Finding Home by Kate Field (read book .txt) 📗

waiting for them. We’ll be painting yours too, so have a think about what colour you would like. Could you find us some paint charts, Bobby, there’s a dear?’

The afternoon flew by as they finished cleaning the remaining caravans, and started work on the grounds. All the flowerpots were emptied of the dead plants and dry soil, and the worst of the weeds were cleared away. Bobby gave Mim a spray to use on the gravel drive to try to kill off the weeds poking up through the stones. Lia had given up all pretence of working by this point, and spent most of her time flitting from group to group, motivating the volunteers with a smile and some conversation.

‘We need to keep the momentum going,’ she said, when it was Mim’s turn to enjoy her company again. ‘I wonder if people will be happy to come back on Saturday? I’ll be getting ready for the Valentine dinner, but Olly will be here by then and he and Corin could take our places, couldn’t they?’ She laughed. ‘I know what you’re thinking. They could do as much work in a couple of hours as I’ve done all day, couldn’t they?’

‘A couple of hours? I’m sure they’d only need thirty minutes.’ Mim grinned. It was one of Lia’s most endearing qualities that she didn’t take herself too seriously. Unlike her eldest brother. ‘Where is Corin today? I thought he would have come to help.’

‘He wanted to, but he’s working today.’

‘A fossil walk?’ Mim asked. ‘How often does he do them?’

‘Hmm?’ The conversation was put on hold while Lia replied to a text message. ‘No, it’s one of his factory days today.’

Mim paused in her spraying.

‘Corin works in a factory?’ she asked. Lia laughed.

‘Not on all the machinery, silly. It’s Daddy’s factory. He’s teaching Corin how to run it, and the rest of the business.’

Bill owned a factory? Mim hadn’t heard any mention of that so far. She hadn’t really thought about where the Howard money came from. Some people were simply born rich, weren’t they?

‘What do they make in the factory?’ she asked.

‘Oh, I don’t exactly know – some kind of industrial clip or fastening, I think. I’ve never really paid all that much attention to be honest, darling. Daddy was terribly clever and invented it when he was younger than me, and now it’s used all over the world. It was definitely one of his better ideas.’

‘And Corin’s going to take over?’ Mim asked. It seemed a waste of all those Geography and Geology qualifications he’d told her about.

‘Someone has to when Daddy retires, don’t they? It’s the family business and pays for us all,’ Lia said. ‘Corin’s the first-born son and heir, so why shouldn’t it be him?’

‘Because daughters and younger sons could run a factory too?’ Mim suggested.

‘Of course we could,’ Lia said, with a disarming smile. ‘But none of us want to.’

‘Does Corin want to? What about his fossil walks?’

‘That’s only a hobby – and an awfully dull one as you now know. I expect he’ll be glad to have something better to do.’

Would he? When Mim had joined Corin on the fossil hunt, she’d seen his passion for the subject, and his enthusiasm for sharing it with others. She’d thought that was genuine – a glimpse of the real man behind the riches. But what did she know? Perhaps the lure of making money was even more appealing. She pumped the weed killer over the drive, trying to ignore the twist of disappointment. There was no point giving it another thought. She would never understand the ways of rich people, and whatever Corin chose to do with his life was no concern of hers.

The Valentine dinner was in a league so far beyond Mim’s comprehension that she felt she’d strayed into a different world. The event was being held at a local golf club, where a large function room had been transformed into a romantic paradise. Clouds of shimmering fabric draped the ceilings and walls, lit by flickering lights spaced out along the sides of the room. There were fresh flowers everywhere, and a beautiful display of rosebuds formed the centrepiece of each table. Everything shone and glittered and sparkled, but not in a tacky way. Elegance and expense were evident in every aspect.

As for the guests, Mim could only watch in wide-eyed, open-mouthed wonder as they started to drift into the room. Most of the men were wearing black tie – the first time she’d ever seen it in real life, and she wasn’t immune to how attractive it was – and the ladies were dressed in exquisite gowns that shimmered as they moved and jewels that sparkled in the light. She wasn’t the jealous type, but as a woman about her own age floated past in a sheath of powder-blue silk, looking and smelling heavenly, she did feel a pang of wistfulness that she would never have the chance to dress up like that. And then she pushed it firmly away, picked up her tray of Champagne glasses and got on with her job.

None of the Howards were seated at the tables she served with dinner, but she noticed them as she made her way to and from the kitchen. They weren’t sitting together as a family, which surprised Mim. Bill and Bea were with couples of a similar age, and seemed to be leading the laughter and conversation at their table. Ros and Jonty were at a table nearby, and Lia and Olly had joined forces with a group of other young people. It took longer to spot Corin, partly because he was at the opposite side of the room to the rest of the family, and partly because he didn’t look like the Corin she knew. Despite the obvious dress code, she’d been looking for the scruffy man with sticking-out hair and a woolly jumper. Her gaze must have passed over him four or five times before she realised that