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.’
Katy joined her on the floor, her legs crossed. She tentatively reached out to touch Viola’s shoulder, feeling she was about to pet a lion. But Viola didn’t move, or bite her head off, like she’d expected. Instead she continued to sit there, her head in her hands. When she eventually looked up her eyes were red-rimmed. ‘I love him,’ she said, in a small voice. ‘I can’t bear to be apart from him. Will you help me?’
She locked eyes with Katy, desperation reflected in the deep blue irises that were so like Elspeth’s. Katy hesitated, pretending to think about it, and the air around them seemed to still, as though the oxygen had been squeezed out of the room. ‘Of course,’ said Katy, eventually.
For the next few months, Katy helped cover for Viola whenever she could, and as a result her sister was nice to her. After Elspeth went to bed Viola would sneak up into Katy’s attic room, sit on the edge of her bed and tell her all about her secret rendezvous with Danny. And even though Katy couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that Viola had found such a handsome, sexy boyfriend, she was honoured that she, geeky, shy Katy, who spent hours in her room with only her books for company, was the confidante of the popular, beautiful and vivacious Viola. She even began to let go of her years-long conviction that Viola had done something awful to Mittens.