Contents

Title Page

About the Book

Part Two: An Autumn Promise

Chapter One: Veronica

Chapter Two: Audrey

Chapter Three: Sam

Chapter Four: Audrey

Chapter Five: Veronica

Chapter Six: Veronica

About the Author

Copyright

About the Book

This is part two in a heartwarming four-part serial from Helen Rolfe, author of The Little Village Library.

A little kindness can go a long way …

Veronica’s cottage is the neatest house on Mapleberry Lane. A place for everything, and everything in its place – that’s her motto. But within her wisteria-covered walls, Veronica has a secret: she’s hardly left her perfect home in years.

Then her teenage granddaughter, Audrey, arrives on her doorstep, and Veronica’s orderly life is turned upside down. With a little help from the residents of Mapleberry Lane, Audrey forms a plan to help her gran reconnect with the community: a kindness club, carrying out one generous action a day to make their world a better place – and perhaps help each other at the same time.

As their small acts of kindness begin to ripple through the village, both Veronica and Audrey find that with each passing day, they feel a little braver. There’s just one task left before the end of the year: to make Veronica’s own secret wish come true …

The Kindness Club on Mapleberry Lane is an uplifting story with community at its heart, about the little kindnesses that make the world a better place. This is Part Two.

PART TWO

An Autumn Promise

Chapter One

Veronica

Veronica’s daughter Sam had only moved in with her a week ago and already number nine Mapleberry Lane was fit to bursting with tension.

Seeing Layla coming down the front path now, pink backpack bobbing up and down, waving farewell to Bea, her childminder, Veronica felt a sense of relief – the little girl’s infectious enthusiasm was just what she needed after another day with her own family. To think that she’d been feeling so lonely a few months ago – but as the saying went, be careful what you wish for!

Veronica had the door open before Layla could knock and the little girl ran straight into her arms.

‘I missed you!’ she squealed.

Veronica hugged her tight. ‘I missed you too.’ Layla had no idea how special these hugs were. She was the only person Veronica got them from – Sam and Audrey might be here now, but they were all a long way off being able to show affection to one another. Sam had descended on Mapleberry and Audrey had gone from amicable to biting Veronica’s head off for no reason, schlepping around the place, leaving laundry on the bedroom floor, crumbs on the kitchen bench and unrinsed crockery in the sink. They’d been making headway before Sam showed up, and civility had even begun to teeter over into a friendship, but now Veronica had no idea what was going on, unable to read Audrey or Sam’s mood from one day to the next.

Some people might wonder how it was possible for so much tension to come between a parent and child, but Veronica knew more than anyone how easily it could happen. Sam and Audrey had been pleasant enough to each other on day one, but by day two they were less tolerant, day three they’d stopped talking, and now they could barely be in the same room. The only way Veronica was coping with the shift in the dynamics was to dig her heels in and stick with it because this might be her last chance to claw back some semblance of a relationship with her daughter. She longed to be the person who helped rather than the one who ruined everything.

Veronica had gone from living on her own and barely hearing from family, let alone seeing them, to having three generations all living under one roof, and to say it wasn’t easy was an understatement. But at least Sam had timed her arrival well, coinciding with young Layla being away on holidays with her dad, Charlie. It meant Veronica could focus on the changing dynamics, not that she hadn’t yearned for a distraction now and again when tensions mounted with her daughter and granddaughter.

Layla and Charlie lived at number twenty-five Mapleberry Lane, on the same side of the road as Veronica. Layla was only eight, but over time she and Veronica had become close and Layla visited most days. She loved to bring collections of fruit and vegetables from the veggie patch she’d cultivated with her dad, they’d spend time chatting or playing games, and Veronica had begun to teach Layla the piano. It was a secret from Charlie, at least until Layla improved. She wanted to be good enough to play Christmas songs as her mum once had before she died, and seeing her determination to succeed brought a tear to Veronica’s eye at the loss Layla had been through, as well as the memories she was trying to honour.

Before Sam turned up Veronica felt she’d begun to make some headway with Audrey, despite her granddaughter’s changing moods. Lord knows she’d had to work hard at it, tolerating rudeness and setting ground rules without seeming to be a total ogre, and all while hiding her own insecurities. One day Audrey had come right out with it and asked Veronica why she never left the house, and finally, Veronica had admitted her fears. But it had felt like a blessing rather than anything shameful, not that Veronica had given her problems a label in front of Audrey – she hadn’t needed to. Audrey got it, she understood Veronica had agoraphobia, and that day had marked a change in her granddaughter’s attitude. Audrey had become more pleasant to be around, more polite, and although she had her moments – she was fifteen after all – they were making progress. Veronica had even been starting to think she’d be able to send Audrey back to Sam a happier person; she’d have won at something and maybe it would be a path back into her daughter’s life too.

But now, with Sam around, Audrey was back to taking offence at the simplest of things. Yesterday it had been when Sam dared to ask whether she’d tested the walk to her new school around the corner to see how long it took. The way Audrey reacted was as though Sam had asked her whether she was going to do the walk naked. Although given Audrey’s reaction to changing schools when Sam had told her they were staying on in Mapleberry for the time being, and the way she’d frozen Sam out after she told her, Veronica supposed the filthy looks and huffs and puffs were a step up from the silent treatment. Mind you, this morning Audrey had slammed the front door so hard on her way out for a walk that Veronica thought she’d have to call a glazier to reinforce the glass ready for next time.

Layla’s visits brought a bit of normality for Veronica. She might be the weird lady from number nine, but she had a friend in Layla, and Charlie too. ‘What’s that tucked under your arm?’

‘The kindness calendar, of course.’

‘How could I forget something so important?’ Veronica smiled. The kindness calendar was something Layla had started at school well before the long summer holidays set in and the children were all tasked with carrying on with the allotted tasks during their break. ‘Now, how does chocolate milk and a slice of carrot cake sound?’

Layla followed her into the kitchen and sat herself down at the little wooden table as Veronica cut the cake. ‘Did you use the carrots from our veggie patch?’

‘Of course I did, you gave me enough before you went away!’ Veronica poured the chocolate milk and handed it to Layla. ‘I want to hear all about your holiday – how was Wales?’

‘I loved camping.’ Layla’s dark ginger bobbed hair swung as she animatedly told Veronica all about the muddy field they’d stayed in, the trek to the toilets in the middle of the night, the cows at the farm nearby who’d woken them with their mooing every morning. ‘They were so loud, worse than my alarm clock when it’s time to get up for school.’

‘It sounds as though you got plenty of fresh country air.’ She looked at the rolled-up kindness calendar Layla had set down on one of the chairs. She was a part of it now that she was teaching Layla to play the piano and being involved had lifted something in Veronica, it made her feel as though despite her limitations, the big wide world out there hadn’t been completely taken away from her. ‘Did you manage to do any of the calendar while you were away?’

‘I ticked off “Be a Good Samaritan”. That was easy. You could do anything.’ She didn’t leave a crumb behind from the cake. ‘We helped two people who couldn’t put their tent up. The wind made it really hard and they needed more pairs of hands. I got to hammer in the tent pegs with the big wooden mallet – I like doing that.’

‘It was very kind of you.’

‘The people let me take photos with daddy’s phone too because then I can show the class when we go back to school.’

‘Let’s look what else there is for this month?’ Veronica unrolled the calendar to look at the squares. The children hadn’t been inundated with items; you could probably do them all in a week if you put your mind to it, Veronica thought, but she approved of how the children were having to come up with ways to help people with simple things. She pointed to a square. ‘Now this one is easy: pick up litter.’

‘I picked up some litter in Wales; one man was very naughty and left behind empty tins and a box from his tea bags.’

‘Very naughty,’ Veronica admonished.

‘I put it all in the right bins – rubbish and recycling.’

‘Why haven’t you ticked the item off yet?’ Usually Layla usually put a big coloured line through the square the second she’d completed another task.

‘It was only one bag; I’d like to do more first. Daddy said I can go over the road to the playground and pick up any rubbish there.’

Veronica zoned in on another item on the calendar. ‘What will you do for this one?’ The square had the words ‘Help a local’. Talk about ambiguous.

‘My teacher says that’s the good thing about the calendar: it makes us think. I want to come up with something really good.’

‘Then we’d better put our thinking caps on, hadn’t we?’

Veronica was always happy to listen to Layla natter away. She rabbited on at ten to the dozen and the sound filled the lonely walls of Veronica’s home. It wasn’t exactly quiet with Sam and Audrey both living here, but they both spent a lot of time in their rooms, avoiding her and steering clear of each other. It was amazing how three people could live under the same roof and yet Veronica still felt lonely. At least she had until Layla had come. It was the highlight of her day, not just today, but every day she showed up.

Layla talked about how the community mosaic wall was coming on, how she and Charlie had been down there already and played a part sticking pieces of broken china to the wall which separated the community centre from the road. Veronica longed to be a part of it. Even Audrey had been smashing up china and gone down there to join in, although Veronica wondered whether Audrey’s favourite part was the destruction of bowls, cups, and any old crockery. It was a good way to vent her frustration if watching her from the window was anything to go by.

Veronica told Layla all about her latest visitor to the house. She’d already met Audrey of course, but Sam was new.

Layla’s eyebrows knitted together. ‘It’s nice you have company,’ she said after a considered pause.

‘Yes, I suppose it is. And I was thinking we should give the piano playing a rest this week, let Sam settle in a bit more.’ If Veronica was honest, it would also give her eardrums a break. Layla did love to use the loud pedal whenever she thought she could get away with it. As for Sam settling in, she wasn’t sure that would ever happen.

Layla groaned but reluctantly agreed. ‘I missed it when I was away. Daddy asked me one day why my fingers kept twitching.’ She giggled. ‘I keep trying to remember the tunes and I can’t help it but my fingers move when I don’t mean them to.’

Veronica laughed. ‘It’s our secret, but he’ll be glad of the surprise in the end. How about we make a deal? Instead of practising every morning, I could phone your house when my daughter and granddaughter go out – let you know when the coast’s clear.’

Layla’s smile returned. ‘Is your daughter like you?’

‘Does she look like me? Not really, she doesn’t have grey hair or so many wrinkles for a start.’

‘Does she like to stay inside like you do?’ Children definitely had a way with questions. Veronica thought about the looks that passers-by sometimes gave her if she was at the front door taking a delivery or talking to the gardener, the looks that told her she was an anomaly, she wasn’t like them, she was the odd one out. ‘It’s okay if she is,’ Layla went on, ‘because I like you just the way you are.’

‘I’m pleased you do. But no, Sam isn’t like me in that way,’ Veronica smiled, basking in the affection that had been so absent from her life in recent years. ‘Speak of the devil.’ Sam had come downstairs and came into the kitchen, Veronica assumed in search of coffee, although she had her handbag over her shoulder.

‘Hello.’ Sam beamed a smile at Layla. ‘Who do we have here?’ You wouldn’t think she’d been wandering miserably around the house for the last couple of days, lost in her own world.

Veronica introduced Sam and Layla, who instantly launched into a getting-to-know-you conversation covering where they both lived, the long summer holidays, camping and a fondness for Veronica’s delicious carrot cake.

‘Do you know Veronica used the carrots that I grew?’ Layla asked.

‘I’ll be sure to remember when I have a slice later – it’ll make me appreciate it more.’ Sam turned to Veronica, managing to stop a frosty exterior taking over. ‘Do you have a spare key I could use?’

Veronica fished in the top kitchen drawer and found one at the back to give to Sam. ‘Are you going anywhere nice?’

‘I’ve got an interview.’

‘A job interview?’

‘What else would it be, Mum?’ So the defensive attitude was back. ‘I’ll see you later.’

Veronica cut herself and Layla another slice of cake to take the edge off what should’ve been a conversation with her daughter, not a confrontation. But it seemed the latter was all they could manage at the moment. Baking was at least a distraction neither Sam nor Audrey resented her for, so she was happy to carry on making cakes, biscuits and delicious meals. She’d do anything if it meant another chance with her family.

When Audrey clattered into the kitchen in search of something for lunch, Veronica suggested Layla do the litter run now. ‘I can watch you from the front window.’

Audrey muttered, ‘Litter run…eww,’ under her breath and didn’t even look over.

‘Audrey, could you please see Layla across the road?’ Veronica seized the opportunity to involve Audrey, although she couldn’t deny her hands were clenching at the thought of Audrey turning round and telling her she would do no such thing.

Veronica’s tension abated when Audrey grunted but didn’t protest. ‘Come on then, but be quick, I’m hungry.’

‘Take a bag,’ Veronica called after them, snatching a carrier bag from the cupboard in the hallway, but Layla was out of the door, Audrey close behind.

Veronica watched Audrey hover at the front gate while Layla crossed the road carefully. She tried to get Audrey’s attention, waving the plastic bag, but Audrey’s gaze was firmly fixed on the other side of the road. Either she was doing it to be responsible with Layla or she was deliberately avoiding her gran. Veronica had no idea which. Her role seemed interchangeable, from ally to enemy, with only the slightest nudge; giving Sam the last remaining room upstairs and forcing Audrey to live with her mum in close quarters again hadn’t gone down well. Veronica had never been to Sam’s house in Cheshire but she had looked up the address on the internet and seen it on Google Earth, so she knew they’d both had a lot more breathing room when they were still living there. Sam had bought the house with her ex-husband Simon – typical of him, doing anything he could to impress those around him. Well, he’d never impressed Veronica. The fact he reminded her so much of her own husband Herman when he was alive made her wish her daughter had had more sense than to marry a man just like her father.

Veronica pushed the front door so it was only open a crack and retreated more inside the house when a couple she recognised from the neighbourhood looked her way. She’d kept a low profile for years and couldn’t see any way for that to change. She tried to remember the last time she’d walked over to the shops on Mapleberry’s main street, or bought an ice-cream on a hot summer’s day. She couldn’t remember when she’d last taken the bus to the nearby National Trust stately home where she could walk the grounds in autumn and have the leaves crunch beneath her feet, or when she’d visited the local café to enjoy a hot chocolate with a side order of whatever cake they had on special that day. It had all become too hard, and as for being a part of a team of nurses at the hospital where she’d once worked, those memories almost felt as though they belonged to someone else.

With tears in her eyes, she sniffed and left the girls to what they were doing. She cheered up when she saw the kindness calendar on the table again, thinking of all the items Layla had managed to tick off so far: baking for a neighbour, being a Good Samaritan, being kind to yourself. The list was endless and hearing about it always brought a brightness to Veronica’s day. She wondered what she and Layla could come up with for ‘Help a local’.

Veronica had only just finished rinsing the plates from the cake and wiping the ring of chocolate milk from the table when she heard giggling and commotion from the front of the house. Audrey and Layla came barrelling through the door together. A far cry from the way Audrey usually acted around Layla, detached yet polite; now they were thick as thieves and Veronica saw a warmer side to her granddaughter that she wished Audrey would show more. Although she was one to talk: she’d found smiling difficult when Audrey first came to stay, not knowing whether it was welcome or not, and her first attempts at talking to a teenager had been as tentative as if Audrey had come from another planet, Veronica feeling unsure of the best way to communicate with her. But now, watching the animation on Audrey’s face, it seemed like the barriers were lowering enough from each of them to make a difference. Veronica only wished those barriers wouldn’t spring back up every time Sam was around.

‘Put everything in here.’ Veronica opened up the plastic carrier bag and held it out for them. ‘What’s so funny?’

Audrey was laughing so hard she even had tears forming as she shoved the dirty crisp packets, chocolate wrappers and a piece of discarded foil into the bag. ‘Her…she’s hilarious.’

‘Layla?’ She did her best not to stare at Audrey. It was good to see her laugh.

