Chapter Six
Familial Expectations
Walking toward Louisa and Agatha’s house on East 17th Street, Oliver watched Felipe from the corner of his eye. There were no lines of fatigue under his eyes yet, but if it hadn’t been for Sunday dinner, he still would have been running himself ragged at the society. Since Friday night, Felipe had spent most of his time in the library and archives trying to dig up anything he could on Aldorhaven, though there hadn’t been much in the newspapers apart from the announcement of a new mill and articles singing the praises of the town’s founding family. Then, that morning Oliver awoke to find boxes of bullets, rope, a series of throwing knives, a flare pistol with ammunition, and a wicked dagger with a horn handle Oliver had never seen before stacked on their dining table. With the other investigators disappearing, he understood why Felipe would be cautious, but he still didn’t like that they were taking half the armory with them.
Oliver thumbed his ring. He had hoped to whisk Felipe off to have a proper date before they left for the case, but between finishing up the paperwork for Mrs. Ennis’s blessedly uneventful death, processing whatever evidence other investigators dropped off, and packing for the trip, Oliver hadn’t had a spare moment to himself. He could have pulled out the ring after they came back from getting bagels and lox that morning, but he didn’t want to propose for the sake of doing so. There would be plenty of time after the case was over to do it properly.
As they reached the stoop, Felipe winced at the eruption of shrill barking from inside the house. Kuchen’s black and orange head appeared through the curtains, followed by Pastel, who took one look at the men and howled like she was being murdered. Agatha Pfeiffer’s voice rose on the other side of the door only to be drowned beneath the dogs’ yapping. Felipe had just raised his finger to the bell when a harried Agatha opened the door with Pastel in her arms. While the orange Pomeranian tried to wiggle free and lunge at Felipe, Kuchen wagged her tail and pant-snorted at Oliver.
“Who needs a doorbell with these two?” she said with a roll of her hazel eyes as she shut the door behind them and put Pastel down.
A smile crossed Oliver’s lips as he knelt to pet each of the Pomeranians. Kuchen licked his face and tried to leap into his arms only to be tackled by her sister. The dogs tussled until, somewhere in the back of the house, Louisa yelled to them in Spanish. Pastel tilted her head before toddling off to find her with Kuchen in tow. Agatha shook her head and apologized as she took Oliver and Felipe’s hats and coats. While she prattled about the sudden cold snap with Felipe, Oliver studied her outfit to report back to Gwen. The gown Agatha wore reminded him of what the heroines in her paintings often wore. It appeared to be composed of shades of blue velvet with the cut of a medieval dress with a long, hanging belt and a collar of decorative lace so large it was more like a shawl. In her dark blonde hair, she wore two decorative combs with a chain between that complimented the floral motifs in the lace. It was a different silhouette than what Oliver had seen most women wear, but he liked it; it made her look ethereal.
“You look very nice, Agatha,” Oliver said as she hung up his coat.
“Thank you, Oliver. We attended a friend’s salon this morning, so I decided to stay in my Sunday best, unlike someone,” she replied in a stage whisper.
“Some of us prefer to be comfortable!” Louisa Galvan called a moment before she stepped out of the dining room with the Pomeranians at her heels. Seeing her in her old burgundy and cream striped tea gown with her long, black hair hanging in a plain braid, no one would have guessed she had visited a prestigious salon with her Aesthete partner only hours earlier. “I can only stomach being dressed formally for so long before I lose my temper. I’d have taken to furs by now if it wasn’t my turn to cook. Come and sit. Dinner’s ready.”
Following Felipe and the others into the dining room, Oliver drew in a long breath. As always, the food smelled heavenly. A loaf of freshly sliced bread sat in the middle of the table along with a long dish filled with chicken, peppers, and tomatoes. Beside it sat a ceramic pot with a lid. Using his handkerchief, Felipe carefully opened it to reveal a pot of orange rice.
“Arroz rojo,” Felipe said with a contented sigh.
“I thought it would pair nicely with schnitzel and red sauce,” Louisa replied as she sat down and motioned for Felipe to dole out the food. “I tried not to make it too spicy for you, Oliver, but I apologize in advance if it is.”
“I’m sure it’s fine.” It didn’t smell anywhere near as sinus-searing as the chili oil Felipe liked to add to his food. “It all looks delicious.”
