Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match(15)
Was he being truthful about his memory, and who he was?
There were another twelve hidden vaults throughout the house, from the basement cellar to the uppermost chimney on the roof, and now a stranger sat at their table. Hidden treasure, towers of treasure, dusty and forgotten treasure—enough for a hundred extravagant lifetimes at least—were all brought here by persons unknown, to be collected under the one black slate roof.
It was a fine upgrade from the morgue. Wasn’t it, indeed. A swindler could be sitting here right now, with her mother’s napkin on his lap. When she made eye contact with Will again, she saw no guile, no concealment, and she forced herself to let go of her gold-clutching terror. All she could do was hope, and trust.
Angelika put on a smile. “Could you start to make a list of things you would like me to purchase for your wardrobe?”
Will ignored that and replied to Victor’s remark. “Maybe we could go back to the morgue. They must have a record of me. I could be home before nightfall.”
“It is more likely that if you do have a family, they do not know where you are,” Victor said carefully. “Or they had no option but to leave you, rather than bury you at the church. Come now, my good chap. Is this so bad?” He gestured to the table, and then the room around them, and finally, at his sister.
“I am grateful.” Will’s gaze lingered on Angelika’s lips. “There is nothing bad at all.”
Angelika saw his hesitation. “How do you think your family will react when you appear like an apparition on their doorstep? You’re sewn together. They will not understand.”
“I’ll make them understand,” Will said, taking a sip of tea and wincing, a hand on his stomach. “I’m sorry, but in the interests of science, I’ll advise I am about to destroy a chamber pot. I’m afraid of what will happen just now.”
“Mary will be ever so pleased,” Victor said, after roaring with laughter. “Off you go. We will help you find your old life,” he added with more seriousness when Will stood.
Will bowed politely. “I will do my best not to inconvenience you.”
Victor wasn’t done. He held a finger aloft.
“We are an unconventional household, but I must be old-fashioned about something. If you deflower my sister with that unpredictable knob, I’m afraid you will be stuck with her for good. I will insist on it, brother-in-law.”
“There’s not a chance of that,” Will said, and left the room.
The look of sympathy on Victor’s face was unbearable. “Don’t say anything,” Angelika said quietly.
Victor disobeyed. “I always thought that I would recognize your future husband when I met him. I walked in just now and saw you two sitting together at breakfast and thought: Yes. That’s him. A patient, sensible constant, to counter your headstrong extravagance. Will is absolutely perfect for you.”
Angelika’s stomach flipped happily at the surety in her brother’s voice. “I did make sure of it. And I knew it, too, the moment he sat up.”
Victor was regretful. “But I’m afraid he will never know that he’s your match. Give up on this particular dream, my dear sister.”
“I don’t want to.”
“If you take that path,” Victor warned, nodding at the hallway, “you will find only heartbreak. He is going home to his family. But you will always have me, and Lizzie, and you will be Aunt Jelly to our children. We will all live happily here, together, forever.”
“But there’s no room for me in this house,” Angelika said, echoing Will’s earlier assertion. “Where am I to fit into this life, once the children begin arriving?”
“I’ll clear out a few inventions” was all Victor said in reply. “Now, let us return to the laboratory. We must write a full account of what happened last night.”
“Please bathe yourself first, you smelly boy.” Angelika drank from Will’s teacup. Did this count as a first kiss? “And there is a question I must ask of you. You used some of Will’s original body. Did you take the ring off his left hand?”
Victor looked at her in surprise. “I couldn’t be bothered finding cutters. My creation is still wearing it. The engraving bears a clue, no doubt,” he breathed, looking at the hallway. “I should go and tell him—”
Angelika was grim. “Your loyalty is to me, brother. When we find that ring, I want you to give it to me. Promise me. He’s mine. I made him, and everything he has is also mine.”
“You are wrong, you brat,” Victor said in a warning tone. “He belongs to himself. Or to a pretty widow somewhere who is crying her eyes out. I do find this rather amusing. You have found the one man you cannot ask a hundred questions of.”
She put her face in her hands. “I cannot believe neither of us could be bothered to look properly at his ring. I think we are a pair of fools.”
“This is the sort of thing a man would be very angry to find out about.”
“I’ll deal with that if it ever happens. There is no point in raising his hopes. For all we know, your naked creation is shot dead by now, lying on a slab again.”
“I should ask my colleagues to keep an eye on the county morgues,” Victor replied, grabbing another apple from the silver bowl on the table. “You’re a genius, Jelly.”