Free Hide Her Name by Nadine Dorries Page A

of leather boots in shiny leather that was all the rage. The heels and the soles were worn down, but Maura knew the boots would be as good as new for a trip down the cobbler’s. They were slightly too large, too, but Angela could put on a second pair of socks.
    ‘And, sure, won’t ye grow into them in five minutes now,’ said Maura to hush Angela’s grumbling.
    After the jumble sale, Maura had taken the bus with the pram wedged onto the front platform and then walked Kitty and Angela the rest of the way into town. The twins were out with Tommy and they had no rush with time. As they alighted from the bus, Maura had what she thought was a brainwave.
    ‘Let’s make it a really special day and stop at a café for our lunch shall we?’
    Neither Kitty nor Angela had ever heard the like or ever been to a café before.
    ‘Why is Mammy acting so crazy?’ Angela whispered to Kitty.
    Kitty shrugged her shoulders and made no comment, causing Angela to look at her strangely.
    Angela drooled as the meat and potato pies that Maura had ordered for them, with bread and butter and a large pot of tea, arrived at the table.
    Whilst they were eating, Maura announced that they would be buying new underwear for Kitty.
    ‘God almighty,’ said Angela so loudly that everyone in the café turned to look at her. Kitty had taken the first mouthful of her pie at just that moment and it hit her stomach like a hot rock. The familiar feeing of nausea gripped her. She stopped eating and stared at the table in shame.
    ‘Why is she getting all this stuff and clothes and the like, and I’m only getting a pair of boots?’
    Angela had yet to be told that Kitty would be taking a holiday to Ireland with Kathleen and Nellie. Maura felt her temper snap.
    ‘Hush now, ye cheeky article, and if ye don’t, I’ll make sure ye won’t sit down for a week. Only a pair of boots? They are of the highest fashion and ye are damned lucky to have them. Now shut ye big ungrateful mouth.’
    Then she turned towards the window. Kitty watched Maura take out her handkerchief and wipe her eyes.
    Maura cried.
    Maura smiled. Maura laughed. Maura cried.
    No one knew these days what Maura was going to do next.
    Kitty stared at Angela. They had never seen Maura so mad. Angela looked scared stiff. She didn’t utter another word of complaint for the rest of the shopping trip.
    Woolworth’s on Church Street was bright and busy and the perfect place to buy toiletries.
    As they walked in through the door, Kitty was amazed to see display after display of lipstick and hand cream, perfume and a huge variety of different soaps.
    Maura bought Kitty a pale pink washbag and soap box, patterned with sprigs of white and darker pink carnations with delicate green leaves. This was almost more than Kitty could take in. She felt incredibly grown-up, having her own possessions.
    Inside was a bar of lilac soap that smelt like lavender, a toothbrush, a pink facecloth, toothpaste and a tin of talcum powder.
    Maura’s spirits had lightened. She had become overcome with sympathy and love for her eldest daughter. She wanted to spoil her. To shower her with treats in order to cushion the blow of the knowledge she had to carry.
    Maura went mad in Woolworth’s and bought Kitty a small tub of lily-of-the-valley scented hand cream and a bottle of Pears shampoo. Kitty left the store with a bag full of belongings, never before owned by anyone else. What was more, they were hers and she didn’t have to share them with Angela.
    Back at home, Kitty had sat on her bed and looked again and again at her fancy possessions.
    When the twins and the girls arrived home from school, Kitty made them sit on the bed with the baby propped up between them, as she took everything out to show them, one gift at a time. The four boys, who could not have been more bored if they tried, began to make their own amusement.
    ‘Look at me, oh la-di-da, I am a very posh English lady,’ said Malachi, the most mischievous of the