Caitlin Conlon patted her pocket once more as she turned the corner on the block, checking her pocket for the tiny wrapped sweet. It was equal measures nerves of the sweet being lost to a pickpocket or to the heat melting it in her pocket.
"If anyone was going to steal whatever is in your right pocket, they would have done it four blocks back." Bottle Cap called out behind her. Caitlin stopped and twirled around, like a woman who had played stickball a few too many times with brutish brothers. A woman ready to give as good as she got, no matter that she was a woman at all.
"How long have you been following me?" She demanded.
"I was selling up near the federal building and post office, so perhaps a quarter of a block?" Cap smiled. He tipped his hat politely even as he kept taking long strides forward to her.
"And how would you know then when anyone might have picked my pocket?" She demanded annoyed with his confidence. Confidence that reminded her achingly of her brother, of Critter, of every boy she had ever known.
"Oh I hear things from little birds," He shrugged laughing.
"Was someone going to pick my pocket?" She demanded.
"Not anyone with any chance to really achieve it." He finally reached her and dropped a singular kiss on her cheek. Bottle Cap was taller than her now and she tried very hard not to think what that might mean in the grand scheme of time, life, and how her own brother might have changed again. She had missed so much of Patrick's life, it made her stomach twist uncomfortable when she thought of how much she still missed.
Bottle Cap tilted his head west, holding out his arm for her. She took it knowing without needing it said he was heading to the same place.
"Are you invited to dinner?" She asked curiously.
"To chaperone you and Andrew Bailey?" Bottle Cap laughed. "No."
"How do you even know about…" Caitlin started.
"Mr. Andrew Bailey and his interests in you? No news travels faster than that of suitors, Cat. Ask any young lady." Bottle Cap bites down on his lower lip and a sharp piercing whistle escaping him for only a moment.
"I've been reading," Caitlin started.
"Everyone has been reading." Cap rolled his eyes.
"I'm sure others have been watching…. " She prodded.
Bottle Cap ignored her easily enough as he ushered her into a building and up the stairs two at a time. Even in her skirts and boots, his pace didn't bother her.
"There's a redhead that's been doing laundry for my building," Caroline began.
"Firecracker is what we call her." Bottle Cap nodded.
"Did my brother leave instructions to keep an eye on me?" She demanded.
"You were once engaged to be married to Critter O'Connell." Cap laughed. "Take your pick of who left instructions."
Bottle Cap tapped at the door on the fifth floor, waiting for only the length of a breath before it flew open. A small boy threw himself at Bottle Cap and to the newsboy's credit, he didn't stumble back as he caught the younger boy around the middle.
"I've got a guest." Bottle Cap laughed and chastised at the same time. Caitlin Conlon wondered for a moment where this newsboy had found his good nature, so unlike her brother. Bottle Cap had grown but instead of growing more dower with age, his smile only grew wider and the mischief in his eye was unmistakable.
"Scott, we do not attack our visitors! What if that had been Mr. Bailey?" Caroline fretted coming to the door in an apron and with a dash of flour along her chin.
"Well, it wasn't!" Scott exclaimed, poking a wooden sword into Bottle Cap's ribs. Bottle Cap twisted his arms enough to push the boy away and slightly upside down.
"Greet Cat," Bottle Cap commanded. Caitlin stepped into the little apartment, giving Caroline a quick hug.
"Hullo Cat." Scott gave her a toothless smile. Caitlin winked at him before stepping towards the small stove, to peak into the pots.
"Evening Caroline." Cap nodded stepping inside as well.
"No! Don't go in. We're going to sell papers! I'm ready." Scott practically screeched.
"Without manners, no one is going to sell any papers." Caroline sternly warned.
"That could be true." Bottle Cap sighed, dropping the boy gently.
"Cap's got manners," Scott claimed from his spot on the floor.
"I don't think she's talking about me." Cap nudged the boy with his toe. The pair of big brown eyes, so like his aunt's stared up at Caroline pleading.
"Please?"
Caroline clicked her tongue at her son, before stepping over the boy to hang her discarded apron and hug Bottle Cap. Caitlin watched how Cap leaned into Caroline, still every bit the little boy in her embrace. Caroline pulled away and placed her hands on the boy's cheeks, running her thumbs under his eyes and along his jaw.
"You aren't eating enough?" She sighed quiet and impatient.
"I eat enough." He smiled as he pulled her hands away and settled his hands at her waist, settling his gaze to her swelling belly. He quirked a brow.
"Have you told her yet?" His pointed tone indicated he knew the answer to his question.
"Haven't you heard?" Her pitch spike higher, mocking with a tinge of maliciousness.
Bottle Cap quirked a brow again.
"My dear sister knows everything there is to know. Why this morning, I heard she's been invited to the governor's house in Albany."
"So she's sent a gift?" Caitlin hummed. The thought reminded her of the treat in her pocket, she fished it out and held it out to Scott. The boy was sitting impatiently on the floor, trying to will Bottle Cap to step back out and remember their plans.
Caroline and Bottle Cap snapped their attention to Caitlin as she handed Scott the wrapped candy. The boy greedily took it, letting it be the distraction it was offered to be.
"How could you possibly know that?" Caroline demanded.
"It's what Christopher would do. When he knew good news and couldn't or maybe wouldn't come himself, he'd send a gift." Caitlin explained. It was easy to forget, Caitlin Conlon had spent years living a life as the girl being courted by the powerful secretive leader of the Brooklyn Birds.
"Can we go sell papers now?" Scott whined from the floor.
The door opened and Jim stepped in, in a modest suit, stifling a yawn he smiled at the motley crew assembled in his home.
"I've never heard a newsboy sell a paper by whining." Jim chastised softly to his son, before leaning in to kiss Caroline on the cheek. Cap smiled at the tenderness of the almost chaste exchange, Caroline Kai had left a world behind when she fell in love with a boy named Jim.
"Do change into something without the muck of the day on it, we've got a dinner guest." Caroline smiled into her husband's ear.
"Andrew Bailey, a good man who's got himself a fancy for our friend Caitlin." Jim laughed winking at Caitlin and clasping a paternal hand on Bottle Cap's shoulder before stepping back into his bedroom.
"Andrew Bailey is a widower, with an aging mother and a vicarious younger sister with a small brood of children." Bottle Cap recited the information, effortlessly recalling all the chatter and gossip surrounding Caitlin Conlon's newest beau.
"I repeat, young sir, who instructed the lovely birds to perch about in my affairs?" Caitlin demanded again.
Scott sprung up to his feet finished with waiting out boring conversations about suitors and babies. He hooked his arms around Bottle Cap's waist and started trying to pull.
"Everyone is already selling!" Scott exclaimed.
"All right, all right. I hear you." Bottle Cap dramatically waved at the women.
"Be back before 9," Caroline warned as the boys disappeared.
Caitlin shuffled into the kitchen and started pulling out plates and cups. Caroline glanced at her happenstance friend. A Conlon and a Kai, only inevitable because her younger sister had made it so. Audrey had always been able to make things inevitable.
"You should tell her, even if she already knows." Caitlin sighed.
"If we're doling out advice on younger siblings, we can talk about Patrick." Caroline sniped.
"He writes something, I'm sure even your well informed baby sister doesn't know."
"And what could that possibly be?"
"My brother, it seems, has lost track of Buttercup Tate." Caitlin whispered.
Caroline stared at Caitlin openly surprised, as someone knocked on the door.