Theresa was aware there was something going on between this girl and Petey, and she was wise enough to know that it wasn’t anything good. Petey was her grandson, but she knew he was capable of taking this young girl down, relative or not. He was a womaniser and, like all womanisers, no female was safe around him. That Bernadette was never going to change him, no matter how hard she might try to convince herself she could. He was incapable of fidelity, and her granddaughter was ripe for the picking. She hated that she could think such thoughts about her own grandson, but she was nothing if not a realist – even where her family were concerned.

Tania was her own double in looks, from her full breasts and tiny waist, to her thick wavy hair. She was also as green as the proverbial grass, and that was something that needed to be remedied sooner rather than later. Theresa grasped her grand-daughter’s hand in hers and, smiling, she said, ‘Things will look better one day, Tania, it just takes time. Time is a great healer. I should know that. I looked at young Petey today and I saw his granddad – he is so like him! And he doesn’t just look like him – he has the same ways as well. He’s a fucking nightmare around women, as was his granddad.’

She grinned, and Tania could see the remnants of her former beauty in her smiling face.

‘I’d never seen a black man until I came to London, can you believe that? Let alone spoken to one! But when I met him that night, I thought all my birthdays and Christmases had arrived at once. He could charm the birds off the trees. Well, he charmed my drawers off anyway!’ She was laughing at the memory. ‘I was young – younger than you – in a strange city, and I was so lonely. He homed in on that, and I was happy just to have the attention. He left me with a belly full of arms and legs, and nothing more than a few good memories. If I hadn’t have met him, I would have married a good Irish boy, banged out a squad of children, and the Bailey boys wouldn’t have existed.’

Tania was pleased that her nana felt she was old enough to understand about life. ‘Did you love him, though, Nana?’

Theresa blew her lips out in derision. ‘What’s love? I was too young. I just mixed up sex and love, darling, and I won’t be the last young girl to make that mistake, I’m sure.’

Tania smiled tremulously. ‘Did you miss your family, Nana? I know they never acknowledged you again.’