Chapter 15
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As soon as Tamsin was out of Garret’s sight, she began to weep.
She tightened her arms about her brother and sister and halted, hauling them in for a long, full embrace.
Finally, she pulled back and stared at each one in turn, touching their faces, their shoulders, their arms. “I can’t believe you’re really here,” she said.
“I was so afraid…” Her throat closed with emotion, and she couldn’t continue.
Tears obscured her vision, making her siblings seem to swim before her.
“Don’t cry, Tam,” Joanna said, catching Tamsin’s tears on a tiny finger. “You never cry.”
“She’s crying because she’s happy. Right, Tam?” Charlie asked.
Tamsin sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
“Yes. I’m so happy. And if you think I am crying a lot, wait until Mummy sees you.
” She hugged them tightly again, still finding it difficult to believe they were really here with her.
She never wanted to release them. She wanted to stand here forever, listening to them breathe and smelling the soot in their hair.
“Do we have to go back to the coffee shop?” Charlie asked after a long moment, voice muffled by her coat. “I’m afraid of Mr. Brown. He was the one what sold us.”
“No! I forgot to tell you.” Tamsin reared back on her haunches. “We don’t work for Mr. Brown any longer. You will never see that awful man again. We’re staying with Big John now.”
“Does he have anything to eat?” Joanna asked.
“If he doesn’t, I’ll find you something. Let’s go see Mummy.”
“Yes! I want to see Mummy!” Joanna called. Tamsin took Joanna and Charlie by the hand, and they practically ran back to Big John’s, laughing all the way.
Tamsin shushed the children as they approached the back door to the pawnshop.
“Let’s surprise her,” she whispered. The children nodded, their white teeth gleaming when they smiled broadly.
Tamsin reached for the door latch and motioned for the children to wait.
She opened the door, and her mother turned sharply.
“Tamsin! Where have you been? I’ve been so worried—”
Behind Tamsin, Charlie and Joanna pushed into the shop.
Mary Archer stared in confusion, then shock.
She screamed, making Tamsin jump, before she raced forward and gathered both little ones against her.
“Oh, thank God! Oh, thank God!” she said over and over as she cried.
Charlie and Joanna clung to her, and Tamsin carefully closed the door just as Big John raced in from the front room.
He halted as soon as he saw the reunion.
Tamsin sniffed and wiped her nose, and she thought she might have seen a tear glisten in Big John’s eye.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll just—ah, I’ll get something to eat from down the way.
” He cleared his throat again. “Be right back.”
Tamsin didn’t think her mother heard a word he said. She was kissing her children and asking them if they were hurt anywhere. “You are never leaving my sight again,” she told them. “Never.”
“What about when we’re as old as Tam?” Charlie asked.
“Not even then. All right?”
“All right.” Charlie hugged her again. “I love you, Mummy.”
“And I love you, both of you, so very, very much.” She lifted her head from where she’d rested it on the shoulder of her youngest—Charlie on one side and Joanna on the other—and looked at Tamsin. Thank you, she mouthed. Thank you.
When the tears finally dried, Tamsin and her mother proceeded to strip them of their filthy clothing and scrub them until they were pink and shiny.
After a meal of soup, bread, and cheese, the children began to nod off.
Big John excused himself, and the family settled down to sleep on the floor of the back room.
Tamsin lay on one side of Charlie and Joanna, and her mother lay on the other.
Tamsin felt happy for the first time in months, even though her arm was asleep.
There wasn’t really room to turn over or stretch, but she didn’t care.
She had her brother and sister back. They were clean, fed, and safe.
They both slept like the dead, but Tamsin couldn’t seem to stop touching the children, just making sure they were really still there.
Every hour or so, Tamsin would rise up on an elbow, and she’d meet her mother’s gaze.
The two of them would smile at each other then go back to holding the child sleeping closest to them.
Charlie was beside Tamsin and Joanna beside Mama.
When morning came, the children awoke with a start and seemed disoriented, but Mama put them at ease with her calm demeanor and her soft embraces.
Big John came into the back room with hot buns and other pastries, and Tamsin could have kissed him for his kindness.
Her mother did kiss him on the cheek, and Big John pressed a hand to his cheek and then backed out of the room, leaving the family in peace.
“Soon I’ll have more coin from Mr. Maillardet, and we can find our own place to live,” Tamsin said. “We’ll have real beds and everything.”
