Pedigree Mum Read Online Free Page B

defiantly as she sits down at her piano. It might not be quite the illustrious future she’d in mind for herself at music college, but the money’s good, and she also plans to teach piano from home. Isn’t that the modern way of doing things – to have several strings to your bow, so to speak? And surely dozens of parents in a well-heeled town like Shorling are desperate for their little ones to learn the piano. Kerry doesn’t have any pupils yet, but she plans to put ads on all the newsagents’ noticeboards in the next day or two. God, she hasn’t even finished unpacking or organising the house yet. It still amazes her, despite the fact that she should be used to it by now, how little you get done with children around. And the people at
Cuckoo Clock
’s production company don’t seem to understand that even bouncy little bird songs can’t be hammered out in five minutes.
    It’ll be easier when Rob moves down
, she tells herself firmly.
Then we won’t feel like cuckoos ourselves, stealing someone else’s nest …
They’ll also be able to
buy
Aunt Maisie’s house, which will hopefully make it feel properly theirs. At the moment, thanks to her aunt’s generosity and keenness to move, Kerry and the children are living here rent-free.
    After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she starts to sing and play quietly so as not to disturb the children.
    Welcome to the cuckoo clock,
    It’s time to say to say hello,
    What’s behind the little doors …
    ‘“What’s behind the lit-tle doors?”’ comes the mocking
echo behind her.
    She whirls round. ‘Freddie! What are you doing out of bed?’
    His lightly freckled face erupts into a wide-awake smile. ‘What are you asking that for?’
    ‘Because I told you, it’s the middle of the night—’
    ‘No, about the doors.’ He rakes a hand through his dishevelled brown curls.
    ‘Oh. Er … to build up tension, I suppose, so it’s a surprise …’
    ‘But it’s a cuckoo, innit?
That’s
what’s behind the doors.’
    Kerry blinks at her son. She is chilly now, despite the cashmere sweater, and goosebumps have sprung up on her bare legs.
    ‘You’re right,’ she says flatly. ‘It’s a cuckoo. It really couldn’t be anything else.’
    Freddie grins triumphantly and starts swinging on the door. ‘Ha, I knew it was.
Now
can I phone Dad?’

Chapter Five
    Nadine’s flat might only be forty-odd miles from Rob’s new house by the sea, but the way he feels now, he might as well have landed on a different planet. The huge living room is girlie in the extreme, its sofa and chairs strewn with fluffy throws and an abundance of embroidered cushions. There are fairy lights, glowing red lamps and a multi-coloured chandelier. The effect, he muses as Nadine dispenses drinks (aided by a rather worse-for-wear Frank), is a little nauseating.
    ‘So d’you like my place?’ Nadine asks, curling up beside him on the vast purple velvet sofa.
    ‘It’s really, um, stylish,’ he tells her, enunciating carefully in the hope of appearing sober.
    ‘Thanks.’ She smiles prettily. ‘It’s a bit of a mish-mash but I like it.’
    ‘Yeah, but it’s not yours, is it?’ Eddy teases from his cross-legged position on the pink shag-pile rug. ‘It’s Daddy’s.’
    Nadine rolls her eyes good naturedly. ‘Yep, but I’m here for the time being, darling. You don’t think I could live here on an editorial assistant’s salary, do you?’
    ‘Thank God for Daddy,’ Eddy guffaws, stretching the joke a little thin in Rob’s opinion. He glances down at the gnarled oak table on which the remains of his birthday cake look a little ravaged on a plain white plate, wondering why he’s suddenly feeling protective of Nadine. Her slight haughtiness in the office is, he suspects now, a desire to seem properly grown-up when she’s barely emerged from her teens.
    ‘So you’re off to your new place tomorrow?’ Ava asks Rob, rearranging her bony limbs on a giant floor