Deaky's Daughter

A Gift with No Tag

*Warning contains dark content*

As always this key *** will appear before the scene if you want to skip it.

July 1980

"So your birthday is next week, Lily," Veronica brings up at breakfast that morning, "Anything you want to do for it?"

Lilliana's first year of high school went well, it's the last day of term and a week till her 12th birthday. "I promised Clover and Poppy a sleepover."

"I can't object to that, but that is the evening what about in the day?" John pitches in wanting her to have a full day with the attention on her.

With her siblings being so young, Lilliana does get left to her own devices a lot, something he tries hard not to let happen but can't be helped sometimes.

She hadn't thought about it other than to have a sleepover, "Um... I don't know."

"What about going to a theme park?" Veronica suggests after thinking on it for a moment, "Just you, your dad and your friends?"

"Ooo, can we dad?"

"I don't see why not," It will be nice to have a day out with his daughter, it's been a long time since they've been out together without her brothers or sister.

With the excitement of going to a theme park with her friends in her mind, the week leading up to Lilliana's birthday drags.

But the morning of her birthday, she is woken up by Robert and Michael climbing onto her bed and singing happy birthday, "Happy birthday Lily," Robert grins, "Mummy said to come up and wake you and tell you that you need to come downstairs."

"Alright, I'm coming?" She follows them downstairs into the living room where cards and presents are sitting on the coffee table waiting to be opened.

She opens them in a hurry aware that Poppy and Clover will be over soon, she reaches for the last gift and finds no tag on it, "Who's this from?"

"I don't know," John shrugs, "It came in the post yesterday, had no tag on but was addressed to you for your birthday, actually it's probably from your grandma, she did say she was sending your present in the post."

Lilliana opens it finding a beautiful wooden box underneath the paper and inside is a set of paintbrushes with her name engraved on the handles, "Oh they're lovely. You'll have to ring her later and thank her."

"I will, I promise."

"Good girl," Veronica smiles, "Now go get changed while I make you some breakfast, the girls will be here soon."

------

***

"Who do you think sent them to you?" Poppy smirks finding it funny that she is getting gifts from an unknown admirer.

When they got back from the theme park, Lilliana rang her grandma to thank her for the paintbrushes, but Lillian admitted that she hadn't sent paintbrushes instead a card with money in it. She played it off to her grandma saying she'd got mixed up and she didn't tell her dad either for she knows he'll be extremely concerned.

"I don't know coz it's not from my Grandma or aunt Julie."

"You don't think Miss Hill would send them do you?" Clover suggests. Since the start of the year, Miss Hill has taken Lilliana under her wing, helping her to improve her art skills in any way possible.

"I guess it's possible, it's a bit weird if she did though." With no other explanation for who it could be from, she forgets about it and uses them almost every day.

Towards the end of the summer holidays, Lilliana is at Garden Lodge, Freddie's new home. She'd been there with her dad a few days prior when Freddie asked her if she would do some wall art for the music room in his house. She happily agreed, loving any chance for an art project.

She was lost in her own world painting some smaller details, "I see you got the gift is sent you." She stops knowing that Irish accent anywhere, she looks over her shoulder and Paul Prenter is standing inside the door of the room.

"What gift?" She mutters.

"Oh, the label must have fallen off. These brushes," He walks over to her tapping the brush in her hand, "I sent them to you for your birthday."

Feeling sick she wants nothing more than to drop them but she can't for she does love the brushes since they paint so well, "I guess I should say thank you then," She didn't ask for them but they were a gift so she's not the type of person to not say thank you.

"You're welcome," He smiles running his fingers through the ends of her hair, "Freddie said you were painting in here, I like it."

He steps back looking at her work, she's taken lyrics and musical notes from different Queen songs and painted them on the wall in a calligraphy style writing.

Continuing with her work while he examines it, she feels him stand right behind her again. He then whispers something close to her ear, "You know, giving a gift sometimes means giving one in return."

"The giving of a gift should be given with no thought of getting something in return," She corrects him.

"Yes well, not in this case young lady. How's Tiger?" He smirks.

Gasping she remembers his threat from before, "What do you want?"

"Your a beautiful girl and I want you all to myself," He runs his hands down her arms and back, "And in return, I can help you become the recognised artist you deserve to be. Do we have a deal?"

Trembling she struggles to find her words, "Just in case you need a little more persuasion, your dad's involvement with Queen could disappear in the blink of an eye. I'm sure you wouldn't want your family to be homeless."

"Deal," She whispers.

"Good girl. Now, remember..."

"Paul? Sweetheart, are you in here?" Freddie's voice gets closer and Paul quickly moves away from her pretending to be admiring her work, "Ah Paul, there you are. Brilliant, isn't it?" He grins, happy with how it is going.

Paul smirks at Lillian when Freddie isn't looking, "Beautiful, I can't wait to see more."

"Hmm, I agree. I shall have to get you to do an album cover for Queen, my sweet flower," He puts his hands on his niece's shoulders, "The world needs to see your talent."

"I'd like that," Lilliana mutters, she really would love it. She just can't stop thinking about what Paul's last sentence meant.

"I'll talk to the lads about it then. Now, I came to tell you your dad is on his way to get you." She nods and starts cleaning up for the day.

While she is in the bathroom washing the paint off her hands, Paul walks as ideal as he did downstairs in the music room.

To her concern, he closes the door and locks it then closes the gap between them, "Let's start on that deal now, shall we? Scream and your dog gets it."

She gasps, wanting to cry out but he stops her by kissing her square on the lips and brings a hand up to cup her face preventing her from pulling away.

Trying not to give in to the kiss, her silent prays for help are answered when Freddie shouts up the stairs, "Lily, your dad's here!"

Paul releases her and she runs from the bathroom. She's silent the entire ride home, holding her tears back till she is safe inside her bedroom.

Don't hate me, I did warn you I was going to make you hate Paul more than ever.