Chapter Text
Virginia Stark stood waiting at the front entrance, dressed in her finest Sunday clothes with her hands clasped delicately (albeit nervously) at her front. To her left stood her butler, Jarvis, who was waiting with her to greet their newest guest.
Peter Parker was a boy of age nine, and a distant relative from her husband’s poorer side of the family. Peter’s grandmother was Anthony’s aunt on his father’s side, and until recently the man had had no connection nor knowledge of that side of his family. The Stark’s had been contacted by an officer the week prior, about a woman by the name of Mary, a widow who’d been taken in to custody for alleged prostitution, who demanded that they take her son in lest he end up in a workhouse or reformatory school for her crimes.
Tony had, at first, laughed at the proposition, fully prepared to turn it down. He disliked the idea of inviting a child who was not their own into their home, and despised any reminders of his family’s poor past. Virginia, however, prided herself on being a charitable christian, and so made it her duty to convince her husband to take the boy in. It hadn’t taken much, as Anthony was always very much obliged to do what he could to keep his wife happy. All it had taken was her expressing how much she’d very much enjoy the child’s company in their home, coupled with playing into his duty as a man to look after his family, however distant they may be.
It was agreed that they’d take Peter in, and have him work as an apprentice under Tony so as to prepare the boy for a higher means of work in the future. Of course, there was the matter of actually finding the child first, as Peter had been pushed out onto the streets following his mother’s arrest, but it had only taken having a few inconspicuous people asking around the boy’s former housing to learn where he worked and then, later, him.
Virginia had spent the last few days in an excited flurry to best prepare the house for the oncoming child, buying everything she could imagine a boy that age would like and need, and surely boring all of her company at tea parties with talk of the child that they were going to have. Tony was noticeably less excited, more paranoid and uneasy than anything. The man was not there to greet Peter, instead having jumped at the chance to go to a meeting in town during the time that the boy was set to arrive.
It had annoyed the woman, but that annoyance was firmly buried beneath the excited nerves fluttering in her stomach when she heard a carriage pull into their courtyard. She looked at Jarvis with a pleased grin, who smiled politely back at her before situating himself closer to the grand doors leading into their foyer, preparing to open them. When they heard the carriage come to a stop and the trudging of feet on gravel outside of the doors, Virginia nodded her assent.
A weeks worth of anticipation, filled with thoughts of all of the things that they could do together, and images of this perfect young boy in her mind- it all came to a crashing halt upon actually seeing the child.
Peter wore no shoes, and the scraggly clothes that he did wear were covered in dirt and grime, along with his hands, face and neck. His hair was untamed and greasy, and the split lip and bruises that he adorned told tale of an unfortunate happenstance. The boy’s waif body trembled like a cornered animal as he stood there on her steps, so weak looking that she was sure a breeze could knock him over, not at all the lively spirited young boy that she’d been expecting. The officer who’d brought Peter to them stood next to him with a firm grip on his shoulder, and a smug look on his face that she’d seen on many men who believed themselves to be right about something.
“This is the boy that you were looking for, ma’am,”
The speech had the woman snapping out of her thoughts, realising that she’d been openly gaping at the boy, and she hurried to swallow down her disturbance at the state that he was in before he could notice, although it was probably too late.
“Yes.” She said, voice tight as she tried to recollect herself. The child peered up at her through unkempt hair with a dazed awe, as though she were simultaneously the most breathtaking and terrifying thing that he’d ever seen. “Peter, well… why don’t you come inside, dear?” The woman stepped to the side a little and gestured for him to enter.
Peter blinked at her for a moment, congested breaths coming out ragged from his mouth as he opened it to speak, but the child was caught off guard when the officer used his truncheon to not so gently prod the boy’s back in order to make him move forward. The nine year old flinched and stumbled, barely managing to catch himself with a weak arm on the doorway before he could hit the floor.
“Thank you, missus.” The child coughed, throat so incredibly sore sounding that it made her grimace in empathy. “‘M much obliged. Where- where would you li-like me to work?” Peter stepped onto the ceramic tiles in their foyer, his dirty feet shuffling nervously as he took in the extravagant furnishings surrounding him, thin shoulders hunching inwards defensively.
“Work?” Virginia repeated dazedly, a far off gaze in her eyes as she watched the child, her heart clenching in pain the more that she looked at him.
Peter’s brows scrunched in confusion, head tilting. “Yes, work. I-I can clean, an-and harvest, and if you’d- you’d require it I’ve been told that I’m a-a real good chimney sweep. Whatever you’d like missus, I’m ready.”
“Do you no longer want him here, ma’am?” The officer stepped up closer behind the boy with a cruel smile, firm hand clenching around the child's shoulder again. Peter flinched away from the touch and it made the woman’s heart pound in anger. “It’s understandable, a fine upstanding couple such as yourselves, not wanting a street urchin dirtying your lovely home.”