Audrey wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘I went over to help her because she was taking ages and when some kid left the swings, he dropped his crisp packet. Layla, hands on hips, demanded he pick it up. Bossy little thing.’

‘But he was naughty,’ Layla insisted as she too pushed everything she’d collected into the bag.

‘It was the way you said it,’ laughed Audrey. ‘You sounded eighty, not eight.’

Veronica could well imagine. Layla definitely wasn’t shy, especially if telling someone they were doing the wrong thing. ‘You be careful, you never know who you’re picking on,’ she warned.

‘I had her back.’ Audrey pushed a dirty plaster and a cigarette butt into the bag. ‘I’m taking gloves if we do that again.’ She pulled a face but Veronica noticed she wasn’t entirely displeased at being involved. Maybe everyone needed other people, no matter how much they acted like they didn’t.

‘Go wash your hands, both of you,’ Veronica urged. ‘Revolting what some people leave behind. Do not touch anything until you’re clean.’ She binned the refuse after tying the bag up tight.

Audrey squirted a generous amount of soap onto her own hand and then some onto Layla’s. Audrey and Layla, who stood on tiptoes, battled for the tap like two young siblings eager to be first every time. Watching them reminded Veronica of what she’d once had but had lost, through nobody’s fault but her own.

‘Gran…Gran…’ Audrey’s voice pierced into her thoughts. ‘You should wash your hands too. I saw you pushing the rubbish into the bag before you tied it up. Here…’ She held out the soap canister and when Veronica put her hands out, squirted a generous blob.

Veronica worked up a good lather and even used the nail brush she used if she’d been tending the pot plants lined up on the windowsill. ‘That was an awful lot of rubbish,’ she remarked if only to distract the pair from the emotional pull she’d just felt. ‘Did you really pick it all up in the playground across the road?’

‘It was in bushes,’ Layla reported. ‘Some of it might have been there years. I found bits beside a tree, a few other items under the roundabout.’

‘You be careful fossicking around in these places.’ You never knew whether there might be glass or worse, a needle, although in this little village she never saw much out of the ordinary. At least she hadn’t the last time she ventured beyond the garden gate.

Herman had never understood Veronica’s condition and he’d never tried to either. His way of coping was to deny there was a problem, carry on as normal and yell at her or ridicule her when she behaved in a way he couldn’t fathom. She’d kept her nursing job as long as she could until the mayhem and the people became too much for her to handle. Veronica often wondered, if she’d had Herman’s support, whether she’d have been able to get on top of her problem before it was too late, before Sam had pulled away and Veronica did something she’d never ever forgive herself for. You were supposed to be there for your children no matter what, and she hadn’t been, had she?

But there was no use living on what-ifs. Not now. Perhaps being trapped inside these walls was her comeuppance for what she’d done.

Veronica watched Layla take out her pencil case from her backpack, find a felt-tip and cross out ‘Litter Picking’ from the kindness calendar. ‘You’re done with that now, are you?’

‘I’ll pick up more but I can still cross this off. Mrs Haines says that even after we’ve crossed off an item, we can keep doing it; our kindness doesn’t have to have a start and an end.’

‘Your Mrs Haines is instilling some good life lessons with her students.’ Veronica wholly approved. Kindness didn’t have to be measured with a start line or an end goal, it was something to carry with you throughout life. Charlie should congratulate himself at having a daughter who really got it despite her young years. He’d done a far better job at parenting than Veronica ever had.

Veronica and Layla talked about the other items on the calendar including how next week Layla was going to make chocolate chip cookies and take them to the school crossing lady. ‘We always thank her for stopping the traffic but I want to say an extra thank you,’ Layla declared. ‘I wonder who will have crossed off the most over summer,’ she went on as Audrey sat next to them to eat the beans on toast she’d made for her lunch.

‘I think you’ll be up there at the top of the class,’ Veronica smiled. She looked closely and recited from one of the days, ‘Do a sibling’s chores’. Looking at Layla she suggested, ‘You’ll have to think outside the square for that one.’

‘You could do my chore if you like,’ Audrey put in without even looking up from the piece of toast she was scraping through bean juice. When she did look up at Veronica, she told her, ‘I’m not saying it to be lazy, I’m helping her fill in the calendar. And I did help with the litter collecting, kind of.’

‘What are your chores?’ Layla wanted to know.

‘Gran doesn’t make me do too much; she keeps the house clean anyway and probably thinks I’d never do it as well, but I do have to take the bins out on bin day… although they are heavy some days so maybe not that.’ She thought again. ‘I’m supposed to cook dinner a couple of times a week, although I’m not a very good cook.’

‘The shepherd’s pie you made was perfectly fine,’ said Veronica.

‘The potato on top had lumps,’ Audrey confided in Layla. ‘And I’d made it so thin the juice from the mince seeped through and kind of ruined the effect. It was a pile of slop by the time we got it to the table.’

‘I can help with dinner, and I’m good at mashing potatoes.’ Layla looked between them. ‘Daddy lets me do it all the time.’

‘See, good idea of mine wasn’t it?’ Audrey looked to Veronica. ‘And it means Layla gets to tick off the item on the calendar. I can be your surrogate sibling,’ she told the little girl.

‘I’d like that.’

‘Well, that’s settled.’ Veronica managed to hide her pleasure that these two were getting on after weeks of Audrey moaning about the piano playing. ‘How does tonight sound? You could make my one-pot chicken. And you should of course eat with us and invite your dad. Unless he already has something planned.’ She was getting carried away now and wondered whether it was Audrey or Layla’s presence in the house that had made her grasp at any opportunity to socialise. Perhaps it was a bit of both.

‘He’s planned a Chinese takeaway. He’s been working and said he wouldn’t get a chance to shop.’

‘Then that’s settled. We’ll all eat together.’ She got a look from Audrey, who seemed to think she’d gone doolally. But it was Layla’s company, her and Audrey not butting heads, the infusion of youth, not to mention the kindness calendar, which all had Veronica’s spirits soaring. And these days she was learning to go with it, enjoy the moments as they happened. She had a flutter of panic that she wouldn’t cope with guests, but Charlie had a way of diffusing any tension and she felt sure he’d bring his A game tonight. At least she hoped he would. Or there’d be more fireworks than she saw sparks in the distance every November the fifth.

‘Audrey will be your kitchen assistant,’ Veronica told Layla with a look in Audrey’s direction, ‘on hand to help with anything you need.’

After a pause Audrey agreed, ‘As long as I’m not the only cook, I’m happy.’

Veronica clapped her hands together. ‘You’ll be able to cross another item off that calendar. Oh Layla, you’re doing really well with this, do you have September’s yet?’

‘Mrs Haines is going to give us that one on the first day of school.’

Audrey, one hand using her fork to scoop beans into her mouth, looked closely at the calendar. Veronica watched the two of them discuss what it was like at Layla’s school, which children had done things properly, those who weren’t managing so well, like the boy in her class who’d washed his dad’s car but managed to collect a pebble in the sponge and left an enormous scratch on the boot.

‘I can’t wait to see what’s on next month’s calendar,’ Veronica told Audrey, reeling her into their plans, making her a part of it too. ‘I’m already involved by helping Layla learn the piano.’

‘We have to be kind to ourselves,’ Layla elaborated, ‘and one item was to learn a musical instrument. I chose piano.’

‘I didn’t hear you today – I thought you’d be straight on it after a week’s holiday.’

‘Veronica said we needed to give your mum and you a break.’

‘I don’t mind, kid, go for it while Mum’s out.’

Veronica couldn’t have been more shocked. In fact if she hadn’t been sitting down she may well have slumped into her chair. ‘She’s right, make the most of it, Layla. You go and warm up and I’ll join you.’ She knew so little about her daughter that she had no idea whether Layla’s piano-bashing – they couldn’t call it playing just yet – would irritate her. Veronica worried that it might bring back memories of when she used to play herself. That was something else Herman put a stop to, as he did with anything out of the ordinary or that he couldn’t see a straightforward use for. Academia came first and it was as though anything else was considered a waste of time.

‘Does a piano really need warming up?’ Audrey wanted to know as she rinsed her plate beneath the tap and they were left in no doubt that Layla had already found the instrument.

Veronica raised her voice above the noise. ‘The piano might not, but you should make sure your fingers are warm, and your wrists. You need to build up strength, and you don’t want to strain anything.’

‘Maybe if you’re a concert pianist.’ Audrey winced at the same time as Veronica when strains of something very non-professional came from the study. ‘She’s not quite there yet, and it’s a shame she’s not shorter.’

‘Shorter?’

‘So her legs can’t reach the pedals.’

Veronica burst out laughing. ‘I try to encourage her not to use the loud pedal – she must think she’s entertaining us. I’m sure she’ll get better,’ she added, enjoying the togetherness. ‘Do you play an instrument?’ There was still so much she didn’t know about her granddaughter, so much she wanted to learn.

‘I tried the cello once. Hated it, too big and bulky, and I was always jealous of the other girls at school who had flutes or clarinets, or a guy who got to learn saxophone. That would be cool.’

‘It’s never too late to learn.’

‘It’s never too late to make any change, Gran.’

Having others try to help and show they understood was nice, but Veronica’s avoidance of going out of the house had gone on for so long it had become normal to her. Audrey was young, it was never too late for her to do anything, but Veronica wasn’t so sure it was the same for a person of her age.

Veronica left Audrey popping ice cubes into her glass of lemonade and with a teen magazine at the table. In the study she took Layla through a few of the exercises, her young face tight with concentration, her little fingers splayed on the keys as they stretched between the notes. Half an hour later, Layla packed up her things and met Bea out front ready for their trip to town to buy another pair of shoes for the new school term.

Veronica wondered whether Audrey had organised her uniform for her new school yet but she wasn’t going to mention it in case it ignited any kind of fury that she’d bear the brunt of. Shortly after her arrival, Sam had made her announcement that they would be living in Mapleberry for the foreseeable future once she found a home and a job, which Veronica suspected had to be largely due to the trouble Audrey had been in at her previous school. Sam had managed to get Audrey a place at the local high school and Veronica only hoped the transition would go well and they wouldn’t have World War Three on their hands.

After Layla left, Audrey was still browsing through the same magazine and Veronica explained to her the importance of keeping quiet about the piano lessons.

‘Fair enough, I won’t breathe a word.’ Audrey turned back to the magazine, but as soon as Sam waltzed in through the front door she flipped it shut and made a sharp exit, stomping up to her room claiming she’d promised to call her friend Sid.

Sam dumped her bag on the sofa and in the kitchen filled a glass of cold water from the tap. ‘She’s pleased I’m here, then.’

‘How did you get on?’ Best to ignore the dramas between mother and daughter for now. Nobody would thank her for interfering.

‘I got myself a job,’ she beamed.

‘You did? That’s wonderful. And quick. Where?’ Sam had been living under a shadow since she showed up in Mapleberry, and for the first time Veronica saw how being happy could transform a person. Sam’s face lit up, which added a shine to her blue eyes, the same as her own; it dazzled her already beautiful features with colour flooding to her cheeks.

‘It’s at the Mapleberry Mug. It’s not a career position,’ she added before Veronica could even congratulate her, ‘it’s a stopgap.’

She could see that Sam was still conditioned to think the way her father had; that she had to be in a career that would impress, a formal career in an office with a desk rather than a local café. Veronica had always thought Sam would pursue her interest in psychology and wondered how much of her career path had been mapped out with her father in mind and how much of it had been down to Sam herself.

‘I think they recognised desperation when they saw it,’ Sam went on. ‘It’ll be money coming in at least. It should tide me over and I can give you some housekeeping while I look out for a flat to rent.’

‘I’m happy to have you here.’ She didn’t add that it had been so long since she’d been able to spoil her daughter and her granddaughter that she feared this may be her one and only chance to do so. ‘I can loan you money if you need, Sam, I have—’

‘We’ve talked about this.’

‘The offer is there if you change your mind.’

Sam was nothing if not independent. Veronica supposed Herman may have had his faults but he’d instilled strengths in their daughter. Veronica only wished she got to see the other side of Sam more often, the side she knew was in there, the softer side that was warm and caring.

Neither of them looked at the other. Conversation was difficult at the best of times, let alone when they were acknowledging Sam’s predicament.

‘I’m looking forward to something totally different,’ said Sam, surprising Veronica with her willingness to carry on a conversation when she’d expected her daughter to sneak off to her room again to call best friend Jilly and likely moan about what it was like living with her mother after all these years. ‘It’ll keep me on my toes. Learning to make coffee is one thing but I’m really nervous about carrying plates to customers and not being able to balance them like the professionals do.’

‘It’s the Mapleberry Mug, not a Michelin-star restaurant.’

Sam managed a laugh but turned serious quickly enough. ‘And this means I can look for our own place, Mum. I know it can’t be easy having me and Audrey here.’

‘It can’t be easy for you to live here either.’ Veronica, nervous, fiddled with the watch on her wrist. They both knew how caged in Sam had felt when Veronica’s problems started all those years ago, how desperate she’d been to break away. And Veronica did wonder whether Sam, back under the same roof, would find her condition as stifling as before.

Veronica finally left her watch alone. ‘I hope you don’t mind but I’ve invited Layla and her dad over for dinner tonight.’

‘Really?’

‘Don’t look so shocked – I do have some social skills, you know,’ she bristled. It was the first time she’d done anything other than reply politely and dance on tenterhooks around her daughter.

‘That wasn’t what I meant.’

‘Layla will be here early, she’s making dinner with Audrey’s help, then Charlie will be over at 6.30 p.m. Do your best to be nice.’

‘Mum…’

Veronica waved her hand and disappeared off to the downstairs bathroom. She didn’t need to use the loo – she needed breathing space. One minute she’d been happily hearing about Sam’s new job, the next she realised, looking in Sam’s eyes, that she’d probably always be the mum everyone had talked about in the playground, the mum who hadn’t been there in the way she should’ve been.

She looked in the mirror above the vanity and adjusted the bun at the nape of her neck. Her hairstyle tended to get more and more straggly as the day went on and today was no exception. It was now totally grey, and she wondered when the strands would transition to all white, when the wrinkles on her face and around her eyes would deepen even more, when she’d go from not wanting to leave the house to not being able to because she was so old she could no longer manage it.

She thumped the edge of the basin. She got so angry with herself sometimes, furious she’d wasted all this time she could’ve been getting out and about, meeting new people, having a life. Instead, she was here, feeling sorry for herself. And she’d been doing it for so long she didn’t know how else to live.

She flushed the loo even though she hadn’t used it and went back to the kitchen. She may hide out from her neighbours but she couldn’t do the same inside her own home. ‘Whatever are you looking for?’ She found Sam peering at the shelves, inside cupboards.

‘Where’s all your wine?’

‘I don’t drink,’ she said, earning herself a look of absolute horror from Sam, so much so that she began to laugh and even Sam may have smirked somewhere beneath her shocked exterior.

‘What about for dinner tonight? Does Charlie drink?’

‘I’ve no idea.’

‘Might be nice to offer him something.’

It had never been an issue before. ‘There’s an off-licence on the high street – grab something if you like.’

‘I might do and if Charlie doesn’t drink, I won’t open it.’

‘And you’re sure you don’t mind people coming?’ Veronica swung between wanting to be the boss in her own house and bending over backwards not to upset anyone.

‘Of course not.’

Maybe Sam was hoping it would be more enjoyable than the staid dinner times so far, with a lack of conversation, each of them eating as quickly as they could to avoid prolonging the agony.

Sam took out a mug and found the tea bags. She paused. ‘Tea?’

‘Yes, please,’ Veronica stammered. ‘That would be lovely.’ It was the first time the gesture had been extended; she wasn’t going to push it away now.

