With a smile, the captain said to Maggie, “Dolly has a new admirer, I perceive. Who gave her this?” He touched the second wire brooch, shaped like a heart, meant to be hidden underneath the doll’s blue cloak.

Conspiratorially, Henry leaned closer and told him, “That is a great mystery, we’re not meant to know.”

Maggie withered both men with a look, rearranging the doll’s cloak to cover the pin.

Gordon asked Henry, “You didn’t make that one?”

“No. Matthew did.”

Maggie said, “It’s like the one he gave to Lily.” Then, when she saw how that statement changed the faces on the adults standing round her, she looked up at Lily in dismay. “Did I do wrong? He said to not tell Archie, but…oh, Lily!” And her hand flew up to hide her mouth as if she wished to force the words back.

Lily’s own heart had just fallen sickly to her feet, but she told Maggie not to worry. “Captain Gordon is a friend, and Henry’s Matthew’s brother. They will keep the secret.” She looked at both the men and with her eyes alone implored them to be honorable.

“Aye,” the captain rushed to reassure the little girl, and crouched to Maggie’s level, his eyes kind. “There’s no harm done. But I would take care who I told that to in future. Small leaks,” he advised her, “sink great ships.” She nodded solemnly, and Gordon reached into his pocket. “I nearly forgot, I have a gift for you, and one I’ll wager even Mistress Aitcheson will not find fault with, for it cost me nothing.” Taking out a paper packet, he unwrapped two small, baked tarts. “My wife did bake too many of these,” he told Maggie, “so I said to her, I know a little lass who’ll gladly take these off our hands. The one is apple, and the other raisin.”

Maggie looked at him, round-eyed, and thanked him. “Could I save the raisin one for Matthew? He likes raisins.”

“Eat them both,” the captain told her. “I have plenty more that I can give to Matthew.”

Henry sent him a good-humored look. “Ye see which brother is her favorite, and it’s clearly not myself.”

Maggie didn’t seem to know if she should take him seriously, but she saw a way to turn his pouting to her own advantage. “Matthew does not let me ride upon his back like ye do,” she said hopefully.

The grin that Henry gave her was infectious. “Does he not?” He turned and bent and let her clamber on, and as she wrapped her arms around his neck, with Dolly safely tucked between them, he said, “Come then, my wee cadger’s creel, we’ll go and see what’s new along the pier the day.”

“He’ll make a wondrous father,” Captain Gordon said, as he and Lily stood and watched them go.

She had been thinking much the same thing, hoping Henry would be granted his own family one day, for it would be such a waste for someone of his patience and capacity for love to be unable to see it continued.