Page 64 of The Beast's Heart

“Adam?” Mal is suspicious. “Why?”

“You’ll see when we get upstairs.”

That’s enough intrigue that they fall in and follow me up, with just a brief goodnight to the adults.

As we reach the passage, there’s a big crash from within one of the rooms. Enrique’s grip on me tightens. Ben is suddenly right up against me. Mal freezes, staring ahead. Alisha asks, “Lloyd?”

Thankfully her voice is soft enough that Adam doesn’t hear it when he emerges from the room in question, swiping a hand across his sweaty forehead.

He startles. “I… didn’t hear you come up.”

“Unsurprising with that noise. What was it?”

“The mirror. It’s not broken. Miraculously.” He grins. “Mirror-aculously.”

I groan. He laughs.

“Do you need more time? The children were asking about playing games.”

“Nope.” He shoves his hands into his pockets, still smiling. “Was just going to get some more Blu Tack for those lights. Everything else is done.”

“Why was he in my room?” Ben whispers. He doesn’t sound curious, he sounds horrified. I glance down at him. There’s a deep crease between his eyebrows and his every muscle is tensed.

I ruffle his hair with my free hand, but it doesn’t seem to calm him. “It’s okay, it’s nothing bad.”

Mal comes unfrozen, darting a look at me. “What’s going on?”

Alisha steps forward. “You shouldn’t be in Ben’s room. It’shisroom.”

“Did he go into all our rooms?” Mal asks, sounding desperate.

This is not what I expected. Not at all. I set Enrique down and bring myself to their level. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” Alisha hisses.

“It’s just a surprise, a good surprise,” I scramble to explain.

Then Adam’s there beside me. “No. Alisha’s right. I shouldn’t have gone into your rooms without asking.” I look up at him. His face is creased in sadness, like someone punched him in the heart. “It was an invasion of your privacy.”

How did I notthink? The whole point of the exercise was to give them a space that wastheir own. I didn’t even stop to consider how it would feel for them when that space was invaded. They have so little that’s their own. Even if those rooms were plain, they were theirs. Now we’ve gone and completely changed them. What must Adam think? There I was bragging about being familiar with children, but I was selfishly focused on myself. Just what Mal accused me of on Day One: wanting to play the savior.

“I’m so sorry,” I tell them. “It was my fault. I asked for Adam’s help. We bought you gifts and we wanted to surprise you.”

“Gifts?” Ben still sounds suspicious.

“Yes. We wanted to make your rooms feel special. We should have— I should have asked you first. I’m very sorry.”

“You went into my room?” Mal asks again. His voice trembles. “Did you look through my stuff?”

Adam also hunkers down to be eye level with Mal. “I made your bed. I didn’t look through your stuff.”

“My bed?” His voice is so high pitched.

“I put a new cover on it. Do you want to come look? We can put it back the way it was if you prefer it that way.”

He presses his lips tight and shakes his head. Adam and I exchange a look. I’m hoping my eyes can convey how very sorry I am. His expression is concerned, but not accusatory.

Alisha says, “Come, Mal. We can all go look at your room together.”

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