Chapter Six

Hugo did not spot Isabelle at all the following day, he spent more time than he usually did out in the open area of the train station, risking his chances of being caught by the station Inspector. But he knew he could hear that man coming from a mile away, his leg mechanism had squeaked so loudly over the past couple of days, that he was literally apologising to everyone he passed as he walked.

'Pardon me, excuse me, sorry Monsieur,' he kept saying to anyone that would bother listening to him, 'I was injured in the war you see?' he would keep saying, 'no it will never heal, Madam. Yes I'm sorry too... good afternoon!'

Also, Hugo knew for a fact that the Inspector was currently in his office and on the phone to the head of the Municipal Police, and the chances were he could be there for quite a while.

So therefore, Hugo kept doing loops of all the areas that he knew Isabelle preferred to frequent, including the toy shop (and he managed to check around there whilst keeping out of sight of the store owner). Unfortunately he did not spot her, and he was not sure what he would have done or said to her even if he had of found her anyway.

He was just about to crawl back into one of his hiding spots, when, the unthinkable happened.

'Aha! Got you!'

The station Inspector, fresh off the phone, grabbed Hugo unsuspectingly by the shoulder and turned him so that he could leer at him.

'Did you think you could hide from me? Did you, you filthy little urchin?' he said with such satisfaction, that Hugo felt small specs of spit hit his face.

'You're hurting me!' Hugo cried, as the station Inspector twisted his arm.

'Where is your designated adult, child?' he spat, 'where is your guardian? Your keeper? Your protectuer? Answer me this instant?!'

'I don't have one!'

'No parents? None?' the station Inspector repeated in amusement, 'well then... it's off to the Orphanage with you!'

'No! Please!'

But the Inspector was not listening. He yanked, pulled and dragged a kicking and screaming Hugo up to his office, where he placed him in a cage, set his dog to keep watch and picked up the phone.

'Hello, yes, inspector, it's me again,' he said, turning away from Hugo, 'yes, this is quite embarrassing, I know I just hung up from you, but... it appears I have found another orphan for you.

'Why yes I have been busy...'

He went silent for a moment before nodding.

'List of charges?' the station Inspector asked, looking curiously around at Hugo, 'theft and trespassing... what? What do you mean, "what else"?

'Well I don't know...,' he went on with a shrug, 'pilfering, littering, walking around, playing, impersonating a child with a parent!'

Hugo felt his stomach fall as he slid down the back of the cage, staring into the eyes of the dog that guarded his cage. He was in denial at the moment, he just couldn't believe that he'd so stupidly allowed himself to be caught - and so easily at that. When the station Inspector got off the phone, he announced to Hugo that the Police would be here soon to pick him up.

'Please let me go!' Hugo cried, furiously shaking the cage, but the station Inspector threw a pencil at him.

'Stop it! Be quiet!' he said with authority, 'you filthy little-'

'If you let me go, I'll redesign your leg brace for you, so it won't squeak!' Hugo had gone through denial, anger... now he was already onto bargaining, but the station Inspector doubted him immediately.

'How could you possibly?' he said, 'you're just a little child, there is no way you could manage something like that-'

'My father was a clock maker,' Hugo explained, but he knew it sounded silly even before it had come from his mouth.

'But my leg is not a clock, boy,' the station Inspector said with a laugh, 'now be quiet!'

Hugo found himself to be at a loss on what to do.

'Do you know what this is?' Hugo's father asked him one night, holding up what looked like a metal pen, but at the end of it were a line of long thin pins.

Hugo stared at it for quite a long time, before shaking his head.

'It's a lock-pick,' his father divulged to him, and he pulled from beneath the counter a small chest with a standard lock on the front of it. 'If your mother knew I was showing you this, she would be very unhappy with me.'

He looked around at Hugo, who half smiled and watched as his father inserted the lock-pick into the chests lock and fiddled about until the top of the chest clicked open.

Hugo's eyebrows disappeared into his hair.

