Mary Lou nearly stumbled over Modesty in her haste to answer the knock at the door. Pausing briefly to smooth down her hair and dress. When she opened the door, Credence could see Adeline and her father standing in the doorway with his hands placed protectively on her shoulders. Beside him came to stand Chastity and Modesty to greet their guest.
"Good morning, Mr. Scott." Mary Lou kept her head held high, bowing it slightly in a tilted greeting.
"Mary Lou, it's a pleasure." He reached forward to take her hand, placing a kiss gently on its back. Credence and Modesty exchanged a look of unease, then they both focused their attention at newly shined shoes.
"Would you like to come in?" She asked.
"Well, Mary Lou, unfortunately I'm afraid I really must be on my way. My train leaves in just short of 30 minutes."
"Oh, what a shame, we were just about to sit down to fresh biscuits, Mr. Scott." She brought her hand to her chin and gave a sweet smile. "We'll just have to make some for when you return."
Mr. Nickel's gave a broad smile.
"I think I'd like that, Mary Lou." He placed a hand on top of Adeline's head like she were a child. "I must be on my way, thank you again for your kindness."
He turned to look down at Adeline, standing a good bit taller than her and Mary Lou.
"You behave yourself, you hear?"
Adeline smiled weakly.
"Yes, Father."
When Mary Lou and Mr. Nickels had said their goodbyes and the door shut behind him all the warmth in the room seemed to go with him. Mary Lou didn't say a word in greeting to her and her smile immediately vanished, so that Adeline was taken aback. Mary Lou just returned to the living area to write her sermon.
The Barebone children and Adeline stood in the hall for a moment longer. Adeline feeling embarrassed that she were dropped off at their doorstep to be babysat when she was, in all reality, a woman perfectly capable of tending to herself. She raised her chin a bit defiantly at this thought, caught off guard by Chastity.
"We were just about to sort some fliers...Would you like to help?"
Adeline blinked.
"Oh, yes." And followed them off into the kitchen for a day filled with silence and gloom, shuffling fliers around till dinner. There were in fact, no biscuits to warm the kitchen. Or at least, the biscuits that were there seemed cold and were left untouched in the center of the table. Adeline wondered if they had been for her Father alone, and didn't dare request one.
As Adeline reached forward for another flier, her arm brushed against Credence's briefly. She looked to Credence and whispered a small apology, though he hadn't seemed to mind at all.
Every now and then, Chastity would watch Adeline and Credence catch each others eye, then look away embarrassed. She turned her eyes down to her own papers, folding what would later be placed in mailboxes, a pleased smile turning up at her lips. She glanced up every so often, waiting till they gave each other another look.
"Did you enjoy those stewed apples, Credence?" She asked, careful to keep her voice low for Mary Lou in the other room.
Credence jumped, breaking his gaze with Adeline and felt his ears get hot, looking at her in alarm. She gave a playful smile then turned to Adeline.
"They were very nice over ice cream, Adeline. You did a wonderful job."
Adeline lit up at the compliment, folding a flier with more zest than before.
"Thank you! They were my mother's old recipe, I found it tucked away in her old recipe book."
Credence couldn't help feeling a bit jealous as the two girls came to chat quietly but animatedly, Adeline's attention stolen by new born friends with even Modesty chiming in every so often. The topic quickly fell to cooking and preferences of baking methods. He felt lost to the conversation, as Chastity did a majority of the cooking, falling silent across the table to stew in his envy. His attention only brought back at the mention of the explosions around the city. Modesty chimed in:
"Ma says that it's witchcraft."
"Is that so?" Adeline asked sweetly, looking down at the little girl beside her who's feet hung off the chair and barely touched the floor. Modesty nodded.
"Why, that's what my Father says as well. And what do you think of that, Modesty?"
A corner of Modesty mouth pulled up to one side as she thought, looking for a moment, a bit troubled. She spoke quietly, looking at Credence.
"I wish I could do it, I'd protect Credence."
The table fell silent, and Credence gave Modesty a forlorn look. He was just about to speak when Adeline did.
