The Faithless - Martina Cole [111]
Gabby changed the subject. ‘Your daddy will be home in a few weeks.’
Cherie brightened up then. She loved her daddy, and she truly believed that he was training to be a fighter pilot. Like a lot of kids she had been told that story, it explained away the uniforms everywhere on the visits. Cherie opened her mouth but, after a dark look from her nanny, she shut it again.
‘The three of us will be together all the time then, and you can stay at Nanny’s at weekends, sometimes.’
Stick that one up your arse, Mother, and smoke it.
Gabby knew that Vince was determined to get them back on track, and he had been a diamond. He had given Derek Greene a tug, and money had miraculously appeared every week, as had a nice council flat and new furniture. She was now established as a blagger’s wife, and she was treated as one by everybody. It was amazing what the friendship of Greene and Warner could do for a body, and she was grateful for their help. She knew it bothered her mother as well, and she knew why it bothered her so much. But, as Vince said, he had earned his keep, he’d kept his trap shut and taken the fall for everyone. They owed him.
He was a very different Vincent these days; he was a man now, a big, handsome man and, like her, he had grown up quickly. She knew her mother would get the shock of her life when he came home, and she couldn’t wait. He would put her well and truly in her place, and she wanted to be there when he did it.
The social workers were still hanging round like a bad smell, and she had heard through the grapevine that her mother told them exaggerated stories about Gabby’s wild ways, and how she was still worried that her daughter was too immature to take care of Cherie on a regular basis. But Gabby was biding her time – she knew that fighting this woman was pointless. She knew the social workers wondered where all her money really came from, but they could go and fuck themselves; she was cleaner than a whistle. All she claimed was her Family Allowance and the minimum of benefits – that was it. But the drug conviction which, thanks to a good brief, had got her probation and one hundred and twenty hours community service, was still being held over her head like the sword of Damocles.
It was amazing really – if her mother had just kept out of it, she would be happily ensconced with her daughter now, and it would all be in the past. But that hadn’t been her mother’s plan. Right from the start, she had been determined to get the child, and she would stoop as low as she needed to make sure that happened. She had not allowed for the fact that Gabby was as stubborn as she was, when necessary, and so they were still playing this game.
‘Has he got his release date, then?’
Gabby smiled, and Cynthia saw what a very beautiful young woman she was. It pained her to see herself as she had been twenty years earlier. She envied this girl her youth, and they both knew it.
‘Yep.’
Cynthia would not lower herself to ask when that was; she would find out soon enough. ‘Bet you can’t wait.’
‘Nope, I can’t. You wait till you see him, Mum, you’ll get the surprise of your life.’ It wasn’t exactly a threat as such, but she knew her mother was worried at the implication. ‘Now come on, Cherie – I’ve got the car outside and we are going to Mackie D’s for our dinner!’
Cherie was thrilled; she loved a McDonald’s. Her nanny said they were too fattening and full of crap, but she didn’t care. She was happy now to put her coat on and go with her mother, especially when she promised, ‘Then we are going to watch whatever you want on TV.’
As her granddaughter got herself ready, Cynthia fought back the urge to take her daughter by the hair and batter her to death.
‘Say bye bye to Nanny, darling.’
Cherie kissed and hugged her nanny, but it was obvious she was impatient now to be on her way.
‘Don’t let her watch anything frightening, she’s too small.’
Gabby sighed heavily; this was a constant refrain. You’d think she let the child watch horror films day and night. ‘As if I would.’
Cynthia replied, all