Her mind made up, she sat there in the weak New York sunshine and filled in the application form. Then she bought stamps and an envelope and posted it. Nothing would come of it anyway, she knew that, because nothing good had happened to her in a very long time.

35

35

Shauna splashed out on a white chiffon dress for the wedding; Empire-line, so that it flowed out from under the bust and hid the worst of the bump. She bought some white slingbacks with Cuban heels and a bouquet of red carnations and then gazed in the mirror and thought she looked OK. Plump, but still a looker, no doubt about that. Josh was lucky as fuck to have her.

They dragged in some witnesses off the street outside the register office, and quick as that, the deed was done. Josh looked a bit dazed. Suddenly, he was a married man with a kid on the way.

‘Happy, darlin’?’ Shauna asked him as they came down the steps to his ratty old car. That was going to have to go, Shauna thought. Damned rust-bucket. They were going places, but not in a crappy thing like that.

‘’Course,’ said Josh, and kissed her.

They honeymooned in the Lakes, then Josh drove them back to London.

‘Got a surprise for you,’ he said on the way.

‘What?’

‘A surprise.’ He tapped his nose. ‘You’ll see.’

It was a new rental, a small terraced house in Bow. Josh carried her over the threshold and dropped her to her feet. Shauna looked around. It was neat, clean and newly decorated. While they were away, Josh had arranged for all their stuff from the flat over the chippy to be brought here.

‘Like it?’ asked Josh.

Shauna was still staring. It was bigger than the flat, where the stink of stale chip fat had made her want to heave. Yes, it was OK. But like it? No. She wanted better than this. Still, he’d made the effort, tried to please her.

She flung herself into Josh’s arms. ‘It’s bloody great,’ she lied. ‘Is there a bed upstairs?’

‘Am I the business or what?’ preened Josh, hugging her. ‘Yeah, there’s a bed. You think I’d forget that?’

‘Let’s go christen it then,’ she said, and tugging him by the hand she led the way up the stairs, laughing.

‘But the baby . . .’ fretted Josh.

‘Fucking’s good for babies in the womb,’ Shauna shot back. ‘Especially to bring on labour when the time’s near – did you know that?’

‘No. I didn’t,’ said Josh.

‘Well, you do now.’

36

36

‘You know the Playboy clubs?’ asked Sylvester Drummond as Claire Milo sat in his office being interviewed.