‘Oh, Mum, don’t you jump on the bandwagon. She’s so grown up that she shouted herself hoarse through a bloody pantomime not two hours ago. I saw a girl not much older than her battered and dying in a hospital bed, not twenty-four hours since. There’s a bloody maniac on the loose and you tell me that she’s grown up!’

Evelyn put her hand on her daughter’s arm. ‘That’s not all that’s bothering you, is it? Now is it? It’s Dan taking the reins from your hands that’s brought all this on. Well, listen to me and listen good. It won’t last - it never does. But you can’t stop that child from living a normal life. She’ll be with Joanie and her other friends, Dan’s picking her up. So swallow your pride and don’t make an enemy of your own child.’

‘I’ll be glad when he goes. And first thing in the New Year he will be going. That, Mum, is a promise!’

‘He only wants to see the child enjoy herself with her friends.’

Kate sighed noisily.

‘Don’t you start taking his side, Mum. It’s bad enough Lizzy thinks the sun shines out of his . . .’

‘Kate!’ Evelyn stopped her flow of words. ‘You should listen to yourself, young lady.’

She sat at the breakfast bar and lit herself a cigarette. It wasn’t the time to remind her mother that she was forty. Her lovely afternoon had been spoiled. She would have let Lizzy go to the party eventually, she rarely denied the girl anything. But to have the decision taken out of her hands like that was irritating and downright unfair.

But Kate knew when enough was enough so she kept her peace.

Dan dropped Joanie and Lizzy off at a respectable-looking semi-detached house and after a quick kiss on his daughter’s cheek drove away, pleased with the way he had handled everything. It would do Kate good to realise that he could be responsible too.

Lizzy went into the party with Joanie and was immediately surrounded by a crowd of boys. She was wearing a short black skirt and a tiny scrap of a top that emphasised her heavy breasts. Joanie stood by her side as she laughed and chatted with the guys. She was a different girl to the one her mother and grandmother knew.

‘So come on then, has anyone got any puff?’

A tall thin boy with straggly hair passed her a joint and Lizzy took it from him, inhaling the fragrant mixture deeply.

‘Mmm, smells like Sensimelle!’ She took a large draw and held the smoke in her lungs for about ten seconds before letting it out.

Her breasts quivered and gathered the attention of every male in the vicinity.

‘I have been dying for a toke all day. Where’s Angela and Marianne?’