“Do you know where Marian went?” Bertie asked, approaching Colin but looking around the Hall. “She was acting a bit strange and then went to the loos before the performance but never returned. I kept a seat for her the entire time but she didn’t use it and looked for her at intermission but couldn’t locate her. Now, I still can’t find her.”
Colin helped Bertie scan the crowd, concerned about Marian’s disappearance but also impatient and wanting to get to Sibyl, who was now surrounded by her four girls, all of them jumping around her excitedly.
“I don’t see her,” Colin informed Sibyl’s father, “Perhaps she felt unwell and went home.”
“Perhaps,” Bertie didn’t sound convinced.
“Does anyone have her mobile number?” Colin asked.
Bertie shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ll ask Mags and get her to look in the toilets for her.” Bertie muttered distractedly and wandered away.
By the time Colin reached Sibyl, it looked like some of the girls’ parents were also standing around them.
“Can we keep the outfits?” the girl named Katie asked, her eyes shining up at Sibyl.
“Of course, they’re yours,” Sibyl replied with a sweet smile and the girls shrieked their delight with such ferocity, Colin winced and feared the glass in the windows would shatter.
“Really, we couldn’t –” one of the men was saying and Sibyl turned laughing eyes to him, effectively cutting him off.
“I can hardly wear them, Phil,” she responded with a teasing tone to which it would have been impossible to take affront.
“Hey, Mr. Morgan,” Katie called, upon noting his arrival.
“Hey, Mr. Morgan,” Emma echoed.
“Hey, Mr. Morgan,” Cheryl, not to be outdone, repeated.
“Girls,” Colin greeted them and this caused another series of shrieks and giggles as Colin finally made it to Sibyl’s side. He dared not kiss her (which he very much wanted to do); the girls’ high-pitched screeches might be the final death blow to the rundown building and bring the roof crashing down on their heads.
Sibyl introduced Colin to the girls’ parents and, after a brief conversation; they all peeled off toward home, taking their loud daughters with them. Except one, who stood alone, no parent behind her. She looked acutely uncomfortable and was trying to put her eyes anywhere but on Colin or Sibyl.
“I’m going to go home now, Miss Sibyl, I’ll see you next week,” she muttered and started away.
“Wait a second Flower, where’s your mother?” Sibyl put a gentle hand on the girl’s shoulder to keep her where she was.
“She’s out tonight. My brothers are with Nan. I was supposed to be there too but I talked Nan into letting me come tonight.”
“But tonight’s the Talent Show… your mother –” Sibyl started.
“She forgot,” Flower quickly explained with a deftness borne of practice.
“But, how did you get here?” Sibyl asked.
“I walked,” Flower answered
“By yourself?” Sibyl enquired, the last syllable higher than the others, a tone that showed her irritation.
Flower nodded.
Colin regarded the young, awkward, but pretty, girl. He hid his reaction to her words and the thought of any parent or grandparent not only not remembering a Talent Show but not being there to witness it.
Sibyl, however, did not hide her reaction. Her lips thinned, she turned angry eyes to Colin and he saw the warning light of emerald fire.
“Sibyl,” he murmured as Scarlett approached.
Sibyl whirled back to Flower. “Where are you staying tonight?”
“With Nan.”
“Go and get your things, honey. Mr. Morgan and my sister, her name’s Scarlett, are going to drive you home. Once you’re inside, I want you to go to the window and wave to them that everything is okay. You must remember to go to the window and wave because he’s going to be waiting. Can you remember to do that?”
Flower looked uncertainly between Sibyl, Colin and Scarlett and nodded her head slowly, clearly not used to anyone taking care of her.
“Good, honey, now go and get your things,” Sibyl urged gently.
The minute the girl ran off, Sibyl turned to Colin and belatedly asked, “Do you mind?”
Her tone, her face, the way she held her body indicated her barely contained fury.
He did the only thing he could do in the face of her oncoming wrath, he shook his head.
Then, letting some of her anger seep through, she snapped, “What would you say if I told you I was adopting that girl?”
“I’d give you the name and telephone number for one of the solicitors I have on retainer,” Colin drawled.
Sibyl’s eyes rounded in disbelief then, scant seconds later, they melted with something else entirely. He took note, for future reference, that his comment made the rage slide out of her.
“She has three brothers,” Sibyl said quietly.
“You’ll need a bigger house,” he informed her drily.
“Luckily, Colin, you have a huge house,” Scarlett put in, always of assistance.
Scarlett was saved from the edge of Sibyl’s tongue by Flower’s arrival.
“Let’s go, kiddo,” Scarlett said, deftly affecting her escape by propelling the girl forward.
Colin took his chance to give Sibyl a quick kiss, “I’ll be back to take you home.”
She nodded, still lost in her thoughts for Flower. “I can’t wait to sit down, I’ve been on my feet for hours. They’re killing me. Are we going to Lacybourne?” she asked distractedly.
“Is that where you want to go?”
She nodded.
“Then that’s where we’re going.”
She gave him a weak smile of gratitude and walked toward her friend Jemma.
Colin walked to a waiting Scarlett and Flower then he escorted them to his car.
Scarlett slid in beside him after she made sure Flower was buckled in the back and they took her to her Nan’s, which was further away than he expected. Colin was pleased Sibyl wasn’t with them, if she knew the distance the girl had walked alone, she’d likely abduct the child and her brothers from their Nan’s house.
After receiving their dutiful wave, on the way back to the Hall, Scarlett spoke, “She’s not of the earth, you know?”
“I’m sorry?” Colin asked, surprised at her tone which was sedate and earnest. Since she shined the light of her approval on his union with her sister, Scarlett had been her usual drily humorous just not caustic. He’d never heard her serious before.
Still, he had no idea what she was talking about.
“Sibyl, she’s not of the earth but of the air. She’s like a kite, all her life, darting about in the wind with no one holding onto her string.”
Colin remained silent, patiently waiting for further explanation.
“You’re of the earth,” she carried on. “You have your feet firmly planted on the ground. She’s lucky to find someone like that, like you, willing to let her dart about happily in the wind but still keeping her tethered to the ground.”
Colin couldn’t help but be moved by her compliment, especially coming from Scarlett, however, she wasn’t finished.
Quietly, she said in a near whisper, “All my life, I thought she’d get swept away. Get herself helplessly tangled in some trees and be torn to shreds when someone yanked her free. It was terrifying.”
“I can imagine,” Colin murmured and he could.
“Please protect her, Colin.” It was now a whisper and even though he barely knew her, Colin knew how much it cost her to make this request.