Who knew, maybe over time they’d be able to sit at the table and chat over a cup of tea, like any normal family?

Chapter Two

Audrey

Why did her mum have to turn up and ruin everything?

Audrey lay on her back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, earphones pushed in and Ariana Grande smashing out her music to drown everything else out. She’d already called Sid, her best friend and partner-in-crime when it came to their suspension from school, to moan to him about the unfairness of it all and despite him being in the hairdresser’s at the time, he’d let her whinge away. He was good like that; they were each other’s sounding board when it came to hassles with their parents, something they had in common.

Since coming here, not only was she beginning to enjoy Gran’s company, but, with distance between them, all the arguments with her mum had fizzled into the odd phone call rather than the millions of questions her mum fired her way, all day, every day: What are you doing? Where are you going? What time will you be back? Now her mum was here at Gran’s house too, Sam had ramped up the questioning again and was constantly nagging Audrey about being prepared for the new school year and quizzing her about whether she’d apply herself better than she did last time. Well, she hadn’t come out and said exactly that, but it was sort of implied.

Audrey had almost lost it when Sam first announced being in Mapleberry was permanent. But her fury hadn’t lasted. After all, she’d be moving a lot further away than a car trip one day, and as she wouldn’t have to go back to school with those horrible bitchy girls, she soon saw the change as a blessing in disguise. Now she was enrolled in a local school here for her second year of GCSEs and already she was feeling positive about having a fresh start. Sid was originally gutted she was staying in Mapleberry, but he was the kind of person who always looked on the bright side, and had told her she might surprise herself and enjoy it so much she never wanted to leave. She’d laughed at that.

Over the last week Audrey had channelled her frustrations into investigating make-up artist courses near here, and she’d found one at a college a short bus ride away. It meant that if her mum finally let up and didn’t make her do A levels, she could make a start on the career path she dreamed of. Then, if her application to move overseas took time, which she’d found from several online queries that it might well do, at least she could train in what she wanted to do, ready for when she moved to New Zealand to be with her dad. Audrey missed her dad incredibly; she hated that it went so long between visits. She’d begged her mother to take her over there on holiday but she’d always insisted it was too expensive and so Audrey had had to wait for her dad to visit, and because he had a job to do and a family, it wasn’t easy for him.

Audrey couldn’t wait to move on with her life. Mapleberry was a necessary and now, thanks to Sam, a painful stop-gap, but she’d get to be with her dad in the end.

Audrey stayed in her bedroom for as long as possible after her mum came home from wherever she’d been, and didn’t emerge until she really had to, when Layla turned up and they were in charge of Gran’s one-pot chicken. Thankfully Sam was hiding away in her own room by then and it would give Audrey a chance to calm herself down and make this a pleasant experience. Since she’d realised Gran was going through something nobody seemed to understand, least of all her own mother, Audrey had tried not to be such a pain. Gran didn’t deserve the drama, especially when she was stuck inside. Audrey wasn’t sure how she did it, she didn’t fully understand why either, but the thought of never going outside was unimaginable.

‘Right, Layla, apron on.’ Gran was already bossing the little girl around the kitchen. She fixed on an apron for her, doubling it over at the waist a couple of times so it didn’t drag on the floor. ‘There’s another in the drawer,’ she instructed Audrey.

‘Remember I’m the assistant,’ Audrey told Layla. ‘I only do what you tell me.’

Layla did a little click of her fingers. ‘Get me a knife!’

Audrey laughed but looked at Veronica as though to ask whether she was allowed to hand over a weapon to an overexcited eight-year-old. When she nodded, Audrey did a salute and got the knife from the block at the end of the bench.

Between them, with Layla bossing Audrey around as much as she could, they soon had the one-pot chicken slotted into the oven and Layla insisted they set the table. She folded serviettes into triangles, positioned cutlery the way they did in restaurants, upturned wine glasses in each position even if the person at that place setting would only be having water, lemonade or juice. And by the time Charlie knocked on the front door, the smell of the dinner and the accompanying bubble from the pan of potatoes showed that everything was in hand.

‘I brought dessert,’ he announced, taking something in a foil tray from the carrier bag he had with him. ‘I’m afraid it’s shop-bought, not homemade, but I’m assured by a work colleague that it’s the finest shop-bought apple crumble you can find.’

Veronica smiled. ‘It sounds good to me and I’ve got plenty of ice-cream to go with it.’

Layla’s dad wasn’t bad to look at for a man who had to be at least forty, and he seemed all right as far as parents went. He’d come around a few times since Audrey had started living there and he seemed good company for Gran.

‘I’ve had a hard week,’ he told Veronica when asked how work had been. ‘We were all set for takeaway tonight but this is far nicer.’

‘I’ll bet it’s more nutritious too.’

‘Don’t tell her we had takeaway three times last week,’ he whispered to Audrey as he came to investigate the antics in the kitchen and ruffled Layla’s hair.

Already he was earning himself brownie points from Audrey. She couldn’t stand it when adults talked down to her because they were separated by a generation; she much preferred being treated as an equal, a friend. She’d always imagined that’s what it would be like with her mum when she was older, they’d go on spa days together or out for lunch, but the way things were going it would be a miracle if they even managed to talk on the phone when she finally left home.

Layla took her dad through the entire process of what they’d made for dinner, how she’d wished she had her swimming goggles when she chopped the onion because it hurt her eyes so much, how the garlic had left a smell on her fingers, the variety of vegetables they’d added and how she would be in charge of mashing the potatoes because ‘it’s something Audrey struggles with’.

Audrey had laughed at the comment, but watching dad and daughter together made her miss her own father even more. Charlie and Layla seemed so close. Charlie had dark hair that looked on the verge of fading, but he was a cool dad, just like hers, wearing jeans that fit him well and a T-shirt that showed he wasn’t a layabout like some dads she knew. Charlie was a paramedic, which must keep him active. Her own dad was a businessman but he was into sports too – running, kayaking and hiking. She’d seen all the photographs to prove it. He got to see the most amazing places; his life was a big adventure. That was what she wanted hers to be like, too.

As she watched her gran laughing away with Charlie about Layla, Audrey thought of all the things she took for granted and that her gran was missing out on by never setting foot beyond this house. Gran never got to view the sky from a different vantage point, she never saw flowers other than those in her own garden. Gran never got to say hello to people in the street or exchange a simple thank you with a stranger if they held a door open for her or she for them. And most of all, she didn’t get to help anyone, and if there was one thing Audrey was slowly learning, it was that helping was second nature to her gran. Last week Audrey had overheard Charlie talking about a patient he’d assisted that day, and Gran had been full of talk about her experiences as a nurse. The way her eyes had lit up when she spoke of it was the same way her face changed when she talked to Layla about the Kindness Calendar. She had a passion, a yearning, and it wasn’t being fulfilled. It was a shame too that Gran didn’t see how important it was for her to help herself as well as striving to help others.

Audrey saw something in the corner of her eye. It was her mum beckoning to her from the doorway so nobody else saw.

‘What?’ she said at the foot of the stairs where they couldn’t be seen from the kitchen table.

‘For tonight, for your gran, can we please make an effort? I know you’re not happy I came down here but I had little choice. I did what I thought was best.’ The story of Audrey’s life, probably of her dad’s too, and it had driven him away in the end. ‘I want us to get along. It’s hard living in such close quarters, but you’ll try?’

‘Of course I will; I do know how to behave,’ she answered with an eyeroll.

Her mum had looked exhausted when she first arrived in Mapleberry: no make-up on, her glasses not her contacts, scruffy clothes she rarely wore given her regular attire was usually business suits with perfectly ironed shirts, or jeans and T-shirt on the weekend. But now, she’d made an effort. Freshly washed blonde hair fell in natural waves and settled around her shoulders, she’d done her make-up in a way Audrey approved of with subtle pink lipstick and mascara to widen pale blue eyes, and she had on dark jeans with a purple micro pleat top that fell just above her hips and showed off a slender waist.

‘Thank you, Audrey. Did you hear I found a job?’

‘That was quick.’ When her mum told her she’d be working in a café, Audrey couldn’t have been more surprised. It wasn’t very corporate, was it?

‘I know it’s not ideal,’ said Sam, picking up on what Audrey might be thinking. ‘It’ll do for now while I look for somewhere else for us to live and in the meantime if a different position turns up, I can always apply.’

‘Whatever – it’s your life.’ And she wouldn’t mind staying here with Gran if she was honest, although maybe now with dinner imminent, it wasn’t the time to discuss that little gem.

When they went into the kitchen, Veronica jumped up. ‘Charlie, I’d like to introduce you to my daughter, Sam.’

Charlie extended his hand and met Sam’s. ‘It’s lovely to meet you at last. Veronica has told me all about you.’

Sam didn’t look too sure what to make of that. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you too,’ she beamed, doing that flick of her hair away from her face and shoulder.

Audrey might only be fifteen but she’d seen enough soaps and romantic movies to pick up on an undercurrent. And Charlie already looked more interested in her mum than in anyone else, as though her stepping in made him lose all focus. Typical. Divorcee and widower united. It was a match made in heaven, and unfortunately neither Veronica nor Layla seemed at all bothered by the obvious spark.

‘Can I interest you in a glass of wine, Charlie?’ Audrey didn’t miss Sam’s cheeks take on almost the same tinge as her pink lipstick. She wanted to stick her fingers down her throat so she looked away from her mum who was going to embarrass herself in a minute. Okay, so Charlie seemed like a nice guy, but still. There should be an age limit on romantic hook-ups, at least when other people were around.

‘Sure,’ he answered, handing her a couple of glasses from the table so she could do the honours.

Sam poured but as she handed him a glass she was still gawping at him, and not in a subtle way. ‘You look really familiar. I’m not sure why.’ Any minute now she was going to ask, Do you come here often? or something equally cheesy. ‘Have you always lived here in Mapleberry?’

Charlie leaned against the kitchen bench. ‘Not right here in the village, no. I lived about ten miles down the road when I was younger before we moved down to the south coast. I finally headed back this way. I always liked Mapleberry.’

Sam’s mind was ticking over in the way it did when Audrey tried to pull the wool over her eyes. Audrey rarely got away with it because Sam hardly ever gave up. ‘Where did you go to school?’

‘I was at Halverston Primary, then—’

Sam gasped. ‘That’s it!’

‘I’m missing something.’ His killer smile was firmly directed at Sam. Not even Layla could get his attention now. Maybe if Audrey got her to wave a big knife around they’d have a hope of getting in on the conversation.

‘I went to Halverston Primary too,’ Sam gushed.

Veronica managed to get a word in. ‘We couldn’t get her into Mapleberry Primary, oversubscribed, even back then, so we drove her to Halverston every day. Thankfully we got her a place at Mapleberry Middle after that.’

Sam wasn’t really listening to her mum. Wine glass cupped in her palm, she asked Charlie, ‘Do you remember one summer sports day in the worst storms to hit the UK in decades?’

‘If you’re referring to the indoor sports day then I have to say, I remember it very well. Were you there?’ His mega-watt smile was sickening from where Audrey was standing. She’d liked him up until now, but she sensed she’d soon change her mind if he and her mum got any closer.

‘You don’t remember me,’ Sam chuckled.

‘She had white-blonde hair back then,’ Veronica put in, more talkative with Charlie around, ‘and big round glasses.’ But Charlie still shook his head.

‘I’ll mention one event,’ Sam tried, ‘and I bet you’ll remember.’ The flirting was cringeworthy, Audrey thought. ‘Indoor swimming in the hall,’ Sam grinned.

When Charlie roared with laughter, the lines at the edges of his eyes crinkled even more and he was still annoyingly handsome. ‘I remember!’

Sam was laughing hard now, and Layla was begging for everyone else to be let in on the joke. ‘How can you even do indoor swimming without a pool?’ she asked. ‘You can’t float.’

‘It was as bad as it sounds,’ Sam told her.

‘Terrible!’ Charlie agreed.

‘We had to lie on the floor on our tummies and move our arms and legs and get from one end of the hall to the other. I thought I’d won gold, your dad thought he had, and when we went to stand on the podiums on stage – upturned crates as I recall – we couldn’t agree who had come first.’

‘They told us it was a draw,’ said Charlie. ‘We didn’t think it was and carried on arguing until your mum pushed me off the stage.’

‘You didn’t,’ Audrey gasped. ‘Mum!’

‘She did,’ said Charlie. ‘It was a big shove too. How do you think I got this?’ He pointed to his top lip and went up closer to each of them so they could see the little scar Audrey had noticed the other day when he was laughing at something Gran said. ‘I fell face first onto one of the upturned crates, there was a bit of plastic jutting out, and my mouth caught it.’

Sam shook her head after Charlie showed her the lasting damage. ‘I really am very, very sorry. There was so much blood,’ she told the others. ‘You told the teacher you tripped.’ Eyes back on Charlie.

‘Of course I did; no way was I admitting being beaten up by a girl.’ He pulled an awkward face stretching his scar in another direction.

‘You saved me from the wrath of Miss Dickenson.’

‘Now she was evil.’

‘I will be forever in your debt, Charlie. She would’ve made my final days at that school a living hell if she’d known what I did. I’m really sorry.’

Audrey rolled her eyes and did her best to focus on the dinner preparations rather than her mum making eyes at the neighbour and giggling in a way that suggested she wasn’t a fully grown adult.

The one-pot chicken was a success. Layla had pulled it off with Audrey’s help and Audrey even went back for seconds, congratulating Layla on the smooth potatoes. ‘You can tick off the item on the calendar now,’ she prompted. ‘After dinner I meant,’ she added when Layla got up. Funny how little kids took things quite literally.

After some animated discussion of the calendar, the veggie patch Layla had with her dad and Sam’s new job at the café, it was Audrey’s turn in the spotlight.

Charlie turned his attentions to her. ‘Your mum says you’re doing your second year of GCSEs soon.’

‘That’s right.’

‘What’s the plan after that?’

‘I don’t know yet.’ Although Sam had her own plans, Audrey had had them drummed into her often enough. A levels, university, then you’d have more doors open to you. Apparently. But Audrey didn’t buy it.

‘No career aspirations? Good to keep your options open I guess,’ he said.

‘I do have aspirations, but none my mum approves of.’

‘Audrey…’ Sam’s voice warned.

‘I’m not trying to start an argument. I’ve been asked a question and I’d like to answer it.’

Sam couldn’t argue with that and waved her assent in a way that suggested she might give up fighting it tonight and instead sit back and enjoy her food and wine.

‘I’d love to be a make-up artist,’ Audrey announced.

Layla was enthralled. Talk about how to impress an eight-year-old easily. Eyes still wide she speculated, ‘You could work with movie stars, people on television.’

‘That would be the dream, yes.’ Grateful someone at least was enthusiastic, she added, ‘But it takes a while to get that far. I’d have to work my way up.’

‘What sort of thing would you learn?’ asked Layla.

‘If I did a make-up artist course at college…’ She shot a look her mum’s way but wanted to answer Layla’s question honestly. ‘I’d learn about skincare, corrective make-up, colour therapy, editorial make-up – when people are on set on TV or stage – special effects, trends, and I’d get to learn from tutors who already do it.’ Audrey didn’t miss the flinch from her mum, the surprise that Audrey didn’t just want to mess around after her exams and do something that was a waste of time; she’d looked into it already, she knew details. Would she be so impressed if she knew she’d investigated other things? Guilt gnawed at her, but it was her life and she’d never forgiven her mum for giving up on her marriage. Marriage took work; even a teenager who’d never been in a relationship knew that basic element.

‘Could you do my make-up?’ Layla asked her dad.

‘You’re eight years old,’ said Charlie picking up his wine glass.

