A brazen little robin settled onto his wrist, finding caution only when pecking at the crumbs that trailed from the base of his thumb. Henry Hummington had always had a way with birds, even as a boy in the English countryside. It might be because his mother had the habit of carrying breadcrumbs in her pockets. Central Park had always reminded him of home, of a life that seemed more like a dream than a reality.
A pair of shrill hoots startled the little red-breasted creature enough for it to launch into flight. How the tiny creature had the strength to jump that high or the ability to soar through the air always struck Henry. Birds were full of ease and impossibility.
Two red-headed boys were wildly running up the hill, carelessly whacking each other with broken branches. Henry felt his son fidget nervously at his side.
Jasper strolled up the hillside, within four long strides he'd reached the boys and clasped his hands around their necks. A barely visible shake ceased their stick whacking as the older boy led them to the picnic blanket Henry and Derek sat upon.
Without being noticed, Christopher and Thomas appeared out of thin air and were suddenly quietly crouching down to sit to Henry's left.
"Afternoon," Thomas murmured with a smile to Derek. Christopher winked at the boy before kicking off his shoes and stretching out in the same way he had done for decades. Reaching his fingers to the sky for a breath before tucking his hands behind his head to lie in the late summer sun. Derek practically vibrated with excitement with his eyes fully focused on the twins.
"Did Beth make any of those cakes?" Christopher yawned. Henry laughed at the predictability of the one man in New York everyone else found to be such a mystery. Christopher was anything but mysterious to Henry.
"Manners." Thomas pointedly admonished with a look at the boy still rigidly perched next to his father.
Jasper reached the men with Wild and West still squirming in his grip. The leader of the birds looked older than he was, well-tailored and harried. Henry wondered if they didn't put too much pressure on the boy.
"Want to sword fight with us?" One of the twins held out his stick to Derek. The boy glanced at his father, who gave him a curt nod.
"Be sure not to actually harm each other," Henry warned lightly.
"Or I'll find my own sword," Jasper muttered threateningly to the twins. The boys ran off towards the thick tree line to the east.
"Stay in sight!" Christopher lazily called out, even though his own eyes were closed. Jasper let his gaze follow the boys, as he scratched along his jaw pensively.
"They are good boys." Henry soothed.
"They are holy terrors, but clever loyal little things." Jasper grinned as he dropped down to sit. Henry snaked his arm back to dig out a wrapped sandwich for the boy.
"I appreciate you bringing them along for my boy."
Christopher cracked an eye open, catching sight of the sandwich.
"Hunter?"
Thomas chuckled as he surveyed the small clearing. Central Park was the best place in the whole of New York to be seen and unseen. Critter and Hunter had found this spot in the park the year Jasper had been born. It was only a quarter of an hour walk from the path in either east or west direction and crowded by enough trees and bushes that even in the winter it was hidden from view.
"You weren't…" Thomas began.
"No." Jasper scoffed impatiently. Christopher let his foot twitch enough that his toes knocked into Jasper's knee. A gentle censure. As gentle as Critter ever got with one of his birds. Thomas merely laughed. Cricket had always been the jolly sort, easy with his grins and joy.
"Not use to having to answer anyone, are you?" Henry chuckled himself, tossing a cake at Christopher's stomach with a bit of his own censure. Critter would have never settled at orders, manners, or directions at Jasper's age and Hunter was the only bird that had first-hand knowledge of the unruly boy the legend had been.
"Oh, he's used to it, all right," Christopher growled to disguise the surprised grunt. Henry knew Christopher better than most, maybe than all except for Karin. O'Connell was a familiar set of ease and impossibility, just another bird Henry had attracted in his life.
"The investments to the Irish Rose and the rest of the block have all been finalized, my cousin the banker is projecting a good deal of profits," Thomas commented.
"Audrey planted the idea well at that dinner party in July with the Astors." Critter praised between shoving bites of cake into his mouth.
