‘Luncheon,’ said Shauna, who took a keen interest in all matters upwardly mobile. ‘Like luncheon meat. And you ought to say napkin, not serviette. Bet you didn’t know that.’

‘It’s a whole new world,’ said Josh, yawning and settling down. He didn’t give a fuck about napkins or serviettes. Crystal chandeliers and mansions didn’t do it for him. He felt a bit treacherous thinking it, but he knew Claire wouldn’t have given two hoots for any of this social-climbing bollocks that Shauna seemed so caught up in.

Shauna snuggled up.

‘Where’s their place?’ she asked.

‘Dunno. Henley, think I saw on the paper he gave me. I’ll show you in the morning.’

‘What the fuck am I going to wear?’ wondered Shauna.

‘You got lots of clothes.’ Shauna had a wardrobe bursting with stuff. All of it bloody expensive, too.

‘I’ll have to buy new,’ she said, and grabbed his cock.

‘Shauna . . .’

‘Shut up,’ she said, and got to work.

48

48

Shauna got the shock of her life when she opened the front door the following morning and found Jeb Cleaver lounging on the step.

‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ she barked out, shocked, looking left and right. Josh had only just left, heading off to the gym. Five minutes earlier, and he’d have come face to face with Jeb, and she didn’t like the idea of that at all.

‘Cool down,’ said Jeb. ‘What sort of welcome is that? I saw your old man go out and thought I’d come say hello.’

‘Fuck it, you’d better come inside,’ she said, and Jeb strolled in. Shauna shut the door quickly. ‘He’ll be back soon. What do you want?’

Jeb was leaning against the hall wall now, looking around. ‘Nice place you got here. How’d he get the dosh for this, then?’

‘Never you mind. How did you find me?’ snapped Shauna.

‘Yeah. About that.’ Jeb’s eyes sharpened on her face. ‘That was bad, Shauna. You moved on from your last place, and the one before that over the chippy, and both times you didn’t tell me your new address. Luckily the new people had it or I guess we’d just have lost touch. And I’d hate that to happen, wouldn’t you?’

Oh sure, thought Shauna. She’d hoped that would be the result. But here Jeb was, turning up like a bad penny. She looked at him with his scruffy beard and mac and boots and thought that the very last thing she needed in her life at this moment was Jeb Cleaver and his no-mark brothers and their horny old goat of a dad. Sunday, they were going to dinner with the nobs in Henley. That was where she was headed.