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Mrs Turbeldy’s Orphanage for Disadvantaged Boys was the only place for orphaned boys in the northern end of Carthya Nineteen of us lived there, ranging in age from three to fifteen I was almost fifteen, and any day now, Mrs Turbeldy would send me away But I didn’t want to leave yet, and certainly not as this stranger’s servant boy

Mrs Turbeldy aiting in her office when I walked in, with the man close behindwith the rest of us, but strong enough to beat anyone who complained about that fact In recent months, she and I had settled into a routine of barely tolerating each other Mrs Turbeldy must have seen what happened outside, because she shook her head and said, "A roast? What were you thinking?"

"That we had a lot of hungry boys," I said "You can’t feed us bean bread every day and not have a revolt"

"You’ll giveout her pluhtly to myself and nodded at the man "Who’s he?"

The man stepped forward "My name is Bevin Conner Tell , which earned me a whack on the back of the head froe," she told Conner "And as I told you before, you’d be better off with a rabid badger than this one"

Conner raised an eyebrow and stared atbecause I had no interest in providing him with any entertainht So can I go now?"

Conner frowned and shook his head The moment of amusement had passed "What can you do, boy?"

"If you bothered to ask ht use it"

He continued as if he hadn’t heard ?"

"He don’t have any," Mrs Turbeldy said "None a gentleman like yourself would need, anyhow"

"What did your father do?" Conner asked me

"He was best as a musician, but still a terrible one," I said "If he , my family never saw it"

"He was probably a drunk" Mrs Turbeldy rapped h theft and lies"

"What sort of lies?"

I wasn’t sure if the question was directed toat Mrs Turbeldy, so I let her speak

She took Conner by the arm and pulled hiesture because not only was I standing right there and perfectly able to hear every word, but the story was also about h I noticed he faced himself toward me as she spoke

"First time the boy came in here, he had a shiny silver coin in his hand Said he was a runaway, the son of a dead duke from somewhere in Avenia, only he didn’t want to be a duke So if I took hiave him preferential care and a place to hide, he’d pay hin’ it up on extra servings at dinner and with extra blankets on his bed"

Conner glanced at me, and I rolled my eyes He’d be less iht, he took with a fever Got all delirious late in the night, hitting at everyone and yelling and such I was there when he confessed it all He’s no son of anyone iht, but he’d stolen the for hiet better or not, I didn’t care Next tiot over the fever on his own and was a good deal le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>