare at her older sister, her tone filled with an unspoken younger sibling promise for violence. Jacob leaned forward, hovering above her shoulder before whispering one word before pressing his palm against her back.
"You have been reading the pages then." Casey murmured gracefully, as her husband guided Audrey begrudgingly back to her seat.
"And Spot's mentioned him." Caroline nodded. All eyes suddenly shifted to focus on Caroline.
"Spot Conlon?" Audrey dropped to her seat, her gaze fixed.
"That is the only Spot, dear." Caroline controlled the intense need to slip into a conceited smile. Caroline noticed how Thomas settled his hand around her sister's shoulder, a polite and familial gesture to hold the girl in her place. Caroline bounced the sleeping baby in her arms.
"When and where did Spot mention him?" Audrey demanded petulantly.
"I will send you up to dress if you do not control that tone." Thomas shook her, softly.
"You both should go back upstairs and leave us to our call." Casey hinted.
"Spot sends me letters, writes about how you won't write," Caroline continued softly as William began to fuss in her arms. She stood instinctively ready to walk with the babe.
"About how he believes Critter will make a bird out of you. Spot worries you will forget how dangerous it is."
"Spot Conlon left me here to that danger, what right has he to start worrying about it now?" Audrey spat angrily.
"Do you not remember Audrey, when you last decided to forget how dangerous it is?" William began to cry and Caroline bounced him but kept railing against her sister. "When you did not heed their warnings and you were taken up by a gang of pickpocketing thieves? When you, my baby sister was taken by the brother of the man who killed our brother."
"Lina," Thomas hissed "keep your voice down."
The baby was still crying and Audrey forcefully shrugged loose of Thomas, lurching forward to take the infant.
"Shush, little one." Caroline hummed lifted the baby up to her shoulder. Audrey wrapped her hands around the baby to try to pull him from her sister.
"There is no one to give me warnings to heed." Audrey snapped impatiently. Casey stood from her seat while Thomas deftly wrapped an arm around Audrey's waist.
"There is, and I have. She is safe, Lina. We have made sure of it." Thomas whispered madly, pulling Audrey away from her sister and his infant.
"Here dear, let me have him." Casey expertly maneuvered her infant out of Caroline's arms and into the waiting hold of Nancy, who had reappeared.
"Nancy, take young Master William up to his nurse? And then please dress young Miss Audrey." Casey commanded.
"I do not wish to go to dinner." Audrey snapped.
"It was not a request dear." Thomas tried to spin her around, but the girl dug her heels in stubbornly. She glared at her older sister, and Thomas suddenly remembered how little the girls seemed to get along.
"Why are you here Caroline? You, like Spot, left me here. Why now do you come looking?"
"You are my sister." Caroline reached out to try to tuck a stray curl back into place, but Audrey recoiled into Thomas. "And you've just turned 17, practically been debuted to society. I've kept my distance, for your sake as well as Tommy's. I'm not socially acceptable, not anymore, not since before…"
Caroline looked helpless around the parlor, her shoulders were still elegantly drawn back and her chin had never dropped. She was every bit the lady she had been raised to be, but she knew she wouldn't and couldn't be accepted into the Astor 400. She had left this world behind, the one Audrey so effortlessly was gliding back into. But even with her charm and beauty, Audrey Alexandra Kai was still a reckless child and no one knew that better than Caroline. Audrey was barely older than Caroline had been when she ran away with Jim, when so many thought she threw away her future.
"It was your birthday, two weeks ago. And I heard, from Cap that you had some trouble when the baby was born. I needed to see you,"
"You've seen me." Audrey impatiently insisted.
"I have a gift for you, and I bring the birthday letters from Spot and Jack." Caroline finished.
"You've got letters for me?" Audrey squeaked as she tried to move closer to her sister. Thomas still had a firm hold on her.
"You have letters, Audrey. Be civil. And you shall not have them, your behavior is deplorable and you will not be rewarded." Casey stepped in-between the sisters.
"Apologize," Thomas whispered into Audrey's ear.
"She won't. She never has apologized well." Caroline shook her head.
"Upstairs to be dressed." Thomas spun Audrey around and lifted her when she struggled to carry her from the room.
"My letters!" Audrey screeched.
"You will have them upon your behavior improving, or once you apologize," Thomas stated firmly.
"They are my letters."
"And you are my ward. Afternoon ladies, I will escort my dear Audrey up to her room and promptly lie back down." Thomas coughed as he carried Audrey from the parlor leaving Casey and Caroline standing awkwardly alone.
"I didn't have a sister, but if I had one, I suspect we'd get along as you two do." Casey commented calmly starring after her husband.
"I went to the warehouse, where she almost died." Caroline whispered back.
"You've seen her, she is as Thomas might say fit and fine."
"Conlon worries she will forget just how dangerous the world is." Caroline sighed.
"We shall endeavor to not let that happen. Come sit and have maybe something stronger than tea. If my husband has his way, that girl will be down in less than a quarter of an hour dressed and repentant." Casey smiled as she poured out two tumblers of whiskey.