All That Glitters

Crystal would not be bought by her new stepmother. Hooked, as her father had been, and reeled in like a fish on a line

I’m a strong person,’ Crystal thought, as the train rounded a bend and she caught a glimpse of the station. ‘I can’t be bought.’

She clung on to her backpack; the one she’d thrown a few clothes into. The dress she’d picked out would be great for the New Year’s party. If it creased in her bag it wouldn’t matter; it was meant to look dishevelled. It came from a charity shop, as did the heels she’d packed.

The train started to slow. It pulled to a halt. On the station platform, Eva wandered up and down, looking ‘corporate’ except for her halo of wild, red curls.

Her dad’s ‘sugar-mummy’ hurried over as soon as Crystal stepped out of the carriage.

Ducking away from a hug, she used her backpack as a shield. ‘Hi Eva.’

‘Hello there, Crystal. How was Christmas at home?’ Despite being ‘corporate’, Eva spoke with a Yorkshire accent as thick as a square of parkin. The daughter of a sheep farmer, the story went that she’d been born into poverty and had decided not to stay there.

‘Christmas was great, even without Dad.’ Eva had ‘owned’ him all over the festive season up until now. ‘Where is he?’

‘He’s at home with a cold. I’m hoping he’ll rally before the big do.’

I’m sure you can buy a cure. Did I say that out loud? The woman stood giving Crystal

‘the look,’ the one that travelled from the crown of her spiky hair down to the toes of her thicksoled boots. Still, she smiled.

‘I’ve just got to pick up my dress.’ She waved a hand towards the car park. ‘Maybe we could go for a coffee first? My throat’s as dry as dust.’

Coming from a perfectly made-up, impeccably dressed 50-year-old entrepreneur, that broadly accented invitation jarred even more. ‘What on Earth do you see in her, Dad?’ Crystal wondered. Widowed in his 30s, he’d brought up three daughters on his own. He was a survivor, a fighter, who now lay in a bed covered in silk sheets.

Eva’s waiting car was a silver convertible. It’d look at home in a Bond film. After she’d climbed in, Crystal fastened her seatbelt and crossed her arms.

‘Are you looking forward to going back to uni after the holidays?’ Eva asked her as they turned on to the road. ‘I am, actually.’

‘And the halls of residence, how are they?’

Noisy. Aggravating. ‘They’re great. I love all the company.’

‘You’ll love the party tonight, then. Half the town’s attending, as well as your sisters. I do love to greet the New Year.

It’s my favourite.’

‘How lovely for you.’ Crystal tried not to sneer. At least it wasn’t an engagement party as well. ‘Still, how humiliating for you, Dad,’ she thought. ‘You’ll be paraded like a dog at Crufts.’

He’d been seeing Eva for 14 months now. They met in a solicitor’s office. He was waiting to write a very meagre will, while she was probably there doing something shady with her property empire.

Crystal glared at the woman. Go on then, make me an offer. I can tell you now, you won’t make a sale.

The cafe they drove to wasn’t a greasy spoon, of course. A posh coffee house, it reeked of freshly ground beans. Cake collections stood arranged like flowers and lit up like trophies, yet still the place managed to look artistically rustic, as if a group of farmers had just herded out their cattle.

‘So, what would you like?’ Eva asked as they sat down.

‘Just a tea, no milk, no sugar. Thanks.’

‘How about some food?’

‘No thanks. I’m not hungry.’

A waitress hurried up in a white uniform that looked impractical. ‘Good afternoon, ladies. What can I get you?’

Crystal’s stomach growled. A cake iced to look like an ageing rock star’s quiff caught her attention across the room.

Resist, resist. Don’t let her start buying you treats. You’re not a six-year-old.

She ordered tea and the cheapest thing on the menu, then insisted on paying for it herself. ‘I have a bit of pride,’ she thought. She hadn’t met Eva’s offspring yet, but she guessed they were a bunch of toffee-nosed brats, always asking for handouts.

Eva said, after a sip of her espresso, ‘I picked out a lovely classical frock from Miss Pearls. It might be New Year, but I don’t want to go over the top.’

‘No, that would be awful,’ Crystal managed, barely parting her lips.

How humiliating for you, Dad. You’ll

be paraded like a dog at Crufts

Half an hour later, Eva’s convertible came to a halt outside the gleaming façade of a very exclusive dress shop.

‘Have a look round,’ Eva nodded at the door. ‘See if you can find something you like... Your birthday’s also in

January, isn’t it?’

‘Oh, very clever,’

Crystal thought.

The shop smelled of expensive perfume as if a dozen well-todo ladies had wafted through

the doors already. ‘Janine.’ Eva air-kissed the owner. ‘Is my dress ready, darling?’

Janine remained all smiles. ‘Come through into the fitting room, Eva.’

They disappeared into a room probably reserved for the megawealthy. Crystal, meanwhile, in her scruffy clothes, watched one of the security cameras shift her way. ‘Exterminate!’ she imagined it saying, like a Dalek, as she dumped her bag down.

