Joshua sighed. “Everyone leaves. Except me and Georgie. And one day, we’ll leave too. Then she’ll be all alone. She’d probably rather be alone than hurt. I was little, but I still remember how much she cried when her pa died. She cried every night for months and months. I thought she’d never stop.”
King leaned back on the bench. “You’re unusually wise for only thirteen.”
“I’m almost fourteen,” Joshua said, and grinned. “And I’m not wise—well, I am, but not about Vi. I just know her really well. You would too if you’d lived with her as long as I have.”
“Very well, then, since you know her so well, what should I do?”
“You shouldn’t have left,” Joshua said, kicking at the dirt beneath the bench. “You should have stayed and fought. That was your first mistake.”
“Noted. Can I fix it, or is it a lost cause?”
“Lost cause? You mean, is it too late to make things right?” He turned to King. “You can fix it.”
King stared at him for a long moment. “Er—how?”
Joshua shrugged. “I don’t know. Not by sitting here!”
King smiled. “So I should go back?”
“Yes.”
“Even though she told me to leave.”
“You left all your clothes. You can go back for those. Now that Vi’s had a night to cry about losing you, maybe she’ll want you again.”
“I doubt it,” King said.
“Me too,” Joshua said.
King elbowed him, and Joshua smiled. Vi might not love King, though Joshua was pretty sure she did—buthesure loved King. Not that Joshua would tell him, but he sure wasn’t about to let Vi send him away. Surely he and Georgie had a say in this too.
“So you’ll come back.”
“I’ll think about it. I have some other business to tend to this morning. And you’d better get back before Violet wakes up and finds you gone.”
Joshua rose. “I’ll see you later, yes?”
King smiled. “Hurry up.” He tossed Joshua a shilling. “And buy something for the three of you to eat for breakfast.”
“I will!” Joshua ran off, his stomach beginning to growl at the thought of food. It was hungry work, solving all of the adult problems.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Violet woke anddidn’t need a mirror to feel how puffy and dry her eyes were. People said crying was supposed to make one feel better, but it only ever made her feel worse. And now she looked awful too. She supposed she couldn’t blame King for that. She was the one who had sent him away. She was the one who had fallen in love with him.
She flopped down on her bed and pulled the lumpy piece of material that passed for a pillow over her head. Why had he insisted on telling her he’d fallen in love with her? She’d told him not to say it. But once the words were out, she couldn’t allow him to stay. He would want her to reciprocate, and she had been fighting her feelings for him for days now. He could have stayed longer if he hadn’t insisted on revealing his feelings. Given time, she might have been able to ignore how she felt about him, bury it under layers and layers of other concerns. But now it was out there, and she would think about it every time she looked at him. She wouldn’t be able to forget how he felt and how she felt, and that feeling would only grow so that when he left her, the pain she felt now would be nothing comparatively.
It was better to end things now before it hurt too much to end them.
She heard the door to the flat open, lifted the pillow off her face, and listened. Joshua said something to Georgie, whoreplied with one syllable, indicating he’d been sleeping. Violet pulled the door open and peered out. “Joshua, where were you?”
He held up a wrapper. “I bought breakfast.”
Georgie sat up. “Breakfast! What is it?”
“Currant rolls.”
“My favorite!” Georgie jumped out of bed and grabbed the wrapper, running to the table and plopping himself on a chair, bare feet and legs hanging over the edge.