"Oh sweetheart," Adeline took the little girl's hand sincerely, lowering her head to be closer to her. She spoke even more quietly than before. "That's quite noble of you, to want to protect your brother. But you mustn't say such a thing. It's quite a vile punishment from God, to be so unnatural. You don't want that, do you?"
Credence felt a dagger stab through his heart, twist, and tear all the way down to his stomach. All hope lost in a single moment. He looked at her in devastated disbelief but she never even seemed to notice. Adeline only smiled at Modesty then up at Chastity who returned her smile for handling the situation seemingly so easy.
"How about I fix us some afternoon tea? I'll be here a bit, so I may as well make myself useful."
On the third and final day of Adeline's stay, Credence laid in bed after breakfast and chores, resting briefly before he would have to help serve the orphaned children their soup. His mind turned over the words Adeline had told Modesty with a sinking feeling.
'It's quite a vile punishment from God, to be so unnatural.'
He wasn't quite sure what he had expected. Her and her father had, after all, attended their meetings and at the very least her father had always shown great support of Mary Lou against witchcraft. He should have known that Adeline would be no different, Mr. Nickels was Adeline's father and only parent, it made sense that her views would reflect his.
It was different for him. He loved Mary Lou like a mother, but he never felt that motherly care that Adeline must receive from her father.
It flashed through his mind: The belt slapping down on his hand. The pain rushing up his arm, bringing tears to his eyes. The shame he felt as he clenched his jaw and held back reaction, much too old now to cry.
He placed a hand to his forehead, heart beginning to thud in his chest at the memory, hands still aching with the lashes received not long ago. His thumb traced a faint scar just under his eye that he received when Mary Lou had brought the belt to his face. He remembered very clearly what he'd done. The travesty of a forgotten dish in the sink. Blasphemy.
He largely suspected that Mary Lou only kept him for chores and the safety of having a man in a house full of women. Though he doubted anyone would dare attempt to face the fierceness of her. But no, it was different for him, that he could so easily turn away from what he was brought up in. He could find safety in magic, that he could not find in Mary Lou, and that which Adeline must find in her father.
He stared ahead at a baseball he'd found outside, now sitting on his dresser, and tried to focus hard on getting it to move towards him. Trying to distract himself from the memories that now seemed stuck on repeat in his mind. There was a spell for this, he knew it, he'd seen Mr. Graves use it once. But...what was it? He couldn't quite recall...
Graves had promised to teach him magic, if he could just find the child. Which was proving to be even more difficult than originally thought. Credence glanced down at his watch, it was almost time to go down.
What had he even expected with Adeline? Once he found the child, he would leave with Graves, and Graves would become the sole person in his life. Adeline would be left behind in the city with her father and she would likely marry eventually without a single thought of him. It was a silly crush, he berated himself for it.
She was kind, though. A heavy blanket of misery fell over him.
Then quite suddenly, he lifted his head to look at the baseball. Accio! That was the spell! He reached out his hand and said:
"Accio!"
"Credence!" Adeline cried from his doorway. Credence looked at her in wide eyed horror, just as the baseball missed his hand and smacked into his face. He fell back in bed, stars shooting out in all directions of his vision.
"Credence!" She rushed to him, going to grab his face, then stopping short as he pressed his own hands to his face. A muffled cry of pain escaped him.
"Ice!" Her voice was shrilly and she gather up her skirts, quickly rushing out the room and down the stairs to where she could retrieve ice from the kitchen.
Mary Lou had stepped out, so that Chastity stood alone cutting vegetables for the soup. She looked up alarmed at Adeline's rush.
"What's happened?"
Adeline struggled for words, dumbfounded. What had happened? Though she was quite certain of what she'd seen. Chastity waited for a response but just got Adeline staring off unfocused with mouth agape and a slight shake of her head in disbelief.
"I don't know!" Adeline piled ice cubes into a cloth and rushed upstairs with Chastity quickly following suit.
