Finding Home Kate Field (readera ebook reader TXT) 📖

of this family. I would have loved you like my own. It hurts that he could have doubted that.’

‘I’m here now and that’s all that matters,’ Mim said. She took Carol’s hand – a gesture that she wouldn’t have made before spending all those months with the Howards. But she mustn’t think of them now. ‘I want to be part of this family, if you’ll have me.’

‘Gladly,’ Carol said. ‘This is your home, for as long as you want it. We’ll always be here for you from now on.’

Carol was a teacher at a local primary school and as she was off for half-term, she offered to show Mim round the local area. They started with a day trip to Blackpool as Mim was keen to see the sea but she had to hide her disappointment. The golden sand stretched for miles and she sank into it when she walked, but she missed the crunch and roll of pebbles under her feet. The air smelt of fish and chips, not the tangy saltiness of the sea. There were swarms of people everywhere, and noise and cars and bright lights, and even a huge theme park. She’d looked forward to living by the sea but this wasn’t like Littlemead. There was nothing wild and natural here, nothing that touched her soul.

She couldn’t resist going to look at Gordon’s hotel again now she was back in Lancashire. She’d lived there for so many years, years that had transformed her and made her who she was. She drove to Burnley one day while Carol and Lucas were at work, but the building she found wasn’t her familiar hotel any more. Developers had bought it and were turning it into flats, according to the advertising board outside. The building was covered in scaffolding and it looked like the place was being gutted. She peered into a skip on the drive and it was full of pieces of her past: the carpet from the main stairs, the light fittings from the dining room, even the old office chair that she’d sat on. Some of the windows had been removed from the building, and the curtains from her attic bedroom flapped against the stone exterior of the hotel. This was the closest she’d ever come to finding a place to call home and now it was truly gone. She drove back to Blackpool with tears in her eyes and an emptiness in her heart.

Mim borrowed Lucas’s laptop so she could keep on top of the emails and admin for As You Like It holidays. It was a bittersweet job. She was thrilled that donations continued to arrive, as well as nominations for families who would benefit from a break. Lia had set up a Facebook page full of glorious photographs of the caravans, the local area, and the first families enjoying their holidays, including a heart-wrenching thank you letter written by a young girl who had experienced her first holiday at Vennhallow. The charity was thriving, just as Mim had hoped it would. But she couldn’t see those photos without an aching feeling of loss that she wasn’t there. She scoured the images for faces she recognised, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ros with a new baby, or Bill tinkering with a new invention, or Dickens chasing imaginary rabbits across the field, or Corin just being Corin, so she knew he was there and that he was well. And then she felt horribly guilty that she was thinking of the Howards when she was here with her real family.

The Howards hadn’t forgotten her either. Bea sent her regular messages, checking how she was and whether she was eating enough cake. Lia bombarded her with several texts each day and telephone calls that tore Mim between laughter and sadness. Then, when Mim had been in Lancashire for almost eight weeks, Lia surprised her with a video call one Saturday morning.

‘Hello! Isn’t this a surprise?’ Lia’s smiling face filled the telephone screen. ‘I absolutely had to see your reaction when I told you my news.’ Lia frowned and she appeared to be studying the screen at her end. ’Darling, what is that ghastly thing you’re wearing? Ros didn’t give you that.’

‘It’s my uniform for the chippy,’ Mim said. She’d managed to get a job in a fish and chip restaurant, which would have been good news if it didn’t bring back so many painful memories of the Easter swim with Corin and the sight of him in a wetsuit. She waved the phone up and down so that Lia could see the full effect. ‘Be glad you can only see and not smell it. I don’t think I’ll ever be free of the stink of grease and vinegar again.’

She laughed and Lia wrinkled her nose.

‘Can’t you find a better job?’ Lia asked. ‘You would look so pretty on the reception desk at a luxury hotel.’

‘I’m still working on it. Until I’m offered that job, I’ll make do with the ones I have. It’s not just the chippy. I clean a couple of B&Bs and work a few nights in a bar as well. I’m lucky to have found so much work. There’s no time to be bored.’

‘Oh darling, that sounds beastly. When do you have time for fun?’

‘The bar can be fun. It’s not quiet like the Boat. You should see some of the hen and stag parties we have coming in. You wouldn’t believe half of what goes on.’

‘I think I’d rather go to the Boat,’ Lia said with a grimace. Mim had to agree. Working in the bar in Blackpool made her feel horribly old. Every night she had to stifle the wish that she was leaning on the bar in the Boat, sharing a beer with Corin.

‘Anyway, what’s your news?’ Mim asked, shaking off that image. She was trying not to think about Corin but it was harder than she had ever imagined. Reminders of him popped up everywhere. ‘Where are you?