The clothes looked absolutely gorgeous. She lifted a blue dress down from its rack and it fluttered like a butterfly. Her heart pounded double-time as she measured it against herself. Wearing this would be an amazing way to start the New Year. She glanced at a display of shoes and was hooked like a fish on a line. She wriggled and fought and tried to get free, but a black pair of heels reeled her right across the thick carpet, the dress still in her hand.

‘Help!’ a tiny voice inside her screamed. ‘Help me, Gina.

Help me, Hannah,’ she called to her sisters. The girls she’d played with years ago on the bald back lawn of her dad’s terrace, where the empty rabbit hutch crumbled and the red-painted swing rusted away.

She checked the price tag on the dress: £300; and the shoes: £150. Is this what happened to Dad? Did Eva lure him into a menswear shop? Did he look at himself in the mirror and imagine a life as somebody else?

It felt almost as if the woman had murdered him – or at least Crystal’s version of him, the man who’d cut out coupons to save money and told his girls to be sensible, be in by nine and don’t talk to any strange boys.

‘Do you like those?’ a voice asked behind her, one with an accent as thick as a straw bale. Eva stared at her and cocked her head. What? Flounce into your party looking like a little princess? No sale!

Crystal wrinkled her nose and put the shoes and the dress back. ‘No, they’re not very practical for a student. I’d wear them once, then worry I’d rip the dress or break a heel.’

‘All right, I’ll just settle my bill, then I’ll take you home.’ Eva lofted a platinum credit card and Janine pounced on it like a starving dog.

Eva’s house turned out to be huge; a gravel driveway led to its front door. As soon as she parked, a selection of miniature yappy dogs sprinted out from under a porch still festooned with Christmas lights.

‘They know the sound of my engine,’ Eva said, crunching across the gravel. ‘Come on, sweethearts.’ She led her noisy pack indoors.

Crystal’s dad stood in the hall waiting. Standing barefoot in his dressing gown, he snuffled into a tissue. ‘Hello, love,’ he said with a nasal twang before he threw his arms about her. ‘You best not kiss me, I’m full of germs.’ Standing back, he noticed her backpack. ‘Is that all you’ve brought with you?’

‘I don’t need a lot, Dad. I’m only here to greet the New Year.’

‘Why don’t you take your things up to your room and unpack before you two have a proper chat?’ Eva said. ‘Top of the stairs, down the short corridor, fifth door on your left.’

It was a nice room, totally devoid of flat-pack furniture. Crystal dumped her backpack on the bed, decided that was as ‘unpacked’ as she needed to be and returned to the landing.

‘Did you tell her?’ came her dad’s voice from below.

‘You asked me not to,’ Eva replied. ‘I don’t know why you’re being so cautious.

She believes in me and that’s

worth more than millions

Crystal seems very practical. She has a stubborn streak... and principles. She reminds me of you, Greg.’

Crystal’s dad snorted or sneezed – one or the other.

‘It’s a big project.’

‘No, it isn’t. It’s only a house conversion.’

‘She has her university work to think of.’

‘She’ll be a project manager. It’s not as if I expect her to start tearing plaster off herself. She knows what students need, being one herself. I know for certain she won’t fill the place with marble worktops and gold taps. It’s the kind of house I started doing up at her age.’

Crystal’s next breath caught in her throat. It didn’t take a genius to fill in the gaps. Lots of crumbling old houses stood close to her university and they’d be perfect student accommodation once done up. Managing a renovation project would fit right in with her business studies, too.

She cautiously peered over the banister. Her dad stood shaking his head.

‘No. She’s too immature.

She won’t listen to reason. I mean, look at the way she treats you. She’s a long way from being ready for this, Eva. Listen to me, will you?’

Crystal’s heart plunged into her boots. Don’t listen to him, Eva! Don’t credit him with a brain. He’s just a little fluffy lapdog. What on earth was she thinking?

‘All right,’ Eva sighed. ‘You know her better than me.’

Crystal felt like wailing at the ceiling as her thoughts roiled. You had to prove me wrong, didn’t you Dad? You had to prove you’re her equal right at the worst time possible. Can’t you see what she’s doing? She’s giving me responsibility. She believes in me. That’s worth more than millions to someone like me.

She chewed her lip and frowned, remembering her dad cutting out coupons with his head down, his shoulders sagging. Down there, he’d looked Eva squarely in the eye.

Is that what she did for you, Dad? Did she make you believe in yourself?

Right. Fine. She smoothed down her faded T-shirt and straightened her spine. I’m a strong person and I know who I have to sell this idea to.

‘I’m going to shine like the biggest jewel you’ve ever seen, Dad,’ she thought. ‘So maybe you can’t be bought with fancy clothes, but I’m going to be so charming and grown-up now, you’re going to fall over yourself buying into the new me.’

She marched down the stairs. She smiled at Eva – her unexpected ally – and Eva, a woman who’d been brought up dealing with wayward, skittish creatures on the rolling Yorkshire Moors, smiled right back at her.

Sold! Crystal thought. Eva, you’re going to make one hell of a stepmum one day, aren’t you?

THE END