She clasped hands together in a little prayer. ‘Please?’

‘It’s probably better than letting her loose to do it herself,’ said Gran who was surprisingly undaunted by the number of people at the table. Over the last few months Audrey had come to realise how close Gran had become to Charlie and Layla. Maybe it was time for her mum to see it too. Perhaps she would if she stopped ogling Charlie for long enough.

Audrey looked Charlie’s way. ‘I promise to do it tastefully.’

‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’

‘Of course not.’ Charlie would’ve picked up on the negative vibes when Audrey first arrived in Mapleberry and the fact that she resented anyone in her space. But she’d grown to enjoy having Layla here, even the piano playing was improving so much that Audrey didn’t always push in her earphones the second it started up. ‘Come over after school one day,’ she told Layla. ‘I’ll try to work my magic.’

‘She’s welcome any time,’ said Veronica. ‘You know that, Charlie.’

Audrey realised then how little family support her gran must have had. On the rare occasions that Sam had talked about her mother, she’d always said she had ‘problems’. Audrey had never really understood what that meant, but since realising Gran had something called agoraphobia, Audrey had become a little resentful of her mum. She’d never been given a chance to get to know Gran. In fact, before coming here this summer she could’ve passed Gran in the street – if she went out that was – and wouldn’t have recognised her. Was Sam embarrassed by her own mother? Audrey couldn’t help thinking Sam was as bad as the neighbours around here, who she’d spotted staring at the front door.

‘Well it sounds as though you have a direction,’ Charlie told Audrey, completely oblivious to the way Sam kept her eyes on her plate, staying out of the conversation. ‘Sometimes it takes more guts to follow a completely different path than the one everyone expects of you.’

Immediately, Charlie was back in Audrey’s good books. Why couldn’t her mum see something he’d just summed up perfectly with one considered sentence?

‘Audrey and I have talked about it,’ Sam began, most likely on a path to spoiling everything as usual. ‘We’ll see how she goes with her GCSEs first. And at least she’ll have some focus here at a different school.’

‘What was so bad with the last one?’ Charlie wondered.

‘There were a few distractions.’

‘She’s talking about Sid, my best friend,’ Audrey announced to everyone sitting at the table at such close quarters. The round wooden kitchen table was fine for just her and Gran, a little uncomfortable now her mum was living here, and tonight for five of them it was a real squeeze.

‘Audrey,’ Sam warned.

The tension in the room mounted but Audrey had to have her say; she so rarely felt her side was heard. ‘That’s what you mean, isn’t it?’

Charlie was trying to carry on eating, Veronica looked at her plate and even Layla despite her young years picked up on something going on and kept her gaze focused on her dinner.

‘If you must know, yes, I think Sid is a bad influence. He got you suspended from school.’

‘We both got suspended because we both did something we thought was funny. And yes, I know it was stupid, we deserved what we got, but when are you going to see that I’m my own person – I’m not led along by someone else.’ When she noticed Gran beginning to look even more uneasy, she backed off. ‘There were some horrible kids there, bullies, and Sid and I, well, we stuck together.’

‘It’s good to have a friend,’ said Layla with the same positivity she always brought to the house. ‘That’s what my teacher always tells us. She says we need someone our own age to talk to and tell our problems to. Is that what Sid does for you?’

‘It is,’ Audrey smiled. Layla and Charlie between them saw more in Audrey than her own mother did these days. ‘I tell Sid things and he tells me his troubles too. Sid wants to be an actor, but his parents are digging their heels in about him wanting to go on to study performing arts at university.’

‘Sid’s going to university?’ Sam asked.

‘Don’t look so surprised, Mum, he’s clever. He helps me with my maths homework all the time; he’s even agreed to tutor me online while I’m here if I get stuck. But he also has talents for singing and dancing and acting. In his spare time he goes to a stage school to study all three disciplines.’ She was enjoying the gobsmacked look on her mum’s face. Sam had never liked Sid, but she’d never asked about Sid either, and Audrey hadn’t volunteered information to a person so adamant that he was a bad influence on her.

‘He sounds like a lovely lad,’ Veronica said, while Charlie nodded an approval as he sipped more wine, and Sam looked like she didn’t quite know what to do with herself.

Audrey nudged Layla with her elbow, which wasn’t hard given they were practically sandwiched together in the confined space. ‘Mum’s worried I’m going to fall in love with Sid, run off and get married.’ She got a giggle for her jokey efforts. ‘What Mum doesn’t realise is that we are just friends. And besides,’ she added, scooping up another piece of broccoli with her fork, ‘Sid’s gay.’

‘He’s gay?’ a shocked Sam asked. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘Why would I need to? Doesn’t make any difference to being his friend.’

‘Well of course not, but—’

‘That’s what I meant by Sid has had some problems,’ she clarified. ‘He inevitably got stick from people at school, he’s had some nasty comments, things scribbled in the school toilets about him and other people, all pretty nasty. When he was going through that, I wasn’t having a very nice time with some of the girls in my year, and we just bonded, I guess.’

‘Then hang onto him,’ said Veronica. ‘You’re friends for life, I’d say.’

Sam twiddled with the stem of her wine glass. ‘You never told me about the girls in your year giving you a hard time.’

Audrey shrugged. ‘Nothing I couldn’t handle.’ Although she’d skived off school twice, forging a letter in her mum’s signature both times, when the girls were at their worst. Once she befriended Sid and they stuck together, it was as though they managed to repel the worst of the trouble and whatever did come their way they tackled together. Audrey knew, even if she went to New Zealand – a decision Sid thought crazy, although he had promised to visit the minute he had a job and enough money – they’d be friends for ever. Some friends passed through your life and left a small mark, others left a dinosaur-sized footprint that meant you’d never forget them. Sid was one of those people.

Charlie topped up his wine and Sam’s. ‘There’s a bully in every school year, that’s what my dad used to say.’

‘Were you picked on, Daddy?’

He put his hand out and stroked Layla’s hair. ‘I wasn’t – I was lucky.’

Audrey went back for seconds as Sam and Charlie started reminiscing about teachers they’d shared, those they’d loved, those they didn’t like and couldn’t get away from. Glad the focus had shifted away from her, Audrey watched Gran talking contentedly to Layla, Charlie talking happily to Sam, and she wondered what it was between Sam and Gran that stopped them having a normal relationship. Gran had a life before, Audrey knew that much hearing her shared anecdotes about nursing when she chatted away to Charlie, but how had that life evolved into this one and what had driven the wedge between mother and daughter?

With the main course over, Audrey preheated the oven ready to put the dessert in. They’d already agreed to have a break first so they could appreciate the crumble and ice-cream when they weren’t so full. Layla was marking off the square on the kindness calendar that said, ‘Do a sibling’s chores’, and she had Sam looking at it now as she recapped everything she’d done so far. Monday last week she’d taken a box of vegetables to another neighbour, Tuesday she’d taken a bag of clothes that no longer fitted to the charity shop, Wednesday she’d played at the park with Archie from school, a kid she thought weird because he was so quiet, which meant she could cross off the day that asked the kids to ‘befriend someone you know but have never spoken to’. Poor Archie had been bossed around, according to Charlie, who told the story when Layla ran off to use the bathroom mid re-cap. He’d been ordered to go on the roundabout then do a circuit via the swings, onto the slide and over to the café for a milkshake.

‘School sounds a lot of fun,’ said Audrey when Layla came back to the kitchen. ‘Make the most of it at primary, kid – high school is different.’

Layla moved the calendar in Veronica’s direction so they could look at it together.

‘I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next month,’ said Veronica before regaling the story about the teddy bear drive.

‘I gave them Boris,’ Layla explained, ‘he’s the bear Veronica knitted me. I thought other kids might need him more than I did and I have so many teddy bears.’

‘I can vouch for that,’ Charlie called over from where he was rinsing the plates before Sam loaded them into the dishwasher. ‘It’s a wonder she can even get into bed some nights.’

‘You knitted a teddy bear, Gran?’ Audrey asked.

‘I’ve knitted quite a few in my time.’

Audrey looked over at Sam. ‘Wait…Mum, is that where the bear in your bedroom came from?’ Sitting on the shelf in Sam’s wardrobe alongside a collection of perfumes was a pale brown knitted bear with a simply sewn face, navy trousers and a sky-blue jumper. Audrey could remember Sam putting it on that shelf out of reach when she was little because it wasn’t for playing with; it didn’t take part in the teddy bear picnics Audrey had done as a kid with her friends when they came over.

‘It is,’ Sam confessed, visibly thrown by the question, as was Gran who stared at her daughter as though begging to know the answer to a question neither of them really understood.

It took Layla a while to bring Veronica back to the conversation but when she did, all Veronica wanted to talk about was the kindness calendar. ‘You make sure you bring the new calendar month to show me after school as soon as you can, Layla.’

‘Of course. I have swimming lessons the first day back but I’ll come the morning after, nice and early.’ Luckily Charlie was too busy helping Sam to see the wink the pair shared over the secret piano lessons Veronica was giving. ‘I think Mrs Haines was pleased with the last teddy bear drive so there’ll be another one before Christmas.’

Veronica beamed. ‘Then I’ll start knitting. I’ve got enough odds and ends of wool around to make at least one or two bears. It’ll keep me busy.’

‘He’ll be a multicoloured bear if you use odds and ends,’ Layla smiled. ‘And if he’s too nice, I might not want to give him away.’

‘I know you will, you’ve got a good heart,’ said Veronica.

Watching them together, Audrey felt her anger rise again at missing out on forming this kind of special relationship with her gran. Her mum had seen to that by keeping them apart and looking at Gran now, Audrey couldn’t work out why.

When they finally sat down for dessert, Audrey watched her gran closely. She joined in bits of conversation, she never ignored her or Layla, but Audrey knew the mention of Sam’s teddy bear still being in existence had left an effect. It was as though Gran’s mind wasn’t sure what to do with that titbit of information and she kept trying to bat it away so she didn’t have to deal with it.

Audrey helped clear up after dessert but soon excused herself to go to bed, even before Layla and Charlie left. She used her laptop under the duvet and feigned sleep whenever she heard footsteps on the stairs that inevitably paused outside her room. Only when she was sure she wouldn’t be interrupted did she open the laptop, the screen providing plenty of light, and used the search engine to find what she wanted.

Thinking of moving to New Zealand? the title screamed out to her. She was immediately sucked into the website’s promises of a great outdoor lifestyle, unique culture and scenic beauty, and the gorgeous photograph only confirmed what she already knew: that on the other side of the world was her dad, waiting for her, ready to help her start a new life and leave all her troubles behind.

‘I’ll be there as soon as I can, Dad,’ she promised to the screen, to herself, the way she’d promised in her last email to him, the one before that, and the one before that. ‘Let’s wait and see what happens,’ he’d said when she asked if he’d looked into it more or applied to get the ball rolling with visas. ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he’d said the last time she moaned it was taking for ever. And that was when she’d told him she promised to be with him again very soon. She hadn’t got a say in who she lived with last time, but the older she got and the more she clashed with her mum, the more she wanted to make a change.

And despite growing to love and appreciate her gran at last, this time nothing was going to stop her.

Chapter Three

Sam

Sam had forgotten how beautiful Mapleberry could be in autumn. She’d been here since August, when the sun had set late in the evening and the days and nights were layered with warmth and fresh breezes. But this morning she observed, as she walked from the house to the Mapleberry Mug, where she’d been working for exactly a month today, the leaves were starting to turn and the weather no longer let her venture out without at least a cardigan over her jeans and shirt. The sun took almost as long as she did to wake up now, and by the time she started work the high street was groaning its way into operation. Shop doorways were unlocked and ready for custom, parking spaces on either side of the road began to fill and voices rang out along the street. In another hour schoolchildren would pass by to get to their own daily grind, a handful popping into the café for a trendy takeaway coffee they’d most likely have to finish before they were allowed in the school gates.

The morning in the café got off to a brisk start, but the rush didn’t send her into a blind panic as it had done on her first couple of shifts. She’d been lost here on day one, not knowing where anything was, let alone how to make a cappuccino, flat white or a long black. But she was getting the hang of it now, working five days a week rather than four, and although not her dream job, it was money coming in and it was time away from the house that was beginning to suffocate her as much now as it had when she was a teenager. Last night she’d needed to escape so badly she’d got in touch with her boss Clare on the off chance she was interested in meeting up and at Clare’s suggestion they’d taken themselves off to the tiny local independent cinema Sam was surprised hadn’t closed down years ago, but there it was, a welcome respite from the tensions at home. With a bucket of popcorn, they’d lost themselves in a movie and followed it up with a glass of wine over at the pub, and although Sam missed her best friend Jilly, Clare was becoming a close confidante already.

Her mother had started to change when Sam was around eleven years old and Sam remembered some of it all too vividly. There’d been the time Veronica didn’t show up to watch her represent the school in the school cross-country championships. Sam had come tenth overall, run her little heart out and crossed the finish line with a smile on her face. She’d looked over to see her dad applauding, so proud. But there’d been no sign of her mum, and Sam had felt the absence more than she’d let on. Veronica was still working and managed to get out of the house for that, but couldn’t seem to turn up for her own daughter. Sam had heard her parents rowing about it the second they got home, ripping even more of her glory away with every word slung at each other. But she hadn’t blamed her dad – he was livid on her behalf.

The next time it happened was when her mum refused to leave the house to attend parents’ evening one year. Sam was to choose her options and it was an important time, discussing subjects, what she struggled with, what she particularly excelled in. Her dad had hauled her mum to the car and ordered her to get out at the school and Sam knew more than one other parent had witnessed the embarrassing display. She’d been mortified, but at least her mum didn’t say much during the talks with the teachers; Sam and her dad had led the conversation. There’d been stony silence all the way home and then another almighty row. Sam had always appreciated how much her dad stood up for her; he was in control, he wasn’t going to let this affect his daughter. Sam would never forget the way he looked out for her. And after he died and the more her mum retreated, the more Sam felt trapped in the house. It was as though she had the opposite of what her mum had; not agoraphobia but the need to not be within the four walls of the house, at least not when she was there, which was all the time. She still went to work, but came straight home and on her days off she never socialised. Sam learnt quickly to make sure she checked her mum’s schedule and be out when she was in, in when she was out.

Now, even if she didn’t feel the same level of desperation, this job was still her solace.

She busied herself serving drinks and snacks as the schoolkids rushed in. When they finally had a lull her boss asked, ‘How’s Audrey doing at school? She settling in?’

‘She seems to be, at least as far as I know. She doesn’t talk to me much.’

Clare, the kind of boss who didn’t shy away from mucking in with other staff, stacked fresh cups on top of the coffee machine. Flame-red hair tied back, she yelled into the kitchen to let Monty know that the wholesaler’s van had pulled up outside. ‘Honey, join the club,’ she said, switching back to her conversations with Sam. ‘I’ve got three young adults living at home and they’ve gone from barely speaking to me in their teens to being out so much it’s as though they’re figments of my imagination rather than people who eat me out of house and home.’

‘I’m pleased Audrey doesn’t hate the new school; I was worried she would. I’ve spoken with her form tutor and apparently she’s making friends, getting her work done on time and her expected GCSE grades are good.’

‘All we can ask is for them to be happy,’ Clare smiled as she excused herself to take over the coffee to table two, calling over her shoulder, ‘although I wouldn’t mind their help around this place to give it a bit of a facelift, get the walls around the counter painted.’

Sam laughed, imagining how that suggestion had gone down with Clare’s kids. She’d tried to get Audrey to help her paint the study once and she’d made every excuse under the sun not to do it until Sam had given up trying.

