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without asking, but she was desperate, she'd run out of alternatives now. Sometimes she forgot that Camellia was still just a child. She might be quick on the up-take about most things, but clearly she hadn't grasped their situation.
    'There isn't any money in the bank, darling,' Bonny said more gently. 'I think it's time I explained a few things to you.'
    Camellia slumped down onto the settee and listened in ever growing dismay as her mother reavealed she was not only broke, but in debt so deep that the house was going to be taken from them.
    "That's why you had to leave Collegiate,' she finished. 'You see Daddy didn't leave me enough money. I tried to cut down the spending, but it's all gone now.'
    'But what are we going to do?' Camellia sobbed. She wanted to remind her mother that only last week she'd bought yet another new dress and a couple of new records, but even in her own misery she could see Bonny was on the point of tears and she hated to see her cry.
    I've found a little house in Fishmarket Street.' Bonny wrinkled her little nose in distaste. 'I'm afraid it's not very nice, but it was all I could find. I'll get a job and we'll make it cosy together.'
    Camellia sobbed again. She was fat and plain, she hadn't one friend, everyone at school laughed at her and said nasty things about her mother. Her doll's house and all those beautiful things her father had bought to furnish it were gone too, to another little girl who would never understand how precious it had been to the previous owner. Now, on top of it all, she was being forced to leave the home she loved.
    'I'm sorry, darling.' Bonny drew her into her arms and enveloped her in the smell of Joy. 'I haven't been a very good mummy to you, have I? I'm selfish, lazy and a spendthrift. But I do love you!'
    Camellia dried her eyes yet again and got up from her bench. Even after everything Bonny had put her through, the men, the drinking, squandering money and the neglect, she still loved her mother. Neighbours and town gossips might only remember the bad things, but she had a small store of precious golden memories, which all seemed so much more important now. Picnics in summer, trips to London Zoo. Laughing helplessly at each other in the hall of mirrors on Hastings pier, racing down the dunes at Camber Sands. Bonny had been a child herself at heart, always ready for fun and mischief. They might have been mother and daughter, but they were always best friends.

Chapter Three
    'Bert's outside in the car waiting for you, lovey,' Enid Rowlands said as Camellia came out of the toilet wearing her navy-blue skirt and white blouse. She picked up a damp cloth and wiped the girl's face again for her. 'And I've told him he's to bring you back here afterwards. We've got a nice little spare room upstairs. You can't be alone at a time like this.'
    Camellia thanked her. Until that moment she hadn't even considered where she might sleep tonight or in the future. Somehow it made Bonny's death even more real, it meant she didn't have a home of her own any longer either.
    Mr Simmonds said very little on the ride to Hastings. Now and again his hand reached out for hers, squeezing it in silent sympathy, and she was glad he didn't feel he had to make any conversation. Camellia watched the people in other cars. They were nearly all families, driving home after a day at the seaside, tired and sunburnt, the children in the back seat dropping off to sleep. She recalled that when her father was still alive she'd always knelt up in the back of the car and waved at people. Perhaps children didn't do that any longer.
    The mortuary was tucked away in a back street. An old red-brick building with painted-over windows. As Mr Simmonds took her arm and led her in, her stomach lurched and she suddenly felt faint with the smell of antiseptic.
    'It's okay, some of us do feel a bit queasy in these places/ Mr Simmonds said very soothingly. 'But it's only the hospital smell, nothing more. You won't be seeing