“What kind of stories?” The girl uncrosses her arms, her expression unguarded now, but Wendy can’t stop the rage she felt on the girl’s behalf hardening into a knot of fear. She promised herself to keep Neverland safe. What if this is a trap? What if the girl reports back to Dr. Harrington?

The girl surprises Wendy by touching her hand when Wendy was afraid to touch her before. Her eyes aren’t what Wendy would call warm, but there’s a sincerity in them. She looks young again, younger than her nineteen years, and somehow much older at the same time. Wendy can’t imagine growing up in this place. It would be so easy for St. Bernadette’s to make a person hard, spiteful, but Wendy doesn’t see that in the eyes meeting hers. Resolve. Strength. Maybe a little bit of hurt and resentment. But not cruelty. Not a snitch or a spy.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” the girl says.

The words loosen the fear in Wendy’s chest. She wants to trust this girl. And more than that, she wants to show St. Bernadette’s that it can’t make her afraid either. She’ll tell her story, but only when and to whom she chooses.

“There was—is—a boy called Peter. When I was younger, he took my brothers and me away to another land, far away. There were mermaids and pirates and Ind—”

Wendy catches herself. She tries to think back—did Tiger Lily ever say a name for her people? Or were she and the others simply Indians and nothing more because Peter named them so?

“Go on,” the girl says, and Wendy finds a new kind of self-doubt blooming, suddenly shy. She wants this girl to like her; she might even dare let herself hope they could be friends.

“You won’t laugh at me?”

“No. I want to hear. But here.” The girl bends and takes something from a basket sitting on the floor next to her chair. She pushes an embroidery hoop, dangling with colored threads, into Wendy’s hands. “The nurses and attendants usually won’t bother us if we look like we’re busy doing something they approve of. If we’re just sitting around talking, they might get suspicious.”