Angie’s got Harper. Mind you,’ she said, with a penetrating stare at Kara, ‘she ain’t got her job no more.’
‘Oh yeah? She didn’t tea leaf anything, did she? She was on a right good earner. She reckons the woman gave her a monthly bonus to spoil herself an’ all,’ Vic said, with a quizzical frown.
Julie was still looking at Kara, a grin forming across her face. ‘No, her employer burned the flaming house down. Didn’t ya, Posh?’
Vic spun around with her hands to her mouth. ‘Oh, fuck me, it was you! Jesus, ya really did go to town. My Angie said ya didn’t leave a brick standing, not a blade of grass in the front garden. She reckons you used a bomb … I need to change your name to Bomber Bannon.’ She laughed at her own joke and pushed Kara almost off the bed. ‘Cor, small world, eh? So, Bomber, you’re a sly horse. I thought it was an accident. I didn’t know you were serious. Fucking bombed the house! Well, you have respect from me … But why, though?’
For a moment, Kara felt comfort. Two women, a world apart from hers, were treating her now as one of their own. ‘My boyfriend went off with someone else and then asked me to get out of the house, our home that we had shared for years, so I thought, if he wants to move the bitch in, then he can sleep with her on a pile of ashes.’ Just as she spoke her innermost thoughts, she realised she was just like them. The only difference was that she portrayed more finesse, but it all boiled down to the same thing at the end of the day.
‘This neighbour, then. Was she shagging this fella of yours?’ asked Julie.
With an inward groan, Kara replied, ‘No, that’s just a story that grew legs and ran. I didn’t know my neighbour was in the driveway, and the truth is, I didn’t know the boiler was going to explode. It all happened so fast. I doused the house and lit the match and headed for the back garden. That’s all I remember, really, apart from ending up in here.’
There was silence. You could have heard a pin drop. Julie and Vic looked at this attractive and slim woman in front of them and just stared, totally dumbfounded by the precise and unemotional words leaving Posh’s mouth. It was left to Vic to speak up. ‘So, you’re a bit of a reckless fucker on the quiet, then?’
A soft chortle left Kara’s mouth. ‘Well, I guess I must be.’
‘Right, I’m off to the canteen. I need to get a few bits. Jue, show Posh the ropes, will ya? She’s walking around like a tit in a trance.’ With that, Vic jumped from the bed and was gone.
‘You already know the ropes, I take it?’
With a big huff, Julie replied, ‘Yeah, well, me ol’ man, the wanker, don’t work, ya see, and I needed a few bits for the babe, and I got caught choring ’em. They gave me three months. I already had a suspended, for nicking out of Waitrose. Some snooty cashier caught me, but it was the thump on her nose that got me inside. Anyway, I ain’t never done anything too serious like burning down a big posh house.’
For the first time, Kara realised that inmates like Julie saw her crime as more serious than stealing and violence, and yet she hadn’t given it a second thought, assuming that hitting someone was far worse. Perhaps Julie was right, and the judge would come down hard on her. She’d been racked with guilt since the incident and would take whatever the judge decided to throw at her if the neighbour was seriously injured. She would deserve to suffer and yet she was also terrified of being locked away for years.
‘What’s up, Posh? You don’t ’alf look white.’
‘Just the thought of that innocent woman dying and it’s all my fault. I will never get out of here. I don’t deserve to either.’
‘So, what’s ya brief say? I mean, is she outta hospital yet?’
She guessed Julie meant her lawyer. ‘Er, no, I don’t have a brief, or family, or a boyfriend anymore, so I haven’t a clue.’
‘You best speak to your personal officer and get a brief, sharpish. You will need all the bleedin’ help you can get. I’ll give ya the name of mine, if ya like. I’m seeing him on a legal visit tomorrow. Shall I put a word in? He does legal aid.’
Kara nodded, feeling totally deflated. ‘If you wouldn’t mind, that’s so kind of you.’
‘No worries. I’m going down to the canteen. I need some sany towels. I came on early. All the bloody stress, I guess.’
A sudden thought almost knocked Kara sideways. She hadn’t even considered her period. She was late, the sickness over the last few days having put everything else to the back of her mind. And what with worrying about herself and Justin and now being incarcerated in this absolute shit-hole, it was no wonder that her once logical and formidable brain was out of kilter.
She did a mental recap of when she’d last had a period and an uneasy feeling gripped her stomach. It had been her last trip to Papua New Guinea where she’d thought she had contracted the lingering gastro bug that had been infecting the villagers. She could quite easily have thrown up the pill then. She calculated back the dates and sat there numb; she was possibly two or three months pregnant. How the hell could she have not known? She was medically trained. She’d put it down to sickness and stress, and she hadn’t thought a baby was on the menu yet – not this side of thirty anyway.
Two weeks had passed. Lucy was keeping up her end of the bargain, as she saw it. Justin worked late most evenings and slept in the spare room. She cooked his evening meals and they joined in small talk – how he had got on at work and what she had been up to during the day. Then, believing they were getting somewhere, she decided to up her game. ‘So, Justin, I was thinking perhaps I should meet your family. We can break the news together.’
He was just about to place a fork full of mashed potatoes in his mouth when he stopped and placed his cutlery down. Taking a deep breath, he declared, ‘I haven’t even told my mother about my break-up with Kara, let alone the house burning down. I think she needs to deal with one thing at a time, don’t you?’ His curt tone pricked her nerves.
‘Christ, Justin, she must already know. It was in the papers, and she will think it odd that you haven’t called.’
‘Look! My mother doesn’t read the news, except her local rag, and she knows if I’m busy, then I won’t call, but if she got wind of it, she would be knocking down my office door. Let me deal with one thing at a time, eh?’
Lucy noticed the fine lines that had appeared around his eyes. Maybe it was the overhead light that highlighted his face, but he looked older, not so fresh. She couldn’t even say they were laughter lines because his expression of late was so sullen. Being patient was wearing thin and she had to batten down the urge to shake him. She wasn’t used to men denying her affection.
‘But surely your mother will be excited when you tell her she will be a grandmother?’
His face tightened to an angry glare. ‘You what? Are you delusional?’
Lucy forced her eyes to water. ‘But, it’s not fair, Justin. I feel like I’m being hidden away, like your dirty secret, when I should be embracing this pregnancy, showing off like other mothers-to-be, buying baby clothes, and enjoying the experience. It’s not my fault that