“Doesn’t it? Louisa’s an amazing cook. For dessert, there’s shortbread from that little bakery down the street, so make sure to leave room,” Agatha added as she passed Oliver the butter dish and a slice of bread. “You know how we’ve been working with Theo Bisclavret and Bennett Reynard on their project to combat anti-magic prejudice? Well, the other day we stopped by the society to give them the money from the Lady’s Art and Performance Society fundraiser. Bisclavret was working in the greenhouse, so we went to give it to him since Reynard wasn’t in the library. When he saw how much money was inside the envelope, his eyes got wide, and without a word, he disappeared into the shed. For a moment, I thought he was going to find Reynard or someone else, but then, he came back with half a dozen jars of tomato sauce and pickled peppers to thank us for organizing the fundraiser.”
“What’s the point in having wealthy friends and patrons if we can’t shake them down for money every once in a while?”
Agatha laughed and tossed a piece of crust to each dog. “I told Theo he didn’t need to give us anything as we were happy to help, but he insisted. I’ve been dying to make this sauce ever since.”
“He also gave us some of those delicious pickles he makes, but they’re long gone.”
The rest of dinner passed in companionable peace. Between bites of paprika-dusted chicken and tangy, garlicy rice, Agatha and Louisa told them about what they and their artist friends had been up to while the dogs took turns pestering each of them for food. Even though Teresa had been back at college for several weeks, Oliver still hadn’t gotten used to her not being at Sunday dinners. Twice he caught himself about to ask her empty chair how her classes were going. He would reply to her letter later once he and Felipe were home. At least she seemed to be getting on well with her classmates and the new professor they had hired to teach interior design. Beside him, Felipe laughed and replied at the right times, but every once in a while, Oliver caught flickers of anxiety or an undercurrent of pensiveness across the tether. It was unlike him. Under the table, Oliver curled his foot around Felipe’s ankle and felt him press against him in return. Looking up from his plate, he gave Oliver a half-smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
Louisa motioned for Agatha and Oliver to pass her their empty plates. “We were thinking of going to Amato’s Wednesday evening. Would you two like to join us?”
“We would love to, but we’re going out of town for a case next week.”
The moment the words left his lips, Oliver felt Felipe stiffen.
“Cari?o,” Louisa said, her gaze narrowing as she turned to Felipe, “you never mentioned you had an out of town case. I thought you weren’t taking those anymore due to your condition. ”
Felipe’s jaw clenched. “If you mean I don’t take them because I’m dead, you know that isn’t it. I’m not taking out of town cases because I don’t want to anymore.”
“Yet you’re taking this one.”
“We wouldn’t normally have taken this case,” Oliver began, setting a calming hand on Felipe’s knee in hopes it would temper the tension choking the room, “but I wanted to, not Felipe.”
“At least someone is honest with us.”
“We’re only going to New Jersey, Louisa. It isn’t like we’re going across the country. We shouldn’t be gone for more than a week. You wouldn’t have even noticed we were gone.”
She leveled a glare at Felipe. “Were you even going to tell us you were traveling for a case?”
“Of course, I was. I was going to wait until right before we left, so this didn’t turn into a whole—”
Loudly clearing her throat, Agatha stood and plastered on a tight smile. “Felipe, can I borrow you for a moment? There’s a pot in the sunroom that desperately needs to be rotated, but I’m not strong enough to lift it.”
For a moment, Oliver didn’t think Felipe would take the out. Then, he released a huffed breath and followed Agatha out of the dining room without a word. Oliver froze in place as he watched them leave for fear of breaking the fragile truce between the Galvans. By the time the door swung shut, the tension had fizzled out, but Louisa’s annoyance was obvious as she clanked the dirty dishes and utensils into a pile with more force than necessary and stormed out of the room. Oliver gathered the remaining glasses and as many serving dishes as he could safely carry before he rushed to catch up with her. The Pomeranians bounced off his legs and crisscrossed in front of him in hopes he would drop the half-eaten chicken or butter on his way to the kitchen at the back of the house. He paused on the threshold to readjust his grip and heard Louisa murmuring under her breath. When he cleared his throat, the scowl dropped from her lips at the sight of him juggling an armful of crockery. She plucked the glasses from between his fingers and shooed the dogs back into the hall.
