to the baby, but she had to admit that unless Mo’s mother turned out to be a red-faced, thin-haired tubby person who bore a striking resemblance to Buddha, it was very unlikely that she looked much like her daughter did at the moment. Besides, she had read somewhere that babies always looked like their fathers when they were first born, a primeval evolutionary development that stopped the male of the species feeding its young to a sabre-toothed tiger when they became too inconvenient.
‘Poor little thing nearly didn’t make it,’ Tamsyn said to a chorus of oohs from the girls, as they clambered to their feet and crowded around the baby, cooing over Mo, who for the moment was oblivious to their attentions. If any one of these glossy-haired, creamy-skinned young women was her mother, then the baby didn’t have a sixth sense about it, and besides, none of them looked like they had just given birth. They all looked as if they had just arrived from the sea in half a clam shell, every single one of them an Aphrodite in her own way. Tamsyn remembered how Keira had looked after the twins had entered the world. She resembled Wile E. Coyote, just after he’d been run over by a steamroller driven by the Road Runner. These girls, barely more than children themselves, all looked as fresh as daisies, despite the drama of the evening.
‘I don’t suppose you have any ideas, do you?’ Tamsyn asked them, glancing over at Jed, who was resolutely engaging a young man in a deathly tedious conversation about the finer points of Minecraft, without raising his eyes towards the gaggle of half-dressed girls. ‘I mean, anyone you know? Any friends at school, perhaps? Friends of friends, who might have got into trouble? Not known where to turn?’
‘Oh, well,’ the first girl said, cheerfully. ‘Daisy Chambers got pregnant. Her dad said he’d kill her boyfriend. It was
hilarious
!’
‘Did she?’ Tamsyn asked her, looking around. ‘Is she here?’
‘No, they live up top,’ the girl told her, ‘on the other side of the river where the flooding isn’t so bad. But she wouldn’t have left her baby on a church doorstep. For starters he’s, like, six months old, and secondly, she and her boyfriend moved in with her mum and dad, and she still gets to go out every other Friday.’
‘Right,’ Tamsyn said. ‘So you don’t know anyone who you think might have panicked, and abandoned a baby?’
‘
No
!’ Another girl, dark-haired this time, chimed in, incredulous. ‘This isn’t the twentieth century, you know! First of all, we all know how to use contraception, and second of all, there’s no shame in having a baby any more. Why would anyone want to hide it? I don’t know who left that baby, but it wasn’t one of us.’
There was a chorus of agreement from the girls, and Tamsyn had to admit they had a point. The average young person was too clued up and sensible to fall pregnant by mistake, and even if they did, the chances of them leaving their baby somewhere were very small indeed.
Just then, another girl caught her eye, this one sitting on a camp bed on her own, her knees drawn under her chin, staring at a book that she was supposed to be reading but clearly wasn’t. The book was upside down.
‘You’re missing the mark if you think Kirsten could be the baby’s mum.’ One of the pretty girls curled her lip. ‘She’d have had to have sex with someone, and if she had a baby she’d probably sacrifice it to Satan, or something.’
The other girls giggled, and Tamsyn found herself moving Mo out of their grasp, feeling quite considerably less charmed by them than she had. The lone girl looked pale, lost. She certainly didn’t fit in with the others, a state of affairs that Tamsyn had once been used to. There had been nothing about her at the same age that meant girls naturally wanted to befriend her, or boys were drawn to ask her out. She was awkward, gawky, skinny and sharp. It would have been so easy for her to be
‘Poor little thing nearly didn’t make it,’ Tamsyn said to a chorus of oohs from the girls, as they clambered to their feet and crowded around the baby, cooing over Mo, who for the moment was oblivious to their attentions. If any one of these glossy-haired, creamy-skinned young women was her mother, then the baby didn’t have a sixth sense about it, and besides, none of them looked like they had just given birth. They all looked as if they had just arrived from the sea in half a clam shell, every single one of them an Aphrodite in her own way. Tamsyn remembered how Keira had looked after the twins had entered the world. She resembled Wile E. Coyote, just after he’d been run over by a steamroller driven by the Road Runner. These girls, barely more than children themselves, all looked as fresh as daisies, despite the drama of the evening.
‘I don’t suppose you have any ideas, do you?’ Tamsyn asked them, glancing over at Jed, who was resolutely engaging a young man in a deathly tedious conversation about the finer points of Minecraft, without raising his eyes towards the gaggle of half-dressed girls. ‘I mean, anyone you know? Any friends at school, perhaps? Friends of friends, who might have got into trouble? Not known where to turn?’
‘Oh, well,’ the first girl said, cheerfully. ‘Daisy Chambers got pregnant. Her dad said he’d kill her boyfriend. It was
hilarious
!’
‘Did she?’ Tamsyn asked her, looking around. ‘Is she here?’
‘No, they live up top,’ the girl told her, ‘on the other side of the river where the flooding isn’t so bad. But she wouldn’t have left her baby on a church doorstep. For starters he’s, like, six months old, and secondly, she and her boyfriend moved in with her mum and dad, and she still gets to go out every other Friday.’
‘Right,’ Tamsyn said. ‘So you don’t know anyone who you think might have panicked, and abandoned a baby?’
‘
No
!’ Another girl, dark-haired this time, chimed in, incredulous. ‘This isn’t the twentieth century, you know! First of all, we all know how to use contraception, and second of all, there’s no shame in having a baby any more. Why would anyone want to hide it? I don’t know who left that baby, but it wasn’t one of us.’
There was a chorus of agreement from the girls, and Tamsyn had to admit they had a point. The average young person was too clued up and sensible to fall pregnant by mistake, and even if they did, the chances of them leaving their baby somewhere were very small indeed.
Just then, another girl caught her eye, this one sitting on a camp bed on her own, her knees drawn under her chin, staring at a book that she was supposed to be reading but clearly wasn’t. The book was upside down.
‘You’re missing the mark if you think Kirsten could be the baby’s mum.’ One of the pretty girls curled her lip. ‘She’d have had to have sex with someone, and if she had a baby she’d probably sacrifice it to Satan, or something.’
The other girls giggled, and Tamsyn found herself moving Mo out of their grasp, feeling quite considerably less charmed by them than she had. The lone girl looked pale, lost. She certainly didn’t fit in with the others, a state of affairs that Tamsyn had once been used to. There had been nothing about her at the same age that meant girls naturally wanted to befriend her, or boys were drawn to ask her out. She was awkward, gawky, skinny and sharp. It would have been so easy for her to be
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