“Fliss.” Kate’s tone was sharp. “That’s not how we talk about people in this house. Mind your words and think before you speak.”
Fliss rolled her eyes, but a stern frown from Kate cut off her inevitably spiky retort.
“What happened to their mum?” Charlie asked.
Reg shook his head. “I can’t tell you that. If they do come to us, it’ll be up to them if they want to share their story. For now, all we can tell you is that these kids very much need a home, and your mother and I would like to offer them one.”
Offer. Charlie absorbed the word and turned the prospect over in his head. What if the kids didn’t want to come? Reg and Kate were the best parents in the world, but the kids wouldn’t know that.
“Where would they sleep?” Andy reached for the snacks Kate had spread on the table. “You’ve only got one spare room.”
“And it’s all set up and ready to go,” Kate said. “The girl would sleep in there.”
Of course she would. The room closest to Reg and Kate’s had always been reserved for the newest kids, or the youngest, depending who needed them most.
“What about the boy?”
Charlie waited for Kate to repeat the proposition he’d overheard her put to Reg. For all this was a family discussion, it seemed they had the finer details worked out already.
“We were thinking he could go in the study.”
“The study?” Andy raised a doubtful eyebrow. “Bit small, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes, but Charlie is just across the hall. We were thinking the boy could store most of his things in there.”
Charlie sat up sharply. That wasn’t the plan he’d overheard, and his cupboards were jam-packed with his own stuff. “You want him to share my space?”
“To start with,” Kate said. “We’ll get it sorted as soon as we can, but the interaction with you might do him some good.”
“Interaction?”
“Contact. Conversation. These kids have been through a lot, and their files say neither of them sleep well. Having Andy around helped you settle when you first came to us.”
Kate looked beseechingly at Andy, who took his cue. “It’s true. You screamed the place down the first night we had you, then I came to stay for the summer holidays and voila: sleeping like a baby.”
“I don’t remember that.”
Andy shrugged. “Why would you? It was just a few weeks, but it worked. Might help this kid too.”
Reg nodded his agreement. “It would be temporary, Charlie. We’d get some new furniture in due course.”
“Okay . . .” Charlie was coming around to the idea. He’d shared his wardrobe before. He could do it again, right? And perhaps a good clear out would do him good. “I’m in. I vote yes.”
Fliss huffed. “So it’s settled, then, is it? Charlie gets to decide for everyone?”
“Nothing’s decided.” Kate put her hand on the files Reg had brought to the table. “This is a big decision, and it affects us all. We’d like to help these children, but not at the expense of the family we already have. So please, keep asking your questions, and we’ll do our best to answer them.”
Charlie considered the offer. “Where are they now? With another family?”
“Yes, but no one there can sign for the little girl except the brother.” Again, Kate looked to Reg. “They’re in Swindon at the moment. Social services think they’d be better off starting out somewhere new.”
“‘Starting out’?” Fliss frowned again. “How long are they going to be here?”
“If . . .” Reg held up a hand to quiet Fliss. “Ifthey come to us, how long they stay would depend on what we could do for them, and that hangs a little on the rest of you. Kate and I can’t do this alone, and we wouldn’t want to. We want to do this together, as a family.”
Reg had a way with Fliss no one else did. After a protracted stare down, she relaxed—the aggression seeping out of her—and shrugged. “Whatever. Just keep them out of my room, yeah?”
“What are their names?” Andy asked.
