And If You Wrong Us

Part 5: Secrets

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thank you for coming to read my story! If you end up enjoying this section, please vote and leave a comment! While you read this chapter, here are some things to think about : 1. What do you think Sarah is doing when she leaves the orphanage grounds? 2. What do you think about Sarah's state of mind?

On a mild winter day, the children were allowed out into the courtyard grounds all at once, a mass of different colored coats and hats, boots crunching around in the snow, mittens being thrown, laughter filling the crisp air. Mr. Raven watched from his office window, smiling at their simple joy. He remembered being a young boy, frolicking in the snow, making snowmen, throwing snowballs at his mother and father.

It feels so long ago.

Mr. Raven straightened as his gaze caught hold of someone leaving the courtyard. Red hair; Sarah. She was so brazen as to walk out in front of the other residents.

Does it bother them? Watching her, and only her, leave the grounds? Do they feel jealous? Her brash behavior is going to rile up the children. This has to stop.

Where is she going? To town, I suppose, but she never returns with clothing or trinkets...unless she isn't reporting them. One time she returned after eight. What kind of business could a young girl have in town at that hour?

There was no use in continuing to wonder and risk a rebellion with the other orphans. He made to follow her.

"Are you daft?! What were you thinking?!"

"I was just — I thought — "

"No, you didn't think! That's the point! You didn't think at all!" He tore through the room after the child, throwing a chair aside, knocking over a stack of books. "You think this is all a joke?!"

"No, no, I don't think that! I just wanted — "

"Wanted. How selfish. What a selfish bitch you are!" He caught up to the child, snatching him by the arm and flinging them backwards into the wardrobe along the wall. "I should have gotten rid of you! What a fool I was to think you - you of all creatures - would learn, would see why we must do these things! You're ungrateful. You've had everything you could ever want, all these years, and still you try and undo me!"

"That wasn't what I was trying — "

"You would do well to hold that sinful tongue of yours!" He slapped him across the face, the smack ringing out into the cold night air. He stood there for a moment, heaving with anger, shoulders shaking. There was an eternity of stillness before his body began to release its tension and his breathing slowed. "You are not to leave the house without presenting yourself to me first. If you cannot abide by this, then you simply won't leave the house...ever. Is that understood?"

Following Sarah through the busy streets unseen was easy at first, but it steadily grew more difficult as the sun began sinking behind the homes and the streets became lonely. He had to duck behind a store sign, or into an alleyway, to avoid being seen. Sarah seemed to sense a presence, glancing to her sides and over her shoulder. She continued on her trek for quite some time, making occasional stops, like the bakery and seamstress.

As night began to fall, he found himself feeling quite silly.

Perhaps she simply needs time away, the freedom of still acting like the mayor's daughter. If she needs pastries to keep her happy and a skilled seamstress to mend her delicate clothing, who am I to stop her?