Mum was upstairs asleep when the guests arrived. She’d started muttering again about returning to bed and eventually Dad gave in and went upstairs with her to settle her down. A little while later, I heard him greet people at the front door and I heard a voice I recognised. Amanda had returned. She was, apparently, one of the guests, along with a strange-looking, and very round, old man. ‘Hello Katherine,’ she said from the doorway to the lounge as Dad brought them in.
I said nothing.
‘I hope you’re all rested after last night’s excitements?’
She said it like a question, but I thought it a foolish one. I just stared at her until she looked away and started to take off her coat. Dad should have asked her for it at the door, but he often forgot these things. It used to annoy Mum. Back before Mum started to annoy Dad. Back before Mum started to make Dad look stressed and pale white all the time.
‘Shall we all sit down in the lounge here for a bit of a chat?’ Amanda asked, settling herself down on the sofa and patting the seat next to her.
‘Do you live here?’ I asked. It was something I’d been wondering since we’d arrived; whose cottage this was before we made it our temporary home.
She laughed a little. ‘Goodness me, no. But the owners of it are acquaintances of mine. Your father got a very good rate from them.’
I looked over at Dad, who had been talking to the old man, offering him something to drink. ‘Tea. Proper tea, milk in first, there’s a good chap,’ the old man said. His voice sounded a little posh, but old-person posh, not really-rich posh, and he sat down in the armchair by the currently dead fire.
‘And you must be Katherine,’ he said to me. This made me jump, as he wasn’t looking towards me, since the chair was facing the other way. I could only just make out the tip of his white hair, barely covering his bald spot, poking over from the top of the chair’s frayed top. I hadn’t accepted Amanda’s invitation to sit next to her, but I decided to leave my position by the doorframe and walked over to face the old man in the chair.
‘My name is Kitty,’ I said, sternly. ‘I rarely answer to Katherine. Only in emergencies.’
He seemed to find this funny. ‘Oh very good, very good,’ he said, laughing.
I looked down at his clothes. They were completely black, except for a white bit that could be seen under his collar at the front. I recognised it as a dog collar and pointed.
‘You must be a vicar.’
‘Well, well, well, you are a clever one,’ he said, then laughed again.
I lowered my hand, unsure if he was mocking me. I didn’t like to be mocked.
‘Well? Are you?’ I said in a way Dad would have called rude if he wasn’t busy in the kitchen making the tea.
‘In a way, in a way,’ he said, smiling.
‘In what way?’ I asked, but that set him off chuckling again.
‘Why don’t you come and sit down with me,’ Amanda said from over on the sofa.
I ignored her. ‘Why are you here?’ I asked the old man. He didn’t stop smiling, but he did narrow his eyes a little.
‘I think that subject is best discussed when your father is back in the room,’ he said. He nodded a little after saying it, then looked towards Amanda. ‘I think my daughter over there offered you a seat. You should probably take it.’
‘Your daughter?’ I stared between Amanda and the old man. ‘But she’s old. How can she be your daughter?’
I saw both of them look at each other, then they laughed again. I was starting to get really tired of the laughing.
‘Oh, Katherine, how blunt you can be,’ Amanda said. ‘I’m not that old. I’m only thirty-seven.’
‘And I am a good three decades older than that. And a bit more,’ the old man said, winking at me. People winking at me made me feel weird, so I walked away from him and took the seat next to Amanda that she’d been patting for a while.
‘I see you’re all getting on like a house on fire,’ Dad said, coming into the room with two mugs on saucers. He set them down on the scruffy coffee table in the middle of the room, and then hovered by the old man’s chair. ‘So, what are we all talking about?’ he said. He was trying to look cheerful, but I could tell he was worried about something. Dad never smiled this much these days. There was something very odd about his face right now.
‘Katherine was just suggesting I’m getting on a bit,’ Amanda said, then laughed some more. ‘Practically called me ancient!’
Dad looked shocked. ‘You didn’t, did you Kitty? That’s very rude.’
I glared back at him, anger rising in me. ‘She’s lying.’
Amanda, still smiling broadly, waved her hand. ‘Oh it’s nothing. I dare say to someone of Katherine’s age I probably do look quite old.’
‘Even if she does insist on wearing that infernal leather jacket of hers’, the old man said, shaking his head a bit. ‘Trying to be one of the young, hip, trendy ones, I’m sure.’
‘I do try,’ Amanda said, winking at me. Why were all these people winking, I thought as I looked from her to the old man.
‘Well, I don’t think you look ancient,’ Dad said. He was putting on a nice voice, a bit posher than normal, so he sounded more like these people and less like how we all normally talked. I’d heard him do this before, like when he talked to people at the bank or the doctor’s. It seemed strange he’d be doing it now though with this odd pair.
‘Well, that is enough merriment for now,’ the old man said. ‘If we’re all settled, let’s just give Katherine here a rundown of what to expect over the coming days.’
