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all day, shut in this tiny bedroom, counting up to a hundred and blowing our noses, then counting up to a hundred again, and blowing again. When Eunice wasn’t around or within earshot, we’d relax and play with each other for a bit. But the minute we heard her foot on the stair or her voice on the landing, we’d start counting to a hundred, then nose blowing again. Indeed, this bizarre ritual went on for two whole weeks, an eternity for two small children. I have no idea why Eunice made us do this, but I’m sure that most of what she did was about control, trying to out-psych us, all the time.
    One afternoon after this strange confinement, I went swimming with Charlotte, having some much-needed fun. By chance we met two of Charlotte’s estranged biological siblings at the swimming pool. We came bounding into the house together afterwards and I blurted out, ‘Oooh, we’ve just seen Charlotte’s brother and sister at the pool.’ Eunice looked up quickly from the kitchen sink, turned and then strode towards me, a terrifying look on her face. She seemed to have grown in size and was towering over me, her face white and taut with barely suppressed rage.
    ‘Oh, no you didn’t, they were just friends .’
    Charlotte said nothing and looked down. She obviously knew not to quibble. But being headstrong back then, I opened my mouth. I didn’t know any better.
    ‘But we did, we saw her brother and sister. We were in the shower together after swimming, at the pool.’
    Eunice suddenly leant forwards and tapped me on the mouth quite sharply. I was taken aback, as it hurt; I thought, Why is she doing that? What have I done wrong? I couldn’t understand what the problem was, yet I also felt warned off, that I shouldn’t say anything more about the incident. I wasn’t sure why, but I knew I was stepping into dangerous territory. I was learning quickly that there were many things I had to keep quiet about.
    Satisfied with having put down any whiff of rebellion, Eunice calmly went back to the sink and resumed her chores.
    With hindsight I can see how Eunice had begun her mission to control everything that we did, thought and believed. That first sharp tap on the mouth to silence me was merely the mildest taster of what was to come.

 
    CHAPTER 6:
     
    As Eunice began to mistreat Sarah, Thomas and me on a more regular basis, starting with flicks and hits on the mouth and then clouts to the head, my parents, totally unaware of what was happening at George Dowty, moved into a flat in the same large Victorian house that my nan had gone to live in when she left us, way back, when I was about four . I only saw my parents a couple of times again and when I did, I knew better than to let on that anything was amiss for fear of being severely punished by Eunice. By then it had been driven into me that I had to be perfectly behaved and demure when I went out of the house, especially because Eunice went with us everywhere and would be watching every twitch and listening to every word, so that there would be hell to pay later if I put a foot out of line.
    Eunice’s mindset and the evangelical language she used, her talk of the Devil and demons, were influenced by her own strange interpretation of the Jehovah’s Witness faith. Her faith was a big part of her life and soon became part of mine too because it wasn’t long after Thomas and I went to live with her that she started taking us to Jehovah’s Witness meetings. I already believed in Jesus, having been taught about him at my first school. As a little girl I really believed that I loved Jesus. This, however, was not enough for Eunice, who wanted all us children to share her own beliefs. Thomas and I were new to the religion and she would tell us we came from Satanists; we had to go with her to her religious meetings to try to save our evil souls.
    Eunice went to Jehovah’s Witness meetings in Tewkesbury three or four times a week, taking us all with her. There was a Sunday meeting