Wuthering Dormice (aka Bike) Part 848 by Angharad

I sneaked upstairs and listened while Simon read the riot act. “Right you two boys, I hope you’re going to have a good time staying with us, I know Lady Catherine has got you some nice things for Christmas–there were murmurs of approval for that–now you two are bigger than my three girls, I don’t want to hear any throwing your weight around or bullying them–got it?”

“What do we call you, Lord Cameron?” asked Danny, I think, I couldn’t actually see them.

“You okay with Uncle Simon, and my wife as Auntie Cathy–it’s less of a mouthful, isn’t it?

“Right there’s a wardrobe for your clothes and a chest of drawers if you need them. The bathroom is across the way, it has a shower in it, so I expect you to be clean. The kitchen is absolutely full of food, but please ask before you take anything, Cathy might have planned a use for it. Oh put your washing in the basket in the bathroom–if it isn’t in there, it won’t get washed. I expect you in bed by nine at the latest–the girls go earlier, but we read them a story every night.”

I heard laughing at that. “What’s so funny–they like it and so do we.”

“It’s a bit babyish,” commented Billy.

“They’re girls, they’re different to boys and it isn’t babyish at all, it allows us to spend some time with them, which we all enjoy. Right then, one last thing, if you want to leave the house or garden, let one of us know–we need to know where you are, oh and if you break anything or do anything stupid–tell us, if we find out the hard way, there’ll be hell to pay, and it could mean we call the duty social worker–that means a home wherever they can fit you in–you’ll probably be split up and I know the food will be better here. You’ll miss out on your Christmas presents too.

“Trish, go and tell your mother, we’ll be down in a moment to finish the tree.” Trish came out of the room and as she saw me I put my finger to my lips and sent her downstairs.

“Uncle Simon, is Trish really your daughter?”

“Of course she is, why?”

“She reminds me of someone who used to live at the home.”

“That young lady has never lived in a children’s home,” Simon stated this quite categorically, even though it was a fib.

“Okay, I must be wrong then.”

“I should think so,” Simon pooh-poohed the suggestion with bluster.

“I wish you were my dad,” said Billy, which I knew would make Simon’s day. “I’d like to have a rich dad, who was a lord or king or something.”

“It brings its own responsibilities, young man.”

“Yeah, but it must be cool to be a king or a lord.”

“It can help with making restaurant reservations, that’s about all–do you have problems making them now?” Simon was taking the piss.

“No, I don’t–I just tell ‘em I’m a king.”

“Isn’t that an untruth?” asked Simon, who’d just blatantly told one or two porkies of his own.

“No I am a king, Billy King–see?”

Simon was going to have to watch these two. I wandered into the room as if I’d just come up the stairs. “Okay boys, have you settled in, yet?”

“We’re just doin’ that, Auntie Cathy,” answered Danny.

“Simon has explained everything?” They both nodded.

“Right then, Billy King and Danny Maiden, welcome to our home, I hope your Christmas is going to be memorable for its enjoyment. It’s only you who will spoil it.”

“Here,” said Simon, “if Billy is a king, is Danny a maiden–in which case shouldn’t he be with the girls?” I’m sure Danny was sick of hearing that one.

“I ain’t no girl–like that woofter we had back at the ‘ome, Patrick call me Patricia, now he was a girl if ever there was one. I’m all boy, I am.”

“Yes dear, we can see that, Simon was only joking, and it means we won’t have to suffer the joke again, doesn’t it, Darling?” I said pointedly to Simon. I didn’t want reminders about Trish flagged up in his mind, which is twisted enough already if the reports were accurate. This kid had a few problems.

Simon blushed and shrugged his shoulders, “I guess not. C’mon, kids, let’s go and do the tree.”

“Can you send Trish up to the bedroom, darling?” I asked Simon as they went down. He nodded as he led the boys down the stairs.

I waited for Trish in my bedroom, when she came in, I shut the door. “Have I done something wrong, Mummy?”

“No, sweetheart, I just don’t want us disturbed. Danny thinks he recognised you.”

“Oh great,” her lip puckered and she wasn’t far from tears.

“It’s okay, Simon told him you had never been in a home and that you were our daughter. I hope that means an end to the matter, so just deny it if he says anything and get the girls to support you. I’ll try and speak to Meems, just in case she doesn’t understand.”

“What if he, grabs me by my winkie?”

“That is a matter for getting rid of him–that would constitute a serious assault. I know he’s got problems, but I don’t want you provoking anything like that, because I suspect you’re cleverer than him–girls usually are. I also want him to go away–I mean I want both the boys to leave here feeling that they enjoyed themselves in a positive way. You live here with your sisters, I hope you’ll be pleasant to our guests.”

“He was horrid to me.”

“No, Trish, he was horrid to Patrick, because he didn’t understand. We’ve done away with the ambiguity.”

“What’s biguity, Mummy?”

“Ambiguity is where something or someone could be something else, so they aren’t clearly what you originally thought they were. That upsets some people, he thought you were a boy because that’s what he’d been told–you declared you were a girl, although you still looked the same. So he was confused. I hope we’ve removed any doubt as to who and what you are.”

“If he sees my name on anything, he’s going to know isn’t he?”

“Like your school stuff–damn I’d forgotten about that. Lock it all in the bedroom, you shouldn’t actually need anything before school anyway.”

“Okay, Mummy.”

“If he does guess, we’ll have to deal with it, won’t we?”

“I hope he doesn’t, Mummy.”

“We’ll cope, darling, won’t we, whatever happens.”

“I hope so, Mummy.”

“We will, sweetheart, we have love in this house, that’ll get us through anything.”

I opened my arms and she threw herself into them and sobbed and I held her tightly and cooed to her. “Life is going to do this to us every now and again, you know.”

“Why, Mummy, it’s so unfair–I’m not hurting anyone.”

“I’m afraid it does when you’re a bit different, but we’re all here to help you deal with it, we all love you very much.”

“I love you too, Mummy.” We hugged again, then after pausing to think, she asked, “Have people been unkind to you, Mummy?”

“Oh yes, sweetheart, and sometimes they were people who should have known better.”

“What do you mean, Mummy.”

“I mean they were people I thought I could trust and they betrayed that trust.”

“Does that mean, I can’t trust anyone, ever?”

“No darling, but it means you have to think carefully when you make friends, about what you tell people. Hopefully, by then, you’ll appear to be a normal girl in all but one place and that we’ll sort as soon as we can, but it won’t be for several years yet, Trish.”

“I know, Mummy–I wish I was a girl like you.”

“You are, sweetheart, you are.”