Mummy’s Little Girl: A heart-rending story of abuse, innocence and the desperate race to save a lost child. Jane Elliott

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      Morning came all too quickly.

      When Kaz and Vicki had returned to the room the previous night, Dani had pretended to be asleep. From the nasty comments they made, it was clear they didn’t believe her, but it was easier to lie there with her eyes shut than to have to face them, to talk to them. A few minutes later, one of them had fetched the duvet and slung it on top of Dani; and soon the lights were turned out.

      ‘We know you’re awake,’ Kaz said after a couple of minutes.

      Dani said nothing.

      ‘We’re not idiots,’ Vicki added.

      Still nothing. Dani lay there, unnaturally still, her muscles tense, praying for them to fall asleep.

      In the darkness it was impossible for her to tell how long it was until she was sure, from the sound of their heavy, regular breathing, that the two girls were truly asleep. An hour, maybe. It was only when she was sure that she silently moved her duvet from where it had been slung over her and sat up. She quietly took off her shoes, and then the rest of her clothes, folding them neatly and putting them in her drawer before removing a pair of pyjamas, making her bed and then climbing back into it. She pulled the duvet over her head and took refuge in her little cocoon of darkness.

      More than anything, Dani wanted to stay awake. Nighttime, she knew, passed slowly. She liked that. It put off the coming of the dawn. Darkness was like a refuge, protecting her from having to face a new day. But she was tired, and it wasn’t long before she felt her eyelids become heavy. She did her best to keep them open, but the events of the day were catching up with her and she soon fell into a deep, troubled sleep.

      Dani was woken the following morning by the sound of voices. As she tried to shake off the blanket of sleep, she felt momentarily confused. Where was she? What was this strange room, this strange place? Then it all came flooding back, and she felt as though she had received the terrible blow all over again.

      By the time she had sat up, her room-mates were already dressed. Kaz was standing in front of the mirror, brushing her hair, while Vicki applied some lipstick. Dani had never used make-up; she tried not to stare as Vicki did it with such ease, but she couldn’t help watching.

      ‘What you looking at?’ Vicki demanded when she realised Dani’s eyes were on her.

      Dani looked away quickly and blushed. ‘Nothing,’ she replied.

      ‘Yeah, right.’ She went back to her make-up.

      Dani climbed out of bed and retrieved some clothes from her drawer. But as she stood there in her pyjamas, she was suddenly overcome with embarrassment. At home she was able to dress and undress in privacy; now, if she wanted to put her clothes on, she had to take her pyjamas off in front of these two girls. Timidly, she turned round and shuffled to the end of the bed, where she would be slightly out of their view. She tried to get changed quickly, but it only meant that she got herself tangled up.

      ‘Don’t worry,’ Kaz said. ‘We’re not eyeing you up.’

      The two girls laughed and left the room.

      Dani wished she could go back to bed and stay under the duvet for the rest of the day; but she was hungry, and she knew that if she didn’t go down to breakfast she would only have someone come and get her, so she mustered all the courage she could. As she left the room, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. The bruising had gone down – just a little bit, but enough to give her a tiny amount more confidence than she had had yesterday.

      She needed to find the bathroom first, but no one had told her where it was, so it was up to her to wander up and down the corridor until she found a door with a little stick picture of a woman. Like everywhere else in this place, the girls’ bathroom was lit by a flickering striplight. There were square white tiles on the floor and walls, which were splattered with puddles from that morning’s use. There was a row of four sinks, and behind a partition there were three baths, lined up next to each other without any privacy. On the other side of the room were three cubicles. Dani splashed water on her face, and then steeled herself to go downstairs.

      She avoided her room-mates at breakfast, choosing instead to sit next to an unfamiliar face – a sturdy boy with broad shoulders, strawberry blond hair and freckles. He seemed a bit older than Dani, and for some reason sitting next to him made her feel happier. The moment she took her seat, however, she regretted it.

      ‘Looks like you pulled, Dingo,’ a voice called from somewhere further along the table, and the boy turned to look at her with an unpleasant leer. There was giggling all around, and Dani felt as though all eyes were suddenly on her. A hot blush rose to the surface of her skin as she pretended not to notice what was going on.

      Dani wolfed down her breakfast, and was just about to leave the room when she sensed someone walking up to her.

      ‘Dani, Dingo,’ Christian’s voice said brightly. ‘I’m glad you two have met. I’m sure you’ll be very good friends. Dingo, you’ll look after Dani, won’t you? See to it that she’s all right. Make her feel at home.’

      Dingo sucked his lips in, as though he was trying not to smile; Dani could tell that Christian wasn’t even vaguely aware of it. He shrugged archly. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Course.’

      Christian nodded with satisfaction. ‘Good lad,’ he said. ‘Good lad.’ And with that he walked back to the staff table.

      Dingo glanced at Dani, and then snorted contemptuously before turning back to his breakfast and ignoring her as studiously as possible. She stood up and prepared to take her tray with her; but as she did so she heard her name being called.

      ‘Dani!’

      It was Christian again. His voice rose above the hubbub, and for a brief moment the noise in the dining room quietened. ‘Just pop over here for a minute, would you, my love?’

      Dani cringed, knowing that the other children would be looking at her and smirking at Christian’s term of endearment. She did as she was told, though, and walked to where all the grown-ups were sitting.

      ‘And how did we sleep?’ Christian asked her.

      Dani shrugged. ‘All right,’ she muttered.

      ‘Excellent,’ Christian replied. ‘Now then, everyone else will be going to school today, but not you. We have to sort you out with a place somewhere, but there are things we need to arrange before then. So that means you’ve got the run of the place. That’ll be nice, won’t it?’ He smiled at her, a broad, well-meaning smile that lit up his eyes. She did her best to smile back, and although she knew it must have looked forced, it seemed to please Christian, who reached out and gave her another of his trademark squeezes on the shoulder. ‘Good girl,’ he said. ‘I’ll come and find you later.’

      Over the course of the next ten minutes, all the children in the home disappeared, running out of the front door with shouts and schoolbags. Dani couldn’t quite face going back to her room yet, so she spent some time exploring.

      The day room, which Christian had mentioned the night before, was on the opposite side of the hall to the dining room. It was a large space, with a snooker table and table-tennis table. Checking over her shoulders to ensure noone was looking, Dani rolled one of the red snooker balls against a cushion. A snooker cue was propped up against one of the walls, and she would have liked to have had a go with it; but she was too timid for that, so СКАЧАТЬ