She felt clumsy in her awkward attempt to pat her hair and pull the blankets over the weeping girl, remembering how despondent she’d been in the months after her grandmother had died. Some days things would seem normal and some days the grief would pile on her like a rockslide, or just trip her up like an unexpected bump in a sidewalk and make it feel impossible to carry on. And you never knew which it would be or when it was coming. Something might have made Catie suddenly remember her brother, or maybe she’d been fighting her sadness for days. She’d seemed different lately. Her change started sometime after the first ball, and Lizzie feared someone might have said something untoward to her, but the mood had lingered. Catie had gone from a bright, vivacious and curious girl to someone acting like that person. And not doing a very convincing job of it, Lizzie thought wryly. It took an actor to see through someone else carrying on a front, and Catie was doing just that.Of course, now it all made sense.