"I've just seen a Ford Model A, fine motor car. Likely going to sell well." Henry provided.
"We should discover what motor car competitors are here in the city." Critter directed the musing thought as an order to Jasper. Henry had already begun the inquiries.
"The clothing appears to suit you well. How are the soles of your shoes?" Thomas gestured to Jasper's feet. The boy pulled his legs up to plant the shoes in question against the ground, hiding the soles stubbornly.
"Some of the others do. Wild and West can't seem to keep in shoes for longer than a month at a time." Jasper rolled his shoulders uncomfortably drawing Henry's attention to the fine quality of the shirt he was wearing. Thomas must have sent the boy clothing after their last meeting, Jasper seemed to have grown taller and broader and he'd been wearing a thinning shirt with missing buttons and pants three inches too short.
Casper Jericho had always been a proud little fellow, never once asking for anything for himself. But he never failed in asking for the others, making sure they had food and coats, sometimes even venturing to indulge a fancy for a book or a toy. But if not for Thomas' keen interest or Christopher's special attention, Jasper would be left wanting often. Henry often made observations of the boy's needs directly to Christopher, hoping to spare the boy the embarrassment it seemed to cause him. But not the others, the men that had laid claim to Jasper at the age of 10 had never stopped seeing him as a boy in their protection.
"Either tell him you need new shoes or show him the soles." Critter ordered impatiently.
"I can make do. But Raindrop and Outsider have been clamoring for a hairbrush and some ribbons." Jasper tried again to move the conversation along, away from the attention on his person.
Critter sat up and scooted only once before Jasper compiled with his mentor's request. Angrily pushing out a foot and lifting it to Thomas.
"Blaze has been working out well?" Critter hummed approvingly before flinging himself back down, letting one leg rest in the grass.
"She's a great cook." Jasper huffed as Thomas nodded, waving Jasper's foot back down.
"These will do for another winter, but if they don't for some reason. You'll send word?" Thomas nodded. "You do look better fed than last month."
Blaze, another of their legendary ranks had been hired on to cook three nights a week for the birds. She'd even been given the apartment on the ground floor of the building on the lower east side, Thomas pleased to have an adult with a family in the building to help with the appearance that tenants resided inside. The Longfellow business had purchased the building for the nest, as part of a diversifying real estate investment last year.
"I had been eating fine." Jasper snapped before quickly adding. "But thank you."
"I will have Audrey find some ribbons and a brush for the girls." Thomas smiled.
"And I've enough pocket money for three weeks, Edison paid prettily for his last job." Jasper grinned excitedly.
"I've also set aside more than 60 dollars from the politicians." Critter waved his hand at Thomas. Longfellow was their bookkeeper; he was an expert at making sure the money they earned made them more money.
This is what they had always done in this clearing, an oasis of nature in the ceaseless bustle of a city, held a conference of news and care. A business committee though the faces of those that convened changed often over the years. Being a bird had been profitable from the start and Christopher had capitalized immediately. Being paid for secret trading, tip giving, and general spying. The man would have amassed a small fortune by now if he was anything like the industrial Titans on fifth Avenue. But Critter had always wanted to take care of his small army, the lost children he collected.
Being a bird, belonging to Critter O'Connell was sometimes dangerous, sometimes banal, but it always yielded results.
"We've found Buttercup Tate." Jasper sucks in at the last word, creating a low buzzing sound as his eyes search out the little boys now throwing down their swords and climbing into the trees themselves.
"You haven't told Spot?" Critter's voice is sharp, his words forming a question he expects to know the answer to already. Jasper shook his head.
"No, she's to be married by end of the year to a tailor far from here and San Francisco, in upstate New York." Jasper nervously scratches at his collar.
