Dad started swearing and saying that bastard needed taking down a peg, he thought he was king of the bloody manor now Gordie Howard and his crew had been chased out of it.

Nula said nothing. She was thinking that she’d better not let the laugh that was building up in her escape to the wild. Yes, for certain Charlie Stone was a bastard of the first order; but he’d beaten the shit out of Jimmy, who had spent the better part of her life making it a misery – bullying her, mocking her, generally being a complete pain in the arse.

Charlie Stone had delivered Nula’s revenge for her. All right, he was also caning her for a lot of cash and she was in the shit for sure, but . . . he’d beaten the crap out of Jimmy.

She could only admire anyone who did that.

17

It looked like Charlie had in fact gone easy on Jimmy, because save for a few spectacular bruises he was back at work in the car showroom within a week, and he didn’t mention Nula’s debt or Charlie Stone again.

But the debt remained, and she had to pay it. Stretched to the limit, too worried to sleep at night, Nula gathered together what cash she could and went to pay Charlie Stone back his stinking money. Well, some of it. Now she wished she hadn’t bothered with the nose job. All right, her vanity was appeased. An average slim young girl looked back at her from the mirror now, with no huge unsightly bastard of a nose marring her features.

But . . . oh God, the price she’d paid for it. Was still paying for it.

Terry let her in and her heart did its usual backflip at the sight of him. But – also as usual – he barely seemed to notice her. At least there was no Jill here today, thank God for small mercies. Terry ushered Nula along the hall, into what passed for Charlie Stone’s office.

And there was Charlie, squat and powerful, sitting behind his desk looking a question at her as she came in and closed the door behind her. And . . . her eyes fixed on his hands. Big blunt-fingered hands, loaded with gold rings. The knuckles of his right hand were scabbed, the skin there only newly healed.

‘You got some front, girl, sending your brother round here to mug me off,’ he said.

Nula drew in a breath, wrenched her eyes away from the evidence of Jimmy’s beating. ‘I didn’t send him,’ she said.

‘Well whether you did or whether you didn’t, that means the debt’s gone up, OK?’

‘You what?’

‘You heard.’

‘I’m struggling to pay it now.’

‘Struggling? You’re failing. The payment’s late. I trust you’ve come here today to settle up?’