Vera nodded. “Her family were always on the move but kept to Southwark. Gemma and I crossed paths enough to become something like friends.”

Something like friends. That was the long and short of it. Gemma’s family had changed houses often, a step ahead of the blue-bottles and too slippery for loose lips to give away. Most everyone knew who the Kincaids were. That alone kept people at a distance.

And Vera’s father had kept Vera tucked away and protected from everyone, so she’d not had friends either. That the two of them had managed to be “something like friends” was nearly miraculous.

“Where have you been all this time?” Vera asked.

Assuming as sunny and light an expression as she could, Gemma said, “I’ve moved about a lot, worked different jobs, lived in different parts of London.”

“Married a doctor,” Brogan added, dryly and with a twinkle in his eyes.

That brought Vera’s wide-eyed look of shock to her husband. “Married a what?”

Brogan looked at Gemma. “Do you want to explain, or are you wanting me to?”

Gemma figured she ought to. If she told her own history, she could decide how it was painted. “I left South London to get married.”

“You didn’t tell me you was getting married.”

Gemma rubbed the back of her neck. “We didn’t invite no one. Father didn’t approve. Making him boiling weren’t the best foot to start off on.”

Vera nodded heavily. “We were all terrified of your father.”

Gemma sighed. “I’ve heard whispers he’s dead. Likely makes me a terrible person, but I’d rather he were under the ground than on it.”

“If that makes you a terrible person, then I’m one too.”

Brogan took Vera’s hand, holding it gently but firmly.

Gemma pushed away the surge of longing she felt. Baz sometimes held her hand; he had the night before. She wanted that to mean something, but she weren’t sure it ever would.

“So you and this doctor traveled a great deal?” Vera asked.

“Just me,” Gemma said. “He ain’t a wanderer.”

“And you’ve come back to see him again?”

“For a spell.”

“All this beating around the bush is driving me batty,” Brogan said to Gemma. “She knows him. Might as well tell her flat-out who he is.”

Again, Vera looked shocked and confused and curious.

Gemma didn’t know why she was avoiding saying his name. She’d married someone who didn’t love her. That wouldn’t surprise anyone who’d ever known her. “He’s Dr. Barnabus Milligan.”

Vera looked as if she might fall over. “Doc?”

“The one and only,” Brogan said with a slight chuckle. “Our bachelor doctor, who you and m’sister have been scheming to find a wife, had one all along. And, we discovered only now, you already know her.”

Brogan might’ve found it entertaining, but Gemma didn’t. Not at all.