Edie bent and opened the drying machine. A warm smell of fabric conditioner filled the room. Inside was a jumble of clothes. She pulled them out and rifled through them, discarding things she didn’t want on the floor. When she’d found what she was looking for she took her jumper off and dropped it on the pile of clean clothes from the dryer. She wore a black bra with a simple lace trim. I didn’t even know they made normal underwear in black. I looked up at the ceiling to avoid staring at her.

She put a T-shirt on, a vest top with skinny black straps and a marijuana leaf stencilled on to it in white, with a scooped neck that showed off the multitude of silver and black necklaces that hung at different lengths around her neck. She stepped out of her skirt and left it on the floor with the other clothes then climbed into some shorts, denim cut-offs like mine only tighter and so short they grazed the curve of her buttocks. Then she reached into her bra and adjusted her breasts, pulling them into the middle to make more of a cleavage.

‘Beachwear,’ she said, answering a question I hadn’t asked.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Angie

July 1986

Angie rang the doorbell and tried to neaten Jago while they waited. She sighed. Grey faded jeans with rips on the knees, scuffed Doc Marten boots, and black leather cuffs around each wrist was hardly the outfit she’d have chosen for him.

‘Couldn’t you have worn something a bit smarter?’ she whispered.

‘Like what?’

‘I don’t know. Anything else?’

‘I’m painting a garden fence for them. You want me in a pin-striped suit for that?’

‘You’re not painting it yet. She wants to make sure you’re suitable, remember?’

The door opened and Eleanor appeared. She wore white three-quarter length trousers and a striped top with her hair tied into a low bun at the nape of her neck.

‘I thought you had a key?’

‘Oh, I do.’ Angie’s cheeks grew hot. ‘But it didn’t feel right using it with you home.’

Eleanor looked past her and smiled at Jago.

‘Come on, then. I’ll show you what needs to be done. There’s some sandpaper on the sideboard there.’

‘You mean he’s got the job?’ Angie couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice.

‘I can’t see how I’m going to find anybody else,’ Eleanor said to Angie. ‘Christ, as long as he can follow simple instructions, he’ll be fine. It’s not rocket science.’ She smiled but it wasn’t what Granfer would have called an honest smile.

‘Angie, could you start upstairs and work down? I’m going to take a moment to sit down with a magazine as soon as I’ve got Jago going on the fence and it would be lovely to have a bit of peace and quiet.’

‘No problem. I’ll quickly change my shoes, get my stuff and head up.’

But Eleanor had turned away before she finished the sentence.