It was unusual for her not to acquiesce immediately with her mother’s plans, but in this case, she said, “I’ve got to present my history project at school today, Mum. I can’t miss it. It’s my turn.”

“Don’t be so silly,” her mother said. She was smiling, but it was one of those hard-around-the-edges smiles that Katrina had learned to distrust. “It’s just a boring school project.”

“It’s on the Victorians,” Katrina said, aware that this comment wasn’t really conveying everything she wanted to say.

“Don’t be tedious, love,” her mother said, and the matter was settled.

They went into Glasgow and had lunch in a restaurant that Katrina could tell was very fancy and that she worried they couldn’t afford. Afterwards her mother took her to a bookshop and picked out a book for her on Victorian religion, saying to Katrina as she paid, “There you go. Now you can’t claim you’re missing out on your education.” Smiling at the shop assistant, she added, “My daughter is extremely conscientious about her schoolwork.” She was doing that accent she sometimes put on—it was posh, almost English.

Katrina could see the book was for adults; it was very thick and the print was tiny. Besides, it was a hardback and the anxious feeling in her chest got even stronger when she saw how much it cost. She did not say any of this to her mother, because she knew if she did her mother’s smile would vanish and she would say Katrina was ungrateful.

When Katrina went back to school the next day, she asked her teacher if she would still be able to present her project, but Mrs Christie said, “Sorry, but there’s no more time. We have to move on to the solar system.” Then, seeing Katrina’s dismay, she added, “But I’ll look at it very carefully, I promise.”

Katrina handed her project over, but Mrs Christie never gave it back, nor even mentioned it again. Katrina didn’t get the merit mark she had hoped for. She heard from some of the others that they’d got merit marks the day before at the end of their presentations and she was sure that if she’d been there she would have got one too, and then she would have had ten in her merit book and would have got a bookmark and a badge from the headmaster. As it was, she never made it to ten that term so she never got her bookmark.