Flora had never been prouder of Gilbert, who had planned the entire embezzlement and getaway almost single-handedly. She had seen how everyone at the bank had underestimated him, employees and customers alike, and how Mr. Hunsicker had bullied him. It was infuriating to watch someone as wealthy and powerful as Boyd Hunsicker berate and demean someone like Gilbert. He was much smarter and much stronger than everyone gave him credit for. His small stature belied a big brain and an even bigger heart. And Flora knew he would do anything for her.

The newspapers had gone crazy for the story of the Wayne Building & Loan robbery and the escape, with word reaching beyond the state of Ohio and up across the border into Canada. The outrage at the audacity of the crime, the mind-boggling amount of money that had been stolen, and some of the reactions of Wooster’s citizens were detailed in dozens of publications in the region. The reactions of Wooster’s citizens included a shudder-inducing snippet from Flora’s next-door neighbors, who described the volcanic rage of her cuckolded husband as he had burst from their house, shotgun in hand, jumped into his car, and taken off in hot pursuit of his cheating, not to mention outlaw, wife. “There was smoke coming out Bill Parker’s ears. Genuine smoke, honest to God.”

No one could believe Gilbert had pulled it off. Even with the outright disbelief splashed across the front pages of the papers, and the calculated brilliance required to make such a clean getaway, Gilbert was adorably humble about the entire thing. He would wave a dismissive hand at any praise she gave him, and then somehow turn the focus around, laud her contributions to the operation, and ask her if she was coping all right.

There were moments when Flora grew wistful about leaving Wooster. She knew they could never go back, and she had grown fond of the tidy little town and its community. Gilbert had said they probably shouldn’t even chance going back over the border into the U.S., much less all the way down to Ohio. Canada was their new home, Toronto more specifically, and with the money they had, it would at least be a comfortable life there, if just the tiniest bit colder. He had smiled when he said that. “Just the tiniest bit colder, Flora.”

He knew she hated the cold, and had bought her a full-length mink coat from Eaton’s on Queen Street in October when the temperatures began to drop. It had been his first really expensive gift to her. They had been careful not to flash their cash around after exchanging modest amounts into Canadian currency. Just a little at a time, and never at the same bank twice. They rented a modest three-bedroom, red-brick bay-and-gable house in a quieter neighborhood of the city, and spent money only on necessities. Flora did hate the cold, but what bothered her more was the size of Toronto. “It’s too big,” she had told Gilbert, even though he had chosen a more intimate neighborhood, rather than renting something right in the city center. “It’s truly unwieldy, Gil.”