“Such a rule-follower,” Luke sighed as he returned his pawn to its original square. “Really. Take my advice. You need to escort Caroline to the Smithsonian, or she’ll—”

“I want to be in Milwaukee by the end of the week.” Even adding these extra few days in Washington were costly to his mission.

“You know what the Bible says about men who need to take it easy. You are supposed to lie down in green pastures. Enjoy the still waters, restoreth your soul. There is a time to work and a time to play. A time to go to the Smithsonian and a time to be an idiot.”

“That’s not in the Bible.”

“The principle is. Did Caroline ever tell you how our mother died?”

Nathaniel looked up, taken off guard by the topic change. “No.”

“We were four years old. It was a perfectly ordinary day, and we were waiting in the foyer for Mother to take us outside to admire the tulips just coming into bloom. Mother was at the top of the staircase. When she saw us waiting for her, she laughed and said she had better hurry. A moment later she tripped and tumbled down the stairs. She broke her neck. I think she was dead before she even hit at the bottom.”

Luke casually moved a pawn and kept talking. “After that, Caroline became terrified of everything. Stairs, loud noises, going outside. It was months before she was willing to use the staircase again, and Gray had to hold her hand the entire time. I suppose all those fears were normal, but she also withdrew from people. She wouldn’t make friends or take care of the puppy our father bought to cheer us up. My father thought something was wrong with her and brought in a minister. He said she was stricken with ‘a terror of abandonment,’ whatever that means. Now you’ve managed to awaken all those feelings by being an ardent Romeo one day and a block of ice the next.”

Getting lectured by the most irresponsible man on the planet wasn’t something Nathaniel could take lying down. “You abandoned her by going to Cuba.”

“That’s right, I did,” Luke said, a flash of temper in his eyes. “And it chafed at me every day while I was imprisoned. The difference is that I’m her blood and she won’t ever abandon me. But you? She’ll drop you like last year’s fashions if you hurt her.”

Nathaniel mulled over the words but couldn’t accept them. “Caroline understands,” he said shortly, hoping it was true. She certainly knew what a wreck he’d been since McKinley was shot and how returning to work had helped beat back the savage waves of despondency. She knew how much he needed this.

Across from him, Luke stilled. “Here comes the telegram,” he whispered.