"Oh! Such a sweetheart! So adorable!"
Louise's face lit up when she saw the young boy in Ian's arms.
"Are you hungry?"
The boy just seemed to stare at her as if she were speaking a foreign language.
"I'll go and get you something to eat!"
She placed him on a chair and rushed into the kitchen.
"Ian, dear?" She called out. "Go and get the little darling some clothes, will you?"
"Where?"
"Do you have any old baby clothes?"
"... No. I could go out and get him something...?"
"Yes, dear. Anything would be better than that ragged old tunic he's wearing!"
He was wearing a white, long tunic and black shorts. He looked on innocently as if he hadn't a clue what was going on.
A couple of hours later Ian came home from the shops with a bag of 4-year-old clothes. He found the boy shivering, wrapped in a towel on the chair. He looked down and tightened his grip on his only protection from the wintry cold.
Another half an hour later he was dressed in pale cream coloured jumper that was somehow too big for him and jeans.
And he did look so adorable.
Ian found an old children's bed complete with a pillow and a duvet in the attic and set it in his and his wife's bedroom while Louise got the boy something to eat. It wasn't too dusty because for some strange reason the couple always kept their attic free of dust and rats.
That night he tucked the boy into his new bed and watched him go to sleep.
And he slept just like a little angel.
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