‘I knew you couldn’t have done that terrible thing, Boysie. I told me mum and dad that!’

‘It was all a big mistake, darlin’. Now how about me and you go for a little drive and plan that wedding of ours?’

Suzy grinned as he placed her on the ground gently.

‘That would be lovely, Boysie.’

He took her to Hatton Garden where he bought her an engagement ring that was staggeringly expensive and inordinately showy.

Suzy, pleased that her man was back home and the wedding was still on, looked at it with both pride and fear.

Now she was owned by Boysie, irrevocably and forever. In fact, a little voice told her, she was owned by the whole of the Cavanagh clan.

But she swallowed the feeling down and kissed Boysie full on the lips in front of the aged jeweller. She couldn’t wait to flash this ring in her friends’ and relatives’ faces.

Chapter Forty-four

Chapter Forty-four

‘So where have you been then, Boysie? You just march out of here without a by your leave, and stay out all night. I wanna know where you’ve been? And more to the point, Boysie Cavanagh, who you’ve been with?’

Suzy’s voice was shrill. It seemed that in the year since they had married her voice had taken on a strident quality, frighteningly similar to that of a pantomime dame.

Boysie tried unsuccessfully to put his arms around his wife’s swelling belly.

‘Don’t you touch me, I don’t know where you’ve been.’

Boysie gritted his teeth together and then said, as quietly as his anger would allow, ‘Suzy darlin’, I have been out on a bit of business. That’s all. I never discuss my business dealings with you, love. The less you know, the better. Now, shut your trap and get me a bit of brekky, will you? I’m starving.’

Suzy knew by the inflection in Boysie’s voice that she had pushed him as far as she could. Knowing when to retreat, she gave him a cold stare for a few seconds before she went into the kitchen and began cooking eggs and bacon. Her face was closed now, but she was still fuming.

She lived in a large imposing house, it was furnished to her taste, she had more money than she knew what to do with, and she was having a baby. Her husband, she knew, doted on her. So why wasn’t she happy? Why did she cause this ruckus every time she felt like it?

Because, she told herself, you hate every second of it. You have hated it since the novelty wore off and you got a real inkling of what your life was going to be.