Stranger in My Arms(29)
“Thank you, but no.”
“Awright.” He stuffed the mouse back in his pocket and patted it lightly.
There was a strange, sweet constriction in Lara’s chest as she watched him. The poor child had nothing-no family, no friends, no future to speak of, but in his own little way, he was taking care of something .
something. Even if it was just a prison mouse.
“You’re pretty,” the boy said generously, and surprised her by crawling into her lap. Startled, Lara hesitated before responding, her arms closing around him. He was bony and light, wiry like a cat. There was a sour smell wafting from his clothes and body, and the awful thought struck her that he was probably crawling with vermin above and beyond the little pet mouse. But he leaned back against her arm, tilting his head to look at her, and Lara found herself stroking his matted dark hair. She wondered how long it had been since he had known a maternal embrace. Such a small boy, he was… and so utterly alone.
“What is your name?” she asked. He didn’t reply, only half closed his eyes, seeming to relax except for the grip of his grimy fingers on her sleeve. “My goodness, you need a bath,” she said, continuing to stroke his hair back. “There must be a handsome boy underneath all this dirt.”
Lara continued to hold him and murmur softly until she felt his head nod against her shoulder. He was utterly exhausted. It wouldn’t be long before he fell asleep. Easing him from her arms, she stood and gestured for him to come with her.
“I’ll take you to Miss Thornton,” she said. “She’s a very kind woman, and you must promise to mind her. We’ll find a home for you, sweetheart. I promise.”
He went obediently to Miss Thornton’s office, trotting beside Lara with his fist clutched in her skirt.
They reached the small room and found Miss Thornton at her desk.
The headmistress smiled as she saw them. “You have a way with children, Lady Hawksworth. I should have known that you would find him.” She approached the small boy and grasped his wrist.
“Come with me, young sir. You’ve troubled her ladyship quite enough.”
The boy huddled closer to Lara, snapping his teeth at Miss Thornton like a wild animal. “No,” he said sharply.
The headmistress regarded him with surprise.
“Well. It appears he can speak after all.” She renewed her efforts to pull him away. “There’s no need to carry on, lad. No one is going to harm you.”
“No, no…” He burst into tears and clutched at Lara’s legs and hips.
Distressed, Lara bent over to stroke his narrow back. “Sweet boy.
I’ll come back tomorrow, but you must stay here.”
While the boy continued to howl and clutch at her, Miss Thornton left the room and reappeared with another teacher. “You’re remarkable, Lady Hawksworth,” she said, laboring with the other woman to pry him away.
“Only you could call a child like that ‘sweet’ and sound as if you mean it.”
“He’s not a bad boy,” Lara said, trying in vain to hush the crying child.
The teachers managed to jerk him away, and he screamed in rage and misery. Lara stared transfixed at the sobbing boy, who was snarling and squirming like a wild cub.
“Don’t mind him,” Miss Thornton said. “I told you, he’s odd and unnatural. Bless you, my lady, you’ve had enough to contend with of late without enduring a scene like this.”
“That’s all right. I…” Lara lost her voice, seized by anxiety as she saw them drag the little boy from the room. One of the teachers scolded him softly, gripping his arm to prevent him from escaping.
“We’ll take care of him,” Miss Thornton told Lara.
“He’ll be perfectly all right.”
“Nooo!” he howled once more.
In the midst of the struggle, there was a scuttling movement as the mouse crawled from the child’s pocket and landed on the floor.
Catching sight of the rodent scooting along the polished wood, the teachers shrieked in unison and released the boy.
“Mousie!” he cried, dropping to his knees and scrambling after the escaping rodent. “Mousie, come back!”
Somehow the mouse found a hole in the seam of the wall and wiggled through, disappearing. Stupefied, the boy stared at the tiny hole and began to cry in earnest.
As Lara stared at the tearful child, the panicked teachers, and Miss Thornton’s taut face, she heard herself speak. “Let me have the boy,” she said impulsively. “I-I want him.”
“Lady Hawksworth?” Miss Thornton asked cautiously, as if she’d taken leave of her senses.
Lara continued rapidly. “I’ll take him with me for now. I’ll find a place for him.” The servants at Hawksworth Hall were clearly stupefied by the sight of Lara’s small, shaggy guest, who never released his hold on her skirt. He seemed unaware of the overwrought grandeur of his surroundings, all his attention centered on Lara.
“Johnny is rather shy,” Lara murmured to her personal maid, Naomi, whose overtures to the child had been quickly rebuffed. “It will take a little time for him to become accustomed to all of us.”
Naomi’s plump face regarded the boy doubtfully “He looks as though he’s been raised in the forest, milady.”
Silently Lara reflected that the forest was a far more wholesome place than the diseased and dangerous environment Johnny had been living in.
Lisa Kleypas's Books
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