Healing - Book One

six

Aggie rejoins Emma and I on the doorstep, Miss Peregrine lurches forward towards her and they embrace each other. I can visibly see Aggie getting emotional. Emma wisely leads me into the house, leaving the old friends alone.

The foyer we enter is circular, rather contrary to the angular exterior of the house. The staircase is quite grand - the steps are wide and the bannister begins and ends with a curling design which resembles a knot within a tree trunk. They curl their way around the wall and disappear onto the second floor on the opposite side to which they begin. The room itself has ivory-coloured walls, with dark wooden beams which stripe the ceiling and walls like party streamers.

"Your bedroom should be set up by now." She tells me as we ascend the winding staircase up to the second floor. The entire hallway is lined with doors, one of which opens upon our arrival. Out of the single open door emerges a girl, perhaps a little younger than Emma and I. Her hair is flame red and she wears black rubber gloves which reach her elbows. The girl freezes and her eyes bulge when she spots us.

"Olive, this is Violet." Emma tells her, she cautiously approaches me and flashes a tiny smile.

"Is something the matter?" I ask, confused at her odd behaviour.

"No, I'm alright." Olive's smile grows a little. Perhaps she's just shy, I think to myself. Her face falls slightly, just before she scuttles to the other end of the corridor and enters another room. Emma shakes her head and takes me to the far left side of the building, where she opens up the end door.

The room is flooded with light from the large windows on either side of the room. A wooden bed with white bed linen is tightly made and matching drawers, wardrobe and a dresser are dotted around the walls. My suitcases are waiting patiently adjacent to the door.

"I'll let you unpack, somebody will come and get you when it's time for lunch."

"Thank you, Emma." I say to her as she closes the door between us.

I stretch my arms out above my head. Then I drag my luggage across the floor and heave them onto my bed. My dresses and coats are hung up in the wardrobe, my skirts and trousers in the drawers and I set my shoes in a neat line beneath the windowsill.

As I'm setting things on the dresser, I hear the door open behind me. Upon spinning around, I see it's Aggie.

"All settled in yet?" She chirps, wandering into the room, inspecting every inch of it with her sparkling eyes.

"Almost. I didn't realise that you already knew everybody."

"I came the visit a few times in the past, of course Jacob was not here. I did meet his grandfather though."

I don't enquire any more than that. Leaving the dresser, I shuffle across the floorboards towards my aunt.

"Some of them are waiting in the living room. They really want to meet you properly." She takes my hand and leads me into the hallway, then down the stairs. I can already hear the buzz of the children's chatter before I'm anywhere close to the living room.

We enter through the open glass doors, and numerous faces turn to look at me. The children sit roughly four to a chair on the three couches set in a square around a coffee table. On a less crowded sofa sits Emma. She pats the empty spot beside her and I obediently settle myself on the seat, Aggie perches on the arm.

I then experience the greatest conversation I've had in years. I learn about each of the children present in great detail and I already begin to feel strong friendships forming early on.

Horace, although a little too pompous for my taste, is a nice young boy overall. He explains to me how he enjoys the gift of being stylish, and clothes in general. In fact, many of his dreams are about clothes. I didn't dare ask about how he ended up here, but I did sense some sort of tragedy as well as wealth.

The shy little girl who is known as Claire, she's simply a delight. It did make me chuckle to myself that such a sweet little thing should have such a monstrosity beneath her curls.

Similar to Claire, Bronwyn is lovely to the core. The tiny girl demonstrates her strength for me by lifting the coffee table well above her head. A whisper in my ear from Emma tells me that Bronwyn lost her brother, Victor, and all of a sudden there is a tinge of sadness to her otherwise optimistic character.

I could hear the muffled buzzing from inside of Hugh before her even opened his mouth. However I am yet to find out whether he swallowed his swarm or if they simply came to exist in there one day.

Fiona is as bubbly as she is skilled with plants. She proceeds to tell me all about each vegetable in her garden with extreme enthusiasm. I also gather from Emma's whispers that she buzzes around Hugh like one of his bees: he does not seem to mind.

Jacob is a little shyer than the others when it comes to his story. It turns out that he didn't actually know he was peculiar until he arrived at the old house from Florida. His grandfather was also peculiar, and was under Miss Peregrine's care until he left to be a soldier. He was originally killed by a hollowgast but, when Mr Barron was killed, time was changed and his grandfather is still living in the year 2016, which fascinates me.

The invisible boy, Millard, has been under Miss Peregrine's care since he was small, since his parents were not sure whether he existed. Currently, I cannot see him, mainly because his clothes are elsewhere.

I'm distracted from my new housemates by Miss Peregrine bustling into the room. She stands behind the sofa closest to the door, her eyes dart around the room.

"It's lovely to see you settling in Violet." She grins and winks at me, I nod in response. "Has
anybody seen Enoch and Olive? I thought that they might have been in here."

A ripple of giggles echo around the living room. Jacob snorts loudly, and Emma digs her elbow into his side to silence him. I try and make eye contact with someone, anyone, as I feel as if I'm missing out on a joke.

"Violet and I saw Olive a little while ago upstairs." Emma states, the confidence in her words rising above the giggles. I nod in order to support her claim. Miss Peregrine sharpens her gaze before shaking her head and sighing heavily. The headmistress glides from the room, presumably to go and check if Olive's still upstairs.

"Have I met Enoch?" I ask openly, doubting myself a little.

"No, I don't believe so. He's probably sulking, or with Olive somewhere." Emma presses her lips together and pushes herself from the sofa. Jacob kicks his feet up in her place as she exits. He smirks at me, and I find myself smiling broadly back at him. The biggest grin I've felt myself perform.