Afterwards
April 10th, 1810
Lincombe Park, Devonshire
Afternoon sunlight shone into the nursery, laying golden rectangles on the floor. A nursemaid sat in a rocking chair, quietly knitting, and alongside her were two cots. Lucas followed Tish across the room. He found himself tiptoeing.
Click click click, went the nursemaid’s needles.
Lucas held his breath and stared down at the babies. Tish’s twins. Tiny and pink and fast asleep.
He and Julia had looked like this once.
Lucas felt a pang of sadness, and waited for the feeling of having lost a limb, but it didn’t come. Instead, he caught a fleeting scent of bergamot, as if Julia stood alongside him.
“Icarus says it’s his fault. His father was a twin, and his grandfather.”
Lucas nodded, and peered more closely at the babies. Which w
