get used to. Losing someone.” She took a breath and looked at Rohan. “Rohan was only fourteen years old when she died, though he barely knew his mother after she became a doctor and went off to see the world. She never spoke of his father. My daughter never told anyone his name. I think maybe he was a married man. There was talk of a professor at her university. These things happen to young women. In her own way, I’m not sure she ever recovered from that, either.”
Molly sat quietly and listened. Outside, people talked and the world went on as usual, but inside, the past was alive again.
“Rohan missed his mother, but they’d never been close. Not close enough.”
“But he had you.”
Nanny nodded proudly. “He did have me. And I taught him to throw baseballs and fish and even to fight.”
“Fight?” That surprised Molly.
Nanny looked up at her and laughed. “I know. It seems far-fetched. Someone as small as me. But I learned how to fight because I grew up in a household with seven sisters and four brothers. You learn to scuffle in a large family.”
Molly smiled.
“Should have maybe been my husband teaching Rohan.” Nanny turned back to her grandson. “Would have been if Mose had lived. I lost him in a shipwreck during a storm. He worked with the coast guard.”
So much misery. Molly didn’t know what to say.
“Me and this one, we were always close. Always together. I made him grow up straight and tall as I could, but boys tend to have minds of their own.”
“What is he doing in Blackpool? You mentioned that he didn’t just end up here.”
“He didn’t. Something special brought him to this place.”
“What?”
Nanny smoothed Rohan’s forehead. “I don’t know for sure yet. We’ll have to figure that out. But I’m sure it had to do with the legend.”
“The one about Charles Crowe and his hidden treasure?”
“That might be part of it, but there’s more to it. You see, when Rohan was a child, I told him stories of the heritage we lost in West Africa during the slaving years. So many families got torn apart, and so much was lost. People were displaced, Molly, but heritage and culture?” Nanny shook her head. “That was all scattered and forgotten. I told Rohan that it was a wish of mine to see something of our family revealed. Our history. That was what he was doing here. And if he went to Aleister Crowe’s home, it was because he believed that family has some of that history.”
AFTER HE’D CONVINCED Paddington to talk with Nanny Myrie later, Michael left the inspector and went back into the hospital. He found Molly sitting with Nanny Myrie and Rohan. The old woman sat at her grandson’s side and softly hummed to herself. Before he could enter, Molly waved him off.
Molly got up. “Nanny?”
The old woman looked up at her.
“I’m going to step outside for a cup of tea. Would you like anything?”
“Water would be fine.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Nanny returned her attention to Rohan.
Outside the room, Molly took Michael by the arm. He kissed her forehead. “I guess I’m buying you a cup of tea.”
“You are.”
AT THE TEA SERVICE IN the waiting room, Molly looked at Michael. “You’re certain you’re all right?” She pulled at his shirt where the dead man’s blood—and his own, though he’d never tell her—had dried.
“I’m fine.” Michael poured tea and handed her a cup. “So what are we doing out here? I would have been glad to bring you a cup of tea.”
“I wanted to talk to you away from Nanny. That poor woman is already carrying enough of a burden without hearing about everything that happened out there.”
Michael sighed. “She’s going to end up hearing about it, anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because Dunkirk was visiting Rohan shortly before he was shot. I chased him out of the building.” Michael quickly related the story and brought Molly up to speed.
“This man, Dunkirk—”
“Or whatever his name actually proves to be.”
“—was working at the marina?”
“Yes.”
“On one of the restoration projects that I brought to Blackpool?”
“It appears so.”
Molly withdrew and wrapped her arms around herself.
“Hey.” Michael took her hand in his. “That man didn’t come to Blackpool to work on the marina. He came to break into Crowe’s Nest. If he hadn’t had the renovation to use as a cover, he’d have found something else. This isn’t any fault of yours.”
“Doesn’t feel that way.”
“If Rohan hadn’t gone to Crowe’s Nest, probably with this man, and Nanny Myrie wasn’t sitting in that hospital room right now, would you feel this way?”
Molly let out a slow breath. “No. She’s a good woman, Michael. She’s been through a lot.”
“I understand. I like Rohan.” Michael shrugged and smiled. “We’re not going to give up on them. We’re going to help them. But we can’t do that by dwelling on the past.”
“The past seems to be where all this started. You said you never knew why Rohan came here?”
Michael shook his head. “When we first met he told me he was just passing through. Looking for work.”
“But he spent a lot of time with you.”
“Blame my magnetic personality.”
“Oh, I blame you for many things, Michael Graham. And you can, under the right conditions, have an inflated view of yourself.”
“Ouch. Did I tell you I was very nearly shot today?”
“You said the sniper deliberately missed you.” Molly fisted his shirt and pulled him close. She kissed him and the chemistry that bound them sizzled anew inside Michael’s body. She pulled away entirely too soon. “For which I’m eternally grateful. What I want you to focus on is that Rohan made sure he was with you, and the two of you were always working on those models of the town buildings.”
Michael thought about that, remembering how Rohan had been interested in his extracurricular project practically from the moment he’d heard about it. “Funny, I never noticed that before.”
“Because
