Free Charlie by Lesley Pearse Page A

Sylvia sneered. ‘Since when did you become an expert on men?’
    ‘I know Dad.’ Whatever she thought about her father privately she wasn’t prepared to admit it to anyone, not even her mother. ‘He believes in honour and good manners. If he wanted a new life with someone else he would have said so.’
    ‘You pathetic, stupid little fool. Honour and good manners! Your precious father has been a crook all his fucking life, my girl. He made his pile from running strip clubs, call girls and selling drugs. The only reason he bought “Windways” and started importing all that fucking shit he calls antiquities was because he wanted a legal front to hide behind.’
    Charlie felt as if someone had just thrown a bucket of icy water over her. Yet she could do and say nothing, only stare at her mother open-mouthed with astonishment. She had never heard her swear publicly before and to hear her using such words, now with old ladies lying just feet away, somehow was confirmation she was telling the truth.
    ‘Mum, don’t,’ Charlie whispered, catching hold of her mother’s hand. She wanted to hear what had been said retracted, but even in her distress she was aware this wasn’t something which should be aired here. ‘People will hear!’
    ‘Does that matter any more?’ Sylvia slumped back against the pillows and turned her face away from her daughter. ‘It will all come out before long anyway. You won’t even want to keep his name, let alone try to stick up for him. I bet that shit has taken my jewellery too. I never thought to check if it was still there.’
    Charlie thought quickly before answering. Her mother was so angry that one small piece of good news couldn’t possibly calm her down. Besides, she might just give the game away to someone by accident.
    ‘I’ll check if I get the opportunity to go back to the house,’ she said, hoping her face wouldn’t give her away. ‘Don’t mention it to anyone though, Mum, otherwise they might look for it. Anyway, I don’t think Dad would take presents he’d given you, even if he is as bad as you say.’
    ‘You don’t think about anything, do you?’ Sylvia sniffed. ‘Not what it’s like for me in here, or what will happen when they chuck me out. All you care about is yourself, you’re just like Jin, in looks, ways and character. Why don’t you run off too?’
    Charlie had heard more than enough for one day. Seething with anger, she got up, pushed the chair back and leaned over her mother.
    ‘I do think a great deal,’ she said in a low voice. ‘I’ve already worked out for myself that both you and Dad have hidden a great deal from me. Now you’ve brought up Dad’s past, it makes me wonder why you’ve never told me anything about yours. Could that be because you’re ashamed of that too? As for being like my father, well, right now I’d rather be like him than you, at least he’s got some guts!’
    Sylvia’s eyes opened very wide and she seemed to cringe back into the pillows. ‘How dare you talk to me like that?’ she said, but her voice trembled.
    ‘I’m not going to run off too, even though I wish I could,’ Charlie went on. ‘But I am going to find myself a job, and somewhere of my own to live. So just watch what you say to me in future, otherwise you might very well find yourself entirely alone with no one to take care of you.’
    She dropped a kiss on Sylvia’s cheek, purely for propriety’s sake. ‘I’m going now,’ she said. ‘Ask the nurse to wash your hair. It’s disgusting.’
    Charlie couldn’t bring herself to go back to the Mellings’ immediately. Instead she walked to Warfleet Creek, found a log to sit on amongst the bushes and stared across the estuary to ‘Windways’. It looked so very beautiful bathed in afternoon sunshine, and as she looked at it, bitter tears sprang to her eyes. It was only six days since she was here before, yet it seemed almost a lifetime away now.
    Everything was smashed to pieces. From her