Sabine Durrant - Cross Your Heart, Connie Pickles

PUFFIN BOOKS

Welcome to the very private notebook of Constance de Bellechasse. Also known as Connie Pickles. Please, please dont read this without the permission of its owner. Especially if you are its owners mother, little brother or sister, or if you are William. Or Jack. Or Mr Spence. Constance de Bellechasse accepts NO responsibility for any embarrassment, blushing or crossness resulting from reading this notebook!

Signed: Connie Pickles

Books by Sabine Durrant

CROSS YOUR HEART, CONNIE PICKLES

For adults

THE GREAT INDOORS

HAVING IT AND EATING IT

PUFFIN

PUFFIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England

www.penguin.com

First published 2005
3

Copyright Sabine Durrant, 2005
All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-14-192176-1

For my friend Hilary

The roof, midnight

Ive just written my name on the outside of this book and I wish I hadnt. Its midnight and I was feeling all romantic and blustery, and now I feel cross. Connie Pickles is NOT how I see myself. Constance de Bellechasse is how I see myself. Its a good thing Im writing this in the open air, and very high up, or Id feel quite cast down.

Im on the roof, you see. Its freezing and I should be in bed, but I couldnt sleep and I hate wasting time. Im wearing my striped mens pyjamas, two jumpers, my dressing gown and a pair of socks, so Im quite warm. There are clouds wisping across the dark sky, tangerine from the street lights. The moon is right above my head its a sort of semicircle, but its tipped on its side and if it wasnt for the wind and the weird orange clouds blowing against it, you might think it would lose its balance altogether.

Im not going to lose my balance. Or throw myself off. Dont worry. Im always on the roof, so Im used to it. Its my favourite place in the whole world. You can see all the gardens of the houses in our street laid out in little rows, and the gardens of the street that backs on to ours. You can even see my friend Williams window if you crane. Im always telling him he should climb out too, but his roof hasnt got a flat bit and he says hes not breaking his neck just to wave to me, thank you very much. Its not dangerous my end, but you have to be careful. The only tricky thing is getting here. You have to climb on the bed and then bend and jump up at the same time. You cant overshoot, but sometimes I scrape my back on the window frame. In summer too, it can get really hot because its asphalt. Tonight its cool and soft like the skin of an apple.

Oh, there you go. Im doing it again. Im trying to be all poetic. And Ive vowed not to; this delicious new diary is to have none of that. The thing is Im not poetic. Or romantic. Or, much as Id like to be, French. De Bellechasse is only my mothers maiden name. And Connie is what everybody calls me. Not Constance. Just plain, dowdy, clumsy Connie. As for France, Ive only ever been there once, on the school trip to Boulogne. And that was only for a day.

Im Connie Pickles and thats that.

Or is it?

Because something BIG hit me this evening. Ive been reading this book called The Blessing by Nancy Mitford and theres this small boy in it who decides to take his mothers life in hand. Well, it set me thinking, and when I went down for supper cheese on toast (again) and Marie and Cyril wouldnt go to bed, charging around like bulls in a well, in a small rented house, and there was Mother in her threadbare black suit, flicking through a six-month-old French Vogue someone left on the Tube, looking vague and fragile and tired, it made me think. Just because Im only fourteen, it doesnt mean I cant make things happen.

My dream used to be to reunite her with her parents, my grandparents, les de Bellechasses. Theyre French and very grand. But they cut her off when she met my father, who was a penniless actor/pizza delivery man. He died and now she wont speak to them. She never opens their letters. And she gets so cross when I ask her about them So no, I think it will have to be something else. I think it will have to be a New Man.

It would be OK if I could trust her to find someone for herself, but she cant. She works in a lingerie shop to make ends meet which they dont quite and a bra shop, no matter how royally appointed, is not the best venue for meeting men. Also she has terrible taste. My father was very handsome. And Mother assures me he was a brilliant actor. But I cant help wondering if he was such a brilliant actor, what was he doing delivering pizzas on the night he died? As for her second husband, Jack, sweetie that he is and I know Marie and Cyril adore him hes just not reliable.

The moon has gone behind a cloud. And I just yawned, which is a giveaway. Im going to climb into bed now. The thing is not to worry about how things are, but to bring about change. Thats why Ive started this notebook, this beautiful notebook with its crisp pages and delicious smell I bought it on that trip to Boulogne (I love stationery) although there are still some pages left in the old one. This notebook is a book with a purpose. With serious intent. It is a campaign diary. I hereby declare my resolution to put our lives in order, to find Mother a man. Requirements: 1) Money. 2) Experience of small children. 3) French connections.

Constance de Bellechasse oh, all right, Connie Pickles is on the case.