Rene’s work went fine—about typical, it being the same waitress job she got as an alibi for seeing Adelinde, just with more consistent hours in addition to the occasional ‘we need you to help on this day’—and her shift ended around the time she needed to wait for Adelinde and Matteo. They were eating there—with longer shifts promising a free meal, she figured she could just use it to treat her family—so once they came she went back in and got a good seat.

“The girl didn’t leave,” Adelinde noted as they ate. “She didn’t talk to me, either.”

“You want to go back and see if she’s still there when we’re done?” Rene guessed, smiling a bit.

“As long as you don’t mind,” Adelinde reasoned. “If she is, her parents either didn’t notice she’s not with them or they don’t care. I would rather confirm than leave her out there all night.”

“It’s not much of a detour, so we can go,” Rene said.

Matteo, happily eating and likely only half-listening if that, let out a little cheer at them not going home immediately.

They finished eating in about an hour—some of the other employees came over to chat with Rene or Adelinde, sometimes Matteo if they wanted to tease him—then went back out to the music district. Rene didn’t entirely expect to see that girl still sitting there when there were only half a dozen people remaining near the gazebo, albeit frowning instead of looking on in wonder. She almost looked concerned now.

The family walked over, with Adelinde bending down so she was at eye level with her.

“Hello,” she said nicely. “Have your parents come by yet?”

The girl just blinked. She didn’t make any sounds, but she almost seemed to understand.

“Do you know where your parents are?” Adelinde asked.

Same response. Adelinde frowned a bit; Rene moved to be at eye level as well, and the girl immediately looked at her, almost perking up.

“What’s your name? If you can tell us, we can bring you back to your parents.”

She stared at Rene with some kind of look that reminded her of something she couldn’t quite place.

Adelinde stood and glanced at Rene.

“I’d rather not leave her here,” she said.

Rene responded to the question before she even asked it.

“We can take her back with us,” she replied.

Adelinde offered a little smile in return. “Thank you.”

Rene stood up and gestured for the girl to follow.

“You can stay with us for the night,” Rene offered. The girl almost smiled, standing up as well.

Adelinde led them back to the house, with Matteo shortly behind her and Rene making sure the girl was still close. Oddly enough, she seemed content to stay at her side—more willingly than Matteo had walked with Adelinde four years prior, at least. She remained completely silent, though.

Once they got home, Adelinde opted to put Matteo to bed while Rene led the girl into the kitchen.

“Have you eaten anything yet?” Rene asked the girl.

The girl gave Rene her full attention, but didn’t give any murmur of agreement or denial. Rene pulled out the chair, reached over to lift the girl into it, then pulled away when the girl’s eyes widened and she took a step back. Being a bit closer did let her fully see how thin the girl was—Rene didn’t think it was entirely possible for a San Asari kid to look like they haven’t eaten much in days. Even most Eyset orphans looked better than she did.

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Rene glanced over every now and then as she looked for something to offer as dinner, and Adelinde came in a minute or two later with a piece of paper and a little pencil. She sat them both on the table and went over to Rene.

“There’s still some fruit over here,” Adelinde said, gesturing to a small bowl on the counter. “It can work as a snack, if nothing else.”

Rene nodded, putting a few pieces on a plate and cutting them up.

“She seems to understand what I’m saying,” Rene noted, looking back at the girl for a second just to see she had walked over and sat down in the corner of the room. She didn’t seem as comfortable now that they were inside. “But I haven’t heard her say anything.”

“She might just be shy,” Adelinde said. “I brought some things just to see if she could write her name, but it’s unlikely—she only looks to be two years old.”

“Hard to believe any parent around here would leave a kid that young somewhere, but I…guess I can’t say much. My parents waited until I could communicate, at least.”

“Two year olds in general typically can’t say a lot,” Adelinde reasoned. “You remember how Matteo was when we met. They usually talk as much as they can, but there are exceptions.”

Rene finished cutting the fruit, leaving the knife there and bringing the plate to the girl. She looked up immediately, grabbing each piece and eating as soon as Rene sat the plate down on the floor next to her. That alone was…oddly concerning—even if Rene only spent a lot of time with Matteo and not much other kids.

Rene sat down a reasonable distance away from the girl, while Adelinde did the same after retrieving the pencil and paper. The girl didn’t really seem to notice them while she was eating, but when she finished she looked at them with a bit more of a hopeful look.

Adelinde put the pencil and paper in front of the girl, then said nicely, “Can you write your name? We need something to call you.”

The girl grabbed the pencil, holding it with her full fist. She wrote out four letters, all capitals, albeit still perfectly readable. Judging by Adelinde’s expression, that must not be incredibly normal—between raising Matteo and her friends having their own children, she had more knowledge about what was average and what wasn’t than Rene did.

Rene read it out once the girl dropped the pencil.

“Tara. Is that your name?”

The girl perked up in response.

“Do you know your last name?” Adelinde asked. “I’m Adelinde Dakari, for example. This is Rene Horize.”

Tara deflated a bit again, although she almost seemed to recognize ‘Horize.’ Rene wondered if it might sound similar to hers—plenty of Dakari names took after the first island’s, especially with immigrants’ descendants. The same could be said if she came from a Sólstaðuric family as well.

Silence fell for a moment while they considered it, then Rene spoke up.

“It’s a bit late for you to be awake,” she told Tara. “Why don’t we get you settled in one of the spare rooms?”

Tara stood up as her response, obediently following after Adelinde and Rene as they led her to one of the empty bedrooms. She had a bit of trouble getting up the stairs, but didn’t mind Rene taking her hand to help her up now.

Having agreed to adopt at least—by Adelinde’s phrasing—one kid, one spare room already had most of the essentials so they wouldn’t have to rush to get them when the opportunity came up. Most of the things gathered for Tara were taken from there and put in the second spare bedroom across the hall, closest to the couple’s room.

Rene offered to stay and watch Tara, noticing her hesitance in being alone; Adelinde went to their room after bidding goodnight.

She only meant to stay until Tara seemed settled, but she had a feeling she fell asleep quicker than Tara did just by sitting near the door.

——

Elina took a little breath and knocked on the door Father’s study, only sure he was still in there due to the light coming through the cracks.

“Father?” Did she sound worried? She couldn’t tell. She didn’t want to be held responsible.

“Yes, Elina. What is it?” He sounded…tired. As usual these days.

“That…girl. The one we put in the traitor’s old room.”

“There’s only one girl here. Did she refuse to eat again? Still hiding when someone tries to feed her?”

“No, she…isn’t there anymore. I just looked—I think that woman who fed her let her out sometime today.”

She expected him to get angry—to ask her to get the woman in question, or yell at Elina for letting it happen. Instead, he just sighed.

“Let her be.”

That was far from what she thought she would hear. “What?”

“I meant it. We can collect her again when she’s older.”

“You said you wanted to ‘raise her correctly.’”

“If we bring her back here, it’s only going to draw attention; no one here particularly wants to take care of a child anyway. It could be to her benefit.”

“…All right, then. I’ll let Leo and Mother know.”

“Go ahead.”

She hesitated a second, then murmured some final agreement before leaving.

She had a feeling this could go wrong; if it were up to her, she would get someone to quietly bring the girl back. But, for better or worse, Father is in charge. He would be the one to face any repercussions.