I was not expecting this, oh no. My eyes forgot how to blink. I looked at Fred, then back at the house, red bricks, surrounded by a tall stone fence, then back at Fred.

  “What’s this?” I asked, growing numb.

  “A house.”

  “You bought a house?”

  “I did.”

  “For what?”

  He frowned. “For us to stay. What’s wrong with—”

  I covered my mouth with both hands as a tiny shriek escaped it by accident.

  Fred scratched his head. “Do you want to see inside?”

  “Uhum.” I nodded, my lips sealed tight.

  He unlocked the gate. “Okay, so let me just—”

  “AH!” My lips popped open like a champagne bottle. “I LOVE THIS!”

  I stormed through the gates, catching only glimpses of my surroundings as I ran.

  A garden.

  No way...

  A furnished entrance hall with a staircase. I went up, obviously.

  Holy—

  I picked one of the bedrooms upstairs on a whim.

  It had a massive bed.

  I threw myself on it, then rolled over, staring at the ceiling, breathless.

  Shit. Fred bought me a house.

  I jerked myself to a sitting as a sudden dread grabbed me by the heart, fueled by Charlotte’s words.

  Sweet little gestures...

  I shook my head.

  No, that’s poison. Fred didn’t buy ME a house. He just bought a house.

  A smile grew on my lips.

  Good enough for me.

  Footsteps came from downstairs, then they stopped.

  Where is he?

  I stood up and went looking for Fred.

  Found him—lost in his own entrance hall, staring at nothing.

  “Fred.” I leaned over the guardrail.

  He looked up. “So, this is the thing I wanted to show you.”

  I smiled. “I like it.”

  A tiny smirk appeared on his face. “It seems you do.”

  My cheeks flared red.

  “Could you sit straight for a second?” Fred pressed the cigarette into the ashtray.

  I did as he asked me, but the smoke was right under my nose. I’m not sure how it didn’t bother him. “Could you move the ashtray?”

  “No.”

  My jaw dropped.

  He stared at me for a while.

  “It seems I can’t joke,” he finally said, pushing the ashtray across the table.

  I covered my mouth as an ugly snort slipped out. “You can’t.”

  “You slumped again.”

  “Sorry.” I straightened up.

  Fred lifted my shirt a bit and began inspecting my stomach side to side. His eyebrow arched when he spotted the crack.

  I was about to shrug, but he slipped his hand under my rolled-up shirt and my limbs tensed up. “W-wait!”

  He stopped with a sigh. “I won’t look at them, but you pushed yourself today.”

  A nervous smile curled on my lips. “Charlotte was strong.”

  “And you’re not hollow wood. Do you understand?”

  I nodded. “Aight.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Fred continued, feeling the crack on my chest with his fingertips. “This is big.”

  “Is it? It doesn’t hurt that much.”

  He pulled his hand back. “Wait here.”

  I inspected the room for the first time as Fred left. Tools on the walls, worktables. A small workshop of sorts.

  Most of my repairs up to that point had been minor, and since we were traveling all the time, I had never seen him do this type of work before.

  It was exciting, a bit scary too.

  Is this how going to the doctor feels?

  My lips pursed.

  Probably not.

  Fred came back with a big wooden board under his arm and went straight to the worktable.

  That board looked familiar.

  “Wait. Is this from the hall bench?”

  “Best wood I could find.”

  My new house! Have mercy...

  I leaned forward as he pulled a couple of tools from the wall and began to work, hoping to see some magical sparks.

  Nothing. Just dust and boring ol’ woodcarving.

  I pouted.

  But his hands knew exactly where to go. Watching him was kind of magical.

  “Do you enjoy this kind of work?” I asked, swinging my legs.

  “It needs to be done.”

  “But do you?”

  He stopped. “I don’t know. I don’t hate it.”

  I didn’t know what to say. We didn’t have many moments like this.

  “I see.” I hugged myself as the room grew cold around me.

  He continued.

  We stood in silence as he worked, then Fred approached me with the thing.

  I raised my arms slightly.

  He sat down and slipped the piece under my shirt. “This might hurt a bit.”

  “I’m ready.” I nodded.

  “Here we go.”

  I was, in fact, not ready for this.

  As soon as the wood touched my wound, it felt like my chest caught fire. I cried out in pain.

  “Fred, wait!”

  “Almost there!”

  The wood hissed like steel plates gritting against each other as sparkles flew out of my shirt.

  There were sparkles after all.

  My eyes rolled inside their sockets. “I can’t!”

  “Alright.” He pulled back. “I think that’s enough. But it’s going to leave a scar.”

  I stared at him, panting. “What the hell was that?”

  Fred blinked. “Gypsy magic.”

  “Are you joking?”

  “No. I am Gypsy by blood.”

  I shook my head. That was news to me.

  “Savio too?”

  “Yeah.” He buttoned my shirt back up, and I lost my hearing for a second. “The old man too.”

  My heart pounded like a drum as I stared at him.

  “Okay,” I muttered.

  Fred stood up, fixing his vest. “The pantry is full according to the estate agent. Owners left in a hurry, apparently.”

