Mummy's Little Girl - JANE ELLIOTT (classic romance novels TXT) 📗

never set eyes on you.” her mum hissed with slurring in her voice. “It was him who insisted on taking you in HIM. Twelve years, and never a word of thanks for what i’ve done, and now how dare you break one of my daughters toys? how fucking dare you!”
Dani stared at her, wide-eyed.
“You’re an arrogant little cow.” her mum said, delivering a parting shot before turning round and leaving the room to go downstairs. Slamming the door behide her.
Dani stayed on the floor for several minutes, her hand press painfully to the side of her face that her mum had hit with sudden violence, tears welling in her eyes. There was the murmur of voices on the landing- Auntie Rose calming mum down - but no one came to Dani’s room. Noone came to check that she was all right.
Dani didnt clean her teeth that night or wash her face. She just removed her clothes, switched off the light and climbed into bed. She wept for a long time, being sure not to make too much noise about it. After all, she had created enough trouble for one day.
chapter 2

Chapter two

The following morning was sunday, and everything was unusually quiet in the house.
Dani woke with a throbbing pain on the side of her face. In her chest of drawers was a hand mirror. She took it out and had a look at her face. The bruising was a mottled purple-black. It covered her left eye and went down the side of her face. She touched her skin with her fingertips and winced. It was terribly sore, even to the lightest touch. Her arm was very sore to, where her mum dragged her into her room. Dani peeled away the material of her nightie and saw bruising there too.
She gazed at herself in the mirror before having the courage to go down stairs.
James and Rebecca were all ready there, watching TV in the front room. They new to be quiet not to wake mum. As Dani looked round the door, they both turned and looked at her.
There stares said it all.
“You all right” James said in a small voice.
Dani nodded and smiled, he looked fightened and she didnt wont him to be. Then she turned to Rebecca.
“I never broke your toy,” she said, doing her best not to cry.
Rebecca didnt reply. Her lips went a little bit thin, her eyes narrowed and she turned resolutely back to the TV, as she was doing her best to pretend Dani wasnt even there.
Dani left thenm to it and went into the kitchen.
The place was a mess, there were two empty bottles of wine on the side, an overflowing ashtray which smelled bad, (Dani felt like she was going to be sick), there was also takeway wrappers. Dani took the takeway wrappers from the side and put them in the bin: but the bin was to full so she left them on the side. She wonted to tidy up so her mum would see she help and she would not be angry with her any more, but she couldnt do much so she went back up to her bedroom.
It was at least an hour before she heard her mum getting up. Dani didnt know whether she was scared if she came into her room, or whether she hoped she would. Either way it didnt matter. She was listening to her get ready in the bathroom and then stomping down the stairs. Minutes later the front door slammed shut.
By luch she hadnt come back so Dani went down stairs and made sandwiches for them all. James and Rebecca seemed unable to look at her face, as she handed them over, she took her own dinner up to her room and ate it there.
All afternoon, Dani stayed in her room, from time to time she looked at herself in the mirror. Mum didnt come home till evening. She never once seen Dani, Who went without tea and spent a broken, fitful night worrying about what people would say when they saw her at school the next day.

