‘ Touch you?’
‘Yes, I… want you to. Just…’ She held out her arms. Alicia backed away.
‘We don’t touch one another,’ she said, as gently as she could through her shock. ‘What is it, Evelyn? Aren’t you well?’
‘Yes,’ said Evelyn. ‘No. I don’t know.’ She turned to the window. ‘It isn’t raining. It’s dark here. There’s so much sun, so much—I want the sun on me, like a bath, warm all over.’
‘Silly. Then it would be all light in your bath… We don’t talk about bathing, dear.’
Evelyn picked up a cushion from the window seat. She put her arms around it and with all her strength hugged it to her breast.
‘Evelyn! Stop that!’
Evelyn whirled and looked at her sister in a way she had never used before. He mouth twisted. She squeezed her eyes tight closed and when she opened them, tears fell. ‘I want to,’ she cried, ‘I want to!’
‘Evelyn!’ Alicia whispered. Wide-eyed, she backed away to the door. ‘I shall have to tell Father.’
Evelyn nodded, and drew her arms even tighter around the cushion.