Chapters (48)
- Cover
- THEFEUD
- Dedication
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- PROLOGUE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
Joyce got out of the car and did a little jog back to the entrance of the driveway. ‘Raymond! It’s your mother. Get your arse back here. What do you think you’re doing?’ she screamed.
With her son nowhere to be seen, a furious Joyce stomped back to the car. ‘Come on, Stanley. Don’t just sit there, we need to find out what’s going on.’
As Stanley got out of the car, he felt nauseous. He hated trouble of any kind and certainly didn’t want to be involved in it.
Jessica opened the front door. ‘What’s going on?’ Joyce asked, as her daughter fell sobbing into her arms.
Frankie knew that this was probably her only opportunity to escape. Desperate to get away, she sprinted past her mum and nan and sent her grandfather flying as he tried to walk through the front door.
Losing his balance for the second time that day, Stanley landed on his arse. ‘Gorden Bennett!’ he exclaimed as he tried to get up again.
Jessica could barely speak for crying. ‘Frankie’s pregnant. Eddie’s gonna kill her. What am I gonna do, Mum?’ she said between sobs.
Joyce sat Jessica on the sofa. ‘Now, come on, dear, stop all that crying. Everything will sort itself out,’ she said gently.
‘It won’t. She’s pregnant by the gypsy boy down the road and Eddie’s had a feud with that family all his life,’ Jessica wept.
Aware of his balance letting him down once more, Stanley fell onto the sofa in utter shock.
‘Gypsy? What do you mean? Is that who our Raymond was chasing?’
Jessica nodded. ‘Jed’s a gypsy boy. All his family are travellers.’
Seeing her husband’s face go deathly white, Joyce felt her own turn the same colour. ‘Oh, my Gawd. I feel ill,’ she gushed.
With his baseball bat still in his hand, Raymond ran back to the house. He had chased Jed for about a mile, but the cocky little bastard was as fast as a whippet and he hadn’t got anywhere near him. Out of breath, Raymond ran into the house and put his hands on his knees.
‘Where’s Frankie?’ he asked panting.
Jessica burst into tears again. ‘She’s gone. She ran off and I couldn’t stop her.’
Ignoring his parents, Raymond picked his mobile phone up off the table and ran out the back. Willing the phone he was ringing to answer, he breathed a sigh of relief when it did.
‘Ed, it’s me. Something terrible’s happened. You need to come home right now.’
FORTY
At ten to one, Joey left the coffee shop and crossed the busy main road. Dominic took his lunch break at one o’clock and, although dreadfully nervous, Joey couldn’t wait to see him.