Daisy spun around. ‘Don’t say it.’
‘Perhaps he really is dying,’ Fern said anyway, disregarding Daisy’s request but adding, ‘It’s a part of life, unfortunately.’
They walked on quietly until Ginny said brightly, ‘Carrie seems nice. I’m glad she’s going to help.’
‘Me too,’ admitted Fern, realising she actually meant it. And she welcomed the change of subject. ‘Well done for getting her on board, Daisy.’
‘No need to patronise me,’ Daisy snapped back.
Fern sighed. She’d thought Daisy was moving past this, assuming her two older sisters were always gangingup on her when they really weren’t. ‘That wasn’t what I was doing at all. I was simply saying thank you. No hidden meaning.’ She waited a moment before saying, ‘Sometimes I want to tell my boys not to argue, that they should appreciate one another as brothers.’
‘Don’t tell me, they ignore you?’ grinned Ginny.
Fern laughed out loud. ‘Pretty much.’ She turned to Daisy. ‘All I’m trying to say isthat we are here now, together, and if Grandad really is sick then it’s up to us to make this the most wonderful Christmas for him.’
‘Agreed.’ Daisy shook off her umbrella when they reached the shop so Ginny could buy an advent calendar. ‘But please have a think about the way you two sometimes think of me as the useless little sister.’
‘Nobody ever said—’ But Ginny’s words were cut off by Daisy’s.
‘I’m here, I’m working in the shop and holding things together for Mum just as I have for years. Me, I’m doing it, not you –’ she pointed at Ginny ‘– and not you,’ she directed at Fern, her extended index finger making her point.
‘Daisy—’ Fern wanted to stop her, she didn’t want her sister to be upset, but she could see that she was. And umbrellas down, they filed into the shop one by one.
There was a time when Daisy never would’ve challenged them the way she was doing now. But what made Daisy think it was her who’d held things together for their mum? Hadn’t it been Fern who’d done that when their dad died and during the years after? Being the eldest she’d comforted her sisters, held Daisy and rocked her when her world came crashing down, she’d answered the phone at any time of the nightwhen Ginny needed someone to talk to, someone who understood.
When had anyone else done that for her?
