I also believe it was something about not wanting to share her secret world, her inner life, even when it was being threatened. We didn’t expect to share everything with our parents then, and we didn’t expect that our parents would solve all our problems! I have asked Cait why she didn’t tell anyone, and it was partly because she felt embarrassed. But in the 1970s, when the story is set, this seemed perfectly normal. Thinking about kids today, it may be surprising to them that Cait didn’t tell anyone, or seek help from our parents etc. Cait’s treasures are still there, all these years later. She never told anyone about this until about eight years ago when she was in her early forties! We have visited that house in the last few years when it was open for inspection, and the same carpet is still over the step. Then, just like in the story, one day we had the house re-carpeted, and carpet was laid over the step so that there was no access to it. She used to hide all her special treasures in the step, and none of us ever knew about it. Only six-year-old Cait knew that the step was freestanding and movable. There was a wooden step up to Cait’s bedroom, which we all assumed was fixed to the wall and floor. The youngest, Cait, had a bedroom that was a converted attic up in the roof of our old house. But one day, something happens that Tilly could never have imagined. No one knows about it, not even her big brothers and sister, who know everything. Tilly has found the perfect hiding place to keep her special treasures.
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