The Glass Bird Girl by Esme Kerr Page A

anxiously.
    â€˜No,’ Edie replied.
    â€˜But you must . If you don’t say sorry the Man will gate you until the end of term. You’ve only got to say it, you don’t have to mean it.’ Sally lowered her voice. ‘You can just lie!’
    Edie shook her head. Even the thought of an insincere apology was more than she could bear. Sally seemed puzzled by her refusal to give in, and when tea was over Edie found herself walking to prep on her own. But as she was about to enter the classroom, Anastasia came hurrying up.
    â€˜Thanks for sticking up for me with the Man,’ Edie said gloomily.
    â€˜That was nothing,’ Anastasia said, looking at her shyly. ‘Thank you for shutting Phoebe up. She’s always going on and sometimes I want to kill her, but – oh, Edie, I’d never have dared hit her like that!’
    â€˜That’s because you’re more sensible than me,’ Edie said, reflecting that it was she who had behaved like the drama queen, not Anastasia.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Anastasia said thoughtfully. ‘Sometimes words have to be backed up by actions, that’s what Papa says, but I’m just too much of a coward. And anyway, no one would be on my side. The others all think that because— Oh, you know, they just think it’s all right to tease me.’
    â€˜Well, I don’t think it’s all right,’ Edie said.
    â€˜But now you’re going to be in trouble with Miss Fotheringay, and all because of me. I hope she isn’t too cross.’
    â€˜Oh, I’m not worried about her. And she’s certainly not going to make me apologise to Phoebe,’ Edie said bullishly.
    Anastasia looked at her with interest. ‘You are brave,’ she said.

Hidden Meanings
    E die might have felt less brave had she seen Miss Fotheringay’s expression when Miss Mannering reported her offence. The headmistress stood resting her hand on the mantelpiece, her eyes cold as steel, not a shadow of emotion crossing her face.
    â€˜If you take my advice, Caroline, you’d make her give up her part in the school play,’ Miss Mannering said. ‘Children start as they mean to go on and if you don’t bring her to heel, her behaviour will get worse.’
    â€˜So,’ Miss Fotheringay murmured, ‘the child has a temper, like her mother.’
    â€˜Her mother? I thought she was an orphan.’
    â€˜Even orphans have mothers, Diana. They just happen not to be alive.’
    â€˜You are saying that you know something about EdithWilson’s mother?’
    Miss Fotheringay shrugged. ‘I know something about her. Her name is – or was – Anna Carter. We were at school together.’
    Miss Mannering looked surprised: ‘Wasn’t she the one—’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Miss Fotheringay abruptly. ‘She was the journalist who got herself killed in Moscow eleven years ago.’
    â€˜Really, Caroline, you make it sound as though it was her fault.’
    â€˜We were no longer in touch at the time of her death,’ Miss Fotheringay replied tersely. ‘I know very little about the circumstances.’
    â€˜What an extraordinary coincidence.’
    â€˜I can assure you, Diana, I knew nothing about the connection until I discovered it by chance from a photograph in the shoe box you confiscated on Edith’s first night. I’ve had nothing to do with the family since . . .’
    â€˜Since you were accused of wanting too much that wasn’t on offer?’
    â€˜I don’t know what you mean.’
    â€˜I only know what you’ve told me, Caroline. But I must admit that your having the child at Knight’s Haddon bodes ill for—’
    â€˜She has been delivered to my care,’ Miss Fotheringay returned sharply. ‘I did not seek her out.’
    â€˜All the more reason for you to resist the temptation to revisit the past. You have always maintained that