Page 99 of Hidden Daughters (Detective Lottie Parker #15)

Nadine O’Shaughnessy thought all her problems were about to be solved when her Auntie June arrived. Her aunt had been in living in England. That was what her daddy said.

The door was open and her daddy was pushing her out, even though she hadn’t the buckle fully shut on her shoe.

Clarks red shoes. She loved them, though they were too small for her.

But she hadn’t told her mammy because she knew her daddy never gave Mammy enough money.

Now she was dead and Nadine had to wear them because no way could she tell her daddy that she needed new shoes.

But then she thought maybe if she was going to get educated, she’d get a new pair.

She was about to open her mouth to ask when her auntie turned up.

‘Is it yourself?’ Daddy said.

‘Sure is.’ Auntie June was young. Maybe only about twenty years old, though Nadine wasn’t sure. She glanced down at the little girl, then back up at him like he was a bit of dirt on her shoe. ‘Where is the young one off to, all dressed up?’

‘I’m getting an education,’ Nadine said, realising she sounded a bit doubtful. Her big brother Bryan had gone somewhere to get an education. That was what she’d been told, anyway. But he never came home and her other brother was always out in the fields. She rarely saw him.

She heard the baby crying then, in the back room.

Her daddy hadn’t given her time to change her nappy, and she could smell it.

She turned to go back in, but he took a hold of her shoulder and made her face the door.

Like he was using her as a shield for himself against her auntie. Or something like that.

‘She’s going to the convent, June. It’s what your sister would have wanted,’ he said. ‘I’d like you to get out of the way and leave us be.’

‘And why would I do that? I’m here to help with the young ones.’

‘Don’t need no help,’ he said. ‘But you can change that brat’s nappy while you’re here.’

Nadine could see red blotches appearing on her auntie’s cheeks and noticed she was wearing make-up. Cool.

Her daddy’s fingers pressed harder into her shoulder and his other hand gripped the scruff of her neck. She’d have a bruise there. Maybe Auntie June would give her some of her make-up to hide it. She wasn’t to know that nothing could hide the bruises she was yet to get.

But in that moment, she was happy that her aunt was there to care for her little baby sister, Imelda.