Someone To Run To

3

Alan searched the entire first floor and almost all of the second one before he found Mageline Rogue. He affectionately named her 'Maggie' because he could never get her name right when he was just a little thing. She had graciously adopted the nickname right away. She told him she liked it better because it didn't sound so old. She had been there for him since he was five years old. Maggie had been his nanny and she watched him while his mother was at work. She cooked them dinner when his mother came home. The woman had always been family to him, like the grandmother he never knew, and she was all he had left.

Maggie was sitting on the window seat in the last room on the left overlooking the estate grounds. It was the place she always went when she was upset about something. To reflect on old memories or new events, he did not know. He should have known it was where he would find her. He stepped inside the room she had decorated herself with yellow wallpaper adorned with red roses. He cleared his throat, careful not to startle her. At first, she didn't react, but after several long seconds, Maggie glanced back at him.

"What do you need, Mr. Collins?" she asked icily.

He shook his head. "It's Alan, Maggie. Please. I know you're upset I brought Gina here and I'm sorry. Can we talk about it?"

She took a deep breath and then turned her attention back out the window. "What's the use? You won't listen to me."

"I've taken your advice before. I started offering them jobs here, didn't I? It was all your idea."

She shrugged. "I guess you had your ears open that day at least."

Alan walked over to the window seat and sat down beside her. It was a huge window and would have no problem holding them both. "I listen to your advice all the time, but sometimes my heart overrides my head. I can't just walk away knowing I can help. You should know better than anyone it's not who I am."

Maggie flashed him a rare smile. He noticed then she had tears in her eyes. "I know. Your mother was the same way. And it's what got her murdered, Alan."

Though he didn't want to admit it, she spoke the truth. His mother, Lillian, had helped people her whole life just as he had. He must have taken it after her. Even after he moved out and went to college, she still took in people who were in trouble just to get them off the streets. She had always said she couldn't stand knowing there was someone out in the streets without a place to stay. He remembered begging her not to, but his pleas fell upon deaf ears. She had been just as stubborn about it as he was being now with Maggie. His mother made one mistake though. She took in the wrong person and he killed her for her money and jewelry and fled. They caught him, but it hadn't brought his mother back. Ever since then he had been doing all he could for the people on the street and people in trouble. It was his way of honoring her.

"I understand you're worried," Alan told her. "You were my nanny for a lot of years and a part of my family even longer, but you have to admit I'm a pretty good judge of character. I got George and Grace and Giles, not to mention Eva and Kate, whom I hired before I ever started taking people in."

"Maybe so, but you didn't have time to judge this one, Alan. I just don't want you to make the same fatal mistake your mother did or have another disaster on your hands like Jamie Newman. Sometimes I think you trust too easily."

He cringed at the sound of her name. Jamie had been Amy's sister, the girl who had served him at the diner. Jamie had approached him in town one day and told him her father was beating her. She showed him her bruises and begged for his help. He couldn't tell her, no, so he brought her to the house and told her she could stay the night and they would sort everything out the next morning. When he woke up, she was gone. Her body was found days later just outside the gates of his home. The sheriff blamed him, but he had nothing to do with her murder.