“I know you love him dearly, Oliver, but I swear that man will be the death of me.”
“In Felipe’s defense, he really didn’t want to take this case. I had to convince him.”
“Why did you take it? Is he pressuring you to go on long trips? If he is, I can give him an earful for you.”
“No, no, it truly wasn’t Felipe’s doing. I might be related to some of the people involved in the case. Not directly. Well, actually, I don’t know that. I haven’t met anyone there.” Oliver took a deep breath and set the serving dish on the table. He was making no sense. “The town we’re going to is where my parents lived right before they died and where I was born, though I have no memory of them or the town.”
“What a strange coincidence that you should be offered that case,” Louisa replied as she handed him an ewer of water and nodded toward the percolator.
“I know, but I’ve wanted to go there for some time. I thought there might still be more distant relatives left on my father’s side living there. That’s why I convinced Felipe to go. I hope you know I didn’t mean to cause any trouble between you and Felipe. Everything happened sort of quickly, and we only agreed to take the case on Friday.”
“It’s fine, Oliver. I know the city can be as dangerous as the rest of the country, but it makes me nervous when Felipe is away from home. Being far from his usual stomping grounds makes him… not reckless, but overconfident? At least, I know I can trust you to keep him from doing anything too dangerous, unlike his past partners.”
Oliver wasn’t so sure of that, considering going to the murder town was his idea, but he would do his best. As he poured the water into the pot and set up the percolator, his mind trailed to the dusty letter with the blood red seal. He had never seen Felipe react so strongly to a letter before, and while he wanted to pester and pry, he didn’t want to make things worse when he didn’t even know what he was prying into. Oliver eyed Louisa as she loaded the leftover food into the icebox. Louisa had come from California with Felipe and had known him far longer than Oliver or anyone else did, and if anyone could tell him what was going on, she could.
“Louisa, may I ask you a question about Felipe?”
“Of course, though you might know more about him than I do. He’s kept me at arm’s length for some time now,” she said as she dumped the box of shortbread cookies onto a plate.
Oliver swallowed hard and tried to work the words free. Asking felt like a transgression, like he was somehow overstepping his bounds by going around Felipe when, normally, it would be a perfectly innocuous question to ask about their loved one.
“What are Felipe’s parents like?”
Louisa’s hands stilled over the shortbread. “Why do you ask?”
“Because he got a letter from them and acted very strangely after when I asked about it and them. He got short with me, which he usually doesn’t do. I would have preferred to ask him about it, but I don’t want to make things worse.”
“That would explain why he’s being bullheaded again. Every time they write, he gets his hackles up, though he’ll never admit it. I told him years ago to stop writing to them.” Shaking her head, Louisa’s dark brows furrowed as she grabbed a stack of coffee cups and put them onto the serving tray beside the cookies. “Did you know that I have a brother? No? That’s because he doesn’t deserve an ounce of my goodwill after how he behaved, so I cut him from my life. It should be the same with them.”
“Why? What did they do?”
Silence hung thickly over the kitchen as Louisa turned her attention to rearranging the tray. Oliver wasn’t certain if she hadn’t heard him or if she was ignoring his question. Probably the latter if the way she carefully kept her gaze away from him was any indication.
He was about to drop it when Louisa said, “Many things, some things I don’t even know about. Felipe keeps his cards close to his chest, but I know they have not always been good to him. I witnessed some of it. We lived with his family for a short time after we got married, before we came to New York, you know. I didn’t really want to, but we had to stay somewhere until we could get the money from selling my half of my father’s ranch and find out if the Paranormal Society would hire Felipe. His mother and aunts were welcoming and treated me kindly, but that kindness came with conditions.”
As he listened, Oliver kept a tight grip on his mounting anxiety. The other side of the tether no longer prickled with agitation, and he didn’t want Felipe coming in to check on him. Taking the empty carafe from the counter, Oliver put it under the spigot and tried not to let his imagination wander to the worst possibilities. The warm porcelain beneath his hands and the smell of coffee grounded him, but he didn’t like where this was going.
“What kind of conditions?”