I looked at him with a strong, fixed gaze. Unlike most people I did this to, he didn’t look away. Although I was sure I didn’t like this man, I couldn’t help but be a little bit impressed.
‘Yes, that sounds sensible,’ Dad said.
‘Right, OK then. Katherine—’
‘Kitty,’ I cut across him.
‘Kitty. Yes. Quite.’ He nodded, as if giving me permission to be called what I wanted. ‘Well then, Kitty, my daughter Amanda and I are going to be staying here, in your lovely house, for the next week, maybe a little more. The length of time isn’t fixed. We’ll be coming and going, as there isn’t space for us all to sleep here at any one time. Amanda will be more “residential” than me. My bones are old, and I’m not quite as adept at sleeping on a sofa as I once was.’ He paused, as if waiting for me to laugh, and when I didn’t he smiled and carried on. ‘As you may have guessed, this concerns your mother.’
My eyes flicked to the ceiling, where I could hear Mum shuffling around. There was the occasional clunk of something heavy; I suspected she might be rearranging the furniture. She had a bit of a preoccupation with nightstands and bedside tables. She liked them to be as far away from the bed as possible.
‘We don’t want to upset you, Kitty.’ Amanda was talking now, but I carried on looking at the old man in the religious clothes. ‘But your mother is exhibiting some behaviour that some may call … well … disturbing. And my father and I – and indeed your father, too – believe we might know how to sort it out.’
I said nothing.
‘The sorting-out part,’ the old man now said, ‘will be what we’ll focus on, at least for the next few days. This might take a bit of trial and error, and I don’t imagine we’ll achieve success straight away, or even particularly quickly. This is why I said there’s no fixed time to us being here. This is very rough work. Interesting, of course. Very interesting, and your mother is a particularly fascinating case. I don’t think I’ve really encountered that many similar, aside from a young woman from Baghdad who—’
Amanda coughed quietly, and the old man very obviously changed what he was about to say.
‘So, anyway, will you allow us to take up your lovely home? And you won’t mind if we need you to be absent for a little while while we try our best to help your mother?’
I thought for a little, and then looked up at Dad, who was staring into the distance, as if in his own world. ‘This isn’t my house. I don’t think it’s lovely. And I don’t really have a choice about you being here.’
Silence greeted these words for a bit, then the old man started laughing again, ‘Well, I do like a young girl to know her own mind, and it sounds like you certainly do. Thank you, Kitty, for being so honest.’
I nodded once, short and sharp. ‘I’m not a liar.’
‘Certainly not. I never would have thought it.’ He smiled widely at me again. ‘So, I think it’s time to bring down your mother and let us have a chat with her. I think, so long as your father agrees, it might be useful for you to remain for this introduction. Your presence might help put your mother at ease. But I understand if you wish to leave if she responds badly to us and it starts to become upsetting for you.’
Dad left the room without really reacting to the old man’s words. I heard him going up the stairs and then some mumbling from one of the bedrooms.
‘Do you get upset, Kitty?’ Amanda said, in what she probably thought was a kind, child-friendly voice. ‘About your mum? About her … moments of distress?’
I considered this for several seconds, then answered her. ‘I used to. But not now.’
Amanda nodded and looked as though she was going to say something else, but then the sound of two people on the stairs signalled Dad’s return, accompanied by Mum. She wasn’t screaming just yet.
‘Hello, Marjory,’ Amanda said warmly, standing up from the sofa and going over to her. She held out her hand and Mum took it, not looking at her, but peering around the room, as if hunting for something. Amanda clasped Mum’s hand between hers and said, ‘We’ve been looking forward to properly meeting you. We didn’t get the chance to speak last night.’
At the mention of last night, Mum’s gaze snapped to Amanda and she looked worried. ‘Have you come to take me away?’
Amanda looked worried too for a moment, then said, ‘Oh no. No, no, no. Definitely not. We’re here to help you. We have no wish to take you out of this beautiful woodland property you have.’
‘It’s not beautiful,’ I murmured, more to myself than to Amanda, but Dad hissed ‘Kitty!’ at me. I glared at him, and then looked at the floor.
‘I’m Amanda, and this,’ Amanda said, gesturing to the old man, who was also rising from his chair, ‘is my dad, Father Tobias Kent.’
The effect on Mum was instantaneous. She yelped as if she’d been kicked, then fell to the floor and clasped the man’s black clothes, saying, ‘Please, please, help me.’
He lowered himself slowly to her level, knees clicking, and took hold of her hands. ‘That, my dear, is the very reason we’re here.’
She was shaking now, and tears started to roll down her face. ‘Please. We don’t have much time. When … when he finds out you’re here … he’ll be so angry.’
Father Tobias Kent nodded. ‘Then we’d better get started straight away.’