The Faerie Ring Read Online Free PDF

and grinned. “We could pretend to be brothers and sisters. I could be a governess and Fi can be a seamstress. Toots will go to school and you could work for Mr. Binder. We’ll be a family, just like we’ve always planned.”
    Tiki gazed around the familiar room as her words seemed to echo in her ears. They’d talked about leaving Charing Cross before, never really believing it could happen, but why couldn’t their dream come true? She’d stolen something that would let them escape their daily struggle to survive. Now all she needed to do was sell the ring.

Chapter Four
     
    T HE distant whistles and roar of the steam engines coming and going in the station woke Tiki the next morning. She shivered against the cool air and pulled her shabby blanket tighter, wishing for one more hour of sleep. The even breathing of Toots and Fiona as they slept was the only sound in the room until Clara’s deep cough pulled her upright. Tiki shoved the blanket aside and hurried across the room in her worn nightgown to check on the little girl.
    Shamus sat before the stove, poking at the burning coal through the small front door on the box with a long metal pole. He motioned to the kettle and raised his eyebrows at Tiki. “Do you want a cup?”
    Tiki nodded at Shamus as she knelt and brushed the little girl’s tangled blond curls from her forehead. “Hello, sleepyhead.”
    Clara stared up at Tiki with adoring eyes. “Tiki, you’re home. I waited up for you.” She reached up and held Tiki’s hand with her tiny fingers, her eyes lingering on Tiki’s wrist. “How come you have your mark covered up? I think it’s pretty.”
    Toots pushed himself upright and yawned, stretching his hands high over his head. “You know why, Clara. It’s because she doesn’t like it. That’s why she hides her wrist all the time.”
    “I don’t either,” Tiki said, even though Toots was right. “Mr. Potts was staring at it when I was in his bookstore yesterday and it made me uncomfortable.” She didn’t mention Rieker’s strange reaction to her birthmark.
    “That’s because he thinks it’s pretty, too,” Clara said.
    “Ol’ Potts thinks you’re pretty,” Toots teased Tiki. “That’s why he lets you read his books for free. He likes your green eyes. They remind him of the hills of Ireland,” he said. “Heard him say it myself.”
    “No, he doesn’t.” Tiki glared at Toots. “He thinks I look like his dead daughter. That’s why.”
    “ And he thinks you’re pretty,” Clara cried. Her words ended in a coughing spasm, the congestion rattling in her chest.
    “Why do you always want to go and read Potts’ papers and books anyway?” Toots interrupted.
    “Clara, sit up.” Tiki put an arm behind the little girl’s back to support her. “Maybe that will make it easier to breathe.” She patted Clara gently on the back, waiting until the little girl drew a deep breath again before she answered Toots’s question. “I like to read. I learn a lot by reading.”
    “Like what?” Toots shrugged off his blankets and moved toward the table, where he reached for a chunk of bread.
    “Well, I read about faraway places. Like tropical islands that are surrounded with water as blue as the summer sky,” Tiki replied. “And I learn about foreign lands where they make things, like silk for a lady’s dress, from the thread of a worm.”
    “They can make a lady’s dress from a worm?” Toots asked. He shuffled closer to the stove and took the tea Shamus offered, taking a deep drink from the chipped cup.
    “Oh, the most beautiful dresses in the world are made from silk,” Fiona said. “And in every color. Like the rainbow.”
    “That’s right.” Tiki nodded. “There’s lots of interesting things in books. And you get to meet people you might never know otherwise. Like in this one story, a little boy named Jack trades his cow for some magic beans and he grows a giant beanstalk all the way into the sky.”
    “And does it grow