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

‘It’s all over the internet,’ Heather added. ‘It’s one of the BBC’s most read stories on their news page. There’s so much bad news around at the moment that people have latched on to this as a feel-good story. You’ve gone viral.’

Heather showed Mim her phone. The story was everywhere and had inspired lots of other people to share examples of random acts of kindness and paying it forward. Some people had even started using the hashtag #BeMoreMiranda. Mim swiped from page to page, hardly believing what she was seeing.

‘Great publicity for the charity,’ Karen said. ‘I wonder if Susie could benefit? She should start promoting that she designed the caravan interiors. She might get some work out of it.’

‘Were you really sleeping in your car?’ Heather asked, looking at Mim with sympathy. ‘You didn’t tell us things had been so bad.’

She hadn’t told anyone. Only the Howards knew. Only they could have passed on this information to the press. And though she might once have been glad to see Bea’s ‘one of us’ claim confirmed in black and white, now it felt that they had cut her loose and exposed her to the curious gaze of the world. It hurt more than Mim could say. Did her feelings not matter to them at all?

She walked back up the cliff path, dumped her wet swimming clothes at the caravan, and carried on up the track to Vennhallow. Bea and Lia were outside the house, debating whether to lower the roof on Lia’s convertible. Everything seemed surprisingly normal. Bea waved when she saw Mim.

‘Perfect timing, Mim dear. Are you free to drive me into Exeter later? I’m meeting friends for lunch but Lia can only take me now and it’s far too early.’

‘I saw the story in the Sunday paper,’ Mim said. Lia smiled.

‘Hasn’t it gone well?’ she said. ‘Mim, darling, you are the heroine of the internet at the moment. Aren’t you thrilled?’

‘No! We agreed that the focus would be on the charity, not me.’

‘I know but a good story needs a hook, darling, and it soon became obvious that you were it.’

‘You don’t mind, do you?’ Bea asked, smiling at Mim over the top of the car. ‘It’s gone better than we could have hoped. The reaction has been entirely positive. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were invited on to daytime television soon. Wouldn’t that be exciting? We could all have an outing to London.’

‘But all those things about me living in care and sleeping in the car were private,’ Mim said. They didn’t seem to get it at all. They had ridden roughshod over her own wishes, thinking they knew best. An uncomfortable memory flashed up of Corin warning her about this and of her dismissing him. She hadn’t understood his frustration until now. ‘It should have been my decision who to tell.’

‘You’ve always said you weren’t ashamed of your past. Nor should you be.’ Bea walked round the car to stand in front of Mim. ‘Have we done wrong, Mim dear? I’m mortified if we’ve upset you. We thought we were acting for the best.’ She squeezed Mim’s arm. ‘Wait until you see the impact the publicity has had already. The inbox is full of messages offering donations and support, and referring families for holidays. A holiday park in Yorkshire has offered one of their caravans for two weeks in the summer holidays for anyone who can’t travel down here. This is going to make a difference to so many families and it’s all thanks to you. You have made this charity a success. Surely you can’t be unhappy about that. Isn’t it exactly what we wanted?’

Chapter Seventeen

Bea spent the next few days apologising to Mim, even though she’d insisted it wasn’t necessary. She’d been hurt at first, but she couldn’t regret the publicity for long, whatever it had cost her, when she saw the result. Emails and donations to the charity were pouring in. It broke her heart to see pensioners offering the few pounds they could afford and to read some of the stories of the people who were nominated for holidays. Hadn’t she vowed to do whatever it took to make the charity a success? And it was, beyond her wildest dreams. So what if her history had been bandied round the internet for a couple of days? Bea had been right; she wasn’t ashamed of it. All that mattered was what she did with her life now, and being involved with this charity was the best thing she’d ever done.

She received a text from Bea on Saturday morning saying that there was a surprise waiting for her at Vennhallow. She wandered up the track, enjoying the warm sunshine on her face, and speculating what the surprise might be. It wasn’t the first one Bea had arranged, although it was hard to imagine anything beating the Chinese takeaway she’d been invited to share at the house earlier in the week.

Bea answered the door looking very pleased with herself and Mim’s hopes rose. Had Mrs Dennis made one of her delicious lemon drizzle cakes? Bea laughed when Mim asked the question.

‘She made coffee cake this week, but the surprise is even better than that.’ Bea led Mim towards the drawing room and paused dramatically at the door. ‘You have a visitor.’

‘Do I?’ Mim couldn’t think who it might be. The friends she’d made in Littlemead would come to the caravan, not disturb Bea. She had an awful thought. ‘It’s not another journalist, is it?’

‘No, nothing like that. I’ve learnt my lesson there. No, this is a surprise you’ll like. A friend from the hotel has come to see you. Isn’t that wonderful? It’s all because of the article in the newspaper. I’m thrilled that something good has come out of it for you. You can’t still be cross with me after this.’

A friend from the hotel? Mim’s mind