Free A Stolen Childhood by Casey Watson Page A

problems, and we don’t use words that mock them, okay?’
    ‘But I wasn’t, miss.’
    ‘You don’t think saying “away with the fairies” isn’t mocking?’
    He had the grace to blush at this. ‘Aw, well, okay, miss, I s’pose you’re right. Anyway,’ he added, brightening again. ‘What do you wanna know about me?’
    ‘Well,’ I said, looking down at the notes Julia had given me, ‘according to what I have here, you are coming to me for half the week, and going to your regular lessons for the other half. Do you know why you’ve been asked to come and spend time with me?’
    ‘Cos I ain’t done much school, miss,’ he said immediately. ‘Since we did a runner from me step-dad, we was never in any place long enough. Mr Clark says I need breaking in gently.’
    He grinned then, obviously remembering something. ‘Like a horse, was what he said. You can’t rush these things can you, miss?’
    I almost burst out laughing. If Tommy was trying to sell me the idea that he needed a good long stint on my floor cushions, he was going about it the right way.
    ‘You’re absolutely right, love. We can’t rush these things. And we shouldn’t try to, should we? How are you finding the lessons that you do attend, anyway?’
    ‘Not bad,’ he answered, ‘but I don’t think the teachers like me very much.’
    ‘Nonsense!’ I said. ‘What’s not to like about you, eh? You seem like a perfectly nice young man to me.’ I paused then, and leaned closer, so I could speak to him more quietly, and as I did so, I nearly gagged breathing in the whiff of unwashed clothes. I found myself feeling desperately sorry for him all of a sudden. ‘Well, when you’re not being silly like you were yesterday, anyway,’ I reminded him. ‘But I think you already know that, don’t you? And, if you didn’t, I imagine Mr Brabbiner made that clear enough at the hospital, so I’m not going to go over it again now. Suffice to say that while you and Kiara are here together, that’s the side of you I expect to see, okay?’
    The swagger subsided somewhat. He’d learned a lesson. No doubt about it. ‘I know, miss. I won’t do it again, miss.’ There was a pause. ‘Though, miss,’ he added, lowering his voice, ‘I didn’t say all them things she said I did – and nor did Connor. Just so’s you know, okay. She weren’t telling the truth about that.’
    ‘Are you telling me the truth?’ I asked him, conscious of the sudden seriousness of his expression. Perhaps she’d over-egged the pudding just a little in her half-awake, hysterical state.
    ‘Honest to God, I am, miss,’ he said, putting me in mind of Fagin’s gang again.
    ‘ Good ,’ I said, ‘because that’s part of the deal in being here. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, that subject is closed. So, Tommy,’ I asked him then, ‘do you have any brothers or sisters?’
    He shook his head. ‘No brothers,’ he said, looking gloomy. ‘I wish I did, but me mam had had enough. I got four older sisters and they’re a nightmare, they are.’
    I laughed. ‘That’s girls for you, Tommy. Whatever else do you think we were born for, if not to be nightmares to our brothers?’
    At which point the bell rang for mid-morning break, eliciting a fist-pump from Tommy and a cry of ‘Yes! Playtime!’ and a similarly animated whoop across the room from Jonathan. Chloe and Kiara, in contrast, didn’t seem as if they could care less. Which didn’t surprise me. In Kiara, Chloe had everything she wanted right there, and I had a strong sense that the feeling might be mutual. Tommy’s presence notwithstanding, my mysterious girl seemed almost serene, and I wondered which of these kids would prove the most challenging to help. Would it be the boys, with their seemingly straightforward set of problems, or Kiara? In Chloe, I knew the situation was rather different. In reality, though I would obviously do what I could with her, I was mostly keeping her safe till she could be sent