  Huh? Is he talking about food now?

  He turned and left the room.

  I fell back, sprawled on the table as my mind spun in hot circles.

  I’m going to die.

  My gut told me I had to change this place a bit, you know, make it look more like me. But I never owned a house before, so I wasn’t sure where to start.

  Fred and I didn’t have any of those modern photograph things, so I detached a painting from its frame and put it back on the wall, empty. For now.

  I closed one eye and made a window with my hands, pointing them at our soon-to-be photo like spyglasses. “Fred, what do you think?”

  He blinked. “It’s empty.”

  I sighed. “Use your imagination!”

  The door opened behind us.

  Savio stepped inside.

  “Savio!”

  “Howdy.” He smiled at me.

  “Did you take care of that issue?” Fred asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  “What issue?” I asked, but then I noticed the bags under his arms. “Are you moving in with us?”

  “Are you kidding me?” He snorted. “When was the last time you two did anything practical, like cleaning or cooking?”

  I smiled sheepishly at him.

  It was true. Having a butler all the time had spoiled us.

  “But seriously, what issue?”

  “Oh, it’s just that I owed the Chinese some money, and they might’ve wanted to come after me now that we settled in the city.”

  “The Chinese?!”

  “It’s been dealt with.”

  “In any case.” Fred shook his head, then lit a cigarette in the fireplace. “Welcome back.”

  “Thank you.” Savio looked at me as if reading my mind. “I think it’s time to renovate this old place.”

  I shot my arms up. “Yay!”

  Finally, someone who knows what they’re doing.

  We set off towards the stairs.

  I looked back. “Fred, aren’t you coming?”

  He blew smoke. “Have fun.”

  I pressed the handrail as my chest tightened.

  “Okay,” I said, watching him one last time, then continued upstairs.

  Savio picked a room, threw his stuff inside, then came out with a piece of white chalk. “Time to see how solid this house really is.”

  “What’d you mean? It’s brand new.”

  “For you.” He chuckled, then began knocking on the wall. “The structure itself is older than me.”

  Savio marked a spot on the wall with an X.

  I grabbed my head as he did again, a few steps ahead.

  Then again.

  My stomach churned.

  My new house is compromised!

  “What if we... we, hm... move the stuff to the ground floor? To save the beds at least when the roof falls,” I said.

  “Relax, the house is not going to implode. I just need to replace the lath where it rotted.”

  I sighed in relief.

  It was night when we gathered around the fireplace. I was exhausted. Today had been a long, long day.

  The lights were off, and nobody could be bothered to turn them on.

  Savio handed Fred a bottle of red wine. “Want some?”

  “Sure.”

  We had a wine cellar too. Pretty cool, I thought.

  I’d seen Fred drink occasionally, but never really drunk.

  “Do we have a job lined up?”

  I wasn’t exactly itching to go back to work, but this new lavish phase of our lives seemed expensive to maintain.

  “Yeah,” Fred said. “Something about a circus.”

  I hugged my big bottle, getting a bit tipsy myself. “I don’t like circuses.”

  “Me neither,” Savio said, staring at the fire with sunken eyes. “Bloody clowns.”

  “Last time we went near one, they tried to—hic—buy me.”

  “Yeah... we missed out on a lot of money that day,” Savio said.

  I gasped.

  “Joke.”

  Nobody laughed. We were just too tired for that.

  Savio stood up. “I’m going to take the horses to the mews, or your garden will be gone by morning.”

  “You left them in the garden?” I asked, flabbergasted.

  “I was curious to see the house too.” He said and left.

  “Oh man...” I rested my head against the bottle and looked past Savio’s empty chair, at Fred.

  His pale face glowed orange with the fire, and I had no idea what went on behind those eyes.

  That usually drove me crazy, but tonight... I don’t know.

  I think I was just glad to be here.

  My house.

  I giggled internally.

  “Fred.”

  “Hm?”

  I knew what I wanted to say, and bloody hell, how I wanted to say it.

  But I don’t know, I liked to believe I was growing wiser.

  “Thank you,” I said instead.

  He chugged down wine. “It was pretty cheap.”

  I sighed.

  I don’t care...

  We spun around in unison as brief shouting rang out from outside.

  “Who’s that? It’s so late.”

  The neigh of horses cut through the silence.

  “Well, shit.” Fred sprang up from his seat and rushed to the door.

  I went after him.

  A gust of cold air blew through the door as Fred pulled it open, and I saw—

  Someone was stealing our carriage.

  “Wait!” I cried out as we rushed outside.

  Too late. The reins cracked and we were left eating dust on the sidewalk, watching as our carriage disappeared into the darkness of the dim lit street.

  “Goodness.” I looked around me. “Where’s Savio? I hope he didn’t get hurt.”

  “No. They weren’t here for the carriage.”

  “What? Who would want to—”

  My stomach dropped when I remembered what Savio said earlier.

  “Oh no...”

  The lamppost above him flickered as Fred stared blankly into street.

  “The circus will have to wait.”