But looking at her daughter now, Madeleine wondered if she’d once again misjudged things.
Mumbling a brief greeting at the boys, she went over and put a protective hand on Clara’s forehead, tentatively anticipating a fever. But no, her daughter was cool as the proverbial cucumber. Madeleine furrowed her brow. What was going on, then?
“Hey, honey. You OK?”
Clara looked up at her mother solemnly and shrugged. “I’m a bit tired. I want to go up to my room for a while.” With that, she pushed past the rest of the group and trudged upstairs.
Madeleine watched, feeling confused. It was as if a completely different child had returned home from the one she had dropped off at school that morning. That little girl had been eager and excited to go back to school; she had been full of beans. Whereas this version of Clara resembled a deflated balloon.
She shook her head and returned her attention to the three boys. Jake and Brian were gradually getting louder and louder in their banter, and she noted that Cameron had started to wear an agitated look.
She moved quickly to head things off at the pass. “All right, you two, settle down. You all have homework to do, so get cracking on that and I’ll go get you a drink and some snacks. Cameron, come and help me?”
The older boy dutifully followed his aunt into the kitchen while the others continued to loiter.
“So how was your day, sweetheart?” she asked him as she prepared drinks for the kids. Saying nothing, Cameron shrugged and kept his gaze focused on the kitchen cabinets as she continued chattering. “I’ve been busy today. With Clara going back to school, I was able to get some work done, and I just finished editing something new before you all came home.” Madeleine knew that, much like her kids, her nephew didn’t really know anything—or care—about her work but, regardless, she kept talking. “I put a nice picture of Clara up online now that she’s better. It’s great that she’s well again, isn’t it?”
She pulled out a box of cupcakes she’d picked up at the café earlier and put them on the counter next to where Cameron sat, then turned toward the coffeemaker, where she inserted a pod and pressed the start button for a cup for herself.
“Here you go—blue with chocolate sprinkles.” Winking, she turned around and leaned against the counter, crossing her arms and enjoying the sight of her nephew happily engaged with his cake. Luckily, she and her sister-in-law were of the same mind when it came to sugar: a treat now and then never did anyone any harm. In fact, some studies suggested that the more parents tried to restrict them, the more kids wanted them.
Which, when you thought about it, was true of just about everything.
“Nice, isn’t it? I bought a blue one for Clara, too. I’m hoping it’ll cheer her up. She seemed a bit down in the dumps just now.”
Madeleine wasn’t expecting any feedback on that particular comment or indeed any of her ramblings, but suddenly her nephew spoke.
“She is sad,” Cameron said simply and she was surprised, because he really wasn’t one for chatter, and also because he didn’t usually have much to do with his cousin by way of the fact that they attended different schools.
“Do you know why?”
There was a long pause as Cameron seemed to be contemplating his aunt’s words. His eyes flickered to her face briefly before once again looking away.
“A mean kid. At school. She told Jake in the car that he said you might be going to jail.”
Madeleine furrowed her brow. Cameron was difficult to make sense of at the best of times but... “What kid? And what do you mean? Why would I go to jail?”
“You and Uncle Tom, Jake said. For getting kids sick.”
Nowshe understood. Madeleine turned back to the counter to collect her coffee but mostly to ensure that Cameron didn’t see the sharp change in her facial expression.
She felt her blood pressure rising—he had given her just the right amount of information for her to get the gist of exactly what had been said to Clara.
And, if she was a betting woman, Madeleine would put money on who had said it.
Christine bloody Campbell’s kid Kevin.
Turning back to Cameron, she fixed a smile on her face and then walked over to where he sat. “OK, sweetheart, when you’re finished, wash your hands and then go on into the dining room. It sounds like Brian and Jake are already in there, and you all need to do your homework. I am just going to check on Clara for a second and then I’ll be back down to help you. OK?”
Climbing the stairs in search of Clara, she thought of her newly recovered daughter being taunted by a loudmouth brat on the poor thing’s first day back at school. Now that she knew what was wrong, she needed to quell her daughter’s fears. She and Tom had done their utmost to teach the kids to always stand up for themselves, but her daughter having to listen to such crap while she was still vulnerable from her illness was not acceptable.
On entering her room, she found Clara lying quietly on her bed.
“Hey, Cam told me that you had a bit of a tough time today. Why don’t you tell me about it?” Clara snuggled up to her the moment she sat down on her bed. “Did someone say something mean to you?”
She nodded and buried her face in her mother’s chest. Then Madeleine heard her stifle a sob and it broke her heart. “Are you and Daddy going to go to jail because Rosie and me got sick?” she mumbled, turning her head to once again look up at her mother.
Madeleine worked her hardest to keep her expression composed.
