Behind Closed Doors

neatly sidestepping the massive hint she’s just dropped.

I hope there aren’t going to be any nasty surprises. I

He probably wants to lick his wounds in private,’ she agrees. ‘You know what men are like.’

Esther likes me a lot more than she did before, which can only be a good thing, even if it’s only because of my imperfect womb

A disappointed Millie—or the basement?’

Passing it back to me, he looks me up and down and nods approvingly, which ironically I know is more than some women get from their husbands

Grace, Grace,’ Millie cried, as soon as we were on our own, ‘Jack bad man, very bad man. He push me, he push me down stairs!’

I’m so grateful that she has understood so quickly what nobody else ever has—not my parents or Diane or Janice or the police—that Jack controls everything I do

My heart starts beating faster as I consider the possibility that Esther has sent me a message. If she has, there has to be more. With a mounting sense of excitement, I scan the rest of the book for evidence of shading and find ‘do’, ‘you’, ‘need’ and, on the second to last page of the book, ‘help

Hence his little joke to Esther and the others about me being something of a seamstress and making my own clothes.