Sam served another customer, thinking how much she wanted Audrey to be happy. It was why she was making an effort to listen to her daughter more whenever she mentioned make-up artistry. She’d even faked needing advice from Audrey last week when she woke up with a spot on her chin. She was thirty-nine, well past the spotty stage, but it seemed just when you thought you had everything under control, life liked to remind you who was boss. Audrey had talked about the importance of blending, removing the cover-up at the end of the day to let your skin recover. It had been one of those moments where, watching them, you’d never know they had problems. And with a wedding to attend in December, Sam had been able to ask for more advice, about make-up subtle enough for an afternoon event but that would last into the evening.

Sam wiped down a few of the tables, threw away discarded napkins and took a plate and cup to the kitchen. When she came back through to the café, she looked up to see Charlie coming in through the door, still in his paramedic uniform. ‘You just finished or just starting?’ she quizzed. ‘And where’s your coat, it’s chilly today?’

‘I finished a night shift a couple of hours ago – my coat’s in the car,’ he grinned. ‘And I don’t feel the cold. Well, perhaps I do, but I’ve been traumatised. I’ve come from Layla’s school where I was required to take part in emergency services week and talk to sixty kids about the work we do as paramedics.’

‘Layla must’ve been proud.’

‘She was – she loves it when I show up at school in my uniform.’

Layla wasn’t the only one to appreciate the uniform. Dark cargo trousers showed off a taut rear and biceps stretched the T-shirt sleeves as far as they could go. Although Sam sensed Layla’s appreciation would be summed up a little differently to her own.

When Clare called over a greeting to Charlie and winked at Sam, Sam wondered whether she’d let something slip out loud. Clare now seemed to have made it her personal project to ensure nobody but Sam served Charlie whenever he stopped in, which so far was frequent enough for Sam to wonder whether he had a bagel and coffee addiction or perhaps was interested in her as more than a friend.

Sam hadn’t been out with a man since the time she went to the movies with a guy from work who’d kissed her goodbye at her front door. Audrey had seen them and lost her temper, screaming at her that she was an embarrassment and should know better. Sam would never understand why it was okay for Simon to have someone else in his life but not her, and she’d grown tired of trying to figure out the teenage psyche. All she knew was that she had to put Audrey first and since that date she’d avoided having another one. She’d thought it best to do so for as long as it took for Audrey to see that her mother wasn’t the enemy; she was on her side and always would be.

But all those feelings had been before Charlie came on the scene. Since the first time he’d come for dinner at her mum’s, when Sam had expected a polite but likely dull guest, and he’d turned out to be someone she’d known a long time ago and who was now jaw-droppingly handsome with his dark hair and slightly crooked smile, she’d thought about Charlie a lot. Her tummy did a little jolt whenever he came into the café, she listened carefully whenever his name was mentioned at home, she always checked her hair in the mirror before she answered the door at home in case it was him, and every time they crossed paths she found herself wondering when they’d next bump into each other. But Sam still wasn’t sure about dating anyone right now, especially a man who had a little girl of his own. She couldn’t help sometimes getting ahead of herself and wondering what would happen if she and Charlie got serious. Audrey would end up with a little sister, she’d have a stepdaughter, and the thought sent a chill creeping up her spine because she knew she was doing a pretty bad job of being a mother to Audrey, let alone having responsibility for Layla.

‘What was so traumatic about talking to a bunch of kids?’ Sam asked Charlie now, preferring to focus on his predicament than her own.

‘One kid put his hand up in front of everyone and asked me if I’d ever used a vibrator on anyone.’

Sam’s laughter had Clare turning around with an approving look her way. ‘You can’t be serious!’

‘I am. Turned out he meant a defibrillator.’

‘I’m a little relieved, I have to say.’

When Charlie laughed and he got those crinkles beside his eyes, it hinted at how genuine and kind he was. When he smiled, the right side of his lip turned up ever so slightly more than the left, and since they’d talked about how he got the little scar, she found herself focusing on it every time he was near enough. He was incredibly sexy and Sam felt increasingly out of her depth around him. She wasn’t used to flirting or getting attention from a man, and she definitely hadn’t had much practise at hiding her feelings.

‘Earth to Sam,’ Clare’s voice trilled as she tried to get past with a tray piled high of empties. ‘Excuse me.’

‘Sorry, Clare.’ Sam had been lost in thought as Charlie read over the menu blackboard behind the counter. Clare had probably been trying to get past for a while. ‘So what’ll it be?’ she asked Charlie.

He went for a coffee – black, the easiest one to make thankfully – she wouldn’t mess that up. Honestly, it was as though she was Audrey’s age whenever Charlie was around, not a together woman who’d made her own way in the world.

‘I’ll take a smoked salmon bagel too,’ he added.

Using the tongs, she pulled out the bagel of choice and added it to a plate with a napkin. ‘I’ll bring the coffee over to you.’ She needed a moment to pull herself together while she turned the various bits of the complex machine. It might only be a black coffee but given how nervous he made her feel, there was always room for error.

By the time she took Charlie his order she was back to being in-control-Sam, not pathetic, teenage-hormone-Sam. She asked him how his shift had been; he didn’t recall the more horrific details of an accident on the motorway this morning but instead told her about the little old lady he’d helped last week after a fall on the stairs in her block of flats.

‘She brought me a box of chocolates to the hospital,’ he smiled. ‘A big box of Thorntons; I’m surprised she could manage it with her bruised wrist. But the team is always appreciative when people do things like that.’

‘It must be a difficult job. Does it ever get to you?’

He shrugged. ‘Occasionally, but the good outweighs the bad most days. Veronica loves hearing my stories, even the gory ones.’

‘They’re probably nothing she hasn’t heard or seen before.’ Sam thought back to the days when her mum had come home from work smiling and regaling them with tales of her day – never too disturbing, but more box-of-chocolate stories like Charlie had shared. And then those days had gradually faded away. Veronica had begun to withdraw from the people around her, including Sam, and suddenly it had been too late to get through to her. Sam had tried on more than one occasion to imagine Veronica having ever left the house for a job, working with a team of people whose daily routine was chaotic and, at times, out of control, because the image Sam had been left with when she moved out of Mapleberry all those years ago hadn’t involved even a glimpse of positivity. Even now, living under the same roof again, they didn’t talk like other mothers and daughters did, but the close confines of the house meant Sam had begun to know a little more about her mother’s life. She knew without having to ask that Veronica still didn’t go outside most days and if she did, she never got beyond halfway down the front path or as far as the back garden gate. Veronica still hated courgettes but loved roasted carrots and whenever the meal allowed would use a pile of them big enough to feed a family of eight. And Sam knew her mum missed being a nurse because she’d heard those conversations with Charlie. Veronica reacted the same way with him as she did with Layla talking about the kindness calendar. It was as though both of those subjects held a magic key that turned in a lock Sam didn’t know how to access.

‘Audrey seems happier now than when she first arrived,’ said Charlie after a sip of his coffee.

‘She seems to be finding her way at last and school gives her some structure. She’s made a good friend called Vicky, who sounds nice – sensible and a hard worker too, and they’ve hung out outside of school at the cinema or here for hot chocolates. They’ve even done a bit of the community mosaic together.’ Sam was getting used to people being interested in her and her family and was even beginning to appreciate it. She’d avoided all things Mapleberry for years but coming back to the village hadn’t been anywhere near as bad as she’d anticipated. ‘But despite finding her feet,’ she added, ‘she’s no happier with me.’

‘I had noticed.’

Sam had Jilly up in Cheshire to talk to whenever she needed and they’d had some long drawn-out conversations on the phone about her relationship with Audrey. Now she had Clare to talk to as well, but Charlie brought another perspective and she found herself blurting out what it had been like over the years for her, everything since the divorce, the way her daughter idolised her father.

‘Is he in contact much?’ Charlie wanted to know.

‘Not as much as I’d like when it comes to Audrey. I don’t particularly like getting in touch with him but I do on occasion, for her sake. He lives in a bit of a bubble really, the Simon-bubble I call it. He’s almost ethereal, at least for Audrey. He stays in touch via email and phone calls and most of what he shares are details of him living the life I know she wishes she had. He sends photographs of the most beautiful places you’ve ever seen, landscapes that are impressive to a teenage girl who has the monotony of school, dreary weather a lot of the year, as well as strained relationships with her own mum.’

‘Surely Audrey knows it’s not all real life. It’s like social media only showing the good parts.’ His velvety brown eyes were full of understanding. ‘Veronica said your ex has remarried.’

She wasn’t sure whether knowing that her mum talked about her and Simon to Charlie was a good thing or not. ‘He married the woman he left me for.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be. I’m not. I rushed into getting married when I shouldn’t have, but I won’t ever regret it: I got Audrey.’

‘True.’ And there was that reassuring smile again, the one she could look at a thousand times or more and still not have had enough. ‘He has two more kids now,’ Sam added.

‘How does Audrey feel about her half-siblings?’

‘She doesn’t know them.’ Yet. But she’d be a part of their family if she went through with the idea of moving to the other side of the world. And although Sam hadn’t meant it to happen, her bottom lip trembled, she bit down on it but all it did was allow a tear to snake its way down and when Charlie covered her hand with his, she bolted across the café, Clare staring after her, and she hid in the kitchen.

Monty, short and with a shaved head that made him look more of a brute than he was, didn’t say much apart from ‘Excuse me’ when he needed to get out to the floor and give a plate of scrambled eggs on toast to a customer at table five.

‘Stop hiding,’ he told her when he came back. He hooked an arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring squeeze. ‘Clare needs help out there.’

Pulling herself together, she went out to find a next-to-empty café apart from the customer with scrambled eggs and of course, Charlie, waiting patiently. She noticed he had another cup of coffee in front of him.

‘There’s an extra cup over there for you,’ Clare whispered as she floated by.

Sam should’ve known she’d never get away with walking off without explanation so she went over to join Charlie and nodded when he asked whether she was OK. The table they were sitting at was by the window, looking out at crisp brown leaves skittering past, the tree that had shed them destined to be bare in a few short weeks.

‘Kids are hard,’ he began, ‘whatever age they are. I remember shutting myself in the utility room when Layla was two and acting up. I covered my ears and everything. I may have even hummed a tune so I really couldn’t hear her.’

Sam’s smile didn’t last. ‘I don’t know what to do anymore.’

‘I don’t have many pearls of wisdom apart from telling you to hang in there.’

‘I wish I had a magic wand to wave and make everything all right.’

‘May I suggest we don’t talk about Audrey for a moment,’ said Charlie. ‘What about you?’

‘What do you mean what about me?’

‘As parents we are often guilty of focusing on our kids and forgetting everything else, but we need to be happy too.’

‘My happiness seems way, way down on the agenda.’

‘Well, it shouldn’t be. You’ve moved to Mapleberry, you’re working in a café which, judging by what I know, isn’t your first choice of career. Management, am I right?’

‘Sort of,’ Sam smiled. She toyed with the handle of the coffee cup and recapped where her career had taken her over the years. ‘Management was where I ended up, at the top of the ladder I’d tried to climb for a while. I had some control, prospects, more money, security. It’s what I was always told to work for.’

‘By your mum?’

‘Actually no, more my dad. Mum never said much. She’d kind of gone by then…not in a physical sense.’ She shrugged, awkward saying this out loud. ‘But emotionally she was out of reach so it was Dad’s advice I got, his support.’

‘And he approved of the path you took?’

‘My dad died when I was seventeen.’

He ran a hand through hair that was long enough on top that it didn’t settle exactly the same as before, and if it were possible, looked even more handsome in the low autumn light filtering in through the window. ‘I’m sorry, it’s rough, I know. I was older when I lost my parents, but whatever age you are, it sucks.’

‘It does suck.’ They exchanged a grin at their youthful phrasing. ‘Layla seems to cope remarkably well without her mum around. Sorry, tell me to be quiet if you don’t want to talk about it.’

‘No, fair’s fair, you’re telling me all your secrets,’ he grinned. ‘It hasn’t all been plain sailing; sometimes Layla misses her incredibly and I don’t know what to do. It’s why Veronica has been such a blessing, and Audrey turning up too. Layla has had very few female figures in her life and I know she needs them.’

‘Tell me about your wife.’

And so he did. Charlie talked about how they’d met at the hospital where she was a nurse, how they’d dated for a couple of years before he plucked up the courage to ask her to marry him, about their wedding reception that hadn’t had a band but a pianist.

Layla wanting to learn to play and coming over to practise so often made perfect sense to Sam now.

‘Amanda loved the piano,’ he said wistfully. ‘Other music was never an option.’

‘Did she play?’

He smiled. ‘She did, and she was pretty good. She had a go on the wedding day as well, everyone cheering her on as she sat there in a white gown at the ebony grand piano in the corner of the room.’ Sam didn’t miss the tear in his eye. ‘I have some of her music recorded, Layla listens to it often – it’s a way of keeping her memory alive, I suppose.’

‘You’re an amazing dad.’

‘And you’re a good mum – you’re just having a hard time.’

‘Single parenting is tough.’ When he nodded, she told him, ‘My dad was always the strong one; he seemed to keep us all together.’

‘You must take after him. Tell me about him.’

‘We didn’t always get on,’ she explained. ‘He pushed me to do well at school, to aspire to a career that would offer me a future. I’d told him I wanted to study psychology at university and he hated the idea. He said I had a real flair for maths and sciences and I should be studying those. He died before we ever got to finish that argument. I did do psychology, got my degree and thought I knew which direction I was headed in. But then things got so bad at home, I couldn’t focus on the career I really wanted.’ It didn’t help that as well as losing her father, she’d lost touch with her brother, Eddie, too. But they didn’t talk about him. Not ever. ‘I got a job in a customer services department answering the phones, I made friends there, and I found myself enjoying life at long last. I met Simon, saw my escape route from Mapleberry, moved to Cheshire with him when we married, and we had Audrey. After that I wanted part-time work and my experience was in customer services. I’d fallen into the role initially but I kept working hard at it, Dad’s voice constantly in my head, and a series of promotions finally led me into management.’

‘Tell me, what would you have done if you hadn’t fallen into that job?’

Surprised by the question and more so by the fact she knew the answer straight away, she told him, ‘I always wanted to be an educational psychologist.’

‘You’ll have to help me out. What’s one of those?’

‘It’s applying psychology to help children who have special educational needs, such as autism, anxiety, dyslexia. It would mean working with children and families; I wanted to make a difference to them and make their lives easier. I wanted a career with people, not a desk job like I ended up with. I’m being really honest here,’ she frowned.

‘Never apologise for that.’ He held her gaze for a while before she looked away and he told her, ‘You know, I think you take after Veronica as well as your dad.’

She gulped because he was right. And she rarely gave it much thought.

A minibus from the Women’s Institute pulled up outside the café and it was all hands on deck, but not before Sam thanked Charlie for the talk. ‘I really appreciate it,’ she told him. ‘You’re a good listener.’

‘So I’ve been told.’ He finished the dregs of his coffee. ‘Now I’d better get home or my legs won’t be able to take me there. It was a twelve-hour shift, then the trauma of the school visit, and I need my bed.’

She tried not to think how good it would be to climb in beside Charlie, lie in his arms and be comforted by a man who she knew could take all her worries away. And as she was plunged into café mayhem with a group of women who settled in for the duration after they’d pulled four tables together, Sam realised that as well as Audrey settling in, she was finding her place in Mapleberry too. Was that even possible?

Sam felt like she was floating on a cloud – until she had a call to say the flat she was viewing at five o’clock today had already gone to someone else and that the other place she was due to view lunchtime tomorrow had been taken off the availability list when the owner decided to sell. On top of that bad news, she overheard the WI ladies talking about a planned trip to New Zealand, of all places!

