Gypsy Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

dress. All around me there was shouting and laughter, but I didn’t join in. I had a problem.
    Gregory Langton wouldn’t get out of my head. I kept daydreaming about him. I kept seeing his fair hair and amber eyes. My daddy would go crazy if I started hanging around with boys. So would me aunts. But daydreams are different. Daydreams are secret. But even so, I felt guilty.
    What was I doing dreaming of a gorjer boy?
    I love that I’m a Gypsy and a Smith.
    I love it when my daddy decides that we’re going visiting, and we pack up and we’re off along the road, our homes coming with us. We live lightly. We wear our wealth around our necks. We go where we like, work when we like. Not all the Smiths are angels, but there’s plenty of people in houses who aren’t angels, either.
    I love that we celebrate everything. Birthdays? Let’s dress up, let’s have a party! Weddings? Christenings? Let’s get the brightest dresses we can and dance the night away.
    “SAMMY! Are you listening to me?”
    Beryl’s voice brought me back to the present. She and the nail girl were staring at me. “Huh?”
    “I said, when’re you getting married then, Sammy-Jo? There’s just you left now.”
    I flicked my hair back with my free hand. “You know my rules, Beryl. I’ll only go out with a boy who can beat me in a fight.”
    “That can’t be much of a challenge to the boys,” said my girl as she filed and shaped my nails. She knew my aunts and sisters because they came in here all the time. She didn’t know me.
    “Sammy-Jo’s our fighter,” explained Beryl. “She does kick-boxing and martial arts. She’s a champion, she’s got medals and cups. A whole shelf full of them – haven’t you, Sammy-Jo?”
    “Yes. Yes, I have.” I kept my face blank as the nail girl’s eyes widened in surprise.
    Queenie leaned forward, her dangling earrings catching the light. “She’s won everything going. British under-sixteens kick-boxing, gold at the UK championships for whats-its-name…” She clicked her fingers, trying to think. “Tie something or other…”
    “Tae Kwon do, Queenie,” I said.
    “That’s the one! There’s no one left for her to beat.” She gave me a proud look. “Until she turns eighteen and she can enter the adult competitions.”
    My father and all my aunts and sisters were right behind me when it came to me winning trophies. They wouldn’t be so proud if they knew about the sneaking out at nights and the secret fights. If they ever found out, they’d lock me up. Luckily, they didn’t know, so all I had to put up with was Beryl and Queenie going on and on about me getting married.
    “Nothing wrong with being a champion, except that it puts the boys off,” said Beryl.
    “It didn’t put Alfie off,” Star shouted from the back of the shop. “He liked you, Sammy.”
    “Well, I didn’t like him,” I said, shortly. Alfie was a cousin of a cousin, and he came to train at our gym last year. He did nothing but hang around me and try to get me to go out with him. Until the day he insisted we do some sparring together – and I beat him.
    “Alfie’s a fine boy, but he’s not right for Sammy-Jo,” said Sadie-May, joining in. She’s the cleverest Smith sister, and she actually liked going to school. So if she says something, everyone believes her. There was a general nodding of heads in agreement.
    “I remember now – in the end she frightened him to death,” said Savannah. “He ducked every time she went near him.” That made everyone laugh.
    “So who’d be right for our Sammy, then?” shouted Star.
    There was a pause while everybody tried not to say the one name they all wanted to. Until Beryl couldn’t stand it any longer.
    “It has to be Rocky,” she said, and a sly glance went between her and Queenie. I knew it wouldn’t be long before someone mentioned Rocky.
    Rocky Quinn is the brother of Tyson, Sabrina’s bridegroom. And just because his brother and my sister are getting married, my