Room for a Stranger Read Online Free Page B

betrayed. Rhoda
had
liked it there; she was just showing off. Not that she’d got anything to show off about, seeing as her mum and dad weren’t even married.

CHAPTER FOUR
    On Sunday morning Rhoda went to mass, leaving the family in the kitchen, clearing breakfast.
    â€œAnd how are you two getting on with Rhoda?” Mum asked.
    â€œAll right,” said Doreen. And it was true. She and Rhoda had got on better than she’d expected, except for Rhoda’s remark about Old Works; that still hurt. “Mum, she wears pink knickers!”
    â€œDoreen! Not in front of Lennie!”
    â€œWell…I wish
I
could. And, Mum, she goes to a convent school and her teachers are nuns.”
    â€œShe likes the pigeons,” said Lennie.
    â€œHas she been to the loft?”
    â€œYes. Last night. I told her all their names and the places they fly to. She liked them.”
    Doreen felt a twinge of jealousy. She didn’t know Lennie had been making friends with Rhoda.
    â€œRhoda’s mum’s a famous singer,” she said.
    â€œI saw the photo,” said Mum.
    â€œShe might come and see Rhoda soon.”
    â€œWell,” said Mum, “if she does come I hope she’ll bring Rhoda some clothes. All she’s got is those two summer frocks, and it’ll be autumn soon. She’ll be needing something warmer. Perhaps I should mention it when I write.”
    â€œHow much do you get for having Rhoda?” Doreen asked.
    â€œTen and six a week.”
    â€œThat’s a lot.”
    â€œWe won’t make much on it. Not feeding a growing girl. Mind you, she’s no trouble. Tidies up after herself. Always offers to help—”
    â€œUnlike some,” said Lennie, looking at Doreen.
    â€œ
You
can talk!”
    â€œI’m bringing in money.” He was proud of that, she knew.
    â€œMum,” she began tentatively, “how much does a gold cross and chain cost – like Rhoda’s?”
    â€œI’ve no idea.”
    â€œI wish I had one.”
    â€œI don’t really hold with crosses and that,” said Mum.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œI just don’t. We’re not churchy people.”
    Doreen thought of Rhoda at mass. “We ought to go to chapel,” she said. “We used to.”
    She remembered the last time she’d been. There was a visiting preacher – a woman – and the sermon wasn’t as boring as usual. It was on the theme “Careless Talk Costs Lives” – the poster about spies that they all saw everywhere. Only the preacher had spoken about careless talk in everyday life; she had said that before you said anything you might regret, you should ask yourself three questions: “Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?” And you should only say it if you could answer yes to at least two of them. Doreen had tested this theory, afterwards, by inventing things she might say and asking the three questions.
    â€œI liked it – sometimes,” she said. And yet she knew it wasn’t really chapel she wanted to go to today. Rhoda had told her about the Catholic church, with its candles and statues and paintings, and everywhere the glint of gold and soft light. She wanted to go there.
    â€œYou could have gone to chapel, if you’d liked,” said Mum. “I haven’t got time. I need to change the beds and start the washing. And I could do with a bit of help. We’ll get one load on the line, shall we, and then go and see your dad?”
    Doreen and Lennie exchanged a glance. They both wished she wouldn’t put it like that. Doreen wanted to say “Dad’s dead; we can’t go and see him”, but when she tried the three questions on it, it only came out as true, not kind or necessary. Aunty Elsie always said that Dad had “passed over”, making Doreen think of the way the flock of pigeons circled over the house. No one ever said the word dead, just as no one had ever