Page 20 of Between Here and the Horizon
“Best we give him a moment, I think,” she said.
Collecting Amie into my arms, I held her against me, rocking her back and forth while she cried. I wanted to disagree with Sheryl—being alone seemed like the worst possible thing for a grieving child who’d just been told their father was dead—but again, Sheryl knew best. And I couldn’t just leave Amie.
“I’m sorry,” Sheryl said. “I’d normally take a lot longer over something like this, but time really is of the essence. I can’t get stuck on the island, and the man on the boat was rather rude. He said he’d wait an hour for me and no longer. Do you think we could gather up some of the children’s things? We can arrange for the rest of their belongings to be sent over to the mainland if and when we find homes for them to go to.”
“I’m sorry? Homes? You haven’t already found a place for them to go? Together?”
Sheryl inched forward on her chair, pulling her lips into a tight line.
“Mr. Fletcher only…moved on…yesterday, Miss Lang. Rehoming children is a process. It’s probable that we’ll find somewhere for Amie to go in a couple of months. Connor’s older, so it might be a little more difficult to place him. Also, his…behavioralissues might make it harder to find a family equipped to provide the attention and care he needs.”
They weren’t going to be kept together? They weren’t going to find homes formonths? I hadn’t even considered something like this might happen. God, how could I have been so naïve? I felt sick, all of a sudden. Sicker than I had already been feeling for the past twenty-four hours. “Where will you take them, then? Now? When you get off the boat?”
“To a group home for children. It’s a safe place. A wonderful establishment, Miss Lang. I assure you, the children will be taken care of there. The people who run the home are the best at what they do.”
A group home for children? I knew what that was. That was basically an orphanage. I could picture the rows and rows of beds, all filled with children crying themselves to sleep. Kids bullying each other, no one around or caring enough to protect them. And I’d heard the stories. The shame-filled confessions of the damaged kids who had been molested by predators in places like the group home Sheryl was championing right now. My arms tightened around Amie.
“I’m sorry, I—” I didn’t know what to say next. I didn’t have the right words to voice my horror.
“I understand your concern, Miss Lang, I really do. But rest assured, I will be checking in with Amie and Connoreveryweek. I’ll personally be looking for families to take care of them myself.” She said this as though checking in once a week with them was enough, was more than satisfactory, when in actual fact it was disgraceful, and made me want to cry on the spot.
“They definitely won’t be kept together?” I said, clutching hold of Amie, who had balled my t-shirt up in her little hands and was clinging onto me as if her life depended on it.
Sheryl’s mouth pulled down in a sorry expression. She bore the kind of apologetic look someone might wear if they were informing you they were out of fresh milk at the grocery store, though. It didn’t feel all that sincere. It probably wasn’t her fault. She was undoubtedly desensitized to situations like this by now. Amie and Connor were just two more unfortunates who’d found their way into the system. They were reference numbers, files on her desk that meant more paperwork and more headaches than she had time for.
“It really is okay,” she said. “I’ve successfully found homes for over sixty-five percent of my kids. That’s twelve percent higher than the average case worker,” she said, leaning forward to impart the information to me, speaking out of the side of her mouth, as if she didn’t want to sound like she was bragging.
Sixty-five percent was meant to be impressive? If she’d said ninety-five percent, it still wouldn’t have been good enough. How, in good conscience, could I let Sheryl take the kids, knowing the misery and loneliness they would endure in a group home?How? Did Ronan know this would be the case, the consequences for his actions if I refused to be manipulated by him? I was pretty sure he did. I was pretty sure he was still manipulating me now.
I sighed, dreading the next words to come out of my mouth. They had to be said, though. He had won. Ronan, after everything, had won. I was going to have to give him what he wanted, otherwise my guilt was going to consume me for the rest of my damned days. “I’m afraid I can’t let you take them, Mrs. Lourie. I’m going to have to keep the children here with me.”
She frowned, head tipping to one side. “I’m sorry? I thought you were just the nanny?”
