The House of Women by Alison Taylor Page B

all day. Anyway, she’s arranged to go to a nightclub with Jason.’
    ‘ It won’t hurt Mina to put her family first this once,’ McKenna said. ‘She can go clubbing another time. DC Evans will ring Annie, and see what can be arranged.’
    He went upstairs, passed the glowing stained glass window on the landing, and turned right, to find himself facing the sealed door to Ned’s room. Retracing his steps, walking again through the puddles of colour below the window, he passed a bathroom, carpeted in pink, and went towards the door at the far end, behind which Phoebe spilled out her heart to the only friend she had left. He knocked, and waited, listening to Edith’s fretful tones in the kitchen, and Janet’s soothing voice, then knocked again.
    ‘ Go away!’ Phoebe wailed. ‘Leave me alone!’
    ‘ Your mother’s downstairs, Phoebe.’
    He heard rustling and shuffling, another protest from the cat, then she opened the door, standing wearily in a shadow that was like a pool of her own misery, her face blotched and swollen with tears.
    ‘Janet’s asking Annie to come over,’ he said. ‘I suggested you go and stay with her for a while.’
    Phoebe sighed. ‘Mama won’t let me. She doesn’t like being alone with Minnie.’
    ‘ Aren’t you rather over-egging the pudding? You’re all very tense, and could do with a break from each other.’
    ‘ I’ve told you! Mama’s scared of her.’ Seeing the impatience on his face, she said: ‘I thought you were brighter than most people.’ She pointed to her bruise. ‘I’m not the only one who gets thumped.’
    ‘ She’s hit your mother?’
    ‘ Yes, only Mama won’t admit it.’ Retreating into the room, she sat on the bed, and began to stroke the cat. ‘Minnie played a horrible trick on her, and when Mama didn’t find it funny like she was supposed to, Minnie got hysterical, and Mama had nasty scratches on her face afterwards.’
    ‘ What did Mina do?’
    ‘ You haven’t seen Uncle Ned’s room yet, have you? It’s three rooms, really. He had his meals downstairs, but he had his own bedroom, and a little bathroom, so he never used our toilet.’
    ‘ And?’ McKenna prompted.
    ‘ Our toilet seat doesn’t get put up very often.’ The cat rolled over and stretched out, front claws kneading her pillow, and she pulled him away. ‘You know, we go in there, sit down, and use it.’
    ‘ Yes, Phoebe, I get the picture.’
    ‘ So that bitch thought it’d be funny to put cling film under the seat and over the pan, because that’s the sort of nasty thing she finds amusing.’ She paused, her hand on the cat’s back. ‘She probably hoped I’d go in there first, but it was Mama, and she was absolutely mortified. She had to have a bath, and wash her clothes, and she kept scrubbing the floor because she thought it still smelled, even after she’d bought a new carpet.’
    ‘ I see.’
    ‘ So you understand why I can’t go to Annie’s, don’t you?’
    ‘ Couldn’t someone else stay here if Annie can’t? Uncle Iolo perhaps? Whoever he is.’
    ‘ That’s the professor,’ Phoebe said. ‘Professor Williams. Mama always calls him Iolo. It’s short for Iorwerth.’
    ‘ I know.’
    She smiled, a grotesque gesture on that tragic face. ‘His wife can’t get her tongue round Iolo, so she calls him “Ee-oo-low”. It’s hilarious. She can’t say Iorwerth very well, either. Uncle Ned said French people can’t manage some of the sounds in Welsh.’
    ‘ I met her briefly today, but I wasn’t introduced. What’s her name?’
    ‘ Solange. Uncle Ned called her a “trophy wife”, probably because the professor picked her up on his foreign travels, along with all the honorary doctorates and whatnot for being so clever.’ Phoebe grinned. ‘In my opinion, she’s more of a booby prize.’
    ‘ You don’t like him very much, do you?’
    ‘ I don’t like being made to like him. He’s Mama’s friend, not mine.’ She picked up the cat and draped him