Katy Read online

  We had a lovely tea with egg salad sandwiches, home-made scones and raspberry jam, walnut cake with white icing and chocolate biscuits, all our favourites. Helen declared they were her favourites too, and begged Izzie for her scone and jam recipes.

  Then we decided to watch a DVD all together and there was a huge discussion about the right film, but eventually Helen chose an ancient old Disney movie about a little elephant called Dumbo.

  We all squashed up on the sofa to watch, but I sat on the arm next to Helen’s wheelchair so I could be the nearest to her. I hadn’t watched Dumbo for ages and ages. I was enjoying it quite a lot, until Dumbo gets separated from Mrs Jumbo. She’s put in a cage and Dumbo can’t get at her, though there’s a heart-stopping moment when they manage to twine trunks.

  I suddenly went hot at the thought of little Dumbo’s mother torn away from him, and I couldn’t stop the tears spilling down my cheeks. We’d drawn the curtains in the living room so it was dark and I managed not to sniff. I hoped no one would notice. But Helen’s hand reached out and gripped mine and squeezed sympathetically.

  Cecy was most reluctant to go home at bedtime. It took a long time to herd the littlies upstairs, and Elsie tried to hang on to Helen, wanting to curl up on her lap like a little cat. While Dad and Izzie were tucking them up, Helen said softly to me, ‘You must still miss your mother very much, Katy.’

  ‘I do, oh I do!’ I said.

  ‘I do too!’ said Clover.

  ‘Did you know I met her once?’ said Helen.

  ‘Really? When? Did you like her?’ I asked eagerly.

  ‘I loved her. Your dad and your mum came to visit me in Cambridge. I took them for lunch in the college and then we went for a stroll together. Well, they strolled, I wheeled. Your mum was the most amazing person to go on a walk with. She kept spotting little things that anyone else would miss – a weird gargoyle on an old building, two cats sitting on a windowsill like bookends, a very elderly couple punting on the river, maybe reliving their youth. She make up little stories about everything.’

  ‘Yes, she did, she did! I remember her doing that too,’ I said.

  ‘Yes!’ said Clover.

  ‘She looked so young too, not really old enough to be married. Your dad clearly adored her. His whole face lit up as he looked at her.’

  ‘I bet Dad misses her terribly too, though he hardly ever mentions her now,’ I said.

  ‘It’s because he has to be tactful with Izzie,’ said Clover.

  ‘It must be hard for Izzie, being a second wife,’ said Helen. ‘She’s lovely too, but in a different way.’

  ‘She’s OK because you’re here, but she doesn’t half nag and moan at us sometimes,’ I said. Then I felt mean and oddly disloyal. ‘But I suppose she does her best. And we can be a bit difficult. Especially me!’

  Helen laughed. ‘I can’t believe that,’ she said.

  Clover and I were allowed to stay up half an hour past our bedtime so we could talk to Helen, but eventually we had to go up to bed too.

  ‘I think Helen is my favourite grown-up person in the whole world,’ said Clover. ‘I wonder if she’d let me have a dab of her perfume tomorrow? She smells so lovely.’

  ‘I love her necklace, the little silver seahorse. I love her. Oh, I’m so glad she’s staying till tomorrow evening!’

  I woke up quite early on Sunday morning. I wondered if Helen might be awake too. Perhaps I could take her a cup of tea? I crept out of the bedroom, careful not to wake Clover, and made my way stealthily downstairs. But Izzie was already in the kitchen stirring muesli and chopping fruit.

  ‘Oh! I wanted to make breakfast for Helen!’ I said.

  ‘What – pancakes?’ said Izzie.

  I crumpled.

  ‘Sorry, Katy, that was mean,’ said Izzie. ‘Look, come here and cut the peaches. Only for pity’s sake don’t cut your fingers off too. I can’t face another four hours in A & E.’

  I started cutting a peach but Izzie had given me a very blunt knife and I made a bit of a mess of it, practically having to squash the peach into submission. Izzie didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to.

  ‘OK, I know I haven’t made a good job of it,’ I said, licking peach juice from my fingers. It then ran all the way up my arm inside my pyjama sleeve.

  ‘Perhaps you’d better eat that one,’ said Izzie. She was busy creating a beautiful pattern of fruit over a bowl of muesli with a white Greek yoghurt topping.

  ‘Oh, that looks pretty,’ I said, munching.

  ‘I thought I’d make Helen a breakfast tray. Then she can have a little lie-in if she wants, rather than deal with all of us at once,’ said Izzie.

  She was using the best willow-pattern blue-and-white china on a bright blue enamel tray. She set it with the decorated muesli, a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea.

  ‘Should I put a tiny vase on too, to make it look pretty?’ Izzie wondered. ‘Run into the garden, Katy, and pick one of the roses. Take the secateurs from the bag hanging on the door so you can cut it off neatly.’

  I found the secateurs and went out the back door, on to the lawn. I was barefoot and the grass was wet, but I rather liked the feeling. Tyler was out there, running around happily after being let out for his morning wee. He wanted to play, so I threw an old ball for him until I heard Izzie calling impatiently.

  I went to the rose bush – but then saw the fuchsias, Helen’s favourites! I carefully cut off a small stem so that she could have a whole mass of bright, drooping flowers. I thought how pretty and original they would look on the bright blue breakfast tray and ran indoors happily.

  ‘Whatever have you got there?’ Izzie sounded impatient. ‘I sent you out to get a rose, for goodness’ sake. Can’t you tell the difference between a rose and a fuchsia?’

  ‘Yes, of course I can, but I happen to know Helen vastly prefers fuchsias. They’re her very favourite flowers. So let’s put them on her tray.’

  ‘You don’t generally put fuchsias in vases.’

  ‘There’s no law against it, is there? Look, they’re really pretty.’ I stuck the fuchsias in the glass vase. They didn’t look quite as pretty as I’d hoped. They were a bit too top-heavy for the small vase. I saw that a single rose would have looked much better, but I wasn’t going to back down now. And Helen would see that I’d remembered her remark and be pleased.

  I seized the breakfast tray before Izzie could argue with me further. I hurried out into the hall with it, along the passage to the door of the library. My arms ached a little, but I held the tray steady, carefully balancing it so the fuchsia vase wouldn’t tip. I didn’t have a free hand to knock on Helen’s door, so I tapped on it quietly with my foot.

  ‘Come in,’ Helen called, sounding wide awake.

  I was so eager to see her I didn’t set the tray down on the floor to open the door. Tyler had come bounding after me and might put his head in the bowl for a lick of the yoghurt. I held on to the tray with one hand and cautiously reached for the door handle with the other. I got it open, but then somehow the tray started tipping. I jerked it quickly, trying to save the vase of fuchsias, but it teetered and then fell, cold water and little flowers going everywhere.

  ‘Oh!’ I cried, so shocked that the whole tray slipped from my grasp and landed with a smash on the floor.

  ‘Oh goodness, is that you, Katy? Are you all right?’ Helen called.

  ‘Dear Lord, Katy, what have you done now?’ Izzie came running from the kitchen.

  I sank down beside the spilt tray and started sobbing.

  ‘I told you to be careful!’ said Izzie. ‘Well, run and get a cloth, for goodness’ sake.’

  I tried to mop up the mess but the water had sloshed everywhere.

  ‘Look, I’d better do it,’ said Izzie. ‘You go and apologize to Helen!’

  I crept mournfully into Helen’s room. She was propped up on her pillows, smiling at me so sympathetically.

  ‘Oh Katy! Were you bringing me my breakfast?’

  ‘The vase