The following Thursday she went with him, after asking rather than announcing it. At the centre, a girl with red gloves waved from the doorway. She was taller than Nora expected. Four winters had passed for her too.
Leila greeted Arthur by asking whether he had brought the labels. Nobody treated him as fragile. He was simply late, and the shelves were waiting.
Nora helped sort scarves. She did not tell anyone that she had come to understand her father better. There was no need to turn their ordinary work into a lesson about her.
At the end of the morning, Leila handed her a tin of spare buttons. “He says you can sew a straight line,” she said. Arthur smiled into his tea. Nora accepted the tin.