Virginia’s lips pursed at the man’s words, as she stepped forwards to take Peter’s arm in her own hold, sure to be as delicate as she could with such a bruised and brittle limb. “No, of course not. Peter’s staying here.” She spoke firmly to the officer, a finality in her voice, before turning to face the boy, whose head now hung low in a mixture of shame and intimidation. “It’s just, well, Peter, you’re not here to work. You’re our family now, you’re coming to live with us. No work necessary, we’re going to look after you.”
“L-look after me?” The child spoke in such an unsure tone, as though the words were completely foreign to him. His widened brown eyes glistened under the chandelier’s light, his head again tilted to the side with a confused expression. Following his words a wet sounding coughing fit broke out, and Jarvis stepped forward to hand the boy his handkerchief.
The woman was shocked for a moment at the violence of the coughs overtaking the small frame, then instinctively began running a hand up and down his back.
Once the coughing fit had calmed down, Virginia spoke again. “Yes, look after you, hasn’t anybody explained why you’re here?”
Peter shook his head slowly, eyes scanning his environment again as though it would provide him with an answer, sniffling. “I-I thought, thought you were boarding me. That I’d-I’d be allowed to sleep here so long as I worked for it.”
“No. No, darling.” She took him by both of his shoulders, coincidentally knocking the officer’s firm grip away as she did. “You don’t have to work for us, you’re a child. Our child now. We had plans for you to apprentice for my husband every now and then, to provide you with some useful skills and experience, but today you were just going to settle in, and we were going to get to know each other...” she trailed off then, momentarily getting lost in the child’s expressive puppy eyes. Her stomach clenched painfully at all of the hurt and confusion filling the young boy’s bruised face. “But, quite honestly dear, I’m now thinking that it’d be best for you to get to bed, you’re looking dreadful.” She tore her eyes away from the boy, unable to stomach the poor state that he was in for much longer, and instead turned to the butler.
“Jarvis, please show Peter to his bedroom and draw him a bath.”
“No, really, miss! It-it’s okay, I wouldn’t want you wasting your water.”
“Nonsense, Peter. You’re no waste, and while you’re under our care you will receive all of the benefits that we do. Jarvis?”
“As you wish, Madame.” the butler nodded his head dutifully, before stepping forward to escort the boy and his belongings up to his quarters.
Except there were no bags waiting on the front steps for him to take.
“Where is your luggage, young sir?”
“I don’t got any.” The boy shrugged, a slight blush forming beneath all of the grime on his cheeks.
Virginia and Jarvis exchanged a glance over the child’s head, and the woman intervened with an attempt at a cheery voice, whilst inside she was raging.
“Well then, it is a good thing that I have already bought you some clothes.” Though she now believed them to be far too large for this small boy. “I’ll plan a trip to the market as soon as you’re looking better.”
“You-you got me new clothes?” Peter’s eyes gleamed, like she’d just hung the moon and the stars specially for him. Guilt not for the first time gnawed at the woman’s stomach, as she was confronted with such abject poverty. She vowed then and there that she was going to spoil this child rotten. “Thank you so much, missus!”
Virginia smiled kindly, trying hard to keep the sadness she felt from entering her expression. Jarvis stepped forward again then, and ushered the boy to the staircase. Peter moved timidly, as though scared to touch the mahogany walls or stair-railing, his hands shaky and clenched up in front of his chest.
Peter wasn’t even half way up the stairs when the officer who’d brought him began to speak poorly of him again. “You and your husband are awful nice taking in such a lowly scamp. I’d be careful he doesn’t nick none of your fine possessions, the rowdy delinquent he no doubt is.” The man chortled, as though mocking the boy for his unfortunate situation were at all funny.
The woman waited until Peter was out of ear shot before addressing the man, a cold stare taking over from the previous forced smile. “Where was he when you found him?” She asked, not caring to comment on his words, or else she'd get too riled up and lose her edge.
“On his way in to the coal mines. A fine job for a beggar boy, teaches them the meaning of real hard work and beats the laziness out of 'em.”
Virginia balked. “The coal mines! Surely that’s not allowed.” She simply couldn’t fathom it, that weak and breakable child being put down into such a dark, cramped and dangerous situation, made to do hard manual labour for who knew how many hours a day. How was that possible?
"It's not," the officer laughed, "not anymore, anyways. But that doesn't change nothin', they're cheap, and small enough to fit in places. No skin off your back, I'm sure."
His sleazy smirk aggravated her to no ends, but knowing that snapping back in anger would get her nowhere with these type of men, she instead spoke in a steady tone, a note of finality in her voice. “I’ve seen soldiers come back from war in a better shape than that boy, sir. A child has no business being in the mines." she straightened herself, "What a shame that a law officer such as yourself cannot see that. I'll be sure to have my husband contact your superiors for such infringement. Good day to you, sir.”