Sam left the café that afternoon and on the bench outside she sat down, took out her phone, hooked the strand of hair that had blown from her ponytail behind her ear, and went into her email. As she’d listened to the woman in the café extolling the virtues of New Zealand, she’d been going over and over what she had to do. And now, she knew she had to email Simon. Enough was enough. If he was concocting a plan with her daughter to get her over there to join him in his exciting new life, she’d rather know more details sooner rather than later.

At least once she knew, Sam could do whatever it took to not lose her daughter entirely, the way her mum had done with her.

Chapter Four

Audrey

Audrey ran down the stairs to answer the door on Saturday morning, knowing it would be Layla. She’d been pestering her for days to do her make-up but with school work, Audrey hadn’t had a chance until now. Amazingly enough, the incentive of choosing to go on to make-up college if she worked hard at her GCSEs was spurring her on. She’d never worked this hard at school, but without the distractions from the nasty girls back in her previous school, as well as the novelty of a new environment, she’d got into a new routine.

She ushered Layla inside from the blustery autumn day. ‘Do you have the “you know what”?’

Layla nodded and attempted a wink although the movement was less than discreet. Luckily Gran was baking this morning so they wouldn’t be interrupted – they had something else to do other than the make-up and it was something Audrey had gradually begun to think about as her gran became all the more special in her life.

‘I thought I heard voices.’ Gran came along the hallway all smiles, dusting her hands on her apron. Not that Layla minded, she ran in for a hug anyway.

‘What are you making?’ Layla took off her shoes so she didn’t bring in the dirt from outside.

‘Bakewell tart this morning. You two go and have fun with the make-up – I’m in the middle of making pastry and I don’t want it to spoil. I’ll take a look at the kindness calendar later if you don’t mind.’

‘That was close,’ Layla giggled when Gran returned to her pastry and Layla followed Audrey upstairs. The last thing they wanted was to let Gran see the calendar before they swapped it with the one Audrey had been working on and kept under her bed.

Once they were in her bedroom, the door open so they could hear Gran pottering around downstairs, Audrey took it out. ‘This covers October and I’m working on another for November.’

Ever since Audrey had realised Gran’s mood lifted when they discussed the kindness calendar and how Layla could fulfil her tasks, Audrey had begun to look for ways to help her gran out of the rut she was in. Perhaps rut wasn’t the right word, she had an anxiety disorder that couldn’t be fixed with a simple click of the fingers, but Audrey wanted in some way to remind Gran of the woman she once was and still could be. The way Veronica spoke to Charlie about her time as a nurse conveyed how much she missed that side of her life and what Audrey and Layla had talked about doing was getting Gran involved in anything that would mean she was helping again, whether it be big or small tasks.

Between them they’d concocted a plan. Layla had been stopping by ten minutes earlier for her piano lessons when she knew Veronica would be in the bathroom – a schedule had had to be drawn up as Sam and Audrey both needed to get out of the door at particular times. Audrey had started to get up earlier than usual to smuggle Layla inside and have their powwow before Gran was any the wiser.

Now, Layla, finger outstretched, ran her way through all the items on the calendar, some coming straight from Mrs Haines but others she and Audrey had put in themselves.

‘Now, what did we agree you’d tell Gran?’ Audrey prompted. She didn’t want Layla to get it wrong and for Gran to realise what they were doing. She’d think they felt sorry for her and they definitely didn’t want that.

Layla thought hard and as though she’d learnt her lines for an important part in a play said, ‘Mrs Haines wanted us to include someone else in the calendar. Daddy is too busy with work so I thought you would be perfect for the job.’

Audrey high-fived her. ‘Spot-on. Sounds genuine enough.’

‘Water plants for a neighbour,’ said Layla, running through the tasks they’d been given. That one came from the teacher. ‘Easy: I’ll do Veronica’s for her. And here, bake cookies for your neighbour: that’s easy as I can do some at home and Veronica can do some for me and Daddy.’ She moved to the next square and gasped. ‘Get a makeover! That’s what we’re doing today!’

‘Sure is, hair and make-up for you today, and that’s one of our items I added so Gran has to have one too.’

‘Veronica doesn’t wear make-up, and she never gets her hair done.’

Audrey tapped the side of her nose. ‘I’m sorting it, don’t you worry.’ She pulled out a collection of magazines from the top drawer in her bedside cabinet and inside one were the pictures she’d cut out of women in their sixties and seventies with styles she knew would suit Veronica. Most of the styles were short, but Audrey had a feeling it would suit Gran. ‘The hairdresser I go to recently left her permanent job to set up on her own, so I need her to come to the house and do mine anyway. She’s coming tomorrow and I’ve briefed her. While she’s here I’ll hopefully persuade Gran, using the power of the kindness calendar and you of course, and it should work. She’d do anything for you, you know that.’

‘I’d do anything for her too, she’s kind to me.’ She looked down at the carpet and ran her toes through the pile. ‘I don’t have any grandparents or a mummy or any brothers and sisters.’

Audrey didn’t have a sibling, not unless you included her half-brother and half-sister on the other side of the world, but she liked to think that they’d get on like her and Layla. She took Layla’s hand. ‘You’ve got me, remember.’

‘Yeah,’ she smiled before her attention went to the calendar again. ‘What am I going to do for “join a group”? That one wasn’t for school was it?’

‘No,’ Audrey smiled, ‘That’s for Gran, like we discussed. It will get Gran to realise there’s a big wide world out there and people might judge but they can also be a friend, be there for you. I was thinking you already have that square marked off with the brownies, and I have something in mind for Gran.’ She leaned out of the bedroom and sure enough Gran was still humming away in the kitchen. ‘We’ll do everything on the calendar, I promise you, and the more challenging requests will always have a solution. It’s part of the fun. Now come on, we’d better do your make-up or Gran will get suspicious. Your chair, madam,’ she said with a flourish pointing to the director’s chair with a fresh towel looped on the back.

Layla took her seat in front of the long desk that had more than half of its space dedicated to make-up kits, lotions and potions.

‘I’ve always wanted one of these,’ Layla said of the Hollywood make-up mirror with the lights up each side. ‘It’s so glamorous.’ She was already preening, pulling at the strands of her hair to ensure they looked neat and tidy, readjusting the Alice band so it was perfectly straight.

Audrey found her make-up toolbelt that fitted around the waist. Multiple pockets held the brushes she washed with soap and water between uses, and she also had a new wedge-shaped blending sponge.

‘Wow, you have so many brushes,’ Layla marvelled, letting Audrey wrap a clean towel around her shoulders. She secured it with a clip to keep it in place. ‘What do they all do?’

Audrey ran through some of them. ‘They all do slightly different things. This one,’ she pulled out the chunkiest brush, ‘is for loose powder. Then you have this flatter brush which works well for foundation,’ she said taking out another, ‘and then these,’ she pointed at the tips of another few, ‘are for eyes depending on whether you’re using an eyeshadow, shaping brows or doing liner.’ She took out the fan brush and tickled the tip of Layla’s nose with it. ‘This is for brushing away mistakes,’ she grinned. ‘I’m hoping I don’t need that one.’

Half an hour later, Audrey was proud of what she’d achieved. Layla’s dark ginger wavy hair had glamorous big waves, her make-up was tasteful and Layla couldn’t stop gawping into the mirror. Audrey picked up her phone and got Layla to stand next to her before they crouched down, both pouted and she took a selfie.

‘You mustn’t post that anywhere without my permission,’ Layla warned.

‘I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was going to print it out, one for me, one for you, a souvenir.’

‘You’re the best big sister ever.’ Layla threw her arms around Audrey.

‘Go show Gran,’ Audrey’s voice shook as Layla trotted down the stairs – because she was starting to matter to other people; it wasn’t just her mum anymore, there was Gran, Layla, and the new friends she was making at school. All of a sudden it started to mean something that one day she’d be leaving it all behind.

Downstairs Gran was flabbergasted at Layla’s transformation and Layla was still twirling around, preening her hair, alternating between showing Gran and looking in the hallway mirror by the time Audrey joined them.

When eventually she stood still, Audrey asked, ‘Layla, do you know the most important thing when it comes to wearing make-up?’

‘What’s that?’

‘To take it all off properly at the end of the day before you go to sleep.’ She handed her a packet of make-up remover tissues. ‘Take these, there are a few left, they’ll work on eyes and skin.’

‘I can’t wait till I’m allowed to wear my own make-up every day.’

‘That’s another important thing.’ Audrey bent down with her hands on her knees so she was eye-level with Layla. She touched a finger to her nose with a light flick. ‘Don’t wear it before you need to – learn to see the beauty you already have, the beauty everyone has.’

‘Daddy always says beauty is on the inside as well as outside.’

‘And he’s exactly right.’ She turned to Veronica. ‘Maybe we could give you a makeover, Gran. What do you think?’

But Gran laughed at the idea and instead cut slices of Bakewell tart before Layla showed her the latest kindness calendar. And if she suspected they were tampering with it, she never let on. All she remarked upon was how full it was and she seemed to be excited more than anything else.

‘Mrs Haines wants us to include someone else in the calendar this time, to be a team.’ Layla pointed to the sentence written across the top in small letters to squish it all in. Audrey had tried to make her writing as much like a teacher’s as she could, neat and uniform and clear. She just hoped Layla wouldn’t do one of her winks right now or it would be startlingly obvious.

Gran peered more closely and read out, ‘“Find a friend this month and join forces for double the fun”. You mentioned that before – is Dad helping you out?’

‘He’s too busy with work.’ She managed to look glum despite the makeover.

‘That’s a shame.’

‘Would you help me, Veronica?’

‘You want me, really? To help with this?’ Although excited at first, she looked a little doubtful. ‘I don’t want to mess it up if I can’t do some of the items.’

Audrey hadn’t thought this might make her feel bad in any way. ‘Gran, I’m sure there’s plenty required that won’t involve doing anything you don’t want to do.’

‘I don’t know.’ Veronica shook her head, already looking overwhelmed.

Audrey had to think fast. ‘How about I help out too? You’re Layla’s main helper of course, but if there’s something you can’t do, then I can step in.’ She looked at the calendar and pointed out a square. ‘This one, for example: “Rake leaves off the path for a neighbour” – I can help Layla with that, but some of the others we can do together. Look at this one, Gran.’

Gran read out loud. ‘“Join a group”.’ Her eyes pleaded with her granddaughter and Audrey could tell she was beginning to panic.

To quell the rising anxiety, Audrey put a hand firmly on her gran’s. ‘We’ll do it together, us three. I’ll help with as much as I need to, I promise you that.’

‘You promise? I don’t want to let anybody down.’

‘I promise, Gran.’ When her gran nodded, she added, ‘We’ll be in a club. And I do believe that’s an item on the calendar.’

‘The Kindness Club!’ Layla called out.

Gran jumped, a hand at her chest. ‘That’s an outside voice if ever I heard one.’ But she hugged Layla. ‘I like the idea and I really do want to help.’

‘Then it’s decided,’ said Audrey. ‘All three of us will work on this, all three of us will do as many tasks as we can, but some will only be for two.’

‘We need to make a promise, a bit like I had to do when I joined the brownies,’ Layla announced.

Audrey stood and held her right hand to her temple in a salute sign. ‘I, Audrey, do solemnly swear to offer random acts of kindness using the kindness calendar. I promise to help Layla and Gran fulfil all the tasks on the calendar, leaving nothing out.’

Gran and Layla stood and adopted the same pose.

‘I’ve forgotten it already,’ Gran admitted.

‘Repeat after me,’ said Audrey and took each of them through the promise stage by stage. And at the end their hands met in the middle of their circle and launched into the air as they declared the Kindness Club officially open.

Veronica was rummaging in a kitchen drawer and took out a pen. She found ‘Form a club’ on the calendar and crossed a line right through it. ‘First item done! Let this be the first meeting of The Kindness Club on Mapleberry Lane.’

And over another slice of Bakewell tart, Audrey and Layla shared a mischievous look. Everything was falling into place.

Chapter Five

Veronica

It was midday on Sunday and Veronica had made roast beef with all the trimmings. It had been years since Veronica embraced a weekly Sunday lunch, it was hardly worth it on her own, but with three of them under the same roof, she’d been glad to bring the tradition back. Cooking for others as well as herself brought a certain kind of comfort, one she missed and that had faded away along with so many other things in her life. She set down the bowl of golden crispy potatoes next to another filled with an embarrassing amount of Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshires and one almost spilling over with glazed carrots. She watched her daughter and granddaughter: Sam tiptoeing around afraid to say much at all, Audrey on the defensive with her mother and only relaxed when her mother wasn’t in the house.

Audrey brought the gravy boat over, walking gingerly she’d filled it up so high. ‘I like my gravy,’ she justified when Sam gave her a look.

Veronica knew she was changing since these two had come back into her life and although she was a wimp outside of her house, each day she felt mounting confidence that she wasn’t that way within its walls. Layla had brought some of that confidence with her kindness calendar; Veronica had sailed through the days excited to do something to help, whether it was a simple task of thanking someone for a job well done – Sam had been on the receiving end of that when she cleaned the cooktop to a brilliant shine – or making dinner for someone you love, which Veronica had done with this Sunday lunch.

‘How’s the schoolwork going?’ Veronica asked Audrey in an effort to lead the atmosphere inside the house in the right direction.

‘It’s fine.’ Audrey added a third Yorkshire to her plate.

‘And how was work this morning?’ she asked Sam, who didn’t usually work Sundays but was covering for another member of staff.

‘Busy,’ was all her daughter said before she, like Audrey, drizzled enough gravy over her roast to sink the Titanic. Veronica smiled at how alike mother and daughter could be, though they’d never admit it.

Veronica savoured the sweet taste of the carrots, some from Charlie and Layla’s garden after Charlie had dropped a bag over this morning, the others from the supermarket to make up the numbers. ‘Did you see the teddy bear I knitted for Layla?’ she asked.

They both looked obediently over to the sofa where three bears were sitting all in a row.

Audrey smiled. ‘They’re cool, Gran. Are they all going to the Teddy Bear Drive for Layla’s kindness calendar?’

‘They most certainly are, and I’ve got another halfway finished.’ At least Layla and her kindness calendar gave them all some common ground, something to talk about that didn’t involve discussing or even hinting at their own faulty dynamics. Even Sam seemed to take a bit of an interest. ‘I could teach you to knit if you’d like, Audrey,’ offered Veronica.

‘I’m not sure if it’s my thing.’

‘Nonsense.’

‘It was never mine.’ Sam’s eyes were on her dinner but when she looked up she must’ve realised how off she had sounded. ‘Sorry, but it wasn’t. Remember you tried to teach me on pencils?’

‘That’s right,’ Veronica chuckled. ‘I think that was my downfall. You saw it as a joke and never wanted to carry on after that.’

When there was a knock at the door, Audrey leapt up. She’d got through her lunch quickly enough in anticipation of her appointment. ‘That’ll be Tanya… the hairdresser,’ she said by way of explanation to Sam. ‘I’ll get her settled then come back and help clear up.’

‘I thought Audrey used the salon in the high street,’ Sam wondered when Audrey left them to it to show Tanya upstairs. The girl was doing door-to-door service for a haircut so the bathroom was the best place.

Veronica relayed what Audrey had told her about Tanya setting up on her own. ‘It’ll save Audrey money for a start – some of these places charge a fortune.’

‘Now there’s something I can get on board with,’ Sam smiled.

Veronica offered more glazed carrots to Sam, who hadn’t eaten anywhere near as much dinner as she should, but she declined. ‘You seem tired.’ Was she allowed to make a comment like that? It had come out before she could think too much about it.

To Veronica’s relief, Sam smiled tentatively. ‘It’s the extra shifts I’m doing, but I need the money right now and I’ll be off for a couple of days next week.’

