By the time he was ready to turn thirteen, Philip Chamberlain was a very accomplished thief. At the age of ten, he had graduated from picking the plump pockets of well-to-do businessmen on the way to their banks and brokers and solicitors, or nipping wallets from careless tourists bumping along in Trafalgar Square. He was a second-story man, though any looking at him would see only a handsome, neat, somewhat thin boy.
He had clever hands, shrewd eyes, and the instincts of a born cat burglar. With cunning and guile and ready fists he’d avoided being sucked into any of the street gangs that roamed London during the waning days of the sixties. Nor did he feel the urge to pass out flowers and wear love beads. Fourteen-year-old Philip was neither Mod nor Rocker. He worked for himself now and saw no reason to wear a badge of allegiance. He was a thief, not a bully, and had nothing but contempt for delinquents who terrorized old women and stole their market money. He was a businessman, and looked with amusement on those of his generation who talked of communal living or tuned second-hand guitars while their heads were stuffed with dreams of grandeur.
He had plans for himself, big plans.
At the center of them was his mother. He intended to put his hand-to-mouth existence behind him and dreamed of a big house in the country, an expensive car, elegant clothes, and parties. Over the past year he’d begun to fantasize about equally elegant women. But for now, the only woman in his life was Mary Chamberlain, the woman who had borne him, raised him single-handedly. More than anything, he wanted to give her the best life had to offer, to replace the glittery paste jewelry she wore with the real thing, to take her out of the tiny flat on the edge of what was rapidly becoming fashionable Chelsea.
It was cold in London. The wind whipped wet snow into Philip’s face as he jogged toward Faraday’s Cinema, where Mary worked. He dressed well. A street-corner cop rarely looked twice at a tidy boy with a clean collar. In any case, he detested mended pants and frayed cuffs. Ambitious, self-sufficient, and always with an eye to the future, Philip had found a way to have what he wanted.
He’d been born poor and fatherless. At fourteen, he wasn’t mature enough to think of this as an advantage, as grit that strengthened backbones. He resented poverty—but he resented even more than he’d ever been able to express the man who had passed in and out of his mother’s life and fathered him. As far as he was concerned, Mary had deserved better. And so, by God, had he. At an early age he’d begun to use his clever fingers, and his wits, to see that they both got better.
He had a pearl and diamond bracelet in his pocket, along with matching ear clips. He’d been a bit disappointed after examining them with his hand loupe. The diamonds weren’t of the first water, and the biggest of them was less than half a carat. Still, the pearls had a nice sheen and he thought his fence on Broad Street would give him a fair price. Philip was every bit as good at negotiating as he was at lifting locks. He knew exactly how much he wanted for the baubles in his pocket. Enough for him to buy his mother a new coat with a fur collar for Christmas, and still have a chunk to set aside in what he called his future fund.
There was a snaking line outside the ticket booth at Faraday’s. The marquee touted the holiday special as Walt Disney’s Cinderella, so there were plenty of whiny, overexcited children and their exhausted nannies and mothers. Philip smiled as he went through the doors. He’d wager his mother had seen the movie a dozen times already. Nothing made her day more than a happy-ever-after.
“Mum.” He slipped in the back of the booth to kiss her cheek. It was hardly warmer in the glass box than it was out in the wind. Philip thought of the red wool coat he’d seen in the window at Harrods. His mum would look smashing in red.
“Phil.” As always, pleasure lit Mary’s eyes when she looked at him. Such a handsome boy with his narrow, scholarly face and golden hair. She didn’t, as many women might have, feel a pang as she saw the man she’d loved so fiercely, and so briefly, reflected in the boy’s face. Philip was hers. All hers. He’d never given her a moment’s trouble, not even as a baby. Not once had she ever regretted her decision to have him, though she’d been alone, without a husband, without family. Indeed, it had never occurred to Mary to seek out one of those tiny, flesh-colored rooms where a woman could rid herself of a problem before it became one.
Philip was a joy to her, and had been from the moment of conception. If she had a regret, it was that she knew he resented the father he’d never known and looked for him in the face of every man he saw.
“Your hands are cold,” he told her. “You should be wearing your gloves.”
“Can’t make change with gloves.” Mary smiled at the young woman who had a boy by the nape of the neck. She’d never had to corral her Phil that way. “There you are, dear. Enjoy the show.”