“Some were the usual expectations one has for married couples. There was pressure to contribute to the next generation of Galvans by having children. A self-healer and a jaguar shifter could be very useful to them, but we had no intention of taking our sham marriage that far. There was obviously pressure on me to have children and be a good wife, but it was worse for Felipe. At some point, he had become the golden boy who would carry on the Galvan legacy in his grandfather’s stead after he passed. Felipe always seemed baffled as to how it happened, but with every year, his family’s expectations grew. He didn’t want to be the next one to lead the family, not that he could tell any of them that, so while he was busy, I snuck around and arranged our escape. Sometimes, it pays to be underestimated and overlooked. When we told them we were leaving, their good will evaporated. You have to understand, Oliver, no one left the family unless they were cast out, so Felipe, the heir to the Galvan legacy, choosing to leave in order to work for strangers they despised was a betrayal of the highest order.”
“Did— did they hurt him?” Oliver asked in a whisper.
“When we left? No, not physically at least, though his cousins and uncle would have gladly done so if his grandfather let them.” Taking the full carafe from Oliver’s hands, Louisa sighed. “Something happened when we were sixteen or seventeen, though I don’t know what, and things changed with Felipe. He was my best friend growing up. He would come with his mother to tend to my father when he had flare-ups of his illness. Around that time, he came less because he stopped coming with her for healer training and instead trained with the men. He started acting differently, too. He was still charming and chatty, but there was a wariness he hadn’t had before.
“Whatever happened, my father saw it or knew about it. So much of my childhood is a blur, but I vividly remember my father storming into the house one morning and saying, ‘We need to get that boy away from them before they ruin him.’ My father was never a man prone to anger or outbursts, but he was livid with the Galvans for whatever they did to Felipe. When I asked what happened, he said some things were better left not known. Not long after that, he mentioned that it might be beneficial to both of us if I married Felipe. As a married woman, I would get the autonomy and protection I needed, and Felipe would have someone to help him gain his independence. I might butt heads with Felipe, but he’s a far better man here than he ever would have been if he stayed with them.” Meeting Oliver’s gaze, Louisa said, “To answer your original question, Oliver, his parents are selfish people who are better off forgotten. Having Teresa only made it clearer to me how awful they are. Ultimately, they have no place in my life or Teresa’s life, and Felipe’s choice to keep them in his is wholly his own.”
Oliver nodded, though he had far more questions than answers, ones he wasn’t certain he could even ask Felipe.
Louisa gave his shoulder a solid pat. “This is why you’re good for him. You’re the opposite of them, and he needs that.” At the distant whine of the dining room door, Louisa hefted the laden tray and held it out for Oliver to carry. “We had better get back. If Agatha finds us and realizes we’ve been talking about our families, she’ll want to tell you all about her four brothers. They’re all lovely, but I have other things I would rather talk about.”
Oliver trailed behind Louisa as she herded Pastel and Kuchen out of his path. Logically, he knew Felipe had a past before they met. Thirty years of his life were spent before Oliver ever came to the Paranormal Society, and even those ten years of proximity had gaps Oliver would never be able to fill in, nor did he truly want to. Felipe Galvan had always just been the investigator with the nice smile who treated him kindly until he was something more. Of course, he had heard the rumors about Inspector Galvan’s body count or his feats of daring, things whispered with equal parts reverence and horror, but Oliver had been the subject of rumors too. While there may have been a kernel of truth at their core, he didn’t believe the gossip when it didn’t align with what he saw with his own eyes. On the other hand, when the Galvans were mentioned at the society, it was almost always with distaste. They were monster hunters who clung to the old ways and dealt with their quarries far more harshly and swiftly than the Paranormal Society. In a nebulous way, Oliver knew Felipe was one of them, but he couldn’t reconcile the caring, loving man he knew with the things he had heard.
As he entered the parlor, Oliver caught Felipe mid-laugh. The tether tightened beneath his heart until it ached. The things he had heard about the Galvans were so far removed from his experiences growing up with his Quaker grandmother that Oliver couldn’t put a shape to the story Louisa had told him, yet somehow, those blurs and blanks only made it far worse. When Felipe glanced up from the article Agatha was showing him and saw Oliver in the doorway, a look full of relief and warmth broke across his features. Whatever had happened to Felipe in the past, Oliver would make sure no one hurt him ever again.