Free Just a Family Affair by Veronica Henry Page B

figure and ended up even thinner than before, to her triumph. And to her glee, as not long afterwards she was offered a modelling contract, which meant moving to London. Elsie had already resigned herself to bringing up the baby. Angela had reassured her that going to London was the best thing for all of them.
    ‘I’m going to make enough in a year to make sure we don’t have to worry again,’ she promised her mother.
    She didn’t, of course. Angela was pretty, but not that pretty, and after an initial flurry of success she found there were lots more girls out there who were thinner, taller and with bigger breasts. When she had to come back to Honeycote with her tail between her legs, she had lost the ability to bond with her daughter completely. Little Mary squealed every time her mother picked her up, an ungodly ear-splitting shriek. It only occurred to Elsie, in a suspicious moment some years later, that perhaps Angela had pinched her whenever she was put into her arms.
    True to form, though, Angela soon used the baby as a tool. Being a homeless single mother, she managed to get her own council flat in Cheltenham, as it definitely cramped her style to be stuck in Honeycote, which after the bright lights of London felt like the arse end of nowhere. At this point, Elsie’s husband Bill put his foot down. The two of them weren’t to look after Mary any longer. For the odd afternoon, of course, for they loved seeing her. But not for nights on end, to suit Angela. They were getting on, after all, and it wasn’t right for a child to be brought up by her ageing grandparents. Plus it was unsettling for a small child never to be quite sure where she was going to wake up in the morning. Mary’s rightful place was with her mother. Elsie bowed to his decision, albeit reluctantly, for she knew that if they had care of Mary then at least she would have decent food and her clothes ironed. Angela seemed to feed her nothing but Dairylea triangles and Frosties. Elsie spooned rose-hip syrup and Haliborange down the little girl surreptitiously whenever she did come round, and piled her plate high with proper meat and vegetables.
    When Bill keeled over in the back garden while picking runner beans one sunny afternoon and died, the distraught and lonely Elsie was only too glad to have someone to lavish her affection on, so it wasn’t long before she allowed Mary back into her life and her home. It made the pain so much easier to bear, not waking up in a house that rang with emptiness. Angela was delighted to have a reprieve. At last she could have a social life again. Soon she was dropping Mary at Elsie’s on a Friday night and, still yawning from her weekend’s revelry, collecting her on a Sunday afternoon. Half terms and holidays, Mary was there all the time, and was much happier riding her bike up and down the lanes of Honeycote and eating her granny’s home-cooked food than cooped up in a flat with an endless supply of chicken nuggets.
    When Mary was eleven, Angela persuaded Elsie to let her use her address in Honeycote so she could apply for a place at the secondary school in Eldenbury. The school Mary was due to go to on the outskirts of Cheltenham was rough, with shocking exam results. Angela was no academic, but she knew she could use Mary’s education as a lever on her mother. Before Elsie knew it, Mary had been enrolled at Eldenbury High, and spent most of the week at her gran’s - the travelling got to her, explained Angela, and by the time she got home she was too tired to do her homework. Elsie knew she was being used, but she didn’t mind. And neither, which was more to the point, did Mary.
    By the time she was fourteen Mary lived at her grandmother’s virtually full time, for she and her mother disagreed on everything. They were polar opposites. Mary was compassionate, always rooting for the underdog. Angela was ruthless and self-interested. As Mary became more opinionated and sure of herself, putting the two of