The Sky in Silver Lace by Robin Klein

Author:Robin Klein [Klein, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Matter of Asking

‘I don’t see what all the drama’s about. It’s only a matter of asking,’ Cathy said, but Grace hissed that if she chose to tag along when she wasn’t wanted, she could just hold her tongue. Cathy sat back, affronted. The only satisfaction was that Grace had to bear the brunt of Mum’s torrent of woe. It just served her right now to be jammed next to Mum, getting moaned at without any possible escape. And it was, Cathy thought gleefully, quite a long bus ride from Wickham Station to Aunt Elsie’s house at Godfrey Point.

‘Talking that weak brother of his into being a partner,’ Mum wailed. ‘Well, Trip can just kiss his money goodbye right from the start! I don’t know what I’m going to say next time I see poor Cessie—she’ll blame me, you see if she doesn’t. She’ll think I could have stopped them both, though I didn’t even know about it until all the papers were signed! I had to hear from Aunt Ivy, just like I did when the plantation didn’t work out, either. Taking over a pineapple cannery that hasn’t shown any profit for donkey’s years—how could your father be such a fool! Oh, Grace. He promised he’d try for a city job down here, he promised…’

‘If Uncle Trip was gullible enough to invest money in one of Dad’s schemes, it’s his own lookout,’ Grace said coolly. ‘There’s not much you can do about it now, or about Dad and his brilliant promises, either. Who knows, they might even make a go of this one, but either way, I can’t say I’m losing any sleep over it.’

Pigs might fly, clap your hands if you believe in fairies, Cathy thought, staring fiercely out of the bus window. Nobody had the right to be as detached as Grace! If anyone deserved to be an audience for Mum’s latest worries, it should be Grace, with her knack of managing to be absent when anything uncomfortable was happening. Lately, she seemed to be home only long enough to sleep, iron something to wear to work, have breakfast, then dash right out again. She thought she was so stupendous, always tripping off to art classes and concerts with her uppity friends, most of the time not even deigning to say where she was going…

Somehow she’d even dodged the terrible colds the rest of them had had, as though germs didn’t dare trifle with her! Cathy, still enervated from her own bout of that flu, wished now that she’d stayed home as advised. Not that it had been advice, really. Just Grace saying acidly that she didn’t know what was more repellent—Cathy coughing and spluttering in bed, or on the mend and driving everyone mad about being bored. In fact, she’d nagged about coming along this afternoon partly to irk Grace. And besides, any outing was better than Heather and Vivienne’s present uninspiring company. They were still at the stage of huddling under blankets, reeking of eucalyptus oil and using a torn-up pillowslip as emergency hankies.

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