Pip said nothing.
“I didn’t think so,” Violet said.
Una felt the unfairness of this deeply.What had Violet expected?For Una to be glad to find her missing sister creeping about the abbey like a thief?
“I’m going up to bed,” Una said abruptly.“Pip, please help my sister with anything she needs.I’ll see you in the morning—if you are still here,” she added.
Una never quite knew how she made it up to her bedroom again.She had seen a short moving picture once, in Skipton.It was jerky and flickery.She felt exactly like that.
Removing her belt and boots, she curled on her side in the bed and reached for Oolong.
It was only then that she remembered she had left Oolong in the kitchen with Violet.
Violet is back, she thought, and breathed through the pain in her chest.
If her sister was home at last, why did Una feel so horrible about it?
Violet woke the next morning with a crick in her neck and a dragon on her belly.
She groaned and looked up.There was nowhere else to look, because she had slept on the floor.
The first thing she saw was her little sister’s face, staring down at her with wide eyes in her face and tight fists at her sides.
“Why are you sleeping on the floor outside my room?”she demanded.
“Didn’t want to make trouble for anyone,” said Violet, rolling into a sitting position.She had slept in her clothes, with her bunched-up jacket for a pillow.Oolong had made himself comfortable on top of her.
“Trouble?“ Una repeated, her eyes enlarging.They really were just as blue and big as Violet had remembered them, like windows on a summer sky.“You made us chase you round the abbey in the dead of night, following a trail of apple cores!”
“You’re not going to let me forget that one, are you?”Violet said, with a sigh.
“Let youforget?It happenedlast night.”
Drawing up her legs, Violet leaned against the wainscotting and looked up at her sister.Una was neatly dressed in white, not a hair out of place, just as if she hadn’t been up half the night looking for intruders.
Just as if she hadn’t been brutally assaulted the night before, as Pip had described to her.
“You’re repeating everything I say, but in italics,” Violet said, running her fingers through her hair in lieu of a brush.She reached a snarl and winced.“I suppose you found my note, then.”
“Your note?”Una’s eyes positively bulged now.“You mean—two years ago?The one you left when you ran away in the dead of night?”
“That’s the one,” said Violet.
Una leaned against the doorframe, as if the conversation had weakened her.“Violet, it was stabbed to my pillow with a pen knife.”
“I wanted to be sure you’d find it,” Violet protested.“And you did!”
Una covered her face with her hands.
“All right,” Violet sighed.“Fair’s fair.I could have arrived more conventionally than I did last night.”
Una dropped her hands and stared once more.
“I just needed to check on things, before I committed myself,” Violet mumbled, putting on her shoes.“I wasn’t sure you’d want to see me.”Violet looked up at her.“I’m still not sure.”
Una didn’t answer, but she flushed.
“Whereiseveryone, anyway?“ Violet asked.
