Sarah didn’t move.
She stood in the middle of her sitting room and looked at the small boy on her sofa and felt the floor shift slightly underneath her.
Then she approached him slowly.
“No, sweetheart,” she said finally, and her voice came out gentler than she expected. “I’m not your mummy. But you’re safe here.”
Something in his face shifted. Not disappointment exactly. More like a door closing quietly on something he’d been carrying a long time. He nodded once and looked down at the backpack in his lap.
Madam Cassy appeared at Sarah’s shoulder.
“I’ll get him something to eat,” she said under her breath, and disappeared back to the kitchen before Sarah could respond.
Adin had settled himself on the far end of the sofa with a book he wasn’t reading, close enough to be present witho
