Born Bad. Josephine Cox

he bent to kiss her. ‘Good girl. Now then, you haven’t forgotten how to please your man, have you, because that would really upset me.’

      She shook her head. ‘I haven’t forgotten.’

      ‘Good!’

      His taking of her was self-gratifying and incredibly cruel, and when she cried out with pain, it only spurred him on.

      Trapped beneath his considerable weight, Judy could almost taste the booze on his breath, and something else, heavy on his skin – a woman’s perfume. She felt defiled. She should confront him, she thought angrily, walk out on him, and not worry over what he might do to her.

      Like a predator, he had swooped on her when she was at her lowest; over the years he had moulded her to his will, skilfully quashing all her resistance.

      After Harry was gone, the family rejected her, and the nightmare worsened. For a while, she was totally lost, until Phil Saunders took her under his wing.

      At first he was kind, sometimes funny and wonderful, always there, waiting, watching, ready to take care of her; a much-needed shoulder to cry on. But then slowly, subtly, almost without her realising it, he became her jailer.

      He knew exactly how to torment her mind – about Harry having deserted her, and the callous way in which her family had kicked her onto the streets. He goaded her about the other, faceless men who had used and left her, and other bad things that still haunted her, so much so that she had no self-respect, no sense of identity.

      Phil Saunders had drained her of ambition and purpose. He knew her past. He knew her fears, and for his own gratuitous ends, he had played on those fears until now, she truly believed that no one else would want her – that she was less than worthless.

      Like a young fool she had gone to him – willingly, blindly. More and more she grew to depend on him.

      He had succeeded in that, if nothing else.

      There was a time, long ago, when she lived in hope that something, or somebody, would rescue her. But they never did.

      And why would they?

       PART TWO

       Bedfordshire, Autumn 1956

       Man and Boy