Read Online Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones - Free Book Online

allegedly got his twelve year old daughter pregnant. Otherwise it was no holds barred, ever since she’d found out who Fiorinda’s father was.
    Aoxomoxoa and the Heads were down in the mosh, breaking the celebs/punters barrier with their usual aplomb. They had a grandstand view of what happened next: the incandescent teenager in her sparkly blue party dress, squaring up to the queen of Northern Radical Dyke Rock. Charm all mean and nasty, no surprise… But though Fiorinda may dress like the ballerina on the musical box, and may look fragile, she stands an easy five foot five in her army boots, which gives her a couple of inches over Charm; and she’s not afraid to make herself useful. Doesn’t let the height disparity worry her: hauls off and lands the demented stoat a clip that sends Charm flying, guitar howling, into a stack of amps—
    ‘Wooeee!’ yelled Sage, punching the air, ‘That’s my girl!’
    They removed themselves from the scene, however, during the stage invasion that followed. Shame to leave a good ruckus, but as George said, they’d be doing the kid no favours, giving their seal of approval to that sort of unladylike behaviour.
    DARK had an impromptu debriefing, when they’d been hustled off. They hardly bothered with the latest incident, but cut straight to the chase, the real problem, the power struggle. ‘This is my fucking band,’ yelled Charm. ‘I say what goes on the set list and that’s—’
    ‘Look,’ said Fiorinda, biting back tears of rage and despair. ‘Don’t be such a brainless shit. Okay, I wrote it, I’m sorry. It isn’t relevant who wrote it. “Stonecold” works for us.’
    ‘Fuck that !’ screamed Charm, eyes popping. ‘Who’s “us” princess ? You want the same crap megabucks stadium success as your dad, and DARK is not going that way!’
    ‘I want us to get somewhere,’ shouted Fiorinda defiantly. ‘Don’t you?’
    ‘FUCK YOU, daddy’s girl—’
    ‘You’re scared, Charm. You can’t stand the heat.’
    ‘I can’t stand this,’ muttered Cafren Free, pale blonde head in her hands.
    Tom stayed with Fiorinda when everyone else went off to the bus. Plump, black, cuddly Tom had always been nice to Fio, far as rock and roll feudalism allowed. Don’t let Charm get to you, he told her earnestly. It’s right-on, constant fuck-ups, constan’ revolution, freedom to flail, that’s what DARK’s about, proves the band’s integriry… But Tom was totally pissed and he was Cafren’s boyfriend. He couldn’t really be Fiorinda’s ally. Tom belonged to Cafren, DARK belonged to Charm Dudley, and Fiorinda had no place to lay her head.
    She returned to the van, where she found Sage alone, and incredibly unsympathetic. He’d seen the whole thing, and hadn’t even come backstage to back her up. What d’you expect, he said. You were fantastic, but it’s not going to get you nowhere at this fucking rate. You’re too big for Charm, she knows it, but she’s not going to hand you her band on a plate. Give her some space, stupid brat. He told her she ought to pack in the public violence or take up mud-wrestling, which was an absolute fucking cheek , coming from him. Advised her she was going to have a shit of a hangover, and left on some sexual prowl or other. She crawled into the annexe and lay there spinning, hating everyone, too proud to cry herself to sleep.
    Notoriety sometimes pays. Fiorinda snagged an invitation to do a solo gig at the Best of the Fest club, a ‘smoky late night cabaret’: where she went down a treat. She stayed away from DARK, but went to a couple more meetings in Whitehall, and spent a couple more nights at the Snake Eyes house. One chilly August morning, when the two weeks of the Festival were nearly over, she met Ax in the arena. They were both queuing to buy breakfast from a van. He was wearing that leather coat, and had a guitar case slung over his shoulder: which made her smile. See Ax Preston, see guitar.
    ‘Oh, hello,’ said Fio.