‘What were you doing so far from home, Rita?’ he asked.
For a long minute Rita didn’t answer, and then she said, ‘We was going home, and we got on a bus going the wrong way by mistake. The conductor put us off. I ain’t got no more bus money, so we had to walk.’
‘Going home?’
‘From school, only we got the wrong bus by mistake.’
‘I see,’ said the policeman, but he didn’t. He couldn’t imagine why the two little girls were so far from home. He asked no more questions. They could wait until he had reunited the girls with their parents, who must be frantic with worry. School probably came out at about half-past three, and the church clock was striking six now.
At last Rita began to recognize the streets, and she knew they were nearly home. ‘I know the way from here,’ she said, coming to a standstill and pulling her hand away.
‘I’m sure you do,’ Constable Chapman replied easily, ‘but I think I’ll deliver you to the door. Rosie’s still tired.’
‘Well, she’s had a ride,’ Rita said. ‘She can walk the last bit, can’t you, Rosie?’
‘I want Mummy,’ was all Rosie said, and clung more tightly to the policeman’s neck.
‘That’s all right, love,’ he said. ‘Nearly there. Bet she’ll be pleased to see you!’ It was Rita dragging her feet now, but Constable Chapman ignored her dawdling, thinking she was afraid of getting into trouble for being so late.
‘Which is your house?’ he asked as they turned into Ship Street. Rita hesitated, but Rosie cried out with delight, ‘There it is!’ She pointed to one of the small terraced houses. ‘We live there.’
‘Right, come on then, let’s tell Mum you’re home safe and sound.’ He walked up to the front door and rang the bell. At first there was no reply, and he wondered if the parents were out looking for the two girls, but as he was about to press the bell again, the door opened.
‘Yes? What d’you want?’ A man peered out at them, the tall policeman with Rosie on his back, peeping over his shoulder, Rita shrinking behind him. His eyes widened as he took in what he was seeing. ‘What they doing here?’ he demanded.
‘I understand they live here,’ replied the policeman, surprise in his voice. ‘Isn’t this their home?’
‘No, it ain’t!’ replied the man fiercely. ‘Not any more it ain’t.’
Constable Chapman could feel Rita’s body rigid against him, and Rosie burst into tears, burying her face in his neck. ‘Is their mother here?’ he asked the man.
‘No, she ain’t…’ began the man, but the kitchen door behind him opened and a young woman carrying a small baby came out.
‘Who is it, Jimmy?’ she asked, but as she saw who was standing on her doorstep, she gave a little cry, her hand flying to her mouth as if to stifle it.
‘Good evening, madam,’ said Constable Chapman. ‘Are these your daughters?’
He didn’t have to wait for her reply as Rosie let out a shriek. ‘Mummy!’ She let go of the policeman’s neck and slithered to the ground. The man stood unmoving, blocking the doorway. He glanced over his shoulder. ‘I told him, Mav, they don’t live here no more.’
‘And you are…?’ Constable Chapman disliked the look of this man, standing so belligerently in the doorway.
‘Jimmy Randall. And this is my house.’
‘I see.’ Constable Chapman took a step forward. ‘Perhaps we could all come in and discuss this.’
‘There ain’t nothing to discuss,’ Jimmy Randall replied.
‘But you, madam, are their mother?’ The policeman looked past Jimmy and made eye-contact with the woman who cowered behind him. She said nothing but gave a brief nod.
‘Then I think we do have something to discuss,’ he said. ‘These children are exhausted, they need food and a bed. I’m sure you don’t want any trouble, Mr Randall, so perhaps we can all come indoors…’
Jimmy Randall glowered at him, but he stood aside to let them in. Rosie was now clinging to the constable’s leg, and Rita still stood, frozen behind him. Constable Chapman gave a hand to each and, with a reassuring smile, took them indoors, following their mother into the kitchen. A baby’s bottle was lying on the table, and it was clear that Mavis had been feeding the baby when they had arrived. She sat down and reaching for the bottle, began to feed him again. The two girls still kept close to the policeman as if for protection as Jimmy Randall followed them into the kitchen.
‘Now then,’ Jimmy said, ‘what you brought these girls here for?’
