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didn’t want to end up wheezing like Fred. Shaking her head as he went through the door, she wondered how someone as sour and bitter as Mrs Chapman could have such a friendly son. Pity he looked the way he did. Then again, she should know all about children who didn’t resemble their parents. She turned back to the story of Princess Grace with her new daughter, a world away from the overcrowded house and the useless out-of-work girl in it.
    Alison had forced herself to have another attempt to find work. She’d gone up and down all the roads around Clapham Junction, trying the shops, the offices, even the station itself. It wouldn’t be so bad to be behind the scenes somewhere, in a back room where she didn’t have to face the public. She had her reference from the factory and it said she was a reliable worker, but it did no good. Nobody was hiring, or that’s what they said as soon as they saw her. ‘Try again in a few weeks, love,’ said the woman in the ticket office. ‘You never know. Don’t give up.’
    Easy for her to say, thought Alison. She had a warm office, friendly people to chat to and she probably had a loving family at home as well. Why did some people have all the luck? When she’d been younger she’d thought all families were like her own but now she knew differently. She wished her mother and Hazel would stop picking on her and yet she knew she was so awkward she probably deserved it all.
    Rounding a corner she was dismayed to find two of the paperboys from the newsagent’s coming towards her. ‘Look, it’s horse face!’ shouted one, pulling his hand out of his pocket to point at her. A shower of coins fell onto the pavement.
    â€˜Horse face, horse face!’ called his friend, pretending to gallop. ‘Imagine seeing that when you look in the mirror! Nay-y-y-y!’
    â€˜Why aren’t you at school?’ demanded Alison, too fed up to ignore them. ‘What’s all that money? Have you been stealing from my mum’s shop? She’ll get the police on you if you do that.’ Even though Cora wouldn’t care about them teasing her daughter, she’d be down like a ton of bricks if any of them had been putting their hands in the till.
    â€˜No we ain’t. We won the money in the penny arcade and don’t go telling your mum any different,’ said one boy menacingly as he shoved her against a wall, while the other one scooped up the coins.
    Alison pushed him away and grimly turned for home. Her sleeve had ripped where the boy had gripped it but she already knew that she wouldn’t say anything – not because she was frightened, it was far from the worst thing that had happened to her, but because she was ashamed. Being pushed around by a boy half her size and half her age – she didn’t want anyone to know about it. All it had done was make a miserable day even worse. But the most worrying thing was, she couldn’t see how her life could ever get any better.

Chapter Five
    â€˜Good weekend, Nev?’ asked Nobby on Monday morning. ‘Were you out down the pub? Making the most of your final months being young, free and single?’
    Neville rubbed his eyes. He didn’t want to admit it but working back-to-back shifts over the past couple of days had been more tiring than he’d thought. He’d had hardly any sleep and, worse still, he’d hardly seen Hazel. But it was going to be worth it, to give her the wedding she so badly wanted. ‘Did a spot of overtime,’ he said. ‘Saves me spendin’ the cash down the boozer.’
    Nobby raised his eyebrows. He didn’t believe in working weekends. Nothing kept him from the pub on Friday and Saturday nights; that was the whole point of going to work – to have the money to sink a few pints with his mates. ‘Don’t you go wasting your youth,’ he told the younger man. ‘These are the best years of