‘Don’t you want me to meet her then?’ He sounded hurt.

‘Course I do – but not tonight. She’s bound to be all mithered about me being late and she’s just as likely to snap your head off as anything.’

She and Terence said goodbye at the bus stop.

‘It was really nice of you to come all this way,’ she said. ‘I hope the buses behave for you, going back.’

‘That’s all right,’ Terence said easily. ‘See you soon, eh, Katie?’

She wondered if he would try and kiss her or anything, but he didn’t. He was a nice, friendly person and she enjoyed his company. But perhaps he walked out with a lot of girls on just a friendly basis? She was so ignorant about how it all worked – men and women, courting and all that went with it – that she didn’t know what might be normal at all.

The house was quiet, and dark. As she crept along the hall, Katie realized with surprised relief that her mother had gone to bed. Thinking she might as well go straight up herself, she didn’t bother to turn on the light in the hall and felt her way along the wall to the stairs. She had stepped onto the first stair when the voice came from the dark back room.

‘And where, pray, have you been?’

‘Oh!’ Katie jumped violently. ‘Mother! What on earth are you doing there, sitting in the dark?’

Stepping down, she felt around for the switch in the back and turned on the light. As soon as she did so, she wished she hadn’t.

Vera was sitting bolt upright in her chair beside the fire, which had almost gone out. The room was very chilly. She stared across the room at the wall, not meeting Katie’s eyes.

‘Mother?’ Katie faltered, shrinking inside. Nothing was said, but she felt as if she was in a room full of gas. If she were to strike a flame, however small, the whole house would blow up.

Vera got up and, ignoring Katie as if she wasn’t there, went upstairs and shut herself in her room.

Eight

Katie found her first weeks working at Collinge’s rather lonely.

After that night she had not seen Terence again. He had left a couple of notes for her, but she didn’t reply, and he gave up. Vera had gone up to bed that night and, afterwards, had not spoken one word to Katie for two days. Mealtimes were silent, the two of them at the table, avoiding each other’s eyes.

At first Katie was resentful. All I did was go and see a friend for one evening, she thought. But as her mother’s thunderous silence began to work on her, she felt first deflated, then guilty. Her mother was expert at tugging on the reins of her emotions, and especially at making her feel guilty. She knew Vera worried. And she had had such bad shocks in her life: first her husband dying, then Patrick. She was always afraid of something terrible happening to Katie, who was the only person she had in the world. By the time the silence had gone on for the third day, Katie came home from a tough day at Collinge’s feeling close to tears and ready to eat humble pie. She just couldn’t stand another evening in, with Vera giving her the silent treatment, the only human sounds coming from an occasional muffled voice from outside, beyond the swathing blackout curtains. She might as well give in. Vera always had to be in the right.