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the street?  Or do you want to continue to stay here?”
    “We want to stay
here,” Wren said quickly.  Her heart was beating furiously, hammering away at
the nails in her coffin.  She felt that since this had happened, they would be
cast out on the street for certain, regardless of what she said.
    Henry still
hadn’t tried to make a case for himself, and Nora was waiting for him to.  When
he did not, she called for his attention.
    “Henry,” she
said sternly.  “Your sister loves you very much, and you have hurt her by
this.”
    Wren saw his
eyes widen – saw the words welling behind his lips and she begged for them not
to burst free.  When he actually managed to keep quiet, she was relieved.
    “I’m going to
try one more time to place you in work, but this is the last chance.  I have
often refused that any children in my house should go to the mines, but perhaps
that is the only place for you.”
    “No!”  Wren
protested on his behalf.  She knew how treacherous the mines would be.  There
was often news of cave-ins, and even if not that, she still did not want to
imagine her brother down there alone in the dark.  “Please just put us in
another factory and nothing like this will ever happen again.”
    Nora eyed them
both, giving particular consideration to Henry, but she didn’t say anything
else on the subject.
    “Henry, you may
go.  Wren, I’d like you to stay a moment.”
    Henry cast a
glance at Wren and then tromped out heatedly, glad to be free, but the idea of
time alone with Miss Nora did not make Wren feel at ease.  It could not have
led to any good conversations.
    Once the woman
was sure that Henry had gone, she looked Wren in the eyes.
    “You need to
prepare yourself for the worst,” she said firmly.  “The two of you lashed out
at a supervisor and caused him to be severely injured.  This is not something
that’s easily hidden or forgiven.  No one wants a defiant youth.”
    “But you will
try,” Wren led on hopefully, though she felt she was asking in vain.
    “That man violated
our contract, but that cannot explain away what you did to him.  I’m not going
to hold my breath, and you shouldn’t either.  I may still be able to get some
domestic work for you, but if I can’t place Henry within the next few weeks,
then he’s going off to Armstrong’s to work in the mines.  I’ll leave it to you
to tell him – or not – as you see fit.”
    Wren felt tears
pressing behind her eyes, but she couldn’t say that she hadn’t known.  A
thousand consequences had gone through her mind and this had only been one
possibility.  They couldn’t get away with what they had done, even if it hadn’t
been entirely their fault.  It would have been better if Henry had just let her
take the beating.  At least it would have been over and done with.
    She looked down
at the scarred surface of the desk, trying to keep herself together.
    “May I go now?”
she asked, her voice low and strained.  But Nora would not release her.
    “There is one
more thing.”  Wren looked up, wondering how this could have gotten worse, but
knowing it was about to.  “A husband and wife who were at the visitation
yesterday have expressed a desire for adoption, and I have approved it.”
    Wren wasn’t sure
how to feel about that.  Her heart was tugging one way and her mind the other. 
If she were a puppet, she would have been tangled beyond use.  She remembered
the woman she had spoken to and her husband with the hungry eyes.  Was it them?
    “They want to
adopt Max – only Max.”
    Wren’s face fell
as understanding sank in, passing from cautious expectation to absolute fear.
    “What?  No!”  It
was her natural reaction to protest, whether or not it was acceptable for her
to do so.  She had been looking after Max since he was a baby, and though she’d
claim she didn’t want him to look to her as a mother, she couldn’t help but
feel that her own child was being ripped from her.
    “Wren,