Just Like the Other Girls(44)

Una juts out her chin. ‘It won’t have any impact on my ability to do my job,’ she says levelly.

‘I hope not. Good night.’ And then Kathryn climbs the stairs and goes into her bedroom, making sure to close the door behind her.

The next morning Una is quiet at breakfast, and looks pale beneath her barely there makeup. Kathryn watches her across the table as she pushes a sausage around her plate and can’t help but feel a little smug that Una is obviously suffering. Maybe now she’ll think twice about staying out so late on a work night cavorting with handsome ex-employees. She should have known when she gave Una Lewis’s number that they’d end up on a date.

Her mother is chattering away. She’s in a good mood this morning. Yesterday she wasn’t. Yesterday she listed all the things that Kathryn does to annoy her, including holding her arm too tightly when they walk down the street and making her tea too ‘builders’. There were numerous times yesterday when Kathryn wished she was back in the gallery with the effervescent Daisy rather than listening to her mother’s never-ending criticisms, all of which seemed to scream, ‘You’re not Viola!’

She watches as her mother laughs at something Una says, throwing her head back so that Kathryn can see down her pink throat. She can’t bear to witness her mother’s obvious devotion.

Kathryn puts her knife and fork down with a clatter, and clears her throat. ‘How are you feeling this morning, Una?’ she asks, her voice ringing out clearly in the large kitchen. Aggie has stopped bustling around and has now joined them with a cup of tea.

‘Ooh, did you go out last night, ducky?’ Aggie’s button eyes assess Una fondly. It makes Kathryn’s blood boil. Even the lovable Aggie is smitten by her.

‘She did,’ interjects Kathryn, before Una has a chance to speak. ‘She was on a date. With Lewis.’

It has the desired effect. The others fall silent. Even the normally tactless Aggie seems surprised.

Her mother’s demeanour changes in a flash, just as Kathryn had known it would.

Her cold blue eyes glint dangerously and Kathryn can hardly contain her glee. ‘You went out with Lewis? As in our ex-gardener, Lewis?’

Una looks even paler than she did earlier, if that’s possible. ‘Um … not a date, exactly. I was … it was just to …’ She appears to have run out of words.

‘We’re all ears,’ says Kathryn, leaning forward on her elbows.

Una shifts in her chair. ‘There’s nothing to say, really.’

Kathryn smiles. ‘I did wonder why you wanted his number. I don’t blame you, he’s a good-looking guy.’

Una reddens and her mother looks sickened. ‘That’s enough, Kathryn,’ she snaps. ‘You’re old enough to be his mother. And, Una, I’m surprised at you. I thought you had more taste.’ She pushes her chair back with such force that the legs screech across the limestone tiles. She stands up. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a headache. I’m going to rest in the sitting room. If you could bring me up a cup of tea, Una, I’d be grateful.’

‘Of course,’ mumbles Una, from behind her hair. Her cheeks are still pink.

They don’t speak until Elspeth has left the room. Kathryn watches her mother’s stiff back, and how steady she is on her feet today. ‘Well,’ she says, finishing her coffee, ‘I’d better be off. Have a good day.’

She smiles to herself as she leaves the house, knowing Una’s day is ruined.

Jacob is waiting on the stairs when she returns, dressed in his school uniform. The black blazer looks smart on the other kids but for some reason never does on her son, probably because he walks like an ape. His navy blue regulation rucksack is by his feet. It looks empty. She knows better than to ask him about it if she doesn’t want to get her head bitten off.

‘You’re late,’ he says, as soon as she steps inside the hallway. She isn’t. She’s never late.

‘Where’s your father and Harry?’

‘Harry’s on a sleepover and Dad’s gone to work.’

‘Harry’s on a sleepover? On a school night? Who decided that?’

Jacob stands up. He’s so tall, he towers over her now. ‘Dad did. You’re never here.’

‘I was with Grandma.’

‘You’re always with Grandma.’

‘She’s old. She needs looking after.’

‘Isn’t that why she’s got Una?’

‘Well, yes, but Una needs a day off.’ She bites back her irritation. ‘We’ve been through this.’

He mutters something under his breath but she doesn’t catch it. ‘We need to go.’ He hurls his rucksack onto his back. ‘I’m gonna be late for school.’

‘What about the bus?’ He always takes the bus. He says he likes it because it gives him the chance to catch up with his mates, not that they look like they’re catching up when Kathryn sees them. They’re usually glued to their phones or their ears are plugged into them.

‘I missed it.’

Again. Last week he didn’t turn up at school. He’d taken the bus that day and she’d assumed he’d arrived okay – she has Find My Friends on her phone to keep track of him after his behaviour last year – but his phone was turned off. And he usually got the bus with Harry. Then she’d received a call from the headmaster to say he hadn’t turned up for registration. She’d rushed out of the gallery and driven around until she’d found him, walking on the Downs, in the cold, his breath clouding in front of him. When she’d asked him where he’d been, he told her he’d missed the bus and decided to walk and had then got lost in the fog. She hadn’t believed a word of it, of course. He’d been living in Bristol all his life and his school was a forty-minute walk at the most. Yes, it would have made him late but there’s no way he would have got lost going from Stokes Bishop to his posh school near the centre of town.