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The greenhouse door opened just enough for two small girls to slip through, but the movement was enough to make Dr Crowley turn in his seat and fix a sharp stare in their direction. Around him, the class carried on with the practical tasks they had been set for this lesson, and had been doing under his supervision.
He crooked one finger in command and the pair slunk over to stand in front of him, Jess leading Izzie by the hand. "What," he asked, his voice low and level, "are you doing here?"
They looked at each other.
"It's my fault," Izzie whimpered. "Mom wants to get hold of me so she can make me go back to how I used to be, and Jess said she knew somewhere I could hide until Mamma arrived."
He went very still, like a cobra poised to strike. Every student in the greenhouse had a sudden impression of tightly controlled fury that made Dr Crowley's usual snarl and snap look like a sputtering candle flame in comparison. Someone, they were sure, was about to have him come down on them like the wrath of hell, and there was a suddenly much checking of instructions to make quite sure it wasn't any of them.
He took a long breath, and his voice was just as low and almost as level when he asked, "Where did you see her? And when?"
They gave him wary looks and their mouths went into stubborn lines, braver than any of the students he had (or just more oblivious).
He sighed through gritted teeth. "I'm not going to give you up to her. I need to know in case she comes walking through that door after you."
"We were in creche," Jess said. Jess, who knew something more of him than rumours, and still held Izzie's hand tight in case they needed to bolt. "She came up to the door and we went out the back." Something of an escape artist, childcare had called her. Looked like they were right.
He looked at them, fury clamped down along with old memories of his own, and nodded, dropping his voice to the point the students wouldn't catch his words. "Smart work, young ladies," he told them, and Izzie stared at him, her mouth falling open in delight.
Izzie, who hadn't seen him except as a shadow in the driver's seat and couldn't know that he knew - and therefore had just had a stranger treat her as the girl she was without so much as a blink.
Crowley pretended not to notice, checking his watch instead and then raised his voice so that all the students could hear. "Ten minutes to go. Finish the part of the task you're on, and then clean up."
Much bustling broke out, as the class put everything away, cleaned up, and fled before the fury could break over them.
Crowley left them to it, and looked back at Jess and Izzie. "You stay here. Izzie, do you know your Mamma's phone number?"
"Why?"
"If you're going to escape with her, she needs to know where you are. And then, when you're safe and out of her reach," he produced a smile so thin it looked like a snarl, "your Mom is going to discover just how much trouble she's in."
Izzie considered this for a very long moment, her eyes studying him minutely. He waited. He was never sure what children this small saw in him, but like Jess, they all seemed to gravitate to him, as if they could sense he was safe. He laid a protective hand over his bad knee, which left his arm blocking access to that leg so Jess couldn't climb it again. All the students had gone by the time he added, mostly to Izzie, "I chose my own name, as it happens."
He saw understanding blossom in her face. She climbed up onto the bench beside him and whispered a number in his ear.