‘I found them wandering the streets,’ replied Constable Chapman, ‘and they said they lived here.’
‘Well, they don’t,’ asserted Jimmy, looking challengingly at the copper who’d pushed his way into the house. ‘We ain’t got room for them. They live in an ’ome now, where they can be looked after proper. Their mother, my wife, signed all the papers, so it was done proper. Best all round, eh?’
‘Is that right, Mrs Randall?’ asked Constable Chapman.
Mavis looked up from the baby and nodded.
‘They must have run away,’ said Jimmy. He pointed at Rita. ‘She’ll be behind it. She’s always trouble, that one.’
As he was speaking, Rosie let go of the policeman’s hand and edged her way to where her mother sat. She put a hand on the baby. ‘Is that my brother?’ she asked.
Her mother nodded, unable to speak, the tears streaming down her cheeks. She reached out an arm and gathered her daughter to her, burying her face in the blonde curls. Rita stood beside Constable Chapman, watching. She longed to run to her mother too, but something held her back.
The policeman turned to her. ‘Have you run away?’ he asked gently.
Rita nodded, and PC Chapman crouched down beside her and took her hand in his. ‘Why? Why did you run away?’
Rita gulped and then whispered, ‘I wanted to come home. I want my mum.’
The simplicity of this statement brought unexpected tears to the big man’s eyes. He blinked them away, saying, ‘I’m sure you do. Why don’t you give her a hug now?’ He gave her a little push, and she moved round the table.
‘Mum,’ she said and reached out her arms. Mavis looked at her stricken; with baby Richard in one arm and the other round Rosie, she had no hand to extend to Rita. Rita saw this and stopped. For a moment they were still, a family group that wasn’t a family, then Constable Chapman stepped forward and gently took the baby from Mavis’s arms, so that Rita could take his place.
‘Here,’ growled Jimmy, ‘that’s my baby.’
Chapman turned to him, and without a word passed him the child. Turning back he saw the mother had gathered both her daughters against her, and all three were weeping.
A ring on the doorbell, loud and long, demanded entry. Mavis didn’t look up and as the sound was repeated, louder and longer, Jimmy answered the door. A woman’s voice sounded in the narrow hallway, harsh and strident. It was the pig-faced woman.
‘There you are,’ she cried. ‘You wicked, wicked children. How dare you run off like that!’
Chapman stepped forward, barring her way forward. ‘Good evening, madam,’ he said. ‘May I ask who you are?’
The woman faltered for a moment in the face of his uniform but then said, ‘Good evening, Constable, I am May Hopkins, Children’s Officer for this district. I have come to retrieve these naughty girls and return them to their home.’
‘Which is…?’
‘Laurel House EVER-Care home. They disappeared from school today. Everyone has been so worried.’ She turned again to the two girls, still clinging to their mother. ‘You’re very bad girls,’ she told them. ‘You’ve caused a great deal of trouble. Now then, you’re coming with me.’
Rosie immediately began to scream, a high-pitched scream, and Rita simply allowed the tears to flood down her cheeks.
‘We just wanted to come home,’ she gulped. ‘We wanted to see Mum.’
‘Well, now you’ve seen her,’ growled Jimmy, ‘you can go back where you belong.’
&nbs
p; ‘Don’t they belong here?’ asked the policeman quietly.
‘No they bloody don’t,’ said Jimmy. ‘We signed the papers, right and tight. She ain’t their mum no more.’
‘Jimmy, couldn’t we just—’ began Mavis, her eyes pleading, her arms still tight about her girls.
‘No, Mavis. I told you,’ he snapped, holding the baby up in the air, ‘you and me and Rick’s a family now.’
‘Just for tonight, Jimmy, let them stay just for tonight? I promise—’
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Randall,’ interrupted Miss Hopkins, ‘but that won’t be possible. I have to take them with me now. Miss Vanstone’s sent a car.’
‘Miss Vanstone? Who’s she?’ asked the constable.
‘She is the founder and benefactress of the EVER-Care children’s home,’ announced Miss Hopkins. ‘When she heard that these children had gone missing, she very generously sent a car so I could bring them back.’