'Now remember, Hugo, I do not want you to think that I am teaching you to be a thief,' his father said with real purpose, as he held out the lock-pick for Hugo to take.

But his father did not let him take it from his grasp right away.

'Promise me, Hugo, that you will be responsible with this,' his father asked of him.

'Can I keep this?' Hugo asked, as his father let go of it and Hugo put it up to the light and surveyed it.

'Only if you promise me,' his father went on, causing Hugo to look sideways at him, 'god forbid you should ever end up in a situation where you need it, but, just in case you are in the future, that is the only time that would be necessarily to use it. Am I understood?'

Hugo looked back at his father and swallowed.

'I promise,' he said with a nod of his head.

'Good boy,' his father said, ruffling his hair and shutting the lid of the small chest, so that Hugo could try unlocking it himself.

'Pardon me, Monsieur Inspector?'

Hugo looked up, just as the station Inspector looked around to see that Isabelle was standing on the threshold and she was beaming at him. The station Inspector, who had been sitting at his desk with his leg up, and was cleaning his ears with one of his pencils, seemed to move rather quickly to his feet and forward.

'Yes what is it?' he ordered, brandishing the same pencil he had been using to clean his ears towards her, 'are you another Orphan? Where are your parents?'

'Oh, no, I'm not an Orphan,' Isabelle assured him, and she now looked past him toward Hugo with raised eyebrows and a wink, before returning her gaze back to the station Inspector, 'I work with my Papa George, at the toy booth, perhaps you've seen-?'

'Oh, yes... I see, right, you're that young girl of his, of course, very well, very well,' he said, waving his arm, 'what is that you want?'

'Oh,' Isabelle seemed to hesitate for the slightest of moments, 'well you see, I'd just wondered if perhaps you'd seen my cat?'

The station Inspector gave her a look of total bewilderment.

'Your cat?' he repeated, suddenly his dog that was minding the cage Hugo was in turned around and began to sniff the air.

'I'm afraid she got away from me,' Isabelle said, stepping onto the threshold of the office and looking around expectantly, 'she's quite harmless I assure you, but she's orange, well,' Isabelle gave a dry false laugh that made the station Inspector raise an eyebrow, 'she's ginger, sorry. Answer's to the name of Christina Rossetti...'

'Chris- err, Christina-' the station Inspector stumbled over his words.

'Rossetti,' Isabelle finished for him, making the station Inspector nod, 'after the famous poetess?'

'Yes I know who she is,' he said quickly, standing upright, 'I err... I love poetry, I do.'

Isabelle was doing a magnificent job in distracting him - whilst the station Inspector had his back turned to him, Hugo had begun lock-picking his cage.

'She's wonderful isn't she?' Isabelle said with a wide smile, 'would you like me to recite some of her work?'

'No, no, that wouldn't be appropriate,' the station Inspector said carefully, 'we don't meddle with such things whilst we're working.'

'Oh I'm so sorry,' Isabelle said suddenly, looking ashamed of herself, 'I didn't mean to interrupt your work-'

'Oh it's alright, youngling,' he said, beaming proudly, 'just waiting for the police to pick up and take away this latest Orphan, see? He was caught stealing...'

Isabelle could feel the sides of her mouth twitch as she surveyed the cage in which was now empty. She attempted to hesitate, put on a straight face, and then look back up to the station Inspector.

'Orphan?' she asked him in the most convincing manner possible.

'That one.'

The station Inspector pointed as he looked around - and suddenly all the confidence he just had drain out of him.

'Bollocks,' he said, rushing to the other exit of the office, 'Maximilian, the boy's escaped! After him!'

Isabelle smiled to herself, and then, just as she was turning to leave, she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. What appeared to be a small book of some kind - perhaps a notebook - had fallen from somewhere onto the floor near the cage in where Hugo had been kept. Ever the curious adventurer, Isabelle quickly crossed the room to pick it up and then just as quickly, she left, in case the station Inspector decided he would come running back in.