For a moment her pixie face was sad, but she recovered.

"Rough deal," Luke said sympathetically. And through the conventional words she could sense the real kindness.

"Yes. The next thing I knew, Dad got married again, and suddenly I had a stepmother called Clarice, who loathed me."

"Real Cinderella stuff."

"Well, to be fair, I returned the compliment with interest. She used to call me Philippa," she added with loathing. "It wasn't enough that I never had time to do my homework because she developed a headache whenever there was any dusting to be done, but she actually addressed me as Philippa."

"A hanging offense," Luke said gravely.

"Yeah!"

"Any wicked stepsisters?"

"One stepbrother. Harry. But he made enough mess for ten and expected me to be his slave.

"When I mentioned going to college, Clarice glared at me and said, 'Where do you think the money for that's coming from? You've got grand ideas, think you're better than everyone else.'

"I argued, though you'd think I'd have known better by then. I said most people went to college these days. She sniffed and said, 'Not Harry.' And I said that since Harry was a moron that didn't come as a surprise, and she said I was an insolent little cow, and I said-well, you get the drift."

He was chuckling. "I wish I'd been there to see it. I'll bet you're a heckuva fighter."

"I am," she said, stating the simple truth.

"What about your mom's savings?"

''Dad took them. I remember him looking at the bank passbook and saying, 'I knew the bitch was hiding money from me!' I think he spent most of it on a honeymoon with Clarice."

"Wasn't there anyone to stick up for you?"

"Frank, my mother's younger brother, had a go at Dad. But Dad just told him to mind his own business. What could he do? I stuck it until I left school, then I got out."