“No. Ronan left the children in my care. He asked me to care for them for the next six months. I had thought they would be better off with another family, someone more qualified to care for them, but in light of this new information…”
Sheryl jerked back in her chair, pulling some paperwork out of her purse. “Well this is highly irregular. No one mentioned Mr. Fletcher had made you the children’s guardian in the event that anything happened to him?”
“His will and estate was only recently updated. His lawyer, Mr. Linneman, has the paperwork, I believe.” Iseriouslyhoped Linneman hadn’t destroyed Ronan’s guardianship documents. If he had, there probably wasn’t much that could be done; Sheryl would be well within her rights to take the children and disappear back to the mainland with them. Where would she even take them, anyway? Back to New York? Doubtful. It would cost money to send them back, and why bother, when they had no family or anything tying them to the area with Ronan gone. They were going to end up in an entirely different state than the one they had been raised in, simply because their father decided to die on a tiny island off the coast of Maine.
“I’m going to have to check into that, Miss Lang.” Sheryl was looking severely put out. “I don’t think I’ll have time on this trip. I really do need to get back to the dock. I should, by rights, take the children with me back to the center while this is all ironed out.”
“And if I’d rather they stayed here? With me?”
“It would be remiss of me to leave the children in a situation I thought was unstable.”
“Unstable? I’d say the environment is far more stable here, with me, than it would be in a group home.”
“Miss Lang…” Sheryl paused, giving her shoes her full attention for a moment while she thought with her mouth open. “Less than five minutes ago, you didn’t want these children. You mentioned nothing of the fact that Mr. Fletcher made you guardian over them. You only spoke out when you found out where they were headed, now I don’t mean to be rude, but they teach us to look for erratic behavior in people left to care for children at risk, and forgive me for saying so, but your behavior has definitely given me cause for concern. I’m not entirely sure you understand what you’d be taking on here, or that you’d be able to cope along for that matter.”
Upstairs, the door to Connor’s bedroom slammed hard, the loud shotgun sound ringing out, echoing through the house.Perfect. “Look.Sheryl. I know this situation isn’t perfect. I know there are probably families and homes out there for Connor and Amie that might be perfect for them, but I also know that separating them and keeping them in a group home for weeks on end, potentially months, is not going to benefit them in any way. I have extensive experience with troubled youths. I’ve worked with children the same ages as Connor and Amie for years. Iwilltake care of these children. Icando it. I’ll fight tooth and nail to make sure they stay with me if it means they can stay together. Now, you can sit here arguing with me about what to do, or you can go and make sure you catch Jerry before he heads back to the mainland. I heard the storm’s likely to linger for a couple of days. Unless you want to spend two or three nights shut away in a room above the only bar on the island with no fresh clothes to change into, then I’d be hurrying if I were you.”
Playing on her desire to leave The Causeway was a cheap move, but it looked like it had worked. Sheryl shuddered when I mentioned being trapped in the bar. After a long moment where she studied me with watery blue eyes, she said, “All right, Miss Lang. But please bear in mind…I can always come back. It’s a hindrance, I’ll admit, but I like to take care of my cases. If you realize this task is beyond you, there’s no shame in calling and having me come take them. Likewise, if I think they’re in harm’s way, Ophelia, I’ll make sure both Connor and Amie are on that boat back to Maine quicker than you can blink. Do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, all right, then.” Sheryl got to her feet, holding her purse under one arm while she pulled out her cell phone. Sighing dramatically, she tucked the phone away and jerked at her blazer jacket, tugging at it in a ruffled kind of way. “I’ll see myself out. No, please don’t get up. I’m sure you’ll want to go and make sure Connor is all right now, anyway.”
It was a none too subtle hint, as if I might not realize that the young boy would need some sort of comfort after finding out his father had died. And after she had told me to give him a moment, too. I gave her a tight smile—one aimed to show civility but not much more in the way of manners.
