It had been a few hours since Mary and Matthew had found the news out about William, they'd been unsure whether to tell Sybbie and Alfie yet. They didn't want to get their hopes up, especially with how corrupt some of the police officers were. The last thing they need was for William to get off scot free and send them backwards in their recovery.
This was the happiest they had seen Sybbie since it had happened, despite her tears earlier she had almost come to life since Alfie had been here and it was so nice to see that spark back in her eyes. The two sat in the library with Constable Holmes, bribing Sybbie and Alfie to leave them to it with ice cream and free reign of the gardens before bed. The two children very quickly left them to it, they had always enjoyed roaming the gardens together and it looked especially beautiful with the street lamps illuminating it all up. Mary and Matthew sat on the edge of the seat, talking the poor Constable's ear off.
"So what's happening? What do we have to do? What's going to happen to Alfie and Sybbie? Alfie's parents don't know yet... we can't get a hold of them on the phone," Mary said tapping her fingers against her knee. Matthew hid a small smile as he looked at the poor Constable, he could see a vein in his forehead throb from the incessant questions and he rubbed his forehead, trying to relieve the banging headache that he had coming on.
"Lady Mary, one question at a time please" He said kindly, knowing how excited she was that the boy who had traumatised so many people would finally get what was coming to him. She smiled sheepishly at the young man, blushing as she took in his tired complexion and ruffled appearance, clearly he'd been working hard to help them. She was so grateful to him for trying so hard to help them.
"Sorry Constable, we're just unsure what will happen to the children. You know will they have to go to the police to make official statements? It's just we have no way of getting ahold of Alfie's family! They still think he's at school!" Mary muttered, realising that this could potentially delay things. Not only that but she didn't feel comfortable going behind their backs, surely they'd want to be with him. The constable sighed, his headache increasing. He clearly hadn't thought about this part either, he'd only been thinking about calming the traumatised boy down which had meant dropping him to the Crawley's.
"I'll be honest, I hadn't thought about it! I was just so shocked about William getting arrested that I didn't think! Did he tell you when they were coming back? It might mean William will be put on bail if it's too long because Alfie needs his parents here, you two aren't his guardians" He said, sitting down across from them.
"He said they were coming back next week, potentially. Which is quite a long time isn't it?" Matthew said, grimacing when he saw the Constable nod his head. Especially when you factored in the amount of money William's father had at his disposal, he'd have his son out tomorrow on bail potentially and there was nothing they could do about it. He tried to calm them down, it was no use them getting in a state.
"We just have to keep building our case up, there's no use stressing about it at the moment. All we can do is keep ringing them and hope that they answer, if not then we will just have to wait until next week," He said with a firm nod of his head, they were all getting somewhere now.
"Thank you so much for everything Constable," Matthew said getting up to shake his hand and to show him out, locking the door behind him. Mary called Alfie and Sybbie back into the house, smiling at them as they came running through the drawing room. Sybbie could tell that they were both in a good mood, she looked at them and raised an eyebrow.
"Mummy... Daddy, why are you so happy? What's happened?" She said softly and Alfie looked at them too, he noticed their good mood as well and he hoped that it was to do with William. Mary smiled and ran her hand through the girls curly hair, smiling more when she snuggled in her arms. She loved her little girl so much.
"Never you mind, we will tell you tomorrow. It's getting late now, off to bed you two!" She affectionately rubbed her cheek and turned her attention to Alfie, hugging him tight. She didn't want to leave him out, he hugged her back tightly... so thankful for the compassion that they'd all shown to him. Sybbie hugged Matthew tight and kissed his cheek, giggling when he spun her around.
"Good night my darling!" He said warmly, putting her down and reaching forward to shake Alfie's hand affectionately, he was growing increasingly more fond over the young lad. Sybbie and Alfie made their way upstairs to Mary and Matthew's room, getting into their respective beds and trying to go to sleep. Alfie couldn't stop twisting and turning, unable to fall asleep. He was curious about what his best friend's parents wanted to tell them, Sybbie climbed out of bed and crawled into his, snuggling up to him.
"I can't sleep either," She whispered and smiled as she felt him hug her tight, she buried into his chest and felt safe. She felt bonded to him almost, he was one of the only people her age who understood what she had been through and how she felt. Her eyes started feeling heavy and she drifted to sleep, Alfie followed soon after. That's how they were discovered by Mary and Matthew who grinned slightly at the two before getting into bed themselves.
