After he stepped out and called, a voice replied. "Brother?"

Nisa was on the side of the house, standing behind Nettie who has admiring the flowers that grew around the place. She saw him, and he could see she tilted her head in confusion. "What's wrong?" Perhaps, he knew her well enough, he saw some satisfaction in her eyes.

The blond who'd been leaning in to study a rose stood straight. "Ah, sorry. We didn't want to interrupt, so she suggested we look at the garden while we waited." Nettie said in response to an unasked question.

There was a moment, however brief, in which he had begun to worry.

Why? He had never particularly worried about such things before. A street was a street, and while he remained ever vigilant to the horrors that could befall a young woman, this? Waiting outside with his lover’s someone else’s sister, admiring flowers?

Malachi was somewhat ashamed to admit that his worry had only spiked when he had connected their disappearances together. The sister – Miss Koch? Nisa – had been nothing but polite, if a little overly attached to that politeness for his liking.

There was no reason to feel on edge when he saw her with his niece, but he did.

Perhaps it was his own discomfort with keeping secrets, with hiding away for a few minutes with her brother, but- that couldn’t be true. There was no guilt in secrecy when honesty meant punishment or death. Perhaps it was because some part of him wanted to steal her brother away, and make sure that he found his escape from what would be the death of him.

…He did feel bad for including her in that.

“It’s alright, dear,” assured Malachi, and he gave his niece a small smile. “My apologies for keeping you waiting too. I had another coughing fit and Mr. Koch was kind enough to stay until I was well.”

Like any respectable stranger with morals would do.

He heard her before he saw her. There was still strain in his face. Immediately, Aslan moved toward the voice.

His heart leapt when he saw Nettie with her back to Nisa, but he let out a breath of a laugh when he saw what they had been doing. Thank Allah she was just choosing the flowers for Nettie’s future grave.

“I did not know-” what you were up to “-where you went,” he said, each word picked carefully. “I worried. That is all.”

His gaze returned to Nisa, briefly, as Nettie gushed about Nisa bringing her out.

“She’s thoughtful like that,” Aslan answered, smiling politely.

He was sure she’d put a lot of thought into what she could do next.

When Malachi made up another coughing fit, Aslan made a point to step aside and put a hearty amount of distance between them. Last thing he wanted to do was give Nisa justification to kill him a la preventing, what, supposed tuberculosis spread?

“Some rest should clear that cough up,” he said. “We shouldn’t keep you two long. Nisa – are you ready to go?”

Nettie smiled as she stepped towards her uncle, but his words had her smile fade. She looked towards the man, Aslan, and gave him a slight nod of her head. "Thank you so very much for your help, sir."

She wanted to say more, but her uncle clearly didn't like her worrying over him in front of people so she remained quiet and looked to Nisa. "Thank you for the suggestion, Miss Koç. It was relaxing." She was ready to go so she could speak to Malachi.

"Please visit us sometime. If not, I will see you next meeting." She spoke to Nisa once more and gave a polite small curtsy before starting to leave but waited for the priest to come with her.

Nisa watched her brother and smiled, stepping away from a large garden stone that was just heavy enough to be lifted. "Of course, dear brother. I am sorry to worry you, we just went for some fresh air, it was so crowded inside. And it is beautiful and peaceful out here."

Her eyes remained on him a moment before moving to the others and the smile grew to look more warmly and she gave a return slight curtsy to Nettie. "I will take you up on that offer some time, I am sure. You've been a delight and I will be eager for our next meeting."

Her head turned towards Aslan. "I am ready to go. I would like to show you what I made today." And perhaps talk. She gave a nod towards Malachi.

"Do take care of that cough, you must take care of your health. Life is too short, no need to make it shorter." She said showing some concern before joining Aslan's side.

His smile didn’t falter, but Malachi did kick himself internally for giving the detective a reason to step even farther away.

Nothing to be done about it. He couldn’t exactly kiss him farewell in the first place.

Clasping his hands behind his back, he moved closer to Nettie in turn. Remained quiet while the women exchanged their goodbyes, their wishes to visit again. Something told him that the detective wouldn’t be pleased about that, even if his assumptions regarding why weren’t all that accurate.

“Ah- yes, I will,” Malachi dipped his head. “I only need some rest.”

How many times had he told that particular lie?

“Peace be with you,” he offered with a glance over them both, already turning to follow after his niece.

“Don’t mention it,” he said to Nettie, strangely sincere.

No, really. He’d leave her to her fate in a heartbeat.

“Peace of the dead out here,” Aslan said to Nettie, as though that were the most normal thing in the world to say, and then turned his head to Nisa. “You’re right, it’s the perfect spot.”

Innuendo ran in the family, after all.

He looped his arm around Nisa, contemplating the purposes of strait jackets only briefly as he did so. So many possibilities, and the creative mind only found more.

He allowed his gaze to shift to Malachi at his reassurance.

“Ever the inventress,” Aslan smiled thinly, watching the pair’s narrow escape departure. “Of course, Nisa.”

He side-eyed Nisa when she urged them to consider the brevity of life. Well. At least he had had some nice company before she decided to finally off him.

“Influential pair, those two,” Aslan said, pausing by the flowerbed before starting to walk to the front once more. “Rich family. Incredibly rich family.”

High profile, in other words. Like the damned husband she had offed. He didn't actually know shit about the Brennans, but the more unappealing he could make murdering them sound, the better.

He couldn’t see them ahead of them.

Nettie thanked the two once more before they walked off out of earshot. She kept close to Malachi's side as they walked slowly away from the house towards... where?

"I lied. I had no where to go. You wanted to go, so I said that. We can go wherever you want. I just.." She frowned and clasped her hands together to keep from fiddling with something. She was worried, and she felt like he didn't want to tell her. She thought they had a solid relationship that he could tell her anything, she always told him something.

"Is... everything alright?" Her face finally turned up to him and she tried to not show how worried she was, perhaps he was turning against her like her parents. She was becoming a burden and she shouldn't have come to town and let him live his life. Was he embarrassed by her?

Nisa nodded as they walked. "It was a perfect and beautiful spot. I'll have to visit it again."

She walked with him, letting him keep his arm around her and her head forward. "It's a pity that money and power doesn't grant us immortality, doesn't it?" It was a good thing they were away from the others. "And I did say I wanted a challenge."

Finally her head moved so her eyes met him. "Do you remember back then? When father married me off to that man? You weren't scared of me then." She was convinced he was scared. He was rarely home, but he worked hard to be polite where need be. Was he truly unaware, or did he bury his head in the sand?

Hands held loosely behind him, Malachi caught up to walk at Nettie’s side, though his head did turn to glance back briefly.

Had he just heard- no, no. He faced forward again, focusing his eyes on the path ahead. He was not about to eavesdrop on whatever conversation that was.

(If he had been alone, though, nothing could have stopped him. Couldn’t they talk a little louder? Yell out their thoughts across the garden?)

“Hm?” Malachi looked to his niece, confused by the question. “Of course.”

No. Everything was decidedly not alright, but he didn’t suppose talking about it would make it any better.

Lowering his voice, he said, “to tell you the truth, I had an… incident, with some of the locals recently. It all ended up alright, but I’ve been a little under the weather since.”