Authors: Kitty Neale
A Family Scandal
KITTY NEALE
A Family Scandal
Published by Avon an imprint of
HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd
1 London Bridge Street,
London, SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Publishers
2016
This ebook edition 2016
Copyright © Kitty Neale 2016
Cover design © Debbie Clement 2016
Kitty Neale asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Ebook Edition © April 2016 ISBN: 978000758794
0
Source ISBN: 9781847562470
Version 2016-03-18
I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of Hardip Bhamra, who sadly died in 2015.
He has been described by his colleagues, friends and family as a beautiful soul, a modest, gentle, kind and honest man; a devoted husband and father who is survived by his wife, Marianne, and daughter, Kristina.
Hardip Bhamra was also a talented artist who could create beauty with just a few strokes of a brush, and now, every time I see a wonderful sunrise or sunset, it reminds me of him and some of his wonderful paintings.
Table of Contents
Peckham, Spring 1965
‘Pete’s done us proud, ain’t he?’ Lily Culling grinned at her daughter as she looked around her new kitchen with delight. ‘Mavis, look at that, proper hot water and everything. And a new cooker too. It’s the first time I ever had one of those. I’ll be able to do some lovely sausage and mash on that, Pete, your favourite.’
Pete beamed at his wife but shook his head. ‘It’s only what you deserve. God knows we’ve waited long enough for it. I’m only sorry it took ages to get it all finished. I wanted it done while Bobby was still young enough to keep out of mischief but look at him, there’s no stopping him now.’
Bobby paused when he heard his name, but then carried on chasing James and Grace around and into the patch of garden at the back of the house. He was two and a half and into everything. It didn’t help that he was the youngest of the household too and spoilt rotten.
‘It’s lovely to see them playing together,’ Mavis said. ‘It’s funny to think that Bobby is the youngest. He’s their uncle, but I doubt he understands that.’
‘Well, love, it is a bit complicated,’ Lily replied. ‘How do you explain to a two-year-old that you’re my daughter from my first marriage, and that he’s from my second? Same mother, but different fathers so you’re his half-sister. Not only that, you already had James who is now eight and Grace who is six when I gave birth to him.’
‘It’s enough to confuse anyone.’ Pete commented.
‘I’ll explain it all to him when he’s older,’ Lily said as she once again looked around her new kitchen. ‘Oh, I love this house, Pete. You’ve done a wonderful job of converting it into two generous-sized flats.’
‘I love it too, Mum,’ said Mavis. ‘James and Grace will have their own bedrooms instead of sharing. It’s not like when I was their age is it? I remember that damp, old kitchen in Battersea and you didn’t have anything modern or new then.’
‘Don’t remind me.’ Lily shuddered. ‘Your dad off gambling all our money away, me never knowing where the next penny was coming from and if I’d be able to feed you or not.’ She patted her hair, reluctant to remember those days of extreme poverty. She didn’t intend to go back to that hand-to-mouth way of life. Even though she was well into her forties she still took care of her appearance, using the peroxide often enough to stop the roots showing through, determined nobody would notice if she was going grey or not. She prided herself on keeping her figure – not something many women who’d had a child at her age could boast of. ‘Still, you didn’t know no different when you were little. And half the stuff was still rationed. Those three out there don’t know they’re born. Nothing but good times ahead for us now, pet. You just see if I’m not right.’
Mavis smiled and crossed her fingers. ‘Hope so. Now we’re here it’s a fresh start for all of us.’
‘That’s the spirit,’ said Pete, proud of all he’d done to keep this family together. He was a bricklayer by trade and had worked his fingers to the bone until he’d had enough money to set up his own company. He had started off by doing small jobs but finally was in a position to go for the bigger projects, and that had all been down to his own hard graft. Now he’d found this big house and finally got it done up. Nobody else need know about the enormous loan that had made it possible. Good times were on their way for his business and nothing was going to spoil it. He’d done all this without a helping hand from anybody, and still had to pinch himself when he realised he really was married to Lily and he’d given her the life he’d always known she deserved. He certainly wasn’t going to worry her by telling her about the loan. There were no flies on Lily, but he knew it was his job to be the provider for the family, and that was exactly what he intended to be.