She worked too hard, Philip thought. Too hard and too long for too little. Though she was coy about her age, he knew she was barely thirty. And pretty. His mother’s smooth, youthful looks were a source of pride to him. Perhaps she couldn’t afford Mary Quant, but she chose what little she had with care and an eye for bold colors. She loved to look through fashion and movie magazines and copy hairstyles. She might mend her stockings, but Mary Chamberlain was anything but a frump.
He kept waiting for another man to waltz into her life and change things for her. He looked around the tiny booth that smelled forever of the exhaust from the street beyond. He was going to change things first.
“You should tell Faraday to put more than that rickety old heater in here.”
“Don’t fuss, Phil.” Mary counted out change for two giggling teenage girls who were desperately trying to flirt with her son. Mary passed the coins through the chute and muffled a laugh. She couldn’t blame them, really. Why, she’d even caught her neighbor’s niece—twenty-five if she was a day—making over Phil. Offering him cups of tea. Asking him to come in and fix her squeaky door. Squeaky door indeed. Mary slapped change down hard enough to make a round-faced nanny grumble.
Well, she’d put a stop to that right enough. She knew her Phil would leave her one day and it would be a woman he left her for. But it wouldn’t be some fat-breasted cow a dozen years his senior. Not as long as Mary Chamberlain drew breath.
“Something wrong, Mum?”
“What?” Catching herself, Mary nearly blushed. “No, nothing, luv. Would you like to go in and watch the movie? Mr. Faraday wouldn’t mind a bit.”
As long as he doesn’t see me, Philip thought with a grin. He thanked God he’d long ago eliminated Faraday from his list of possible fathers. “No, thanks. I just came by to tell you I have some errands to run. Want me to pick up anything at the market?”
“We could use a nice chicken.” Mary blew absently on her hands as she sat back. It was cold in the booth, and would get colder yet as winter set in. In the summer it was like one of those Turkish baths she’d read about. But it was a job. When a woman had a boy to raise and not much schooling, she had to take what she could get. She started to reach for her imitation leather purse. It would never have crossed her mind to nip a pound note or two from the till.
“I’ve got some money yet.”
“All right, then. Be sure the chicken’s fresh.” She passed four tickets to a harassed woman herding two squabbling boys and a young girl with big teary eyes.
The show would start in five minutes. She’d have to stay in the booth another twenty in case there were any stragglers. “Be sure to take the price of the chicken out of the tin when you get home,” she told him, knowing he wouldn’t. Bless him, the boy was always putting money in instead of taking it out. “But shouldn’t you be in school?”
“It’s Saturday, Mum.”
“Saturday. Yes, of course, it’s Saturday.” Trying not to sigh as she arched her back, she picked up one of her glossy magazines, already well thumbed. “Mr. Faraday’s going to have a Gary Grant festival next month. He even asked me to help him choose the films.”
“That’s nice.” The little leather bag was beginning to weigh heavy in Philip’s pocket, and he was itching to be off.
“We’re going to start off with my very favorite. To Catch a Thief. You’d love it.”
“Maybe,” he said, looking into his mother’s guileless eyes. How much did she know, he wondered. She never asked, certainly never questioned the little extras he brought into the house. She wasn’t stupid. Just optimistic, he thought, and kissed her cheek again. “Why don’t I take you on your night off?”
“That would be lovely.” She resisted the urge to stroke his hair, knowing it would embarrass him. “Grace Kelly’s in it. Imagine, a real-life princess. I was thinking about it this very morning when I opened up this magazine to an article about Phoebe Spring.”
“Who?”
“Oh, Philip.” She clucked her tongue and folded the page out. “Phoebe Spring. The most beautiful woman in the world.”
“My mother’s the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said because he knew it would make her laugh and blush.
“You’ve a way with you, boy.” She did laugh, hugely, robustly, as he loved to hear her laugh. “But just look at her. She was an actress, a wonderful actress, then she married a king. Now she’s living with the man of her dreams in his fabulous palace in Jaquir. It’s all right out of a movie. That’s their daughter. The princess. Not quite five years old but a regular little beauty, isn’t she?”
Philip gave the picture a disinterested glance. “She’s just a baby.”
“I wonder. The poor mite has the saddest eyes.”
“You’re making up a story again.” His hand closed over the pouch in his pocket. He’d leave his mother to her fantasies, her dreams of Hollywood and royalty and white limousines. But he’d see she rode in one. Hell, he’d buy her one. Maybe she could only read about queens now, but some fine day soon, he’d see she lived like one. “I’m off.”
“Have a good time, dear.” Mary was already engrossed in her magazine again. Such a pretty little girl, she thought again, and felt a maternal tug.