“Do you think so?” She made a pretty little moue with her lips.
“No,” she said, “I’m sure you’re wrong. It was the sex bits she wanted to know about. I told you, her eyes had a greedy look.”
Roz let this pass.
“Did she tell lies?”
“Yes, that was another thing.” Memories chased themselves across her face.
“She was always lying.
How odd, I’d forgotten that. In the end, you know, nobody ever believed anything she said.”
“What did she lie about?”
“Everything.”
“What in particular? Herself? Other people? Her parents?”
“Everything.” She saw the impatience in Roz’s face.
“Oh dear, it’s so hard to explain. She told stories. I mean, she couldn’t open her mouth without telling stories. Oh dear, let me see now. All right, she used to talk about boyfriends that didn’t exist, and she said the family had been on holiday to France one summer but it turned out they’d stayed at home, and she kept talking about her dog, but everyone knew she didn’t have a dog.” She pulled a face.
“And she used to cheat, of course, all the time. It was really annoying that. She’d steal your homework out of your satchel when you weren’t looking and crib your ideas.”
“She was bright, though, wasn’t she? She got three A-levels.”
“She passed them all but I don’t think her grades were anything to shout home about.” It was said with a touch of malice.
“Anyway, if she was so bright, why couldn’t she get herself a decent job? My mother said it was embarrassing going to Pettit’s and being served by Olive.”
Roz looked away from the colourless face to gaze out over the view from the window. She let some moments pass while COmmon sense battled with the angry reproaches that were clamouring inside her head. After all, she thought, she could be wrong. And yet… And yet it seemed so clear to her that Olive must have been a deeply unhappy child. She forced herself to smile.
“Olive was obviously closer to you than anyone else, except, perhaps, her sister. Why do you think that was?”
“Oh, goodness, I haven’t a clue. My mother says it’s because I reminded her of Amber. I couldn’t see it myself, but it’s true that people who saw the three of us together always assumed Amber was my sister and not Olive’s.” She thought back.
“Mother’s probably right. Olive stopped following me around quite so much when Amber joined the school.”
“That must have been a relief.” There was a certain acidity in her tone, mercifully lost on Geraldine.
“I suppose so. Except’ she added this as a wistful afterthought ‘nobody dared tease when Olive was with me.”
Roz watched her for a moment.
“Sister Bridget said Olive was devoted to Amber.”
“She was. But then everyone liked Amber.”
“Why?”
Geraldine shrugged.
“She was nice.”
Roz laughed suddenly.
“To be frank, Amber’s beginning to get up my nose. She sounds too damn good to be true. What was so special about her?”
“Oh dear.” She frowned in recollection.
“Mother said it was because she was willing. People put on her, but she never seemed to mind. She smiled a lot, of course.”
Roz drew her cherub doodle on the notepad and thought about the unwanted pregnancy.
“How was she put upon?”
“I suppose she just wanted to please. It was only little things, like lending out her pencils and running errands for the nuns. I needed a clean sports shirt once for a net ball match, so I borrowed Amber’s.
That sort of thing.”
“Without asking?”
Surprisingly, Geraldine blushed.
“You didn’t need to, not with Amber. She never minded. It was only Olive who got angry. She was perfectly beastly about that sports shirt.” She looked at the clock.
“I shall have to go. It’s getting late.” She stood up.