It had been two days since they had told the two teenagers the news, it had gone exactly as they expected it too. Mary grinned slightly as she remembered how excited the two teenagers had been.
"Are you serious Mummy! Really? Truely!" Sybbie had screamed with excitement, jumping into her surrogate mother's arms. Mary had picked her up and hugged her tight, kissing her cheeks and holding her close. Alfie had grinned, rubbing a shaky hand over his face. He couldn't believe it, they would hopefully now have justice for everything they'd been put through. Matthew had pulled the young man into a hug by the back of his neck, Alfie had relaxed into his arms. Tears threatening to overflow, so he tightened his arms around Matthew instead to keep them at bay. Matthew noticed immediately, it had been something that George would do when he was overwhelmed.
"Are you alright, my dear chap?" He ran a hand through the boys messy hair in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. Alfie was overwhelmed by the situation and their kindness too.
"Just feeling a bit overwhelmed, I just.. I never thought he'd even get arrested so it's a good start!" Alfie hiccuped slightly and Matthew pat his back softly and pulled away from him, handing him a handkerchief. He really needed to get more of those. Sybbie jumped into Matthew's arms and Alfie switched over to Mary, burying into her arms. No more words needed to be said, he was so happy.
"He could still get bail... in fact he probably will. But it's a start!" Matthew whispered, hugging his little girl tight.
Mary came out of the memory, smiling a little to herself. Alfie had decided the day before to go back to Eaton, having found out that William wouldn't be allowed back there on condition of his bail. Mary and Matthew had been sad to see him go, they were very fond of him. Sybbie was very upset however, not wanting to be without him. She felt so lost, unsure what to do with herself now that Alfie was gone. Mary after talking to Matthew had an idea, she looked towards the little girl who was sitting there glumly chewing on a piece of toast.
"Sybbie, Daddy and I were thinking... how would you feel about going back to school? Just for a couple days a week, just to get you started," Mary said softly, watching as the little girl's face lit up slightly. She had always loved learning, especially when she was a little girl. But over the last few months, she'd had that taken away from her.
"I think I could manage that... when would I start?" She said softly, Mary and Matthew's face filled with a loving smile. They were so proud of their little girl, she had changed so much in the last couple of weeks! Almost reminding them of the girl who she used to be before she was attacked, it was so lovely to see.
"Well... it's only 8:00am now, if you wanted to then we could head down after breakfast? We could speak to your teacher about getting you enrolled again. Does that sound good?" Matthew said softly, smiling over to the little girl. Sybbie put down her cup and got up excitedly, rushing the two adults to finish.
"When can we go?!" Sybbie said eagerly, Matthew and Mary both laughed and stood up, unaware of just how difficult it was going to be.
It was now lunch time and things hadn't gone well, at all. It had started out great, with both Matthew and Mary enrolling the girl back with the teacher she'd had before she stopped going to school. Mrs Woods had been delighted to see Sybbie again, she'd been one of her best students and always tried her best in everything she had done. Mary had briefly explained that Sybbie had been going through a hard time, not going into too much details as to what had happened, she didn't feel like it was her business to explain what Sybbie had gone through.
After a tearful goodbye, Sybbie was on her own. She'd sat at her desk and studied hard, very quickly catching up on all she had missed. Mrs Woods was delighted, praising Sybbie for her beautiful writing and the way she had completed every single maths problem before a lot of the students in her class had lifted their pen to paper. She had missed the sniggers and sneers coming from some of the other students, but Sybbie hadn't. She was also sure that she'd heard one boy utter 'whore' under his breath. Oh no.
It was during lunch that everything went wrong, Sybbie had sat down with some sandwiches and a drink completely minding her own business. She was already finding things incredibly difficult, she could tell that her classmates didn't like her very much. They never had. Before, it was always to do with where she lived and how much money she had, what clothes she wore and the fact that she was quite quiet. Now, she didn't want to think why, but deep down she knew and now her fears were confirmed.
"Hey Sybbie! How much do you charge?" A boy sneered, she was unsure as to who he was. He hadn't been there when she was last at the school, she could hear people laughing at her and her cheeks burned. She got up and tried to walk away, she felt him grab her shoulder and turn her back around.
"Whore, I was talking to you!" He hissed, grabbing her breasts through her shirt. She let out a terrified yelp, backing away from him. She shrunk under his gaze, a group of children surrounding them and laughing. She wanted to die of embarrassment, how could they do this to her. Tears streamed down her face, she wanted Mary and Matthew desperately. How she wished that she'd never gone to school.
