The Exiles

thirty pounds,’ repeated Rachel patiently, ‘I need it now.’
    Mr Conroy laughed and pulled her plait. ‘Poor old Rachel,’ he said, ‘did you think you were suddenly rich?’
    Ruth and Naomi immediately stopped their joyful gloating and looked at their parents. Ruth remembered that she had felt like this once before, the time she had fallen straight over her bike’s handlebars. The moment before she hit the ground.
    Naomi stared across at her smiling father and suspicion hardened into certainty. She tried to speak, but found she couldn’t because her mouth was already hanging open.
    ‘What’s up, Naomi?’ asked her father, still cheerful.
    ‘What! D’you mean you’re not sharing it?’ demanded Naomi. ‘D’you mean you’re keeping it all for yourselves?’
    Tears filled Ruth’s eyes as she watched the chestnut pony with a black mane and tail gallop away to nowhere.
    ‘I bet they’re wasting it all on the blasted house!’ she said sadly, guessing nothing but the miserable truth.
    ‘Whatever are you thinking of ?’ asked Mrs Conroy crossly. ‘Speaking like that! We thought you’d be pleased. Of course we’re sharing it – you all live here, don’t you? You’ll enjoy it as much as we will!’
    ‘Oh, my money,’ whispered Rachel as tears began to pour down her cheeks.
    ‘It’s ours as much as yours,’ stormed Naomi, ‘you said he left it to the family. It’s a beastly, mean, rotten, thieving, horrible thing to do, and I hope he comes back and haunts you!’
    ‘NAOMI!’
    ‘Stolen already!’ sobbed Rachel.
    ‘Typical, typical, typical,’ lamented Ruth.
    Phoebe, who still didn’t understand, asked, ‘Why can’t Rachel have her money? Because she got all covered in paint?’ She looked at Rachel’s betrayed face and didn’t think it was fair.
    ‘You can have some of mine, Rachel,’ she offered. How much her Christmas List was going to come to she had no idea, but if there wasn’t enough she could always miss out the cloak. It wasn’t really the weather for velvet cloaks anyway. ‘Tell me what you want and I’ll buy it, Rachel,’ she said magnanimously.
    ‘I think you ought to explain to Phoebe,’ said Naomi coldly. ‘She still thinks you’re going to be honest!’
    ‘Stop being so ridiculous all of you!’ exclaimed Mrs Conroy, suddenly losing her temper. ‘This house is going to be redecorated this summer, and while it’s being done you four will be going to stay with Grandma …’ (Mr Conroy looked very pleased) ‘and …’
    ‘What Grandma? Big Grandma, d’you mean?’ asked Ruth, horrified.
    ‘You’ll have a splendid time,’ said Mr Conroy heartily.
    ‘Is it a joke?’ asked Naomi, ‘because it’s not very funny if it is.’
    ‘Big Grandma doesn’t like us,’ remarked Rachel dismally.
    ‘Of course she does, when you behave yourselves anyway,’ Mr Conroy replied, still speaking horribly cheerfully to cover up how guilty he was feeling.
    ‘Is it true?’ asked Naomi. ‘Just tell me whether it’s true or not.’
    ‘I shall take you up there by train on Saturday,’ said Mrs Conroy, throwing all her former caution to the wind. ‘You’ve been wanting to go away this summer, and now you are going. And it’s no use you arguing,’ she added, ‘because it’s all arranged. So you might as well make the best of it.’
    ‘You’ll have a wonderful time; summer by the sea in Cumbria,’ Mr Conroy said encouragingly.
    ‘Big Grandma,’ said Ruth, ‘thinks we’re awful. You should have heard what she said to me last time she was here.’
    ‘Are we going to stay with Big Grandma?’ asked Phoebe. ‘Why? She says I’m spoilt! I’m not going!’
    ‘You all are,’ Mr Conroy said, ‘and we expect you Big Ones to help take care of the Little Ones.’
    ‘Can I take my money?’ Phoebe asked.
    Rachel was crying again.
    Ruth and Naomi escaped from the table and went up to their bedroom and shut the door. As soon as they were able, Rachel and Phoebe followed after them. They had great faith in their big sisters, who so far had never let them down. Very unhappy, but not quite despairing, they climbed the stairs.
    Mr Conroy said to Mrs Conroy, ‘I never thought they’d expect a share, did you?’
    ‘They’ll soon forget it,’ Mrs Conroy comforted him. ‘They’ve plenty to take their minds off it. Don’t you worry.’
    Upstairs, nobody said anything.

    ‘Ruth and Naomi will think of something.’
    Rachel and Phoebe consoled themselves