Miss Sawyer was late and she broke her own rule by running down the corridor towards her classroom, her register and other school books clasped tightly to her chest. God knowns what she thought of herself and what trouble the kids were creating. What she did know if u let them run riot for the first few minutes there was no calming them dowm. What a way to start a Monday morning.
She looked at her watch, Five past nine. “Shit” she muttered, and she upped her pace slightly.
Her class room was at the far corner of the school, so it took a wile for her to get there. It was a big school, she had been there for 10 years now, and although some days seem hard, she was honest enough with herself to admit that she thrived on it. Some of the kids they had to deal with barley seemed like kids at all: so full of anger, so well versed in the world of adults. More than once, children Miss Sawyer knew when they were small had been excluded for carrying knives: and
she’d lost of the number of teen-age pregnancies she had to deal with in her additional role as child support officer. By rights she was just a english teacher, but the truth was that the teaching bit of the job was something that she seldom got to do.
Miss sawyer was out of breathas she turned into the corridor, she slowed down her class room was in view. Walking just ahead of her more slowly in the same direction was a pupil. Miss Sawyer knew who it was even from behind recognised the long black hair and the battered book bag slung sloppily over her shoulder.
“Come on Dani,” she said, hiding her breathlessness. “Chop-chop, The bell when 5 minutes ago.” Little Dani Sinclair was a funny one. Twelve years old but looked more like nine or ten. In all her years of teaching she has never come across such a quiet child. Hardly suprising she was often picked on, she never fought back, she just wasnt that kind of girl.
It had been a few days earlier that a social worker had come into the school to talk about Dani. There had been reports, the woman had said of the little girl starting fights. Had the social worker not been so earnest, Miss Sawyer would have found the idea almost comical. Dani Sinclair would never been involed in that sort of thing. She respectfully put the social worker’s mind at rest and promised she would keep a special eye on Dani.
The little girl stopped walking, and Miss Sawyer noticed from behide that she appered to lower her head and move her hand up to the side of her face, as though hiding it.
“Dani?” she asked. “ Are you all right? What’s the matter?”
The girl didnt answer.
Miss Sawyer stepped forward: then bent down to look at Dani’s face. The girl immediatley turned away. Kepping her face covered.
“Dani Sinclair,” Miss Sawyer said more sharply then needed. “I really dont think it at all appropriate for you to behave towards your teach-”
She stopped. The moment she raised her voice she seemed to have made the little girl jump. Her arm fell limply to her side and she turned to face the teacher. It was a look that stopped Miss Sawyer in her tracks.
One of Dani’s eyes was almost closed. The lids were swollen and black, and the bruising extended all the way down one side of her face. A twitch of embarrassment flickered over the side of her face that wasnt bruised, and Miss Sawyer noticed that she avoided looking her teacher in the eye.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Dani, what happened to you?”
Dani’s face twitched again, but she didnt say anything. Miss Sawyer came aware of the sound of her class, boisterous as she expected. She looked over in that direction. She wonted to go in and sort them out but she took another look at Dani’s face and knew that there was somthing more important to sort out.
“Dani come with me love” She said very kindly, she offered the child her hand but she turned it down. Dani slowly followed Miss Sawyer to her office dragging her feet on the way. This is where Miss Sawyer dealt with child protection issues.
It was a small office, cosy in its way.There was a wooden desk and a comfortable chair, which seemed to dawf Dani as she sat in it.
“Would you like a glass of orange Dani?” Miss Sawyer offered.
“What about a biscuit? i think i’ve got some chocolate ones somewhere.”
Another shake of the head.
“OK,” Miss Sawyer said quietly as she sat behide her desk. She couldnt remember a pupil ever turning down drinks and biscuits during school hours. “Now then Dani, why dont you tell me how you got the black eye?”
The child didnt answer. She just looked at the floor.
“ Dani love, you will not get into any trouble for just telling me who it was. We can make sure that it doesnt happen again”
“No one did it,” the girl replied quickly. She looked scared. Miss Sawyer narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean, no one did it?” Dani looked around the office, confusion in her face. “I mean- I mean..... It was me,”
“YOU”
“I got into a fight. On the way to school,” Still she refused to catch Miss Sawyer’s eyes.
“A fight? when?”
“This morning.”
“Who with?”
“Some boys”
“Which boys, Dani? Why dont you tell me?”
A look of desperate concentration passed across Dani’s bruised face, and she shook her head.
Miss Sawyer sighed. It was often the way: Kids getting beat up and not saying who it was. The unwritten code of slience was stronger in the school than she imagined it was in any prison. Even tho something wasnt right. It takes a wile for the bruises to come out like that. What ever happened to the little girl it didnt happen this morning.
“Are you telling me the truth Dani? you can talk to me you no, you will not get into any trouble”
“I am!” The girls voice was firm.
Miss Sawyer sighed. She new there was more to this, but what could she do? “All right, Dani” She said in a resigned tone of voice. “ I cant make you tell me, But if you decide if you wont to, you only have to say.”
Dani remained tight-lipped and looked at the floor. “In the meantime i dont think you should be in school today, I will give your mum a call she can come and get you, you can stay home untill your face get’s better, if you like. Wait here.” As she spoke Miss Sawyer saw something in Dani’s expression. She almost looked like she was going