Just Like the Other Girls

He lowers his voice. ‘I’m just looking out for you. That’s what Mum would want. You need that job. Do you want to do what I do, huh? Lugging washing-machines around all day at that factory? You had a cushy number.’

Maybe he’s right. Maybe I let Courtney drag me into the drama of it all when really there was no basis for me to suspect I was in any danger. The only thing linking Kathryn with Jemima is that passport – and there could be any number of logical explanations as to why she had it. And she hid it because she knew it looked suspicious.

I lean back against the worn sofa. ‘Okay. I’ll ring Elspeth in the morning. Beg for my job back.’

He beams at me, his whole face brightening. ‘That’s great. You’ve made the right decision. I’m going to pop out and get us some beers to celebrate.’





41





The Cuckoo, 1988

Viola still hated Katy, that much was obvious. Since Mittens had gone missing Katy had given up trying to form some kind of friendship with her, and as the years passed she realized they would never be close, that Viola would never be the sister she so desperately wanted. Katy had been with the McKenzies for five years now and she finally felt more secure, less scared that they would send her back to the home. And even though Viola was still nasty and cold towards her it was as though she’d got bored of the pranks. Most of the time she treated Katy to a contemptuous silence.

That was until she met Danny O’Connor.

He was a Gypsy. A Traveller. She was never quite sure what to call them. All she knew was that he hung around with the group of people who parked their caravans on someone else’s land until they were told to move on. Katy had seen him lurking around the newsagent’s on the corner, usually with a mangy dog in tow. He looked out of place on the clean, wide streets of Clifton. But he was handsome – even Katy, at sixteen, could see that – with his long dark hair, olive skin and sparkly blue eyes. Although she daren’t even contemplate having a boyfriend. Elspeth was dead against it and it had been drilled into Viola and herself that she wouldn’t stand for them bringing boys home. That they had to have left school before they even thought about a serious relationship, and even then it had to be with the ‘right kind of boy’. Katy knew that the ‘right kind’ meant someone who’d gone to a good school, and was from a ‘nice family’. Not some Gypsy boy of no fixed abode.

One crisp Saturday in early March, as she walked past the newsagent on her way home from the shops, she saw him talking to a pretty blonde girl in a puffball skirt and over-the-knee socks. With a jolt, she realized it was Viola. And from the way Viola giggled and twirled her hair, she could see that her sister was smitten.

Katy couldn’t help smiling to herself as she scurried past them and let herself into the house. Elspeth would never approve. Oh, no. Elspeth had plans for Viola that included university and law school, not relationships with out-of-work Travellers.

Katy hugged the secret to her chest as the days passed, relishing that she, for once, had something over Viola. She watched from the attic window as Viola sneaked off to meet him whenever she could. Elspeth was still grieving for Huw, and coming to terms with becoming a widow at the young age of forty-seven. Katy had been devastated by Huw’s death. She had come to love her gentle, dependable father. The house seemed vast and empty without him. And even though Elspeth employed a new cook and housekeeper called Aggie, whose warm smile and kind eyes went some way to helping Katy feel more secure, she missed Huw fiercely. He’d been her protector, and fear plagued her that Viola’s nastiness would turn up a notch now he was dead. Elspeth had changed since his death too, becoming more brittle and harder to please.

Luckily, Viola was distracted by Danny.

One warm May evening, Elspeth and Katy were in the kitchen – they’d stopped using the dining room since Huw died – Aggie dishing up fish and salad, when Elspeth said, her eyes narrowed, ‘Kathryn, where’s Viola?’

Katy had fidgeted in her chair. She knew exactly where Viola was. She could tell her mother now and get Viola into trouble or she could cover for her. That way Viola would owe her. ‘I think she’s still at the library. Studying. She’s got her A levels coming up.’

‘Yes,’ said Elspeth, spreading a cloth napkin over her lap. ‘I’m well aware of that, thank you, Kathryn.’ She always refused to shorten her name. She looked down at the elegant Cartier watch on her wrist. ‘It’s past her curfew on a school night.’

Just then Viola bounded into the kitchen, her cheeks flushed, her hair escaping from her ponytail. She looked more beautiful than Katy had ever seen her. ‘You’re late,’ snapped her mother, without glancing up from her food.

‘I’m sorry, I –’

‘I told Mother you were at the library,’ chimed in Katy, her eyes meeting Viola’s. ‘I assumed that’s where you still were after I left.’

Viola widened her big blue eyes in surprise. ‘I – Yes, I was. Studying.’

Afterwards, as they were getting ready for bed, Viola cornered Katy in her attic room. ‘Why did you lie for me?’ she hissed. ‘I don’t need you doing me any favours.’

Katy shrugged, enjoying herself for once. ‘Okay, fine. Then I’ll tell her where you really were.’

‘Where I really was? What do you know about it, you brown-nosed little shit?’

‘You were with that Danny O’Connor. You’ve been sneaking off to meet him for months.’

Her face paled. ‘What?’

‘You heard,’ said Katy, sounding braver than she felt. ‘I’ve seen everything.’

The fight seemed to seep out of Viola and she sank to the floor, her head in her hands and groaned. ‘Mother would kill me if she knew. She’d stop me seeing him.’

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