‘Georgie and Harry are kids, Mum. They’ll have far more in common with Calum than me and my mates. Anyway, I’m meant to be meeting a girl later.’
‘Oooh, tell me more. What’s her name? Where did you meet her?’ Sammi-Lou asked.
‘Her name’s Emma and she went to my school. I bumped into her recently and she looked … well different. She’s working in an office now.’
As his wife began to ask more questions, Little Vinny crept up behind her and put his hand over her mouth. ‘Let the boy get on his way. He’s on a promise, eh, Ollie?’
Oliver blushed. ‘Shut up, Dad.’
‘Yes, shut up, Vinny. That’s our baby you’re talking about. He doesn’t do things like that,’ Sammi-Lou laughed.
Grabbing Oliver in a playful headlock, Little Vinny messed his son’s perfectly styled hair up. ‘Look worse than this when your bird’s had her way with ya later,’ he goaded.
Sammi-Lou smiled broadly. She had a big house, three healthy, handsome boys, a wonderful husband and, apart from Regan being locked up, life truly could not be better.
‘One in a million, my sister, therefore I want the full works for her. Finest black horses in their full regalia and a stunning glass carriage,’ Queenie told the funeral director.
‘We also want three of my aunt’s favourite songs played. “Pal of My Cradle Days’, “Spanish Eyes” and “You Are My Sunshine”,’ Michael added.
Vinny felt his stomach churn at the mention of ‘You Are My Sunshine’. That had been the favourite song of his young daughter Molly, who’d been abducted back in 1980, then strangled and buried in a shallow grave. Twenty-one years on, her death still felt so raw at times. Not a day went by when Vinny did not think about her. She’d been such a little superstar, and so very beautiful.
‘I don’t want “Spanish Eyes”,’ Queenie informed her sons. ‘Doesn’t seem right, seeing as your father was crooning it as Viv took her last breath. I don’t want that old bastard at the funeral either.’
Michael looked at his mother in disbelief. In the last few years, Albie and Viv had grown very close, though they’d kept their relationship a closely guarded secret, knowing the trouble it would cause if Queenie ever found out. Vivian had regularly sneaked round to his father’s house in Barking, and Michael knew how fond of her his old man was. Albie would be distraught at not being allowed to say a goodbye. ‘Don’t start being silly now, Mum. Dad is coming to the funeral, end of.’
‘No he ain’t,’ Queenie spat viciously.
In Vinny’s eyes, his father was a loser, a tosser and a pisshead, so he waded in to defend his mother. ‘It’s gonna be a tough enough day for Mum as it is, bruv. We must respect her wishes.’
The funeral director jumped out of his skin when Michael leapt up and punched the wall of his parlour. ‘I’m telling you now, if you don’t allow me dad at the funeral, then I won’t be going either.’ Adding the words, ‘Fuck the pair of ya,’ Michael stormed out of the building.
‘I nicked us some booze and stashed it in my bedroom,’ Calum Butler informed Georgie and Harry.
Georgie grinned. ‘Let’s go to your room then. What we waiting for?’
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Frankie shouted out.
‘Calum’s got a computer and he’s gonna show us how to play games on it,’ Georgie replied shirtily.
‘I locked the front door from the inside, just in case,’ Sammi-Lou informed Frankie.
‘You got a phone up here I can use?’ Georgie asked Calum. She’d never had intercourse, that was a sin for a travelling girl before marriage, but she was alert sexually for her age and knew Calum fancied the pants off her. That’s why she had worn a low-cut top today. She enjoyed the attention her breasts drew from boys and planned to reel Calum in. In the travelling community, girls tended to dress and act flirtatious from a young age to potentially attract a future husband. Lots of girls Georgie knew had met their boyfriends at fourteen or fifteen, then married them as soon as they turned sixteen.
‘Who you ringing?’ Calum enquired.
‘Her boyfriend,’ Harry replied.
‘Take no notice of him. I ain’t got a boyfriend,’ Georgie said, glaring at her big-mouthed brother.
Juggling the numbers around, Georgie tried but failed again to connect to Ryan. ‘Gertcha you miserable old rabbit’s crotch,’ she screamed at a woman who had a go at her as she’d mistakenly rung her twice.
‘Rabbit’s crotch. That’s well funny,’ Calum chuckled.
‘You ain’t never gonna remember the number, so we need to resort to plan B,’ Harry sulked.
Having warned Harry not to mention plan B in front of Calum, Georgie glared at him again. ‘Who’s that in the photo?’ she asked. The lad standing with Calum reminded her of Ryan. He had the same shaped face and a similar smile.
‘That’s my brother, Regan. He’s banged up at the moment. Stabbed his teacher, he did.’
Harry and George were both suitably impressed. ‘Did he kill the teacher?’ Harry asked.
‘Nah,’ Calum responded, before bragging about many of his and Regan’s scrapes with the law.
Georgie giggled, while forming plan B in her head. She would use Calum to help them escape, then dump him like a bag of old rubbish. She and Harry didn’t belong in the gorger world. Being part of a close-knit travelling community was all they knew.
With her sons’ brotherly relationship only recently back on track, Queenie Butler decided to swallow her pride for once in favour of not upsetting the apple cart. She had been devastated all those years Vinny and Michael were estranged, and blamed Bella wholly for everything that had happened.
‘Let’s have a bit of lunch before we order the flowers, eh? Then I’ll show you how the casino is coming along. It’ll look amazing once it’s finished,’ Vinny said.
‘We’ve got to think of another song an’ all. I don’t mind your father being there, but “Spanish Eyes” is his party piece and I am not having that played for Viv,’ Queenie insisted.
Michael stared gloomily out of the window. If his mother ever found out his father regularly sung that song for Viv, or that she’d been visiting his dad in hospital on the night she was attacked, it would cause mayhem.
Having only had two true friends in his life, Little Vinny was thoroughly enjoying a bit of male bonding with Stuart. Apart from Sammi’s parents, he and his wife never socialized with other couples and it was nice to have made new friends.
‘Lovely bit of steak, Vin. And that potato salad is handsome,’ Stuart said, grinning at Frankie. It was lovely to see her having a little tipple and looking so relaxed. Even the brats seemed to be behaving themselves for once.
Scoffing a chicken thigh, Georgie winked at her brother. ‘Mum, me and Harry want to go for a walk with Calum. We won’t go far, I swear.’
‘Nope. You’ll run off again,’ Frankie replied.
‘We won’t. We promise. You can’t keep us locked away for ever, it ain’t fair. How can we be happy if we can’t even go out?’ Harry piped up.
Stuart put his hand on Frankie’s knee. ‘He has got a point, babe. It’s not very fair on ’em.’
Frankie could feel her heart beating rapidly in her chest. ‘But say they don’t come back?’
‘I’ll look after Georgie and Harry,’ Calum piped up.
Harry glared at Calum. He wasn’t much older than him, the dickhead.