‘That’s good.’ She knew better than to offer financial help again. She didn’t want to give Sam any further cause to avoid conversation, and denting her pride would definitely do that.

‘I’m enjoying being there far more than I ever thought I would.’

‘Really?’ This was progress, Sam offering titbits of information voluntarily, and Veronica knew it was a promising sign. She suspected Charlie’s presence had a lot to do with it. Not just because there was an obvious attraction between the pair but that it showed Sam her mother wasn’t all bad – some people actually liked her.

‘It’s different,’ Sam went on, ‘and I think “different” is what I needed. Perhaps it’s what everyone needs now and then; it seems to have worked for Audrey with her schooling, and I think once I find a place to live I’ll feel even more settled.’

‘How’s the house-hunting going?’

‘It’s proving quite difficult.’

‘I blame the schools in this area – they draw families here.’ Veronica finished her last piece of cabbage she’d added to the meal, thinking Audrey wouldn’t touch it. But she’d eaten the entire lot. She had the appetite of a teen, the figure of a model, just like Sam had been at that age – hollow legs, they used to say.

‘I got my hopes up earlier when the agent called to say he had a brand new flat available. I wanted to yell at him when he told me it was one bedroom. It’s down near the river, lovely views, would’ve been perfect.’

‘You know you could always let Audrey stay here.’ She would never have thought when the sullen teen turned up on her doorstep in the summer that she’d end up enjoying her company, let alone want more of it. It seemed every time she got a little injection of companionship into her life whether it be Charlie, Layla or Audrey and now Sam, she wanted it to flood her body, stay with her always, an antidote for the loneliness she hadn’t realised she’d been feeling for so many years because she’d simply got used to it. The four walls of her home had become enough, they’d embraced her in a comforting safety blanket. The television, the odd caller, a handful of telephone conversations and her bookshelves and house plants had kept her going, but lately Veronica had begun to feel as though perhaps she needed more. Quite how she was going to get more when she wouldn’t leave her home and garden, she wasn’t sure.

‘I’d rather have her with me,’ Sam admitted.

She was probably worried Veronica would ruin Audrey’s life like she’d ruined Sam’s. ‘Well, the offer’s there.’

Veronica busied herself clearing the plates, swishing away Sam’s offer to do it for her. She didn’t like to say that perhaps both Sam and Audrey needed their space; it had worked doing that in the summer and now they were in closer proximity, the tension was back. But she couldn’t give her opinion. She’d be the last person Sam would take parenting advice from given the monumental mess she’d made of bringing up both her children.

‘I appreciate the offer, Mum,’ Sam said softly at her shoulder as she stood at the sink rinsing the plates. Sam took them from her one at a time and slotted them into the bottom rack of the dishwasher, and for a moment it felt as if they were working together, putting everything to rights.

They heard Audrey’s laughter coming from upstairs, and Sam glanced at the ceiling. ‘She seems happier here.’

‘I’m glad I could help. I know you must want to get out as soon as you can, but don’t feel you have to.’

‘I’m thirty-nine, I need to have a place of my own.’

‘I know you do. But…well, we’re getting into our groove, aren’t we?’

Sam’s laughter broke the tension. ‘Yes, I suppose we are.’

Sam had gone out for a long walk before meeting Clare to go to the pub and Veronica had almost forgotten Tanya was even in the house until Audrey came downstairs to show off her new haircut.

‘Beautiful,’ Veronica complimented. The short pixie cut with a fringe trimmed but styled to sit right above her eyebrows suited her and drew attention to defined cheekbones that Veronica would’ve loved to have had at her age.

‘I’m going to add a bit of colour next time,’ Audrey declared, admiring herself in the hallway mirror.

‘Dear God, not pink or blue or anything like that, please.’

‘No chance, something tasteful that enhances my natural colour. You should add a bit of colour to yours.’

Veronica didn’t disguise her amusement. ‘What a waste of time. Nobody’s going to see it apart from me, well, and you, your mum, Layla, Charlie.’

‘Gran, never mind anybody else, do it for you.’ Audrey perched on the arm of the chair and Veronica noticed some magazine clippings in her hand. ‘Here, Tanya is touting for business and gave me these taken from a magazine I flipped through while she was doing my hair. These women, all a similar age to you, they look really good.’

‘They’re all beautiful, I agree.’

‘And so are you. Come on, Tanya’s desperate to build up her client base, and think about it: if you get a haircut tonight and let me do your make-up too, you’ll be able to cross off the item on Layla’s kindness calendar.’

Veronica’s interest piqued. She so wanted to be involved with as much of the kindness calendar as she could. She swore something seemingly insignificant had brought a sense of joy to this house she could never have predicted. It sounded silly, she’d never say so out loud, but every time they dealt with another item on the calendar, it gave her an uplifting feeling she thought she’d lost for good. And calling it The Kindness Club on Mapleberry Lane made it feel real, like she was part of something important. They’d even taken to having their own colour to cross off tasks – a red pen for Layla, blue for Veronica and green for Audrey.

‘It’s years since I’ve had it cut,’ said Veronica. ‘Tanya won’t want to work on an old maid like me.’

‘Rubbish, she does or she wouldn’t have suggested it. And if you do this, we’ll get Layla over to see the results, she’ll be amazed.’

‘I don’t know.’ She touched a hand to her hair. Grey, wiry, lacking anything resembling oomph, it had simply become easier to pin it all back into a bun and ignore it.

Tanya chose that moment to appear. ‘Hey, Mrs Bentley.’

‘It’s Veronica,’ she told her. ‘Come in, I don’t bite. Audrey has told me this idea of yours but I’m a bit old for primping and all that business.’

‘You’re not at all,’ Tanya smiled, the gap between her front teeth endearing. ‘I hope Audrey isn’t pressuring you; she’s trying to support me and get others on board because the more clients I have, the better reputation I’ll build. I’ve got an eighteen-month-old at home, I’m doing this for him really, so I can be with him more often rather than tied to shop-opening hours.’

Veronica asked a bit about her little boy. She didn’t look much older than Audrey, blonde hair wound up into a chignon with a few arty strands at either side, mascara precision-applied to open up trusting eyes. But it was the nervousness that made her appear younger and Veronica was reminded of the times she’d panicked when she was in situations she couldn’t read. This was nothing like that of course, but she felt for the girl who was doing her best for her young family, and it was Tanya’s next remark that clinched it.

‘It really would be a very kind thing to do if you could help me out, Veronica.’ Tanya took the mug of tea Audrey had made for her. It seemed she wasn’t in a hurry to get going.

‘Well, maybe just a trim,’ Veronica relented.

‘No chance,’ said Audrey the second Veronica stood up. With one hand on her bag, she guided her out of the room towards the stairs. ‘This is a makeover, let’s go for it.’

Halfway through the transformation, Veronica had looked down and seen the amount of hair pooling on the floor. She’d closed her eyes then, letting Audrey’s warm voice wash over her, keeping her calm. Tanya even had some colour in her kit and added something called lowlights in an ash blonde that blended beautifully with the silvery grey already there. By that point Veronica had given up asking questions; she’d let the girls make the decisions, she’d put her faith in them. Tanya had mixed peculiar colours that Veronica tried not to worry about, she moved deftly with her comb, painted strands of her hair before wrapping them up in foil that looked like what she’d used to cover the beef earlier. But all the while Veronica had uttered the mantra in her head that she should just go with it. She should trust Audrey and Tanya, and think of what Layla was going to say when she’d proven she could be a part of The Kindness Club as much as anyone else could. Imagine how she’d feel crossing the item off the calendar with her blue pen.

The girls hadn’t let Veronica see her hair until after it was finished. Instead, Audrey had taken her to her bedroom for make-up and removed the mirror so she was still in the dark. In the meantime Tanya had been in charge of more cups of tea, hanging around to see the final results, and by mid-afternoon it was time for the big reveal.

Standing in the downstairs hallway with her hands over her gran’s eyes, Audrey asked, ‘Are you ready?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Gran, this is a good thing.’

‘Is it?’ With her eyes squeezed shut she wasn’t so sure.

‘Gran…’ Audrey had a hold of her hand. ‘This is the start of you thinking a little bit about yourself.’

‘That all sounds far too self-indulgent.’

‘It’s not, it’s something you need to do. For yourself, for me, promise me you’ll start thinking about what you need and what you want. I mean it, Gran.’

Veronica, eyes still closed, took a deep breath. ‘I promise.’

‘I’m going to need that in writing,’ Audrey giggled. ‘Now, are you ready?’ She made a theatrical noise like a drum roll.

She could do this, she could think about a way forwards. Even if it was within these walls, things could still change, couldn’t they? And now she’d promised Audrey, maybe she’d have to put in extra effort to ensure they did.

‘Come on, Gran, would you open your eyes already!’

Veronica knew the hallway mirror was there in front of her and when she opened her eyes she was going to look different to earlier that day when the usual image had sailed past the glass, not giving her cause to pause. Since then her hair had been done and Audrey had fixed her make-up, going for a natural but thickening lashline, brightening her eyes – whatever that meant – and curling lashes. Veronica hadn’t used make-up in years. She only hoped they hadn’t made her look like a clown. She didn’t want to scare Layla half to death.

‘Too late to back out now,’ Audrey said, doing the drum roll again.

‘Yes, I suppose it is.’ She could hear Tanya getting excited too and caught up with the moment, Veronica opened her eyes.

‘Gran, what do you think?’ Audrey, smiling, peered in the mirror alongside her, but her smile faded.

Veronica couldn’t speak. Audrey had even made her put on her favourite top – a soft teal, wool top with a high neck. And the woman looking back at her now wasn’t a woman she knew anymore. She hadn’t known this woman for years. Her hair cut short at the back but with wispy layers on top and at the sides looked more elegant than her bun ever did, and the colour in it warmed her skin rather than leaving it washed out like it usually felt. It was quite the transformation.

‘You hate it.’ Audrey panicked because she’d seen the tears forming.

‘What you’ve done…it’s…it’s…’

‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Bentley.’ Tanya was at her side, her hand touching her arm.

‘Gran, I just wanted to help.’

Veronica shook her head as a lone tear trickled down her cheek. Audrey came to her other side and touched her arm as they all stood there looking in the mirror. Veronica finally said, ‘What you’ve done is … well, it’s nothing short of amazing. I love it. I don’t know quite how to thank you.’

Layla and Charlie couldn’t believe it when they turned up later that afternoon. Charlie was obviously looking for Sam who was out and about, but Veronica supposed the sight of her standing here in the kitchen was enough of a distraction.

‘You look beautiful!’ Layla enthused.

‘You really do, Veronica.’ Charlie kissed her on the cheek. ‘Who did this to you?’

‘Guilty,’ said Audrey. ‘And the other person was Tanya, but she’s gone home now so you’ll have to blame me.’

Veronica hugged her granddaughter again, already disappointed that come tonight she’d have to take the make-up off and go to bed.

But so many people she cared about were around her now. And when Layla unrolled the kindness calendar, which had taken to being kept here at the ‘club headquarters’, she, Veronica and Audrey looked at the square in question and watched as Gran used her blue pen to put a line through it. A cheer erupted in the kitchen before Charlie whisked Layla away to a friend’s birthday party at a local soft play centre.

Veronica made mugs of tea for herself and Audrey. ‘I feel like a different person.’

‘You’ve always been the same person underneath.’ Audrey blew across the top of her tea. ‘You were hiding away, that’s all, and now you look amazing, Gran.’

‘I do, don’t I?’ she grinned. ‘My neck feels bare with this hair-do though.’

‘I know that feeling from when I chopped off my hair, but it suits you. So does the make-up. You have cheekbones, Gran.’

‘I thought they were long gone!’ She noticed her reflection in the wall oven when she passed by to sit at the table with Audrey.

‘Not gone, always there, just needed a little encouragement to show themselves, that’s all.’

They spent the next half hour chatting away. Audrey had a new friend called Vicky and not only that, she was interested in a boy. His name was Alex and according to Audrey, he was popular, handsome and he’d even smiled at her a few times.

‘You’re really settling in here, aren’t you?’ Veronica only dared to hope this was a sign of things to come. If only she and Sam had been able to have such frank conversations.

Audrey smiled. ‘I feel like I am.’

‘Hopefully one day you’ll get to put make-up on models or TV stars rather than a little old lady like me,’ Gran concluded, collecting the mugs and leaving them in the sink.

‘I don’t mind who it is, as long as I get to do it.’

‘I feel bad you worked so hard, and Tanya did.’

‘We didn’t mind and you paid Tanya; she was only too happy to do it and build her business. No need to feel guilty.’

But she did. ‘You worked hard and nobody will get to see the results, not apart from those who come here, and that list is hardly long.

Audrey ignored the remark and instead looked again at the calendar. ‘There’s so much on here that you can do, Gran. This one, for example.’

‘“Get to know the local community”? That’s not a good one for me, Audrey.’ Her heart sank. She’d never be able to tick off many items from the calendar at this rate and she’d already heard Layla going on about having all three coloured lines on all of the allotted squares if she possibly could. But how could Veronica make that happen?

‘Nonsense,’ Audrey batted back. ‘Come with me.’ She beckoned Veronica to follow her upstairs.

Veronica sneaked another glance in the mirror at this woman whose life was changing with every passing day. In Audrey’s bedroom she sat on the bed and waited for Audrey to clear more of a space at her desk that more often than not resembled more of a make-up station. She ran downstairs and brought up another chair, positioned her laptop and flipped it open.

‘What are we doing?’

‘When I was walking past the newsagents a few days ago, I saw a sign in the window advertising the Mapleberry Village Residents Group on Facebook.’

‘I don’t use things like Facebook. I can do emails, that’s about it.’

Audrey pointed to one of the chairs. ‘Sit, you’re about to get a crash course.’

Veronica found her granddaughter most persuasive and within minutes she had a Facebook profile – no photograph as yet – and Audrey had given her a rundown of how to navigate the social media site. It was complicated, Veronica knew she wouldn’t remember half of it, but Audrey said any time she had questions, fire away, and she even left a bit of a cheat sheet with simple tips such as her password – kind of essential – and what the symbols at the top of the screen were for, for her to look at if Audrey wasn’t around.

‘So I can find anybody on here, anyone I like?’ Veronica wanted to know.

‘Sure. I mean a lot of people have privacy settings that won’t allow you to view much about them, but you can find out enough. Here, let’s search on Mum.’

‘Your mum is on this?’

‘Of course. Go on, type in mum’s name and surname.’

Veronica did as she suggested and she grinned when not only did a few unknown faces appear, but also her daughter’s. ‘Now what do I do?’

‘You can ask her to be friends with you, if you like.’ When Veronica hesitated at doing anything, Audrey went on. ‘Gran, you don’t have to be one of those people who shares photos and details all the time like some of the people I’ve shown you. Why don’t you lurk for a while as you get used to it?’

‘Lurk? You make me sound like a criminal. And I don’t understand how this will help me to fulfil the “Get to know your local community” item on the calendar.’

With a few more taps on the keyboard, Audrey had navigated her way to the Mapleberry Village Residents Group and clicked on Join.

‘Did you just…’

‘I joined you up, yes. You live here. I joined too and so far I haven’t posted anything. This will let you explore a bit, find out who your neighbours are, discover a bit about Mapleberry and things that go on. Here, let’s sign you out and me in.’ She changed over to her own account and went into the group under her own name. ‘You can scroll through and have a look for yourself.’

Audrey left her to have a tinker around, and scrolling down the group didn’t seem all that bad. It had over a thousand members who belonged, and so many names had posted that Veronica thought she’d never remember them all. Some people were selling old toys, one was advertising his plumbing business, another asked for recommendations for a painter and decorator and it had got more than sixty responses!