‘Best thing about this place is there’s a decent pub just round the corner,’ he said. ‘I fancy a pint and reckon I deserve it after all that lifting. You coming to join me, Lily, just for a change? See if we can get to know any of the new faces?’
Lily turned to her daughter. ‘I might go, just the once. It’s something to celebrate, after all. I won’t be long. You’ll be all right, stopping here with the kids?’
Mavis nodded. ‘You go and have a good time. You worked hard for this and helped to pack a lot of my stuff too when I was busy sorting out James and Grace. Don’t worry about me. Tommy will be over later to see how we got on.’
‘You got a good man there.’ Lily approved of Tommy. When he’d first come on the scene she hadn’t been sure about him as he’d been a bit of a tearaway in his youth, but he’d turned into a real tower of strength for Mavis just when she needed one. ‘Be giving him a tour of your new bedroom, will you?’
‘Mum!’ Mavis quickly checked that the children were all out of earshot. ‘Don’t go saying that. It’s all very well for you, but I’m not rushing into anything. Tommy knows that. So don’t you go putting ideas into his head.’
‘You’ve been seeing him for ages, and if you ask me the man’s a saint to wait for so long.’
‘Mum!’ Mavis warned again.
Lily grinned and then winked at her husband. ‘Come on then, Pete. I might let you show me a good time, an’ all.’
Pete caught her round the waist, grinning from ear to ear. He might not be much of a looker, with his boxer’s face and skin still scarred from teenage acne, but he loved her mum, thought Mavis. He’d done them proud all right and she was grateful to him for that. ‘You go on, I’ll make sure Bobby goes to bed on time.’
‘And we’ll be back before its James’s bedtime so you won’t have to worry about leaving any of them on their own in a different part of the house.’ Lily grabbed her handbag. ‘See you later. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’ She allowed Pete to open the newly painted door for her and they were gone.
Well that didn’t rule much out, Mavis thought ruefully. How different her mother was to her. Lily had begun her affair with Pete not long after Mavis’s father had gone missing, which Mavis, a lonely teenager at the time, had found unbearably hard and impossible to accept. By the time her father finally reappeared, close to death after years of gambling and drinking had ruined him, Lily and Pete had been living together. They’d only married after Mavis’s dad had died and when Lily was heavily pregnant with Bobby. It had scandalised the neighbours when they eventually found out, but then they had moved away to Peckham and a fresh start.
Mavis had to open a few cupboard doors to find the teapot. She remembered when she was a girl that her mother would use the same tea leaves several times as they couldn’t afford fresh. Mavis grimaced, remembering how dreadfully clumsy she had been which had tried her mother’s patience. She’d also been considered backward because she couldn’t learn to read and write.
As she made the tea, Mavis found herself thinking about Rhona Foster and knew she would miss having her vivacious friend and neighbour popping in from next door now that they had moved away from Harmond Street. Rhona wouldn’t have thought twice about showing Tommy her bedroom, Mavis thought. Though they had become friends, they were as different as chalk and cheese.
Everything had changed for Mavis when she’d married Alec, James and Grace’s father. After leaving school with no qualifications she’d helped his snobbish mother run her house. It was Alec’s mother who realised that her inability to read and clumsiness wasn’t caused by lack of intelligence. It was due to word blindness, and though she had never learned to read, she had managed to overcome her clumsiness. No, she wasn’t backward, Mavis thought ruefully, but she had been very naïve and what she hadn’t realised was that she was being groomed by Alec’s mother to be his perfect submissive wife. Because she’d been desperate to get away from Lily and Pete, she’d fallen for it – and ended up in a terrible abusive relationship.
When the domineering old woman had died, Mavis had found the courage to leave Alec. He’d sold the house that he’d inherited from his mother two years ago, hadn’t given Mavis her share of the money, and moved out. He’d disappeared without a trace, but nobody was sorry to see the back of him. Except that, as she had no way of making contact with him, she couldn’t get a divorce.