For a second I could see Cameron wrestling with herself. She leaned into me and seemed just about ready to let me pick her up and carry her back to bed but she pulled away at the last minute. I leaned down to give her a kiss on the forehead but she still wouldn't meet my eyes.
"Cameron you know where the button is," I told her - she had a little contraption with a button on it that she could press that would send an alert to my phone if she woke up during the night frightened or sick - "if you're scared or you don't feel well you can just press it and I'll come and check on you, OK?"
"OK, Miss Robinson."
Cameron stayed firmly in her shell for the next couple of days, barely eating a thing and mostly refusing to interact with anyone, including me, beyond one-word answers to direct questions. I left a couple of messages on Darach's phone letting him know what was going on and suggesting either I or Mrs. Clyde take the girl to a doctor and maybe, hopefully, get a referral to a child psychologist. He gave me the go-ahead and I booked her an appointment with her regular doctor at the end of the week.
She cracked the day before the appointment, though. At 6 a.m. the little chime on my phone went off indicating that Cameron had pressed the button. I rushed to her room and found her sobbing and retching in bed. The only reason she hadn't thrown up all over herself was because there was nothing in her belly after she'd refused dinner the night before.
"OK, Cameron," I sat down beside her and put my arm around her shoulder, unsure what level of comfort she was ready to accept, "OK. It's OK. Did you have a nightmare?"
Instead of answering she looked up at me with her big, round eyes and whispered her own question:
"Is Daddy going to die, Miss Robinson?"
It took me a moment to let her words sink in and even then I couldn't quite keep the shock out of my voice. But a dam had broken inside Cameron and it all came spilling out.
"Mummy said Daddy is going to die. Mummy said you are going to die and that I'll have to go and live in London with her."
I looked down at my phone, still in my hand, and had an idea. I used to record my lecture classes and the recording app was still installed. I opened it without telling Cameron what I was doing and set it on the bedside table in front of her so it would catch everything she said. And she said a lot.
When she finished telling me everything I was as close to speechless as I've ever been. No one - not Mrs. Clyde, not Darach - had been exaggerating about Diane. I could see the weight lifting off Cameron's narrow shoulders as she told me everything - her mother had been telling her, apparently for months, that Darach was going to die because he was "bad." I had been added to the list of bad people as soon as Diane found out about my presence at Castle McLanald. Before I did anything else, I had to make sure Cameron understood the truth.
"Do you think your Daddy is bad, Cameron?"
"No."
"Do you think I am bad?
"No. But Mummy said-"
Gently, I cut her off:
"Cameron, your Mummy is not well. She has something wrong with her head and it makes her say terrible things to you - things that aren't true at all. Daddy is fine - he's in Switzerland eating chocolate and missing you! And I am fine - look at me, don't I seem fine to you? No one is going to die, Cameron."
Cameron took a few shaky breaths and started to sob with relief, climbing onto my lap and putting her head against my neck.
"Why didn't you say anything, little one?" I asked, barely keeping the emotion out of my voice, "When something is scaring you you can always tell your Daddy about it - or Mrs. Clyde, or me."
"Mummy said I couldn't tell anyone. Mummy said if I told anyone then I would die."
That was too much. I snatched the phone off the table and rushed downstairs with Cameron in my arms, looking for Mrs. Clyde, who was uncharacteristically nowhere to be found. Neither was Mr. Clyde. Shaking with rage, I dialed Darach's number and got his voicemail.
"Darach, call me. As soon as you can, this is important."
You've got it all recorded. As soon as a judge hears this, Diane's custody will be revoked.
There was nothing else to do except wait for Mrs. Clyde to turn up - I needed her to help me reassure Cameron that everything was fine now. Cameron and I went back to her room so she could get dressed and I could see that she was already feeling a little better.
"Promise me you will never keep a secret for your Mummy again, Cameron. I understand why you did - you didn't want anything bad to happen to your Daddy or me - but promise me you'll tell someone if Mummy ever starts to tell you scary things again."
She wrapped her arms around my neck.
"I promise, Miss Robinson." There was a short pause. "Can I have breakfast now?"