Never Close Your Eyes

Table of Contents

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Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781409050650

  

Published by Preface 2009

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Copyright © Emma Burstall, 2009

Emma Burstall has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

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First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Preface Publishing

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ISBN 978 1 84809 047 7

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Acknowledgments

I drew on the knowledge and experiences of many truly remarkable people to write this novel. Thank you Clare Fawcett, Emma Lewis, Kate O'Connor, Julie Brack, Peter Cox, Sgt Ian Bishop, Fiona Putty and Paola Carr-Walker for their insights and advice.

Nor would it have been possible without the kindness and patience, not to mention the invaluable literary and technical expertise, of my wonderful editor, Rosie de Courcy. And a great big thank you to my fantastic agent, Heather Holden-Brown, for her wisdom, wit and friendship.

A big kiss goes to my children, Georgia, Harry and Freddie, for making themselves scarce when it really mattered, and to my husband, Kevin, for rising so graciously to the role of chief cook and bottle washer when circumstances demanded.

My dear father, Christopher Burstall, died just before
Never Close Your Eyes
was published. Sadly, he never got to read it, but his loving inspiration is present in every page.

Characters

Evie Freestone: a wedding-dress designer

Neil: her estranged husband, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist

Freya and Michael: their children

Helen: Neil's new live-in partner

Margot: Evie's former boss

Bill: Evie's neighbour, a former university professor

Jan: his dead wife

Galina: a Ukrainian student, taught by Bill

Steve: Evie's boyfriend, a celebrity writer

Jacob: Steve's baby son

Lucy: Freya's best friend

Abigail, Chantelle and Gemma: schoolgirl bullies

Liam: Abigail's boyfriend

Richie: Chantelle's ex-boyfriend

Cal Barton: Freya's online friend

Becca Goodall: Chief Investment Officer for a large international company

Tom: Becca's husband, a sports journalist

Alice and James: their children

Monica: their au pair

Gary Laybourn: Becca's old schoolfriend, who works for a human rights charity

Michelle: Gary's wife

Dawn Mackey: a schoolgirl from Newcastle

Jude: her sister

Maureen: their mother, a cleaner

Nic Quinton: a freelance journalist

Alan: her husband, an accountant

Dominic: their son

Marie: Nic's oldest friend

Tristram: chairman of the St Barnabas's Creative Writing Group

Carol, Pamela, Russell, Jonathan, Angela and Tim: members of the writing group

Griselda: Carol's sister

Zelda: a clairvoyant

Miss Addison: her former class teacher

Derek: Zelda's former boyfriend

Chapter One

‘Look at yersel'! Ye're such a fuckin' saddo.'

Jude was standing in the bedroom doorway, her face fixed in a mean sneer. Dawn could see the red freckles on her nose, the pale, ugly eyebrows, the clogged mascara. She wondered for a moment why Jude didn't paint her eyebrows black, too, to match the lashes. There again, there wasn't much point. She'd always be hideously ugly whatever she did.

Dawn turned away from her sister and back to the exercise book on the end of her bed. She didn't have a desk; she had to kneel on the floor.

‘Was the collapse of the Weimar Republic inevitable?' she read. She picked up the black Biro again and put the end in her mouth. She always did that; it helped her think.

She heard Jude leave her position in the doorway and pad in bare feet across the tatty blue carpet to her side of the room. The thought of Jude's feet made Dawn feel sick. Jude hardly ever cut her toenails, which were long, yellowish and dirty, with bits of red chipped nail varnish that had been there for months. Dawn didn't know how Jude's lover boy could stand them. There again, it wouldn't be her feet he was after. Dawn didn't like to think about that, either.

Jude started opening her bedside drawers and banging things around, humming loudly. Dawn wanted to cry. It was so unfair. The essay was due in tomorrow and she'd been enjoying writing it. Mam would be home from work soon, then she and Jude would have to help get the tea, though Jesus knows what they were going to eat. Chips and that disgusting tinned ham again probably.