Page 25 of Jingle Bells in June
‘Does he play with you sometimes?’
She looked up, confused.
‘Uncle Darren?’
‘Oh.’ She nodded. ‘We play cards.’
‘Lovely.’
She kept pricking the holes, a pensive expression on herface. And after a while, she said, ‘I like it best when Mummy and me play. Shedoesn’t get cross when I get it wrong.’
My heart sank. ‘Does Uncle Darren get cross with yousometimes?’
She looked up at me. ‘Yes. He makes me cry sometimes. ButMummy says he doesn’t mean it.’
My heart clenched as I looked into Poppy’s big trusting browneyes. My immediate instinct was to gather her up and keep her safe, but Istayed outwardly calm as she returned to her job, concentrating on forking therows in as straight a line as she could.
‘Mummy says you can come to my house on my birthday,’ she said.
‘Did she? That’s nice.’
‘I wanted to have a party with my friends but I can’t.’
‘Oh?’ Rachel had said she was planning to take Poppy andsome friends bowling, then home for a birthday tea. ‘Why not, Poppy?’
She looked up with a guilty frown. ‘I was naughty.’
I tried not to smile. ‘Really? What did you do?’
She sighed. ‘Uncle Darren wouldn’t let me have Jemima and Iwas really sad. She sleeps in my bed every night.’
‘I know she does.’
‘I looked for her in the wardrobe when Uncle Darren was outand I found her but he came back and told me off and said I couldn’t have aparty because I was a very naughty girl.’
‘Oh, dear.’ That seemed a bit harsh, to say the least. Jemimawas like her best friend. ‘What did your mum say?’
‘Nothing.’
‘So have you got Jemima back now?’
She shook her head. Then she flashed me a mischievous smile.‘But I know where she is.’
‘She’s not in the wardrobe anymore?’
‘No. But I saw Uncle Darren put her in a high up cupboard.And when he goes out, I get a chair and get her out and play with her.’
‘Oh, Poppy.’ I felt a surge of panic, which was less abouther risky acrobatics with the chair and far more to do with her deceivingDarren. ‘You shouldn’t be doing that. I bet your mummy doesn’t know you climbon chairs like that.’
She shook her head and whispered, ‘No, it’s a secret. Pleasedon’t tell her, Auntie Enzie. She’ll tell Darren and then he’ll be cross withme again.’
I swallowed hard. Was I being overanxious? Perhaps I was.But I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that things weren’t right. What could Ido, though? When I’d talked to Rachel, I was met with defensiveness and denialon the subject of Darren, and I sensed our friendship was already on shakyground. If she had to choose between Darren and me, I had an awful feeling I knewwho she’d pick these days. I didn’t want to lose her as a friend and it wouldbe terrible if Poppy wasn’t allowed to visit me.
So I kept silent, although I knew I’d be checking out theatmosphere when I was over at Rachel’s on Poppy’s birthday.
But her birthday passed without the expected invitation.
Rachel called in the morning and said she and Darren were takingPoppy out for her tea. She thanked me for the present I’d dropped round the previousafternoon, handing it over to Darren on the doorstep, but there was no mentionof me seeing Poppy in person to wish her happy birthday.