Credence now sat on the edge of his bed with his face in his hands. When he looked up at Adeline and Chastity in the doorway, he was certain he was done for. But Adeline just rushed forward and pressed the cold cloth to his temple, just beside his eye, which was starting to swell shut and turn a deep red.
"What happened?" Chastity asked again, this time to Credence. The baseball sat beside him on the bed.
Credence struggled to come up with an excuse with pain still shooting through his head.
"I-I threw the ball, but didn't catch it." As he said it, he didn't even believe it himself. But, looking up at Chastity, she seemed satisfied.
However, Adeline sat stiffly with an averted gaze for a moment too long before turning eyes back on him, her distress poorly masked with an unconvincing short, nod.
He felt like he might choke on the panic that rose in his throat but he struggled to keep it down. Adeline continued to dab at the blood oozing from his injury, but she seemed entirely too fixated on his wound. Neither spoke in the presence of Chastity. How could they? His sister sat beside him and put her arm around his shoulder in a small, comforting squeeze.
"Oh Credence," She said quietly, "What are we going to tell Mother?"
From downstairs the church doors opened, signaling the return of Mary Lou and the children there to be fed.
The whole time Adeline stood spooning soup into bowls beside Credence, her heart pounded. Every time the church door opened she felt like her heart stopped. She glanced at Credence who stood handing the children fliers. His head fixed concretely forward, observing each child with the utmost focus. Not once did he glance her way. Tension radiated between the two so thickly that Chastity kept glancing back at them, no longer in impishness, but in concern.
When Father walked in, Adeline gasped so loudly that heads turned to look at her in alarm. She trembled, giving an awkward laugh, dropping the ladle into the soup then awkwardly fished it out.
"Oh, I'm so clumsy."
Credence studied her with upturned eyebrows and a blackening eye. Could she really be so scared of him? He could only imagine how terrifying witchcraft must be to her. People didn't burn at the stakes for lack of fear. He swallowed audibly, struggling to keep a frown from tugging at his lips.
Adeline watched her Father carefully as he spoke with Mary Lou. She looked back at Credence suddenly, as if expecting he might have been dragged away. When she found him looking directly at her with a mixture of misery and confusion, she turned away as suddenly as she had turned towards.
As the last of the children gathered their soup and they picked up the remnants of the event, Adeline gathered a handful of dirty rags and carried them towards the back laundry room so quickly that Credence felt she were running from him. It took everything he had not to run after her and rise the suspicion of Mr. Nickels and his mother, who stood chatting only yards away. In the sink, his fist clenched around a rag so tightly all the soapy water ran out and he had to take a deep breath to steady himself. He had to talk to her. If Graves found out that he'd been found out...What would Graves do? Would he disown him? Had he just ruined his whole plan?
He dropped the rag, following after her.
Immediately though, at the sound of his footsteps, she turned to face him, her face draining ashen at the sight of him. It nearly pulled the breath right out from him to see her so afraid.
"Adeline…" He pleaded. She was already shaking her head in short, quick movements. He could see it in her eyes 'No! Stop! Get away from me!'
"Credence! My boy!" Mr. Nickels boomed cheerfully in the doorway, slapping his hands on the boy's shoulders. The action scaring him so much that tears stung his eyes. Mr. Nickels gave him a rough pat. "What happened to you! Had a row with a baseball I hear?"
Adeline ducked out of the room so quickly that Credence felt the wind trail behind her. Outside the door, she paused, signing the cross. Should she go back in? No, Father couldn't see her so shaken. And...She didn't want to acknowledge the truth of what she'd seen. She only stood a second longer to ensure that Credence was able to keep conversation.
When she entered the kitchen again, taking over the dishes that Credence had left, Chastity approached her cautiously.
"Adeline, is everything alright?" She asked quietly.
"Absolutely!" Adeline said a bit too hurriedly, she paused, forcing a smile on her face, dipping her head to the side and dropping her shoulders in sincerity. "You all have been a wonderful host, thank you so much."
Chastity furrowed her eyebrow for a moment, then smiled weakly, only nodding her acknowledgement.