“What is a Maillardet?” Joanna asked.
“It’s a who, not a what, and he’s an inventor,” Tamsin said, giving the little girl another pastry. Tamsin didn’t care about her own hunger. She just wanted her sister to eat as much as she could. “I’ll be working for him, fixing his inventions. If I do well, he’ll teach me clockmaking.”
“You’ll do well,” Mama said. “You are a clever girl. I still don’t know how you fixed that caterpillar.”
“A caterpillar?” Charlie asked, mouth full of pastry.
Tamsin told him all about it, and Mama promised to take them to the museum once Tamsin was settled there. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Tamsin said, “but the weather looks fine today. Maybe we could all go to Cheapside and look at houses for let.”
“Oh, Tamsin,” Mama sighed. “I don’t want to even hope for it.”
“What do we have if we don’t have hope?” she said. “You two will have to help, yes?”
The children nodded.
“We need flower boxes and a garden big enough to hang sheets and a drawing room with a lumpy couch and worn chairs. Can you look for that?”
“You mean we have to leave here?” Joanna asked.
“Eventually. Today we’ll just look and come back for supper.”
“But what if Snoozer sees us and snatches us back?” The little girl’s eyes were wide with fear.
Mama gathered her up and then held an arm open for Charlie too.
“Your sister has made it so Snoozer won’t ever come for you or any other children again.
We will never be separated. Even if you want to get away from me, you won’t be able to!
” She tickled the children, and Tamsin was warmed by their giggles.
“What about the man with the red hair? That fellow called Mr. Kildare?” Charlie asked when they’d stopped laughing.
“Man?” Mama looked at Tamsin, who felt her cheeks heat.
“I had to run and fetch him from the Blue Boar. He said he was a Bow Street Runner, and he took Little Joe and the others.”
“He’s a friend of mine,” Tamsin said quickly. “He’ll find the other broomers’ parents or a place for them. They won’t go back to being climbing boys unless they want to.”
“I don’t want to,” Joanna said, patting her knee where the skin was scraped off. She’d rubbed it raw trying to free herself from the switchback the day before. “I never want to see the inside of a chimney again.”
“Me either,” Charlie said.
A quiet knock on the door made the children jump. “It’s Snoozer!” Joanna said. Tamsin exchanged a look with her mother. She’d known it would take time before the children felt safe again, but it was painful to see them so frightened of every sound.
Tamsin peered out the small window beside the door and closed her eyes.
Why did her heart have to jump in her chest every time she saw Kildare?
When would she be able to think of him and not wish he would look at her the way he had in his brother’s studio?
When would she be able to forget the feel of his lips on hers?
“It’s the Bow Street Runner,” Charlie said. “Is he here for us?”
“No,” Tamsin said firmly. “He’s come to speak to me. I’ll step outside. You three get ready for our trip.” She smoothed her hair, then swore and messed it all up again. Why was she trying to look pretty for him? She opened the door and joined him outside. “Good morning, Kildare. You’re up early.”
“I haven’t been to bed.”
She looked at him more closely. He was unshaven, and his eyes were bruised and hollow underneath.
“Did you have trouble placing the broomers?”
“No, I had help there. In fact, I checked in on every one this morning.” He told her where each had ended up and how they were faring.
Tamsin nodded, and on an impulse, took his hand. “Thank you for going to so much trouble for them.”
“It’s no less than they deserved. I don’t want to take you away from your family, but I thought you’d want to know.”
She hadn’t released his hand. It had been a mistake to take hold of it. She liked the feel of his skin under hers far too much. “I do. Thank you. And thank you for coming yesterday when I needed you.”
“Don’t thank me for that. I’ll always come if you need me. If you want me.” His hand shifted and he twined his fingers with hers. Tamsin felt her breath catch in her throat, and she swayed closer to him. She could so easily lean into him, lift her head, and kiss him.
Behind her, the pawnshop’s back door opened. “Tamsin, are you coming?” her mother asked.
Kildare released her hand, and Tamsin reluctantly turned to face her mother.
“Of course. I…Where are we going?”
Her mother’s eyes flicked to Kildare and back to Tamsin. “To Cheapside. John is closing the shop today and coming with us.”
Tamsin nodded her approval. Snoozer was locked in jail, but she still liked the idea of Big John being with the family in case there was trouble.