London Love Song

Chapter One

It didn't look like the kind of apartment a single mom uprooted life and child for... at least not from the outside. A four-story brick building loomed over her in the dark, lit faintly by the street lamps and general city glow bouncing off the London cloud cover. It was boxy and flat-featured, not charming and quaint like she'd pictured the whole, long flight over. Other than assurances that it had furnishings and space for an 11-year-old girl, she didn't even know what the inside of the apartment looked like.

Flats, they called them here. She'd have to remember that so she didn't stick out too badly; her accent would do enough of that for her.

Emma sighed, squinting at the gloomy clouds with bleary eyes, and tugged her coat tighter around herself. Her breath puffed out in its own thick cloud, wisping upward to join the rumbling mass.

She really hoped it didn't rain or snow before she got inside. It was cold enough, it felt like it could go either way.

Turning back to the black taxi cab — still idling and running up the fare — Emma peered back into the confines of the dimly-lit back seat. Inside, her daughter, Ashley, groaned and snuggled deeper into the pillow she'd made of her backpack. Fast asleep. Her normally strawberry-blonde hair, just like Emma's, now looked dingy red beneath the glow of the cab's interior dome light. Her mouth dropped open and a faint snore snuffled out, no doubt accompanied by drool.

Great. Hard enough to get their luggage upstairs, but having Ashley as the luggage would be too much for her travel-sore back.

A loud crack overhead made her jump, and the following flash across the sky told her the storm would be on them any minute. She really needed to hurry.

As if to drive the point home, the driver laid on the horn.

Guess he wasn't worried about disturbing the neighbors. She hardly wanted that to be their introduction.

"Yes, thank you! How much?" she chattered through clenched teeth, hoping her smile was polite and not terrifying.

"That'll be ninety-five quid, pet," the jowly man said, looking her up and down.

Emma made sure her padded coat was firmly zipped up to the neck. Digging into her purse for her wallet, she handed him her debit card and tried not to wince at the financial hit. This was really eating into the money she had left.

While he processed her payment, she reached out to gently shake Ashley's arm. "Honey? Ashley, sweetie, wake up. We're here!"

"Mmmph," Ashley muttered into her backpack. "Just ten more minutes."

"I can't afford it, kiddo. Not at London prices." Emma leaned in and shook a little more firmly, feeling terrible but not terrible enough to pay more. "Come on. Shake a leg! Lemme see the pretty blue eyes I gave you."

One of those blue eyes squinted open just enough to glare vengeance up at her. "I hate you."

"You love me. I just got you a new life abroad, living in a land of education, history, culture..."

"Oi!" the cab driver put in. "Shift it, else I'll be swipin' you again and all!"

She heard the dull thunk of the trunk opening and pulled hard on Ashley's arm until her daughter finally started inching her way across the scuffed leather seat. Snatching her card from the driver's meaty grasp, she tucked it back in her purse and went around to the rear of the vehicle.

The suitcases were so much heavier getting out of the trunk than they had been to put in the cab; of course, the driver had helped her with them then. His lazy ass sat in the front seat, unwilling to stand out in the elements with her now that he had her money. Ashley had better wake up enough to help...