She quickly closed the door on the man, just as an angry yell reached her ears, locking it for good measure before finally letting out the sharp breath that she'd been holding in. She stood there for a while, hands resting on the door handle as she collected her thoughts.
Peter hadn't been what she was expecting. She could see now that she'd been naive to think that the child would come in such on par standards as she'd imagined when thinking of him over the last week. Given his situation, she should have anticipated for him to be a little rough around the edges, but she was sure that nothing could have possibly prepared her for the disturbing state of the poor child. The woman found herself questioning whether such a condition was common amongst the working class children, an uneasiness filling her as she considered it.
It was not five minutes later that Jarvis came back downstairs, to inform her that Peter was in the bath, and clothes as well as a light afternoon tea had been left for him in his bedroom. She thanked him, before going to busy herself as she waited for the boy to be ready for company again.
She was going to make things better for Peter. She'd made a commitment to take him on as her child, and treat him as such was exactly what she was going to do.
~~~~~
Tony got home at five thirty, on the dot, going through his usual routine of hanging his coat and hat on the stand, humming a tune as he did, before making his way into the sun room where his wife usually waited for him around that time.
"Ahh! There she is." he said upon seeing her, coming over and placing a kiss onto the woman’s lips before sitting down in his usual chair opposite her, groaning as he lifted his feet up on to the tea table.
"How was your day, dear?" Virginia asked as she usually did, placing the book that she'd had on her lap down onto the chaise lounge in order to pour him the glass of Scotch that he always had at this time.
"Ugh, well," he took the glass from her and downed some before continuing, "I fired Beck, it was a long time coming. But of course now Stane’s up in arms about it because he liked the fellow. So that was all a headache.”
Tony continued to prattle on about his day, animatedly telling her about his latest idea for a four-wheeled petrol-engined motor car that he was going to get started on later, all the while the woman listened dutifully, smiling and humming at all the right parts in an attempt to seem like she was listening.
However something in her delivery must’ve given away that her thoughts were elsewhere, as Tony moved to sit next to her and took her hands in his.
“My dear Pepper, are you alright? You’ve been awfully quiet.”
“Yes of course, darling.” She swallowed, putting on a smile. “It’s just, in all your recollection of today’s events, you have neglected to mention one very important detail of the day.”
“I have?” The man’s face furrowed, as he dug through his brilliant yet stupid brain for what he possibly could have missed.
“Yes.” She laughed lightly. “Our very important guest arrived today.”
The shocked realisation that crossed the man’s face when he remembered had a mixture of mirth and sadness filling the woman’s eyes.
“Oh of course, the boy. Uhh, umm,”
“Peter.” She finished for him, fighting from rolling her eyes.
“Peter, yes. Goodness, I must be getting old.” He huffed, sinking back into the seat.
Virginia was going to tease him, but decided against it as she noticed the way her husband’s brows furrowed, in that unsettled expression that had made commonplace on his face since learning of the boy.
The room went quiet, but for the chirps of the birds outside of the windows, as the woman waited for her husband to recollect himself.
“Well, how is he?” Tony finally asked, back tense. It was clear that he was still yet to warm up to the idea of the child, and Virginia held hope that he’d grow fonder of the boy upon meeting him.
“He’s… he’s not well, to be quite honest with you.” She admitted, biting her lip “upon arriving it was clear that Peter was very ill, and, goodness, Tony, he was in a frightful state.”
“Oh.” The man stated eloquently, expression going into a steady neutral.
“He’d been working in the mines, the poor boy. Anthony, it was heartbreaking, he was filthy and bruised, and could barely stand yet still offered himself up to work for us, he thought we wanted him to be our servant.” She felt her eyes burn for the first time that day as she disclosed all of this to her husband, her grip tightening on his hands. “It was dreadful. I haven’t spoken to him since he arrived, I sent him with Jarvis to have a bath and he fell asleep immediately upon laying on his bed.”
Tony didn’t reply for a good few moments, the emotionless mask continuing to occupy his face so that the woman couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
Though she had a pretty good guess, and, as Tony withdrew his hands from hers and stood up, she knew that she was unfortunately right.
“Well that is unfortunate. More’s the pity, I have work to attend to now. Please don’t work yourself up over this too much, my darling. The boy will be just fine.” He pat her cheek before quickly making his exit, a gesture that had the woman gritting her teeth in annoyance.
She detested how his first instinct when faced with an uncomfortable situation was to leave and bury himself in his work. She hated even more how it was so clear that the man was choosing to be flippant over matters involving the boy, for whatever reason. She knew in her heart that Tony had it in him to care for the child, if he just allowed himself to.
She swore then she was going to make things better for Peter, and she was going to make Tony open himself up to the idea of the child in the process, even if it was the last thing that she did.