Diamond Girls Read online

  ‘Oh yuck, Mum! Are you really going to feed him yourself? That’s so, like, animal,’ said Rochelle. ‘Aren’t you scared it’ll spoil your figure?’

  ‘Well, I’ve done it four times over and everything’s bobbed back into place – or thereabouts,’ said Mum, patting herself.

  Her chest was impressively big now but her tummy was much flatter, nearly back to normal. She looked really really tired, though. Her face was so pale, and she had great dark smudges under her eyes. Her hair was all tangled and greasy, hanging lankly about her shoulders.

  ‘Shall I wash your hair for you, Mum?’ I said.

  ‘I could run you a bath. We’ve got lots of hot water. We got the electrics working. If there’s any trouble I know how to fix it,’ said Jude.

  ‘Can I bath the baby, Mum? Oh please, let me,’ said Rochelle. ‘Give him here!’

  ‘No, no, no!’ said Mum. She said it so fiercely we all jumped and baby Sundance got startled, his little fists flying in the air. He wailed, and Mum rocked him in her arms.

  ‘Ssh, ssh! There now, baby,’ she murmured into his tiny red ear.

  ‘Mum?’ said Rochelle. ‘Mum, I promise I’ll be ever so careful with him.’

  ‘I know, I know, but he’s not a toy, sweetheart.’

  ‘You let me bath Dixie when she was tiny.’

  ‘I bet you banged my head on the bath!’

  ‘I’ve bathed all of you,’ said Martine on her way out to make the tea. ‘Don’t worry, Mum, I’ll see to him. While I’m still here.’

  ‘No, not just yet, Martine,’ said Mum. She took a deep breath. ‘Listen, girls, it’s hard to explain, like, but we’re still bonding, Sundance and me. I want to take care of him for the next few days, all right? I don’t want any of you bathing him, dressing him up, changing his nappies—’

  ‘Like we’d want to change his nappies?’ said Jude, pulling a face. ‘Mum, you look done in.’ She put her hand on Mum’s forehead. ‘You’re burning up. I don’t think you should have come out of hospital so soon. When Bruce comes how’s about we get him to run you back to the maternity ward, just so they can check you out?’

  ‘No way,’ Mum snapped. ‘Will you girls quit fussing! All I want is my cup of tea.’

  ‘Here you are, Mum,’ said Martine, bringing it in from the kitchen.

  Mum drank it down in three gulps and then lay back on her pillow, clutching Sundance. He was nodding off to sleep, his delicate eyelids drooping. Mum nuzzled him close, and in a minute she was asleep too.

  The four of us stood watching, still a little awed, like shepherds in a Nativity painting. It seemed so weird that yesterday we’d just been Mum and us four girls. Now this new baby brother had changed everything.

  ‘That’s my little brother Sundance,’ I whispered to Bluebell.

  ‘And that’s my brain-dead sister Dixie who still plays with cuddly toys,’ Rochelle said, sighing.

  ‘Ssh! Let’s go in the kitchen. We don’t want to wake them,’ said Martine. ‘Come on, we’ll all have some tea.’

  ‘Is she really going to call him Sundance?’ Jude whispered. ‘She’s so hot, I’m sure she’s got a fever. What’s childbed fever? Do you think she’s got it?’

  ‘Of course not. Shut up, Jude. Come on,’ said Martine.

  We went and huddled in the kitchen. We’d got our own table and chairs in there but it didn’t feel like our kitchen at all. The sink was clean now but none of us wanted to go near it. The floor was all stained and dirty, with half of the floor tiles cracked or missing.

  I curled my legs up so my bare feet wouldn’t touch it. I’d lost one of yesterday’s socks in the messy sitting room and I didn’t know where my clean ones were. I decided to go without. My trainers rubbed my feet so I left them off too.

  I flew Bluebell round and round. She ended up perching on my big toe, gripping it with her wiry little claws.