‘I don’t want to go back,’ cried Rita, finding her voice at last. ‘It’s horrible there. When Rosie wet her bed, they wrapped her in the wet sheet, and…’ She took a deep breath. ‘And they beat me with a belt.’
‘’Spect you deserved it,’ retorted Jimmy.
‘Rubbish,’ snapped Miss Hopkins, with a quick glance at the policeman. ‘There’s no such chastisement at Laurel House.’ She turned on Rita. ‘You’re a wicked child to tell such lies. Everything is provided for you at Laurel House, you lack nothing.’
Except love, thought Constable Chapman, but he kept his thought to himself. He could see that, however much he hated the idea, these two little girls were going to be returned to the orphanage. The stepfather refused to have them, the weak mother was unable to withstand him, and the Children’s Officer was determined that her authority to take them was assured.
‘You may kiss your mother goodbye,’ Miss Hopkins said, as if she were granting the girls a great favour, ‘and then we must go.’
Mavis gave one last despairing look at her husband, but Jimmy turned away, jogging his son up and down in his arms, and ignoring everyone else in the room. She held both girls close for a moment, kissing their wet cheeks, and then she too turned away.
Miss Hopkins pushed past the policeman and took each of them by the hand. ‘Come along,’ she said briskly, and led them, still weeping, out of the room. Rosie’s screams of ‘Mummy! Mummy! I want Mummy!’ echoed through the house as Miss Hopkins dragged her out to the street and into the waiting car.
‘An’ you can get out, an all,’ said Jimmy, swinging round and addressing Chapman. ‘You’ve interfered enough!’
Constable Chapman ignored him and looked over at Mavis who had collapsed, sobbing, back onto her chair. ‘Will you be all right, Mrs Randall?’ he asked gently.
‘Course she will,’ snapped Jimmy. ‘I’ll look after her. Now, get out of my house.’
Unable to do more, Constable Chapman left the house without saying another word. He was more affected by the events of the last hour than he could have imagined. The sound of Rosie’s cries resounded in his head, and he knew it would be a long time before he forgot the despair in her childish voice. How could a mother let her children be taken from her like that? He walked to the end of the street, and then, on hearing a door banging, he turned and looked back the way he had come. Jimmy Randall had come out of the house, slamming the door behind him, clearly heading for the pub at the end of the road.
Emily Vanstone was at Laurel House when it was discovered that the Stevens girls had gone missing.
‘I’m afraid that Rita Stevens has been a problem ever since she arrived here,’ Mrs Hawkins said. ‘Within an hour of her being here she had bitten one of the older girls who’d been asked to keep an eye on her. She’s a sullen little thing and unfortunately has palled up with Daisy Smart, another of our more difficult children.’
‘I see,’ said Miss Vanstone, ‘and how have you dealt with her?’
‘Fairly leniently at first,’ replied Mrs Hawkins, ‘after all Laurel House was new to her, but when she continued to flout the house rules, I was more severe and she was put on punishment for a whole day.’ She gave Miss Vanstone a thin smile. ‘It is usually enough to bring a child to heel, spending a day on her own, and having only bread and water.’
‘I see.’ Miss Vanstone looked thoughtful. She did not know the extent of the punishments that her superintendent used, nor did she want to. As long as the home ran smoothly she never enquired into the day to day running. Occasionally there were problems, but she could not remember the last time a child had absconded. Most of the children had nowhere to go anyway, but the Stevens girls? Perhaps the punishment day had been too severe.
‘How has the little one, Rosie, settled in?’ she asked.
Mrs Hawkins shifted a little and said casually, ‘Not as difficult as her sister. She’s a bed-wetter. Of course, she’s been reprimanded for that.’
Emily Vanstone nodded. ‘And you’re quite sure that they’re missing?’
‘Quite sure,’ insisted Mrs Hawkins. ‘They were not in the crocodile when it reached Laurel House, and no one can say for sure whether they were there at the end of school.’
‘Is there no roll call?’ asked Miss Vanstone.
‘Not before they leave school,’ admitted Mrs Hawkins, ‘but of course,’ she added with a thin smile, ‘if they walked out during school hours, that would be the school’s responsibility, wouldn’t it?’
‘Have you spoken to the headmistress?’