"I heard that she gives it out for free! At least that's what William told my brother," A girl piped up, Sybbie recognised it to be Anne. Her brother had gotten a scholarship to go to Eaton, of course he would know William. She was once a close friend of hers, this hurt more than the words this boy was saying to her. More jeers and laughter now and Sybbie wanted to cry even more, but she knew that it wouldn't help her situation.
"Stop it! You have no idea what happened to me! What he did to me, what I've lost! You just shut up!" Sybbie yelled, craning her head up to look at them. She was so much smaller than they were, she knew she had no hope against them whatsoever. She felt a couple of the boys drag her to the empty hall that they would use for their exercise classes and hold her down on the floor, she kicked and she screamed. A few of the boys were looking out in case a teacher came, not that any would of course. The teachers ate separately from the children and probably wouldn't be back on site for another 20 minutes at least!
One of the boys ripped her shirt off, exposing her to most of the class. Sybbie burst into tears, trying to cover herself up. A few of the students watched on, uncomfortable now. Things were going too far but they had no idea how to stop it, listening to her cries were heart breaking. The boy who had started this all off, tore her skirt up. She kicked and she fought, not again... please not again!
"Please let me go! I won't tell... I won't tell please," Sybbie sobbed as she felt him rip her undergarments off completely. She felt something hard touch her intimate spot all over again. This couldn't be happening, not to her! Not again.
"This is for William! You lied about him, so now I'll make sure you really regret it!" He growled and shoved himself inside of her, she let out a scream. Begging and pleading for someone to help her, why were they all just watching her! It hurt... it really hurt, this was even worse than when William had violated her! Having everyone either watch or turn away was mortifying and just added to her shame. Her mind went totally blank, she shut down completely and utterly. He finished inside her with a loud groan, it felt like hours that this had gone on for but really it was probably only 10 minutes or so.
Sybbie got up, bleeding and terrified and rushed from the classroom. She had never felt so disgusting in all her life, she ran and ran! Not really sure where she was going or what she was doing. She couldn't be in this school, she couldn't be here. William had lied about her, had told them that she had wanted it and now look at what happened! His influence was everywhere she went, she felt physically sick. She knew she wasn't safe now, not ever.
It had taken Sybbie nearly 2 hours to walk back to the house, she was limping and tearful. Trying desperately to hide everything she had gone through, she snuck into the house. It didn't go as planned, she heard Mary behind her and oh god, she wanted to disappear entirely. She stilled, her heart racing a mile a minute as she tried to stop her tears.
"Did you have a good day? You're quite early..." She said softly and touched the little girl's hair, not expecting the reaction that she got. Sybbie pulled away like an injured animal, yelping pitifully. Mary frowned and then she saw it... her messy uniform, the blood trickling down her leg, her messy hair. Oh no.. please no. Sybbie took the opportunity and ran as fast as she could, up to her bathroom and locked herself in. She turned the water on as hot as she could and crawled into the bath, sobbing her heart out as the remnants of her trauma were washed away.
She didn't know how long she was in for, but when she got out of the bath she saw Mary sitting on her bed. A pair of fresh pyjamas on the bed, a hot cup of tea and some biscuits were waiting for her. Sybbie let out a sob, falling into Mary's arms. She felt sick, sore and frightened.
Mary wrapped her up in her arms, getting her dry and into the clean pair of pyjamas. She cleaned her face up and put her on her lap, soothingly rocking her back and forth. Sybbie buried her face into her chest, the guilt overwhelming, just when her life was on track. This happened again, she felt so guilty. She was so exposed, she couldn't go through with this trial now! Not ever, he knew too many people. Too many people who could hurt her.
"Mummy... Mummy," She sobbed pitifully as Mary stroked her hair, hugging her tight and kissing her head. Mary didn't know what to do, the poor child didn't need to say anything. She only had to look at her and it was obvious what had happened, Matthew was going to be furious.
"Mummy's here... Mummy's got you, shhhh" Mary soothed, rocking her back and forth in her lap. Hearing all the commotion from downstairs in the library, Matthew came bounding up the stairs two at a time. He barged into the room and seeing what was going on in front of him, he frowned. What on earth? He looked at Mary and Sybbie, laying his hand on Sybbie's head, stroking her damp hair he stared at Mary who was equally as upset.
"It's happened again Matthew," She whispered, watching as her husband turned pink and growl angrily. At school! She was violated at school!
"Tell me everything!" He whispered, his voice shaking with anger.