Cold as Ice (Willis/Carter #2)(76)

‘Here they are – meet the rabble.’ In the corner of the canteen a group of mainly women were chatting noisily, with kids running around unchecked. Some were standing, bouncing fractious babies on their hips. He steered Archie’s buggy across to the group and Ebony followed. The canteen looked like it had seen a fair few parties that day. The cleaners were sweeping up party streamers from the floor.

One of the women standing, rocking a buggy whilst holding a glass of wine in her hand, turned and called out to Yan as they approached: ‘You can’t keep away, can you?’

Someone else echoed it with a: ‘What? You back again?’

He gave an exaggerated shrug and rolled his eyes in embarrassment.

‘It’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it. Meet Ebony.’ He turned and waited for Ebony to come level with him. ‘Hopefully, she’ll be joining the group after Christmas.’ There was a chorus of hellos and the end of the table opened up as people made space for them to sit down. An Asian woman with a gold stud in her ear and enormous beautiful eyes poured a glass of red wine and handed it to Ebony from across the table.

‘Sorry, there’s only red left.’

‘Red’s great, thanks.’ Ebony took it from her and took a sip. ‘Cheers.’ She raised her glass and then put it back on the table. There was shrieking and howls of laughter at the other end of the table.

‘I told you they were a rowdy bunch.’ Yan settled Archie’s buggy next to the table. Archie was sleeping. ‘Let me introduce you . . .’ He worked his way around the table, calling the women out by name. ‘I’ll leave you to chat now. Call and see me on the way out if you need to, otherwise ring me in a couple of days. I’ll have done most of your paperwork by then. I’m on Facebook if you feel like chatting.’

Ebony smiled and nodded as Yan stood and, amongst a few friendly tipsy attempts at berating him for leaving the table, he went on his good-humoured way.

The woman who had first greeted them sat down next to Ebony. She was young, elfin-featured; her name was Sammy.

‘You joining the group then?’

Ebony nodded. ‘Hopefully.’ She’d watched Yan go, thinking about how he’d be checking out all that she had said. Her existence, national security number, her housing association history. All of it had been set up meticulously by Robbo. Now they would see how well it worked. ‘You all seem to get on well?’

‘Yes. It’s quite a social group as well as hard work,’ answered Selena, a friendly-faced woman with a shock of tumbling curls and a peasant blouse, long silver earrings. She had black kohl eyeliner around her pretty green eyes. ‘We support each other – have to, a lot of us are single parents.’

‘Teaching seems the ideal job.’ Ebony looked around. Down the other end of the table there was one man in the group. He was joining in with the laughter.

‘That’s Christian. He’s the token man on the team. His little girl is so sweet,’ said Selena.

‘Is he the only man on the course?’

‘Yeah. He’s been on it since the beginning. He’s been studying here for years.’

Selena leaned towards Ebony in a stage whisper. ‘Most of the women fancy him; he has a new one every week. The person he’s most in love with is himself.’

Ebony made a face that said ‘Really?’

Selena laughed and nodded. ‘Not me personally but the women who are talking to him now – they really like him.’

Just then the women stopped laughing and looked their way. The man, Christian, had been half eavesdropping into Ebony’s conversation. He excused himself and walked down the outside of the row of chairs, stopped by Ebony and held out his hand.

‘Christian.’

‘Ebony.’

Ebony tried to stand to shake his hand. She got her leg caught in the chair.

‘No, don’t get up; I didn’t mean to interrupt, just came to say hi to the new girl. And to tell her not to believe everything this lot say. This is the naughty end of the table.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Selena laughed.

‘It’s nice to have you on the course. Are you going to do computer skills and word processing?’ Ebony looked unsure. ‘Oh well, I’ll see you in there if you are. Nice to meet you.’

‘You too.’

‘If you need anything you can Facebook me. I’m Christian Goddard.’

‘Okay.’ She smiled. Christian walked back along the row and continued his raucous conversation with the women at the other end from Ebony. There were shrieks and giggles on his return.

Selena was grinning when she looked back.

‘Never takes him long to hit on the new girl.’

Ebony rolled her eyes. ‘Doesn’t he have any competition?’

‘We had a couple.’

‘Men?’

‘Yeah, there are a few around. But Christian seems to be the Alpha male.’

‘He dates exclusively single mothers,’ said Sammy.

‘I suppose he’s got a child. He wants to find someone in the same circumstances?’ Ebony said as she sipped her wine.

‘It doesn’t seem to get them very far with him,’ retorted Selena. ‘It doesn’t do them any good either. Some of them end up dropping out of the course.’ She looked across for confirmation from her friend. ‘I was thinking of a couple of women that dropped out – what was her name?’