He started the car up again. 'And I don't need you reminding me, all right?' He smiled then, a sad little smile. 'Let's go and get a drink, eh? I have a little bird on the go in Ilford, you can drop me there and take the car, OK?'

He turned on the cassette player and the sounds of Phil Collins filled the cramped space between them.

Jimmy sighed inwardly. Freddie hadn't been home for days and he knew it was bringing untold aggravation for everyone concerned, except of course, for the man who caused all the upset.

In the last six months he had caused murders with Jackie, and while everyone else suffered, Freddie just did his own thing.

As Maggie's dad always said, Freddie Jackson would never

change all the time women had tits.

'Stick the kids in the bath for me, would you?'

Maggie nodded, and, going upstairs, she started to run the bath, putting in a hefty dollop of Matey so the girls would have something to play with.

Once the girls were settled in there she washed their hair quickly and then left them playing with their toys.

In the front room she saw Jackie had opened another bottle of Liebfraumilch.

'Where the fuck is he? For all I know he's banged up.'

Lena, who was in the kitchen making sure her daughter had food in the fridge to feed her children, said loudly and sarcastically, 'They would have informed you by now.'

Maggie could have lamped her mother for her answer. While Jackie could convince herself Freddie was banged up she was, if not happy, then at least reassured that her errant husband wasn't trumping the nearest female he could lay his grubby hands on.

Jackie closed her eyes in distress. 'He's with a bird, ain't he?'

Maggie sat beside her on the sofa and said gently, 'You don't know that, Jackie. Calm yourself down, those kids can feel something's up.' She lit her a cigarette and placed it in her hand, taking the wine glass from her at the same time. 'This ain't going to do you any good, is it?'

Jackie sniffed, the tears near once more. 'It helps me sleep.'

Maggie lit a cigarette for herself. Seeing her sister like this drove her mad. Jackie was so strong in every way, but Freddie reduced her to nothing. Lena came in with two more wine glasses. She poured them quickly and, sipping hers daintily, she sat on the chair and said seriously, 'Sling him out, love, he's no good for you.'

Maggie could have screamed now. Her mother was like a cracked record and even though she spoke the truth it only served to make Jackie even more upset.

'Leave it out, Mum, can't you see she's upset enough as it is?'

She was staring at her mother trying to tell her to let it go. Lena shrugged and sipped at her wine then started once more in a friendly conversational tone.

'He's a fucking piece of shit. Your father was the same, he would track down a bit of strange like a bleeding bloodhound, him. Fights I had over that fat git…'

She was smiling now. 'Here, do you two remember that neighbour in Silvertown? What was her name?'

Jackie laughed suddenly. 'Maggie was too small to remember that one, Mum. Oh, your face!'

They laughed together and the sound was happy, friendly, they were allies now. All Jackie's hurt was forgotten at a funny memory.

'What happened?' Maggie was all ears now, interested in one of the family stories, stories that always involved her father, or her sister's husband and a woman, or series of women. But the tales were told in a funny way, they always saw the humour of their situation and they could make you laugh out loud.

'I heard off me sister Junie that he was trumping a blond-haired woman, she said she was a neighbour. So I'm looking out the window trying to catch the bastard and I see him and this blond bird who'd just moved in our flats, see. I opens the window and he shouts out to this sort, "I'll be over in a minute."'

Lena swigged at her wine, her voice as always getting higher and higher and her hands waving the cigarette and the wine glass around dangerously as she got into her story.

'Anyway, I went down the stairs of those flats like a bullet out of a gun. I go haring over to her place and I really fucking mullered her. Her old man came out and dragged me off, Jackie was giving him verbals, your father was doing his crust. I had handfuls of that poor whore's hair, there was claret all over the pavement… The neighbours were all out watching.'

They were laughing together now.

'So what happened?' Maggie was grinning at the way her mother and sister were roaring with laughter.

Then, wiping her eyes, Lena said, 'Well, it weren't her, was it.'

Maggie's eyes were stretched to their utmost. 'You're joking.'

They cracked up.

'Straight up, your father had borrowed a hammer off the woman's husband a couple of days before and they wanted it back. I could have fucking died on the spot.'

Jackie polished off her wine in two gulps and rubbed the tears from her cheeks with her fingers, laughing her head off.

'Oh, that was funny, Mum.'

Lena nodded then she said quietly, seriously, 'It weren't really. We make it funny, but it was terrible. The poor cow was battered like a Friday night cod. I see her up the Bingo sometimes, and I still feel bad about it. I battered the fuck out of her in front of her kids and she was a nice woman. Might have been a good mate even, you never know.'

Maggie could hear the sorrow in her mother's voice and felt a sudden urge to cry for the wasted years she had spent chasing a man who didn't want to be chased. Waiting for a man who had no intention of coming home. Jackie was her mother's daughter all right.

Then Lena said flatly, her voice husky from too many cigarettes and late nights, 'You'll learn, Jackie, just like I did, love, they ain't worth it. When you get to my age they only stay home because no one else wants them. If I had a pound for every time I followed him, fought over him, argued and screamed over him, I would be a rich woman. I dragged you kids all over the country visiting him when he was banged up and he never appreciated it, not really.'

She swallowed down her wine.

'My mum used to say to me, don't assume because you want him everyone else does. I wish I had listened to her because she was right.'

Jackie stood up unsteadily and walked out of the room.

Lena sighed then. 'You'll have to stay with her till he deigns to come home. Who knows what she's capable of.'

Maggie nodded sadly. 'Do you regret marrying me dad then, Mum, really?'

Lena smiled and her washed-out good looks were evident in the kindly light of an evening drawing to a close.

'Every fucking day, sweetheart, every day of my life.'

At first Maggie thought that she was dreaming, and putting up her arms protectively she tried to push the offending hands away.

They were still there. Opening her eyes she saw in the dimness her brother-in-law Freddie Jackson trying to lift up the nightie she was wearing, all the time kissing her neck and shoulders. Realisation hit her then and she sat bolt upright on the sofa, the fear apparent on her face.

'Stop it.'

She was whispering, even in her fright she was aware that her sister would rip her head off, would blame her if she saw this sight.

Freddie gave his usual lazy smile. He had Jackie where he wanted her and they both knew it. He was trying to force Maggie back into the cushions once more, smothering her with his mouth, the wet stickiness of him making the girl want to heave. He smelled of beer, cannabis and sweat. He had been on the missing list for a few days and she was staying over with her sister to try to keep her company and, more importantly, to keep her calm. Now here was the man of the hour trying it on with his wife's little sister, and the worst of it was that Jackie would never believe her husband capable of anything so low. Even though low behaviour was normal behaviour to him, Maggie knew the blame would be put squarely on her.