Hunter had never met Buttercup Tate, and his interest in the romantic lives of once boy kings had waned once said boyhood had ended and the men disappeared but he understood this chatter for what it was. It was not about Buttercup Tate, or the promises between her and Spot Conlon. This piece of news was about Spot Conlon and Jack Kelly, themselves, and ultimately about the girl. Conlon, Kelly, and Kai were a powerful trio of personalities and luck that no one had been able to ignore.
Even without their powerful empires as children, Jack and Spot remained curious men with an undeniable magnetism. They had extended Critter O'Connell's reach across the world. While Audrey Alexandra Kai was the perfect bird. She could be in any kind of company and be noticed or go unnoticed, she was beguiling and astonishingly clever. She had, almost single-handed, push along trade deals, political campaigns, and investments all within the last four months. Critter had even freed her from constant supervision, trusting the young lady to not run off, a loosening of reigns no one believed possible. But her perfection was precarious and seemed to depend entirely on Kelly and Conlon.
"We secured that teaching post for Davey. They aren't being kept by Conlon's heartache any more than they would return because of it." Critter clicked his tongue.
"Do try not to tell Miss Audrey of our involvement in that, if you please." Cricket sucked in his cheek. Jasper huffed a laugh.
"Would not even dream it."
"The young are surprisingly equipped to survive most heartache." Hunter sighed knowingly.
"Any more chatter on Jacob Canterbury and a proposal for Audrey?" Thomas finally leaned over the basket of treats, seeking out one of the cakes Critter favored. Beth always made at least a dozen when Henry was going to see Christopher.
"No one saw or heard of it at the party, and there is still a regular stream of letters between them." Jasper almost squirms as he shrugs.
Critter pushes himself up onto his elbows and shouts out towards the younger boys to stop pushing each other before one of them falls out of the tree. The jerky motion of care disguising his annoyance. Hunter knows Critter believes there had been a proposal and the man is sure Jasper knows there had been one but was keeping it to himself for one reason or another. But as Audrey had been steady and manageable, docile even since the Canterbury boy's departure it was possible even the great Critter O'Connell was wrong.
"The boy convinced his father to invest in The Hudson." Thomas frowns.
"Because he knows I am the proprietor?" Critter sits up entirely now.
"Yes!" Wild shouts out across the clearing.
Jasper lifts a hand and snaps, a crack through the air before two little bodies drop from the trees. The twins were excellent at tumbling out of trees, windows, cabinets, or anything taller than most seven-year-old boys. Wild sprints to the men while West waits for Derek to climb down safely. Jasper waves the boy to continue as he reaches the edge of the blanket.
"He does know it's an investment in you, sir." Wild nods politely. Henry coughs to hide the laugh at the properness of it.
"And how do you know that then?" Critter demands.
"I was listening when he made inquiries about it while having cigars and brandy with one of those other university fellows with a father in city business." Wild explained.
"And Daisy's been reading his letters to Laces," West quips coming up behind his brother.
"Canterbury needed an arts investment, it's a sound choice The Hudson. The collective I had gathered for the initial investment is impressive." Thomas added.
"You've known about this for how long then?"
"Since May, you don't like speaking about the numbers." Thomas defends.
"Disobedient louse." Critter mutters back darkly.
One of the red-breasted robins, maybe the same one as before, soars back down and settles on Henry's knee. It chirps impatiently hopping up Henry's leg in search of crumbs.
"Is that a pet bird?" Wild asks excitedly.
"Did you train it to do that?" West adds.
"It's a gift of his." Critter laughs.
"Enough business boys, let's play a quick game of stickball before Casey and the Nanny make it all the way around the clearing." Thomas lobs a ball at Jasper. Without any hesitation, Jasper snaps a stick from the grass and knocks the ball at Critter.
Henry, the bird known as Hunter didn't contribute much to the business of birds these days. He was a grown man with a family, he had moved on. But the boy he had been when they began, the story he was, knew that once a bird always a bird. And in this clearing, they would always be boys and birds.
Besides, he always brought food and a baseball. And someone had to remind Christopher he was not an almighty God and lord.