mothers and daughters just aren’t as close as others, are they?’
Susanna beamed; her mother took another bite of scone.
Laurel had a strong feeling Kitty was holding something back. Being one of four sisters she also had a pretty good idea how to winkle it out. There weren’t many confidences that indifference couldn’t shake lose. ‘I’ve taken up enough of your time, Mrs Barker,’ she said, folding her napkin and realigning her teaspoon. ‘Thank you for talking to me. It’s been most helpful. Let me know, won’t you, if you think of anything else that might explain what happened between Vivien and my mother.’ Laurel stood up and pushed in her chair. Started towards the door.
‘You know,’ said Kitty, who’d been shadowing Laurel’s every step, ‘there is something else, now I think of it.’
It wasn’t easy, but Laurel managed not to smile. ‘Oh?’ she said. ‘What’s that?’
Kitty sucked in her lips as if she were about to speak against her will and she wasn’t quite sure how it had come to this. She barked at Susanna to top up the pot and when her daughter was gone, ushered Laurel back to the table. ‘I told you about Dolly’s foul mood,’ she began; ‘awful, it was. Terribly dark. And it lasted all the rest of our time together at Campden Grove. Then one night, a few weeks after my wedding, my husband had gone back on duty and I arranged to go out dancing with a few of the girls from work. I almost didn’t ask Doll—she’d been such a bore of late—but I did, and quite unexpectedly she agreed to come.
‘She arrived at the dance club, dressed to the nines and laughing like she’d given herself a head start with the whisky. Brought a friend with her, too, a girl she’d grown up with in Coventry—Caitlin something- or-other, very hoity-toity at first but she soon warmed up—no choice with Doll around. She was one of those people—spirited—made you want to have a good time just because she was.’
Laurel smiled faintly, recognising her mother in the description.
‘She was certainly having a good time that night, let me tell you. She had a wild look in her eyes, laughing and dancing and saying the oddest things. When it was time to go, she grabbed me by the arms and told me she had a plan.’
‘A plan?’ Laurel felt each hair on the back of her neck stand up straight.
‘She said Vivien Jenkins had done something terrible to her, but she had a plan that was going to set everything to rights. She and Jimmy were going to live happily ever after; everyone was going to get what they deserved.’
It was just as her mother had told Laurel in the hospital. But things hadn’t gone to plan, and she hadn’t married Jimmy. In-stead, Henry Jenkins had been made angry. Laurel’s heart was racing but she did her best to seem unmoved. ‘Did she tell you what her plan was?’
‘She didn’t and, to be honest, I didn’t put much stock on it at the time. Things were different in the war. People were always saying and doing things they wouldn’t have otherwise. You never knew what the next day might bring, whether you’d even wake up to see it—that sort of uncertainty has a way of loosening a person’s scruples. And your mother always did have an eye for the dramatic. I figured all her talk of revenge was just that—talk. It wasn’t until afterwards that I wondered if she’d not been more serious than I realised.’
Laurel edged a little closer. ‘Afterwards?’
‘She disappeared into thin air. That night in the dance club was the last I saw of her. Never heard from her again, not so much as a word, and she didn’t return any of my letters. I thought she might’ve been got by a bomb, until I had a visit from an older woman, just after the war ended. Very secretive it was—she was asking after Doll, wanting to know if there was anything “unmentionable” she might have done in her past.’
Laurel had a flashback to the dark cool of Grandma Nicolson’s spare bedroom. ‘A tall woman with a handsome face and an expression like she’d been sucking lemons?’
Kitty cocked a single brow. ‘Friend of yours?’
‘My grandmother. Paternal.’
‘Ah,’ Kitty smiled toothily, ‘the mother-in-law. She didn’t mention that, only told me she was your mother’s employer and was performing a little background check. They still got married though, your mum and dad—he must’ve been