A Daughter's Choice Read Online Free PDF Page B

establishment.’ She held out her hand and they shook firmly.
    â€˜Lucky you,’ said Rita, smiling.
    At the sight Kitty felt something similar to an electric shock. For some reason she was reminded of Celia but before she could reason why, Rita had walked over to study a picture. ‘That’s a nice flower print. Victorian, I should say.’
    â€˜You’re right. It originally belonged to an employer of my mother’s.’ Kitty hurried after her guest. ‘Shall we go into the kitchen or would you rather the Smoking Room?’ Kitty’s voice sounded strained even in her own ears.
    â€˜The kitchen’s fine,’ said Rita, facing her. ‘It’s
the
important place in a hotel, in my opinion. People love their stomachs.’
    Kitty thought Rita looked quite different now but as she led the way into the kitchen her own heart was beating painfully against her ribs and she was hoping that Katie would not be there. To her relief the kitchen was empty. ‘Have a seat,’ she said.
    â€˜Thanks.’ Rita sat at the table and her eyes ranged the room as Kitty put the kettle on and fiddled with cups and teaspoons.
    â€˜Where did you learn how to cope in the street back there?’ she asked.
    â€˜In a nursing home during the war. One of the patients used to take epileptic fits.’ Rita smiled at Kitty. ‘She used to shout “Flukes alivo!” and then thrash about. It was funny, frightening and pitiful all at the same time.’
    â€˜I wonder why
Flukes
?’ Almost without realising she was doing it, Kitty was searching the woman’s features for a reason why she should have been reminded of Celia. She tried to bring to mind the girl’s thin freckled face and slender body as she had seen her before her committal to the sanatorium in Cheshire, suffering from TB, but it was difficult because that was more than Katie’s lifetime away.
    â€˜That’s what I wondered.’
    The two women stared at each other and Kitty noticed Rita’s eyes were that same clear grey touching on mauve as Katie’s, and almost stopped breathing. ‘It’s peculiar, isn’t it?’ said Rita.
    â€˜What?’ Kitty collected her thoughts. ‘I mean, were you a nurse?’
    â€˜No, a patient. I had a fall on a train and knocked myself out. When I woke up, I didn’t know who I was.’
    â€˜What!’ Kitty’s heart began to thump all over again. ‘But you’d have had identification on you?’ she said with a hint of breathlessness. ‘They’d have known who you were, surely?’
    â€˜Oh, yes!’ She accepted a steaming cup from Kitty. ‘But for a long time,
I
didn’t know who I was.’
    Swiftly Kitty assimilated that information. It would explain so much about Celia’s absence all these years, and yet … ‘Do you know who you are now?’ she asked earnestly. ‘I mean, really know inside yourself who you are, or are there parts of your life that are missing?’
    Rita took a sip of tea. ‘There’s still things I don’t want to think about. It was painful when the memories started flooding back. Nobody came forward to claim me and I had to accept that I was all alone in the world. That fall changed me.’
    Kitty did not know what to say. She could not tell simply by looking at this woman if she was the Celia she had once known. There were curves beneath the bright green and white spotted frock Rita wore and her hair was a different shade altogether, being a vibrant auburn. Her face was a perfect oval and there was hardly a freckle in sight. Of course, hair could be dyed, powder hides freckles, and weight could be gained. Could this woman really be Celia? What should Kitty do? What should she say? All she had to go on were those grey eyes so like Katie’s, but Kitty had the strangest feeling that this woman was important to her. Was it her female intuition