Lottie


    It was weirding here and not immediately starting to clean the ce. Hayley clutched my hand after we’d helped to lug thest of our belongings into the hallway. This space looked even more imposing with our pile of possessions stacked in the centre of it. I felt a hot, reflex snap of shame as I looked at everything we owned. We had some suitcases and boxes, but the rest was in bin liners. I hated fudging bin liners. Foster children get far, far too acquainted with them, seeing as that was invariably what our stuff would be packed up into when we had to move. By the end of my years in foster care, one of my bin liners was stuffed full of soft toys. You might think that was a good thing, but the bigger the collection of cuddly animals you had, the more you’d had to move. Every new home would produce one for you on your arrival. I developed a hatred of that bag of toys, but whilst I was still in foster care, I’d never had the heart to throw them away.


    It hadn’t taken more than two trips to move the stuff from Ollie’s car, and the pile itself only took up a tiny percentage of his hallway floorspace. Granted, the hallway was blooming massive, but it still made me feel slightly pathetic. And that was after Ollie had pulled myptop out of a box I’d earmarked for the dump with a raised eyebrow. I’d had to exin how it had died which led to a deeply ufortable conversation about my psychology course being “on hold”. Ollie had just looked at me for a long moment, the tic in his jaw the only sign of his extreme annoyance, before he gave me a short nod and hauled the box to his car.


    “Well, I guess you know all the rooms, Lottie,” Ollie said as he strolled in with another full bin liner to add to the pile. “Which ones will work for you?” I mentally flipped through the house’s ten bedrooms and scrunched my nose. The truth was, there simply wasn’t a single room in this house that Hayley would feelfortable in. I bit my lip as I nced down at her. She was staring at the library – probably wanting to go and tuck herself away with the books up in the mezzanine again. I cleared my throat to speak, but my words stuck in my throat when the front door swung open, and in came Margot.


    “Yoo-hoo!” she called as she swept into the hallway, a big smile on her face. I took a step back, pushing Hayley behind me. Her smile dropped somewhat as she took in my retreat. To my surprise, Ollie let out a low growl. When my eyes flew to him, I realised he was furious.


    “Mother,” he snapped, and I blinked. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him snap at her or call her Mother before – it was always Mum. “I told you to stay away from the house for the moment whilst Lottie and Hayley settle in.”


    “Pish posh,” Margot said, waving away his concerns. “I’m allowed to pop in and say hi.” She leaned to the side to get a better look at Hayley, who was glued to the back of my legs. Hayley saw a lot more than adults gave her credit for. And she’d liked Margot that day when she’d driven us to minor injuries. Margot had even managed to get a couple of smiles out of her, which back then was almost unheard of. After Margot dropped us back at the t that day, and it was just us again, Hayley had referred to her as the “nicedy with sparkly ears” (her diamond earrings were huge) “and toffee sweets in her bag”, whiching from Hayley was high praise.


    But then, when she came to the t a few weekster, despite the fact that she was just as smiley with Hayley and gave her a toffee sweet like before, Hayley could feel the tension in the air, could feel the threat. I found that sweet in the binter still in its wrapper, and there were no more mentions of the nicedy.


    “Hello there, Hayley. I swear you’ve grown a whole foot since…” She cleared her throat, and her gaze shot to me, clearly not wanting toplete that sentence and bring up ourst encounter. “Hello, Lottie,” she said softly, as if worried she might spook me.


    “Hi,” I managed to get out past my thick throat. Hayley tugged on my jeans. When I turned to look down at her, she gave a quick shake of her head, going back another step and tugging me to move with her. Hayley was totally ready to walk away from the thick atmosphere, and I couldn’t say I med her. Margot’s eyes moved to the pile of our belongings in the hallway, and if the floor could have swallowed me up at that moment, I would have jumped at the chance. The tension was too thick now, and I didn’t want Hayley exposed to it. So I turned to her and dropped down to her level to speak softly.


    “Why don’t you check out the books again, lovebug.” She was still eyeing Margot over my shoulder, but at the mention of books, her eyes shot to mine and her expression lit up. “Off you go.” Hayley threw onest wary look from Margot to me, and I shook my head, dropping my voice to a whisper. “It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” She leaned forward to put her hand to the centre of my chest then to hers: her non-verbal I love you. As she dashed off into the library, I felt her loss as a buffer acutely. But I’d been through worse than this. I’d had people judge me my entire life.


    I cleared my throat as I straightened to face her. “Lady Harding,” I said and, thank Elton John’s sses, my voice was steady, “I realise that I’m viting the terms of our agreement bying here. I want you to know that I will pay the money back. It’s not all there at present as I’ve had some expenses that were time critical and?—”


    “Your sister,” Margot said softly, taking a tentative step towards me.


    “Mum,” Ollie said in warning, and she stopped in her approach. I couldn’t feel the anger or annoyance I would have expected from her; all I could feel was warmth, difort and regret.


    “I know why you needed the money, remember?” she continued, still in that soft voice.


    I nodded, and she took a deep breath, but I cut her off before she could speak again.


    “Yes, so some of it is gone – I had back payments to her therapist. But I can set up a payment schedule. I’m earning more now, you see, and?—”


    “Yes, you’re working for my daughter now. Aren’t you?”


    I nodded slowly. “Yes, but the agreement was just your son, as I understood it. You never specified that?—”


    “No, Lottie, I’m not angry that you’re working with Vicky,” she said with a frown. “How could you think…?” she closed her eyes for a moment, “Of course you’d think that. I’ve given you no reason not to, have I?”


