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Chapters (84)
  1. All the Days of Our Lives
  2. 1945
  3. 1931-1944
  4. I
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. 1946
  28. II
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. III
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. IV
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. V
  42. Thirty-Three
  43. Thirty-Four
  44. Thirty-Five
  45. VI
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. 1948-1949
  49. VII
  50. Thirty-Eight
  51. Thirty-Nine
  52. Forty
  53. VIII
  54. Forty-One
  55. Forty-Two
  56. Forty-Three
  57. IX
  58. Forty-Four
  59. Forty-Five
  60. Forty-Six
  61. X
  62. Forty-Seven
  63. Forty-Eight
  64. Forty-Nine
  65. Fifty
  66. Fifty-One
  67. Fifty-Two
  68. Fifty-Three
  69. Fifty-Four
  70. XI
  71. Fifty-Five
  72. Fifty-Six
  73. XII
  74. Fifty-Seven
  75. Fifty-Eight
  76. XIII
  77. Fifty-Nine
  78. XIV
  79. Sixty
  80. XV
  81. Sixty-One
  82. Sixty-Two
  83. 1953
  84. All the Days of Our Lives

‘Well . . .’ Katie sank to her chair again, blushing. Em saw that her hands had a tremor too. ‘I know it might seem a bit silly, after all this time. But I want to clear the air. When we were living down the road, my mother didn’t behave very nicely to some people . . .’

‘That wasn’t your fault,’ Cynthia said. ‘You were only a babby!’

Katie seemed very moved by this. Her eyes filled with tears and for a moment she struggled to speak. ‘It’s nice of you to say that,’ she said. ‘But all the same . . . I wanted to say I’m sorry – to both of you. When you were poorly, Mrs Brown, my mother wasn’t very kind about it, and she made me feel that I shouldn’t see Em and play with her. And I went along with her, and I know it was wrong of me. Truly wrong and nasty.’ Katie wiped her eyes. ‘I was horrible to you, Em, and I just went off and left you when you needed a friend. And I was so busy being snooty towards Molly Fox that I couldn’t even see that . . . well, in her way, she was better than me, wasn’t she?’

Em swallowed. This she couldn’t deny. ‘Molly was a good friend then,’ she said.

‘Well, I’ve always regretted that I wasn’t.’ Katie spoke looking down at the tabletop. ‘And that I didn’t argue with my mother. She was so . . . so forceful, and so worried all the time about my uncle – I think that was what it was, partly . . .’ She looked up at them again.

‘Your uncle suffered in his mind, didn’t he?’ Cynthia asked.

Katie stared at her and suddenly burst out laughing. ‘It’s so funny, isn’t it? All these things people think they’re hiding, trying to keep a secret – and everyone knows all along! Why can’t we all just tell the truth!’

‘Well, yes . . . I s’pose you’re right,’ Em said. ‘But people can be so unkind.’

‘Oh, they certainly can,’ Katie said. ‘I do want you to know how sorry I am for being so nasty myself.’

Cynthia walked round and patted Katie’s shoulder. ‘So far as I’m concerned, it’s all past history and we’ll put it behind us, love. Now – don’t forget to give those lads some cake. I’ll see you later.’

When she’d gone, they sat quietly for a minute before Em said, ‘I still can’t believe you’re here.’

‘It’s ever so nice to see you,’ Katie said, and again Em was struck by the change in her, the cold, closed manner all gone. ‘I’ve missed you, you know.’