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= Riddles =

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The Drop


Thomas and Anthony Riddle were found on the doorsteps of Wool's orphanage in a classic case of knock-and-run on the orphanage's worn front door. Mrs. Cole was particularly incensed about it, because she would swear on her mother's china tea set that she had looked out of the window before she opened the door. There was a man there, and it took her but two minutes to get out.

When she opened the door, there was nobody in both direction of the street for as far as the eye could see—a feat she would've deemed impossible if she hadn't just seen it with her own eyes.

She huffed. The nerve of people these days! Couldn't they actually be bothered to be polite, introduce themselves and stay for a chat over tea? It's not as if she would deny any child that needed a place to stay in! She still had a heart, thank you. Her feet bumped into a basket at that moment and she forgot about her inner tirade against the running man. Shuffling the blanket, a pair of little heads met her—one fair-haired, the other darker. She was thankful that they both managed to stay asleep through their entire ordeal. Anthony was pinned on the blond's clothes, while Thomas on the darker-haired one.

She stared at their peaceful sleeping forms of two beautiful little boys and felt her much-battered and often-fixed heart taking a beating again. If there was actually someone who can deliver them here, then they do have family, right? She had seen the man's coat, and even if it was worn, it wasn't threadbare or too cheap. Why would their family refuse to do more for them? Why would keeping them with family be a worse option than placing them in an orphanage?

Who could've abandoned such beautiful babies?

If there was something that Jemima Cole had learned from all her years overseeing the children here, it was that for many people, there were no happy endings. Sometimes, happy beginnings don't exist either. She would just do her best for them and hoped it would be enough.

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