She kept on scrolling, it went on for ever and ever.

‘You having fun, Gran?’ Audrey delivered her another cup of tea.

Veronica was smiling. She’d stopped all the way down the group feed at a post from December last year.

‘Whoa, you must’ve had to go through hundreds of posts to get that far back,’ said Audrey.

‘This is the Christmas tree last year. There’s always one on the field, or some call it the green, out past the end of Mapleberry Lane, the end past the high street. I’d forgotten how beautiful it was.’ The autumn winds rattled the window pane as though to remind them both that Christmas wasn’t all that far away and the seasons were gearing up for a change.

‘I’m looking forward to seeing it,’ Audrey smiled.

Veronica tried to focus on the video below, on the tree and the green space, and the faint sounds of carols in the background. The sounds of a season she’d loved right up until her own world fell apart. Then it had only reminded her of what she’d lost and even Layla begging her to have a tree last year hadn’t worked.

‘Let’s go back into your Facebook, Gran, see if they’ve approved your joining request.’ With a few taps on the keyboard, they were back there as Gran kept her brain in gear remembering her password. She scrubbed it off the cheat sheet. ‘It’ll keep my mind active, having to remember it, and besides, you should never write passwords down.’

‘You’re right,’ Audrey replied as Veronica typed in her details and once she was into her account, the notification was already there to say her request had been accepted.

‘I’m not sure I want to write anything just yet.’

‘It’s all totally up to you.’

But Veronica wasn’t daft. She knew, like most things, the more you put into it, the more you got out of it. ‘Look at this post,’ she said, peering closer to the screen, ‘it’s from Carole who works in the bakery to let everyone know she’s taking maternity leave. I remember her, she was always nice to me.’ Veronica could also remember the panic attack one morning out front and Carole taking her home on her arm, shutting up shop to do so, thinking not of herself but of someone else. She’d been kind that day and Veronica had never forgotten it. ‘I’m going to send my best wishes.’

‘Go for it!’

Veronica typed a short message into the comments wishing Carole well, saying she hoped to hear news of the addition to her family soon.

Audrey beamed. ‘See, you’re getting to know your local community already. And you met Tanya today too, she’s local, so that’s someone else. Gran, I do believe you’re really doing this.’

Veronica supposed that in a weird way, she actually was.

Veronica woke before midnight needing the loo. It must have been all the tea she and Audrey got through yesterday evening as they chatted and then had another play with Facebook. Sam was out at the pub with Clare, Layla would’ve been in bed hours ago, and she and Audrey had sat in the study and looked at the various social media – some odd, some useful. There were even book groups she could join and talk about current reads. Veronica saw she could be a part of something more without having to think about leaving the house. She wasn’t sure she would ever be ready for that but Veronica wasn’t daft, she knew that’s what Audrey was trying for and she wasn’t about to disappoint her granddaughter by telling her it might never happen.

Veronica was heading back to her room when she noticed a light coming from downstairs. She realised Sam must be home and when she reached the kitchen, her daughter was standing at the sink facing the window. And if Veronica wasn’t mistaken, she was crying.

‘Sam?’ she said softly so as not to wake Audrey. ‘Sam, what’s happened?’

Sam had her back to her, her blonde hair pinned up with wet strands dangling down, the bunched collar of her snuggly dressing gown wrapped around her neck. ‘I’m losing her, Mum.’

‘Whatever are you talking about? Losing who?’ She wanted to hug her close, comfort her, but they had never been physically affectionate, not since Sam was six or seven and she’d needed her mother’s loving arms around her. Then her father’s arms had taken their place and that was that.

‘I’m losing Audrey.’

Sam turned and after wiping away her tears noticed the change. ‘Mum, your hair…it’s gone.’

Veronica smiled. ‘It has. What do you think?’

‘About time,’ was all Sam said, and managed a little laugh through tears.

‘Audrey did my make-up too. I’ll get her to do it again sometime so you can see the finished results for yourself.’

‘I’d really like that.’

‘Come, sit down over here.’ She led them over to the table, hoping Sam would open up to her. Her daughter didn’t take much prompting.

‘Audrey wants to go to New Zealand.’

‘To see her dad?’

‘To live with her dad.’

A familiar feeling of panic rose within Veronica. She couldn’t let that happen, not now. She was inside, in her house, she was safe. She had to keep that in her head for Sam. ‘She’s never mentioned a thing to me.’

‘Nor to me either. She’s thrown it at me a few times in anger over the years, but I figured all kids do that so I never took it seriously, until I found some leaflets and books in her room.’ She shook her head and swore loudly. ‘I’ve emailed Simon to ask him exactly what’s going on. I need to know what plans have been made, how far they are along, what formal applications with regards to visas have been lodged.’ She shook her head and swore loudly but the anger turned to tears again. ‘This is all such a mess.’

Veronica handed her a tissue and waited for her to calm down. There wasn’t much she could say; she knew what it felt like to lose a child, to have a distance between you that was so vast you couldn’t possibly reach the other side. And when Sam’s tears showed no signs of drying up, Veronica did the only thing she could think of.

She pulled Sam into a hug for the first time in years.

And for once, Sam let her.

Chapter Six

Veronica

After breakfast the next day, the hug with Sam still at the forefront of Veronica’s mind, she felt as though a warmth had wrapped comfortingly around her shoulders for the first time in years. And despite the worry over what Audrey was going to do – or more to the point, what Simon was up to – Veronica felt as though these walls were finally filled once again with family. A real family. She’d woken this morning thinking it might have all been a dream until Sam smiled at her and said ‘Good morning’ in a cheery tone that suggested she’d also felt something shift the night before as she’d poured her heart out.

It was as they cleared the breakfast dishes that Sam came up with an idea that very nearly floored Veronica. Layla had just finished her piano practice, Audrey was packing her school bag and Veronica was washing up when Sam confided that the Mapleberry Mug was looking tired these days and in need of a bit of attention. ‘The paint around the menu board is peeling, same with the door leading out to the kitchen, the sofas and tables all look dull and in need of a lift.’

Up until now Veronica had hardly dared to hope her daughter was becoming a part of Mapleberry, but this surely showed she was. Sam’s boss had given her a lot more than a job, she’d given her friendship, another person Sam’s own age, another mum to hang out with and a way to escape the four walls of the house.

‘Perhaps Clare will give it a makeover in the new year,’ Veronica suggested.

‘Like our makeovers,’ Layla chimed. She’d done her piano practice already, filling the house with tunes that these days had Audrey humming away rather than complaining.

Veronica winked at Layla. ‘Yes, I suppose it is a bit.’

Sam found a plastic container to put in a couple of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for Layla to take to school and handed a couple to Audrey to slot into her packed lunch. ‘That’s the thing – she wants to do a makeover, but doesn’t have the money. I was thinking after I saw some of the items on the kindness calendar – helping a local, make something for someone, help with housework – that perhaps we could work together and tick off a few of those tasks together.’

Layla was all ears of course, even distracted from the heavenly scent of cookies. Veronica, never much of an actor, did her best to hide her surprise at Sam’s reference to the calendar, her hands still immersed in the warm soapy water she’d used to wash one of the mugs that couldn’t go in the dishwasher.

‘That’s a really kind idea, Mum.’ Audrey was no actor either and surprise was written all over her face. If only this girl knew what her plans with her dad were doing to her mum. Would it change her mind at all?

Layla was already getting excited about the items they could tick off the calendar and with a promise they’d make some plans straight after school, Veronica persuaded her it was time to go. Audrey was walking her there today and the little girl couldn’t be more excited, and if Veronica wasn’t mistaken, Audrey seemed to enjoy being in charge of a surrogate sibling.

That evening they all sat around the table and made their plans, Sam clearly mindful of involving Audrey but trying not to boss her about. In fact, she’d let Audrey lead some of the planning. Veronica was to be in charge of knitting some new cushion covers, some in purple and others in yellow, to inject a little colour to the worn sofas at the café. Sam would go and buy the actual cushions as well as the honeysuckle paint Audrey had suggested would work with the other décor already at the café. Audrey and Layla were all set to help with the painting so they planned to get all their homework done in good time and Sam had somehow persuaded Clare’s children to muck in after hours the day after tomorrow.

Veronica longed to be at the Mapleberry Mug to see it all finished, to witness the look on Clare’s face when she opened up the café. Well before school hours, Audrey, Sam and Layla had bundled over there together to see her reaction for themselves, and at least they’d taken plenty of photographs for Veronica.

‘She was thrilled,’ Sam reported the minute she returned from the café after her shift. They were having a cup of tea and Sam was putting her feet up before going back to meet Clare for a celebratory glass of wine at the pub. ‘And she loved the cushion covers.’

‘I’m pleased.’ Veronica had knitted faster than she’d ever done before to get them all finished, but seeing the photographs of the transformation now, her handiwork on the sofas as well as the new paint on the walls around the counter, she felt a part of it all.

Sam, mug of tea clasped between her palms, smiled. ‘Audrey has changed so much since she came here. That’s a good thing,’ she added. ‘I was really proud of her last night; she was bossing Clare’s kids around even though they’re a lot older, she made sure it all got done and nobody cut any corners. She had one of them polishing the coffee machine until you could see your reflection in it.’

‘I can well imagine she had you all organised. You should be very proud of her.’

‘I am.’ A look passed between them both before Sam finished her tea. ‘Now, do you mind if I take over the bathroom? I want to relax before I go back out again to meet Clare.’

‘Help yourself. You and Clare get on well.’

‘We do – I couldn’t ask for a better boss and even though Jilly and I go way back, Clare and I seem to have really hit it off.’

‘I’m pleased for you.’

Veronica sat and finished her tea as Sam went upstairs. And when Audrey finally barrelled through the door after doing homework at her friend Vicky’s, she put the kettle on again and this time Veronica enjoyed the company of her granddaughter, who seemed to be blossoming right before their very eyes. And, it seemed, so was her mum.

Charlie had stopped by the house a lot before Sam came to Mapleberry, but he was round even more often these days. They were all in the hallway as he and Layla waved goodbye, Charlie talking about the café and how he’d like his regular table by the window at eleven o’clock today if Sam could possibly arrange it.

Veronica grinned as she filled the little watering can to feed the remaining houseplants in the lounge. Layla had done a few of them already after they’d finished their secret piano lesson and before her dad came over nice and early to walk her to school. Nice and early to see Sam more like, and Veronica loved to see the pair of them getting close. He and Sam were alike in more ways than one, solo parenting, both doing right by their children and putting their own happiness second at best. And Charlie was a far better man that Simon had ever been. Not that Simon was a bad man: he was easy on the eye, friendly enough, held down a good job, and provided for wife and daughter. Until he’d left them to run off with someone else.

When Veronica found Sam in the kitchen, her daughter had a smile that could’ve taken the place of the sunshine outside if it had bothered to put in an appearance today. It was one of those grim autumn mornings where the only leaves on the pavement would be damp, the wind blew sideways and any beauty of autumn colours from the vantage point in her house tended to get overlooked by miserable black clouds passing overhead.

‘I’m off to work now,’ Sam told her, scooping up her keys and phone.

‘Enjoy your day,’ Veronica said, wishing she could be a fly on the wall to see how Charlie and Sam got on at their pre-arranged rendezvous. Maybe she shouldn’t call it that, but there was always hope.

Sam grinned. ‘I keep forgetting you’ve changed your hair and then I catch sight of you and it takes me by surprise.’

‘You’re not the only one,’ said Veronica.

‘I’m pleased you did it.’

‘And I’m pleased that you’re pleased. And I emailed you Tanya’s contact details.’

‘Thanks, I’m desperate for an appointment – I’ll book her in now before I go to work and hopefully get a spot before the end of the week.’

Veronica mopped up the water around the base of her spider plant on the mantelpiece and then emptied out the remains of the watering can in the kitchen. She started to flip through her recipe book to see what to cook tonight. Audrey was supposed to be helping her so it couldn’t be anything that took too much time. For once Audrey was knuckling down. This new school had clearly been a bit of a magic ingredient, that and the discussions that had seen Sam suggesting that if she did well with her GCSEs then a college course of her choice would be a lot more likely.

When she looked up as Sam came back into the room, she knew something was wrong.

‘Bloody Simon,’ Sam cursed.

Veronica’s heart sank. ‘He’s got the visa, hasn’t he? He’s taking her away from us.’ Somewhere in the mess of all of this, Audrey had become a shared entity, a part of both their lives, and Veronica would be heartbroken if she left.

Sam looked as though her mind was racing at a million miles an hour and couldn’t quite let anything else into her head right now. ‘What? No, no he’s not.’

‘Then what’s the matter?’

‘He hasn’t put any of the wheels in motion.’

‘Well, that’s good isn’t it? You don’t want her to go – perhaps between them they’ve decided it’s not the best decision.’

‘No, it’s not that. Audrey is still looking into it, still pestering him to help her do it.’ She swore again, very unladylike but this was no time for manners. ‘He wrote back to me and said he loves Audrey, but he doesn’t want her to go and live with him. He says he’s started a new life, he’s married to someone else now and they have two kids. He says this won’t work.’

‘The selfish—’

‘What am I going to do? I’ve moved heaven and earth to make sure Audrey never hated him for leaving us, never knew he’d been unfaithful, that his selfishness broke up our marriage and he never looked back. I wanted her to have a relationship with him; I didn’t want to poison her mind against him. And now, now I have to tell her that her own father doesn’t want her enough. This will totally crush her.’

‘Why did he make her believe he did want her to join him over there? I don’t understand.’

‘Because that’s what he does!’ Sam’s voice rose, taking Veronica by surprise. ‘He’s always the one to come out on top, I’m always the bad guy, he’s been stalling all this time and now I have to tell her!’

Veronica’s throat went dry. It was like history repeating itself because what Sam didn’t realise was that the way she’d described Simon – how he was the father who could do no wrong, the man her daughter worshipped – was a stark reminder of Veronica’s own marriage. Sam had worshipped Herman till the day he died in just the same way – but Sam had never been able to see it.

Veronica watched Sam snatch up her phone and her bag ready to bundle out the door to work before she was late. She thought again about the way she’d comforted Sam, her daughter’s emotions being pulled from pillar to post at the thought of losing Audrey. She thought of how proud Sam had been of Audrey for taking charge of the Mapleberry Mug makeover as it had been aptly named on Layla’s calendar as they crossed off several tasks at once.

‘Sam, listen to me.’ Her voice stopped her daughter from leaving. When Sam first came back to Mapleberry, Veronica never would’ve dreamed taking this tone with her, speaking up, giving advice. ‘You are going to have to tell Audrey, but what we really need to do is to make sure she knows how much she’s loved, how much she’s wanted here. And who knows, maybe it’ll be enough to give her a reason to stay.’

And just like that, they were a team. This family might have been torn apart, but they were slowly finding a way to glue themselves back together again.

Can the kindness club give Audrey a reason to stay – or will winter bring a frosty chill to Mapleberry? And will Veronica ever find the courage to step outside?

Continue the story in Part Three, A Winter Wish, available to pre-order now:

About the Author

Helen Rolfe writes contemporary women’s fiction and enjoys weaving stories about family, friendship, secrets, and community. Characters often face challenges and must fight to overcome them, but above all, Helen’s stories always have a happy ending.

To learn more about Helen and her writing, find her at:

www.helenjrolfe.com

Facebook: @helenjrolfewriter

Twitter: @HJRolfe

Instagram: @helen_j_rolfe

Copyright

AN ORION EBOOK

First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Orion Books

Copyright © Helen Rolfe 2020

The right of Helen Rolfe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 3987 0027 7

The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

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