  ‘Do you have to sit like that, Dixie?’ said Rochelle. ‘Your feet are filthy. This whole house is a tip. Mum’s mad bringing us here.’

  ‘I’ll say,’ said Martine.

  ‘Don’t you ever stop moaning?’ said Jude. ‘We’ll just have to get this house sorted, that’s all.’

  ‘Well don’t look at me,’ said Rochelle. ‘I’m the one that did all the bogging scrubbing. I’m sick of it. I’m next to the youngest, so it’s not fair I have to do all the hard work.’

  ‘Not any more,’ I said. ‘You’re in the middle now. Martine and Jude, then you – piggy in the middle! – then me, then Sundance. I’m not the baby any more. He is.’

  ‘Yeah, and I bet he’s a lot more clued up than you are already, Dixie. He’s sweet, isn’t he? So little.’

  ‘I think he looks big,’ said Martine, sipping at her tea. She pulled a face. ‘Think of the size of his head and how it must hurt coming out.’

  ‘Don’t! Still, Mum’s all right now,’ said Rochelle.

  ‘No she’s not,’ said Jude.

  ‘Yeah, well, she’s tired, obviously, but she’ll be OK when she’s had a good sleep,’ said Rochelle.

  ‘She looks awful. And she’s acting weird,’ said Martine. ‘All that fuss about us not touching the baby, like we’re going to hurt him. What’s she on about, all this bonding lark?’

  ‘She did go a bit funny when Dixie was born, remember?’ said Jude. ‘But then Dixie was in hospital for ages and Mum had to keep trailing backwards and forwards to visit her.’

  ‘And she was still grieving for my dad. She got dead depressed, she told me,’ said Rochelle, nodding importantly.

  ‘I hope she’s not getting depressed now,’ said Jude.

  ‘I’m depressed, stuck here when I want to be back home with Tony,’ said Martine.

  Jude looked at her. ‘Are you really going to walk out on Mum and all of us?’ she said.

  ‘I’m not going right this minute. But soon. I’ve got my own life to lead, Jude. I want to be with Tony.’

  ‘How come he comes before us?’

  ‘Because I love him,’ said Martine.

  ‘More than you love Mum and us?’

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s different. Look, one day you’ll understand,’ said Martine.

  ‘I understand,’ said Rochelle. ‘I can’t wait – though I wouldn’t ever fancy a boy-next-door type like Tony. There’s no need to shove me, Martine, he literally is the boy next door. No, I want some guy who’s really good looking and dynamic and dead sexy.’

  ‘Like that guy with the earring!’ said Jude in disgust.

  ‘Well, why not?’ said Rochelle. ‘I think he was pretty fit.’

  ‘Yeah, fit to take you round the back of the house and mess around with you to show off to all his mates,’ said Jude.

  ‘Look, who are you to judge? You don’t like boys. I do.’

  ‘He’s not a boy, he’s a big lout – and you’re just a silly little girl,’ said Jude.

  Rochelle shook her head pityingly, looking at Martine. ‘She doesn’t have a clue, does she?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Martine, shifting uneasily. ‘Maybe you should be careful, Rochelle. Jude’s right, you’re only a kid. You don’t know what you’re doing.’

  Rochelle flushed. ‘Don’t you start ganging up on me too, it’s not fair.’ She scrabbled in the empty biscuit packet, licking her fingers to get the last of the crumbs. ‘I’m still starving. Why can’t we have some proper breakfast? And what are we going to have for lunch?’

  ‘Oh dear me, let’s all go and ask cook what she’s conjured up,’ said Jude sarcastically.

  I pretended in my head that we really did have a cook – a lovely cheery lady with a red beaming face. She let me lick her cake bowl and called me fond foodie nick-names like Pancake and Cherry Bun. I daydreamed we had lots of servants, a kind chauffeur who whizzed us to the shops and the seaside and all the amusement parks in a big white limo long enough for all us Diamond girls to fit inside.

  We were very very rich and we lived in a huge black and white house and we all had our own bedro