‘Fuck the baby and fuck you,’ snarled Shauna, brushing his arms away from her. ‘I want my place, Josh. My own home. To mix with decent people, not to have everyone looking down their noses at me, calling me a gyppo.’

‘Who’d dare call you a gyppo?’ Josh almost had to laugh at that, but her scowl wiped the smile off his face. ‘Look, Shaun. It ain’t a long-term thing, the renting,’ said Josh soothingly, making calm-down gestures. ‘It’s only to tide us over, make us comfortable until the baby comes. Then we’ll have more cash behind us and we’ll see what can be done.’

‘More cash? With a baby? They cost a fucking fortune, any fool knows that.’

‘What, a baby? A tiny little thing two foot long? How can that be?’

‘Well, there’s schooling to think about. A good primary. Then a grammar school, and further education, maybe university . . .’

‘University?’ Josh echoed in disbelief. ‘What you talking about, girl? You and me, we can read and write and add up, and that’s where it ends. Some of our kind can’t even do that and you know it. What makes you think our kid’s going to go for all that?’

‘We’ll make sure he does. That’s the way people get on in the real world, Josh,’ said Shauna. ‘They get a proper education, a good one, and they make contacts that help them along in later life.’

Josh stared at her face. Their whole lives had been spent in the camp and visiting others like it, plus the horse fairs and funfairs, that was real life to him. He didn’t understand what she was talking about. They’d had their support network among their own folk and their kid would too. He said as much.

‘You’re mad,’ sneered Shauna. ‘All that’s finished for us. We’ve left it behind. And a good job too. It’s time we stepped up in the world, Josh, and getting our own house is just the beginning. That’s why I’m so fucking cut up about you being turned down. But there are other banks, we’ll try them.’

‘No,’ said Josh. ‘We won’t. Today taught me that it’s a no-go.’

‘Then we’ll never have a place to call our own,’ said Shauna, and burst into tears.

‘Oh, don’t start,’ said Josh, pulling her back into his arms. Female tears alarmed him. He didn’t know what to do when a woman cried. ‘I told you,’ he said gently against her head, kissing her hair. ‘We do this first. Then, later, we buy. We buy a fucking palace, cash on the nail, the way things are going.’