‘Ridiculous.’ Dora sniffed. ‘I had many a cuff round the ear as a young girl and it did me no harm. Most of the time I deserved it too.’
Iris rolled her eyes. ‘Things were different back then.’
‘Yes they were,’ Dora agreed vehemently, perhaps not seeing quite what Iris was getting at. ‘And that’s what’s wrong with society today – no discipline. Treated like little princes and princesses these kids are – they need a few life lessons, a bit of hardship. Wouldn’t do them any harm to have no said to them once in a while.’
‘Oh, I think Erica’s niece has had plenty of life lessons,’ Iris said darkly, and now Cathy – who had been letting their bickering wash over her to some extent as she mopped the floor – whipped round to face her, noting that Dora also looked keen to know more.
‘What do you mean by that?’ Dora asked.
Iris shrugged. ‘Erica said a few things in passing.’
‘Like what?’
‘It’s not my place to say,’ Iris said sanctimoniously, though she had a gleam in her eye and Cathy knew she was enjoying the fact that she had information they didn’t. More particularly, information that her cousin didn’t have. It was obvious she was going to milk the situation for all it was worth.
Dora turned back to her task. ‘Suit yourself then.’
A few minutes passed and then: ‘Erica says she hates her mother’s new boyfriend!’ Iris blurted out.
Cathy smiled to herself. So much for Iris’s impeccable discretion.
‘What new boyfriend?’ Dora asked.
‘What’s her name…?’ Iris’s brow creased.
‘Who?’ Dora asked, her tone becoming ever more impatient.
‘The girl…’
‘Tansy?’ Cathy offered.
‘Yes,’ Iris said. ‘Tansy hates her mum’s new boyfriend.’
‘Well,’ Cathy said, ‘that’s hardly a novel situation. I’ll bet there are thousands of teenagers who hate their parents’ new partners. So her mum and dad are divorced?’
‘I don’t think she knows who her dad is,’ Iris said.
Cathy frowned slightly. ‘Erica told you this?’
‘Not exactly,’ Iris said. ‘But I think so.’
Cathy wasn’t going to give too much credence to a statement like that, with very little to back it up. But she pushed on anyway. ‘Is she close to her mum?’
‘And another thing,’ Iris said, ignoring Cathy’s question. ‘What was Tansy doing here today?’
‘She came to join in,’ Cathy said, a little puzzled by the question.
‘But why wasn’t she at school?’
‘Isn’t she too old to be at school?’ Cathy asked.
‘Well…’ Iris folded her arms and regarded Cathy with a look of triumph. ‘If she’s too old for school then she ought to be working.’
‘Maybe it was a day off,’ Cathy said.
‘Or maybe she’s a benefits scrounger,’ Dora said. ‘You see them on the telly.’
Cathy turned to her. ‘Dora!’
At this, Dora at least had the decency to look ashamed.
‘She didn’t exactly endear herself to me,’ Cathy said, recalling how more than once she’d tried to start a conversation with Tansy only to receive stony silence in return or a sneer or some other look that said: I can hardly be bothered to acknowledge your existence because you’re really quite pathetic. ‘But I don’t think we should be judging her just because she’s not whistling a happy tune all the time. Some people just don’t have happy faces.’
‘She didn’t have a happy anything,’ Iris said, and Dora nodded.
‘OK,’ Cathy said slowly. ‘Did Erica say anything else?’
‘I overheard Erica telling her more than once that she’d have to go home sooner or later and that she’d have to talk to her mother properly and she couldn’t keep running to her or her uncle every time she had a spat with her mum.’
‘She’s running to Erica a lot then? Is that what you mean?’
Iris nodded. ‘And her uncle.’
‘Erica did tell me she had a brother,’ Cathy said thoughtfully. ‘Matthias I think his name is.’
‘I hope she doesn’t bring her niece again,’ Dora said. ‘Brings down the whole mood of the room.’
‘She wasn’t that bad,’ Cathy said, though she couldn’t help but agree a little with Dora. Erica’s niece certainly had been difficult to engage with. Even as she tried not to think this, Cathy’s mind flashed back to a number of incidents that reinforced everything Dora was saying, like Tansy’s sneer at poor Myrtle’s offer of a mint, how she’d marched in front of Colin to put her cake on the oven shelf he’d been planning to use and how she’d smirked when someone’s cake had burned.
‘They’re all the same at that age,’ Iris said sagely. ‘Hormones.’
In one breath, Iris was telling them that she thought Tansy was having a difficult home life, and in the next she was blaming it on hormones. Cathy resisted the urge to shake her head in bewilderment. She couldn’t help but think that there might be something in what Iris had originally said, though she wondered why Erica hadn’t volunteered that information to her. Not that they were close, of course – they’d only just started getting to know one another – but Erica had told her so many other things about her family life, and had alluded to the fact that she found her sister frustrating at times, that it seemed strange she’d have kept this from them. Unless she somehow felt that it wasn’t her story to tell. Perhaps she wanted to respect Tansy’s privacy and her right to share her problems with the people only she chose to. Still, Cathy thought she’d call Erica later. She wouldn’t ask outright, but maybe Erica would bring it up and then at least if Tansy came to the class with her again, Cathy would have some background.
She shook herself as Iris turned on the tap to refill her bowl.
‘Sewing club will be here in half an hour,’ she said briskly. ‘Better get cleaned up and be out before they arrive or someone will be running to the vicar to complain.’
Dora made a noise of agreement.
‘We should be nearly done,’ Cathy said. ‘Thanks for helping me out.’
‘It’s our pleasure,’ Dora said. ‘Isn’t it, Iris?’
Iris smiled at Cathy. ‘It is. I’ve only known you for a couple of weeks and already I feel as if we’ve been friends for a hundred years.’
‘Really?’ Cathy blushed. She couldn’t imagine making that kind of impression on anyone, and perhaps it was a bit of an exaggeration on Iris’s part, but it was a lovely thing for her to say nonetheless.
‘I know,’ Dora said. ‘I feel exactly the same way.’
‘Well…’ Cathy began, blushing harder than ever. ‘Thank you!’
She turned back to her mopping, not knowing what else to say but with a smile broader than any she’d worn in a long, long time.
Twelve
Cathy wrestled with the idea of phoning Erica for a while before she did it. She didn’t want to bother her if Erica didn’t want to talk and she’d thought perhaps that Erica might call her, but when it got to 8 p.m. and that hadn’t happened she gave in.