‘Would you please stop looking at me like that, George?’ I tell him. ‘It’s going to be all right.’ He doesn’t believe me. Even as he’s yawning he won’t take his eyes off me. ‘George, go to bed.’ ‘I want to stay.’ ‘Mother will send you out the minute she comes up, you know that.’ ‘I’ll go when she comes, but I want to stay for now.’ Poor George, always caught in the middle. He can’t choose between Mother and me and he doesn’t realise that she’s the only one who wants him to. I lie back on my bed. I’m tired but I can’t let myself fall asleep. I know Mother will come tonight to give me her verdict and I can’t be half-asleep or even in my nightdress when she does. Whatever punishment she chooses I’m going to take it with a bit of dignity. I thought she was going to faint when she found James on top of me. I didn’t mean to laugh but it seemed too ridiculous to be true to have her catch us out.
