‘I know.’ She shrugged lightly, her instinctive feeling that you had to be accommodating coming to the fore as she tried to pacify her friend. ‘I know what you mean, Jackie. My parents weren’t exactly hip, were they? Sometimes I wonder if they even realised I was in the house.’

The desolation in her voice, and the honesty of the answer, made Jackie’s eyes water. ‘Oh, Donna, I’m really, really sorry.’

Donna smiled widely. ‘Don’t be, they gave me a good life in their own way. Now they’re gone, and I’m here on holiday with you so let’s have some fun!’

‘Do you miss them?’ Jackie’s voice was soft.

Donna nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I do. They were all I ever knew. I loved them, and now they’re gone I miss them.’

The Cockney stallholder grinned as he shouted at the two girls: ‘You keeping that shoe, love, or waiting for Cinderella?’

Laughing at his raucous voice, Donna replaced the black patent shoe on the stall.

As they walked off, Donna saw an apparition of manhood so excitingly gorgeous it made her breath catch in her throat. And the most amazing thing of all was, he was smiling right at her. Looking over her shoulder in case it was someone else he was staring at, she turned back to find him planted firmly in her path.

‘Hello, girls.’

His voice was rich and brown but Donna heard the cockney inflection in it.

‘So what are your names then?’

Georgio Brunos always talked to pretty girls, and giving the two friends a once-over with his practised eye, decided the blonde one was a little raver, and the dark one a challenge. He concentrated on the dark one, and was amazed to find himself staring into a pair of eyes so startling, he was nearly lost for words.

And on closer inspection, the face before him was one of the most beautiful he had ever encountered.

Still smiling jauntily, he switched his gaze back to Jackie. He took in her lipsticked mouth, jutting breasts and short skirt. She was his usual armload. Yet this slim, flat-chested dark piece intrigued him . . .

And Georgio Brunos didn’t know why.

He managed to get a firm date and her phone number, much to the chagrin of Blondie. The little dark piece’s absolute shock and bewilderment made him feel good.

She had potential.

A lot of potential.

As he swaggered away, he knew she was still watching him.

Donna stood in the doorway of the cramped living room, her heart hammering in her chest. The flat was a confusion of smells, noise and bustle. The worn furniture was covered in people and Donna felt an urge to run away.

A heavy-set woman in her forties, with a beaming smile, false teeth and red work-worn hands, came towards her with surprising agility, shouting, ‘Come away in. Oh Georgio, she’s beautiful. Like a little flower!’