    I didn’t know how to reply. I mean, of course I assumed she would be angry that I was working with Vicky. If the woman disliked me enough to buy me off one of her children, of course she wasn’t going to be happy with me spending every working day with another.This is property ? of N?velDrama.Org.


    “Lottie, you’re really helping Vicky,” she said. “I’m not angry about that.” She took another small step towards me but then halted when Ollie made another warning noise. “I’ve never been very good with figures,” she said, and I tilted my head to the side in confusion. “But my daughter tells me that you’ve made herpany over three point three million pounds since you started ‘helping’ her.”


    My eyebrows went up. “Er… Lady Harding, I don’t do any wheeler-dealing. I don’t cut any deals. I just help Vicky read the room.”


    “Does reading the room help cut the deal?” Margot asked, and I shrugged. “Be honest. Would most of those deals have progressed if you weren’t there?”


    “I don’t?—”


    “Well, that’s settled then. Three point three million, minus fifty thousand is three million two hundred and fifty thousand. Shall I transfer that amount to you?”


    “Of course not! I?—”


    “Okay, we’ll just leave things as they are for now then,” she cut me off briskly. I was starting to see that when it came to getting her own way and being high-handed, Margot was cut from the same cloth as her son.


    “I work for Vicky for a set wage,” I said through gritted teeth. “I do not take a share of the profits.”


    Margot waved her hand. “Oh well, none of this matters now anyway, seeing as we’re going to be family, and it’s all family money anyway.”


    My eyes flew wide at that, and I jerked my head to look at Ollie, who was standing in the hallway with his hands shoved in his pockets and apletely unconcerned smirk on his face.


    “F-family?” I said slowly, looking between the dowager and Ollie. The dowager beamed at me.


    “No need to be coy, dear,” she said. “Oh, I nearly forgot. Here you are, darling.” She handed Ollie a ring box and I took a sharp breath in. Very few people surprise me. I’m always able to predict what they’ll do. Always. But I did not see thising.


    “Thanks, Mum,” Ollie said, grabbing the box from her and then strolling over to me. I took a small step back, but he grabbed my hand to stop me. Before I knew it an antique ring was on the ring finger of my left hand, the sapphire and surrounding diamonds glinting in the sunlight streaming in through the windows.


    “What are you doing?” I squeaked. Then looked round hisrge frame to his mum. “Lady Harding, this is not what it looks like. I?—”


    “I know, I know,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “Fake engagement, yadda yadda. I’ve read enough romance books to know how this works, darling. Let’s just see how it pans out, shall we?” She winked at me then, and I blinked in shock. “Okay, best be off. I’ve got amittee meeting for the fundraiser next week.” She was striding towards me then and didn’t stoping until we were toe to toe, and she pulled me in for a hug. I thought posh people only air-kissed, but this woman was a good hugger. I hadn’t had a maternal hug in years. Embarrassingly, before I could get a hold of myself, my eyes started to sting. We both pulled back when we heard the library door open. Hayley popped her head out and turned to us.


    “It’s okay, Hails,” I said in a shaky voice. I nced back at Margot, and she was scanning my face with soft eyes. I cleared my throat and blinked to push back the tears, but I was pretty sure she still saw them, especially after her hand came up to pat my cheek and her other hand squeezed mine at my side.


    “Right,” she said in a bright voice that was just very slightly choked as she turned to Hayley. “It was nice to see you again, youngdy.” She pulled away from me and skirted her son to get to Hayley, crouching down in front of her. Hayley studied her, still wary. When she nced up at me, I gave her a small nod to say that this was okay. “Have you met my daughter, Vicky?” Hayley nodded slowly. Vicky and Lucy had beening over to the t for movie nights regrly for thest few months and treated Hayley like a surrogate niece. “Well, my Vicky wasn’t very chatty when she was little either, but she liked tight hugs. Do you like tight hugs? Sometimes it can be a bit scary to move somewhere, and hugs help us feel better. Would you like a hug, darling?” Hayley bit her lip and took a step back. “Okay, maybe next time.” I could feel the sadness and regret pouring off Margot as she reached out very slowly to Hayley’s face, giving her time to step back again, and tucked her hair behind her ear, which Hayley allowed.


    “You’ve very pretty hair, just like your sister. I made your sister sad, didn’t I?” Hayley nodded, and I felt my throat close over. “I’m sorry about that, Hayley.” Her gaze went up to me, “Really, I am so sorry.” Then she looked back at Hayley. “Well, now, my little boy, Ollie?—”


    That got a snort out of Hayley, who was grinning now, and my heart felt like it stopped beating. Even noises like that were rare from Hayley, especially around people she didn’t trust. And Margot seemed to understand her perfectly.


    “He’s still my little boy,” she exined, her eyes twinkling. “He may be twice my size, but he’ll always be my funny little boy with messy hair and missing front teeth who peed himself on stage when he was a shepherd in the preschool nativity.”


    “Mum,” Ollie protested, but she ignored him, and to be honest, so did I as just then, Hayley let out a tiny giggle. My hand flew to my mouth. Giggling with anyone but me was unheard of. Unaware of how momentous this was, Margot simply stroked her cheek again and stood up.


    “As I was saying, my little boy and I are going to make your sister happy, okay?” Hayley nodded and Margot smiled down at her with a soft expression before hitching her handbag back onto her shoulder. “Toodle-pip then, darlings,” she singsonged, and swept out of the house.