‘Oh, yes, as soon as I heard they weren’t home here, I rang the school. Luckily Miss Harrison was still there. She checked the registers. They’d both been there at afternoon registration. When I suggested that the class teachers should have noticed their absence, she said that the whole school was together for hymn practice, with the music teacher. Class teachers don’t sit in on that, and the children are dismissed from the hall. No one would have noticed if two of the children were missing.’
‘The other children would have,’ remarked Miss Vanstone. ‘You say Rita and Daisy Smart are friends?’
‘Yes,’ answered Mrs Hawkins, ‘unfortunately.’
‘Have you spoken to Daisy?’
‘Certainly, straight away. I asked her if she knew where Rita was, but she said she didn’t.’
‘Let’s have her in and ask again,’ said Miss Vanstone. ‘We can be almost certain that they’ve gone home, but we need to be sure.’
While the superintendent was fetching Daisy, Emily Vanstone reached for the phone and rang the Children’s Office at the town hall but was told that Miss Hopkins had already left for the day. Thoughtfully, she replaced the receiver. She had a home number for Miss Hopkins, but first she would speak to Daisy. Rita hadn’t simply run away because she’d been punished, she had taken her little sister with her. She had planned her escape carefully. Surely Daisy would have known about it.
‘Thank you, Mrs Hawkins,’ she said when the superintendent arrived back with Daisy in tow. ‘I’ll give you a call if I need you.’
Mrs Hawkins flushed. She didn’t like being dismissed like that in front of one of the children, but she turned for the door, saying as she did so, ‘I’ll be in the dining room.’
‘Please make sure that some tea is saved for Daisy,’ instructed Miss Vanstone. ‘I’ll try not to keep her too long.’
When the door shut behind Mrs Hawkins, Miss Vanstone looked at the little girl standing in front of her. ‘Come and sit down, Daisy,’ she said, pointing to a chair by the desk. Daisy edged forward and perched on the chair. She guessed why she was here, so she wasn’t surprised when Miss Vanstone said, ‘You know Rita and Rosie Stevens are missing?’
‘Yes, Miss Vanstone.’
‘Rita’s your particular friend, isn’t she?’
‘She’s in my dorm,’ Daisy replied carefully. Rita was already in trouble, but Daisy wanted to stay out of it.
‘And in your class at school.’ It was a statement, not a question.
‘Yes.’
‘We think Rita and Rosie have run away. Do you know where they might have gone?’
Daisy shrugged.
‘I expect they’ve gone home, don’t you?’
‘Don’t know, miss.’
‘The thing is, Daisy, that if they are wandering about in the town they could be in danger. Little Rosie’s only five, isn’t she? How were they going to get home, do you think?’
‘Don’t know, miss.’
‘I mean,’ continued Miss Vanstone, almost as if talking to herself, ‘they won’t have had any money, will they? Not even enough for a bus fare.’
‘Don’t know, miss.’
‘Yes, Daisy, I think you do. Rita must have planned how they were going to go…’ She let the end of the sentence hang in the air, but Daisy said nothing.
‘Did you know that Rita’s mother had just had another baby?’ Emily Vanstone tried a different tack. Daisy didn’t answer.
‘Come on, Daisy, I’m sure she told you that. You were her friend.’
Daisy nodded.
‘And because you’re her friend you don’t want to tell on her now, do you?’
Daisy shook her head and Miss Vanstone smiled. ‘So, you do know what she planned.’
‘She didn’t tell me,’ Daisy maintained, ‘but I ’spect she went home to her mum.’
‘Thank you, Daisy,’ said Miss Vanstone. ‘You can go and have your tea now.’
When the girl had left the room Emily Vanstone leaned back in her chair and considered her options. She didn’t want to report the children missing to the police, not yet. She would ring May Hopkins and send her round to see if the girls had gone home.
Indeed, thought Miss Vanstone, I’ll send her in my car and she can bring them straight back without any fuss. She reached for the telephone.
Within an hour Miss Hopkins returned to Laurel House with the two runaways, and brought them straight into Miss Vanstone’s office. Both children were clearly upset. Rita, white-faced and tear-streaked, stood mute, as Miss Hopkins described how she had found them. Rosie was still whimpering, crying for her mother.
The Throwaway Children Page 14