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

she had thought. She had gained the confidence to try to improve her lot in life. And she had found a brother. All this from that impulsive decision to help two strangers on a cold December night. She felt as if she had been repaid a thousand times over.

As for saying goodbye to the Howards… Mim had asked them not to make a fuss, but of course they had ignored her and the full family gathered on the drive to wave her off, even Ros and the children. Mim was amazed that Olly hadn’t been dragged down from London for the occasion. She was showered with unexpected gifts: Bea gave her a new wetsuit so she could continue the wild swimming; Ros handed over a bag of clothes that no longer fitted her bump; Lia gave her a drawing, showing Mim as a phoenix, rising from the flames. Bill tried to hand over money but Mim drew the line at that. They all hugged and kissed, and some held back tears and some didn’t. Corin kept his distance, lurking with Dickens at the corner of the house, looking on with a face bleached with tiredness and despair. It was too painful to see; Mim felt as if the rocks she’d imagined hovering over her chest had fallen, crushing her heart. Was this what love felt like? It was too late to find out. She’d made her decision and it was the right one. She had to make it work.

It was raining by the time they reached Lancashire – fat, heavy drops that pounded on the roof of the car, inevitably reminding Mim of staying in the caravan. Mim followed the signs for Blackpool and Lucas directed her to a smart detached property on an estate of new-build houses. Mim pulled up outside and looked up at the house. This was where her dad had lived. This was where Lucas had been brought up, in comfort and safety. It was a far cry from the places she had stayed. There was one obvious problem though.

‘Where’s the sea?’ she asked, peering all round. She’d never visited Blackpool before, but everyone knew there were miles of beaches at the resort.

‘We’re a couple of miles away from the front,’ Lucas said. ‘You can drive there in a few minutes or catch the bus.’

‘Great!’ Mim said. That was further away than she’d expected, but no doubt it was an advantage to be away from the hustle and bustle of the town centre. Blackpool was bound to be quite different to Littlemead. She spotted a figure lurking in the front window of the house. ‘Is that your mum?’

‘Yeah. I texted to let her know we were almost here. Come and meet her.’

Mim followed Lucas into the house. A small porch led through to a narrow hall where his mum was waiting. She looked around fifty, and was tall and slim with a neat blonde bob and a warm smile. She approached Mim.

‘Hello, love. You must be Mim. I’m Carol. Is it okay to hug? We’re family, after all.’

Mim nodded and Carol gave her a hug. She smelt delicious, of some exotic perfume. Mim wasn’t sure whether she felt more relieved at the friendly welcome or intimidated by Lucas having such a glamorous mother.

‘Let me look at you,’ Carol said, stepping back and holding Mim at arm’s length. ‘You definitely have the look of Martin, and of Lucas. I can’t tell you how glad I am that Lucas found you. But let’s save the chat for later. You look done in after that long drive. How about I show you your room and then we can have a cup of tea? Stick the kettle on, Lucas.’

Carol led the way upstairs and into a bedroom at the back of the house. It was a pretty room, decorated in pale blue and with a double bed filling the centre and a white wardrobe in an alcove. A vase of flowers sat on a dressing table under the window.

‘What do you think?’ Carol asked. She twitched a couple of flowers into place, though the arrangement already looked perfect. ‘Will this be okay? If there’s anything you need, just shout.’

‘It’s lovely,’ Mim said. ‘Thanks for letting me stay. I hope I won’t be in your way for too long. I’ll look for somewhere else as soon as I can.’

‘Stay as long as you like,’ Carol said. ‘This was the guest room. Now it’s yours. It should always have been yours. If I’d known…’ She smiled, too brightly, and tears glittered in her eyes. ‘The bathroom is next door. Come down when you’re ready and we’ll have that tea.’

While they drank their tea, Mim flicked through Carol’s old photograph albums and listened to stories about her dad. There were videos of him too – playing football with a young Lucas, singing karaoke in a hotel bar, cooking Christmas dinner with a paper crown on his head… It was strange and wonderful to see the man that the sixteen-year-old boy in her photograph had grown into; to hear her father’s voice for the first time, to hear him laugh, and to recognise bits of herself in him. Carol and Lucas spoke of him with obvious love. He looked like a good, kind man. So Mim had to know … why had he never contacted her?

‘Did he ever mention me?’ she asked.

‘No. I’m sorry, love. Not until the end,’ Carol said. She sighed. ‘Ours was a whirlwind romance. We were married after four months and Lucas was a honeymoon baby. He said there was never a good time to tell me. And then when we struggled for years to have another baby, he thought it would hurt me to know that he already had another child. He was wrong. I would have welcomed you with open arms. I wish we could have spared you what you went through.’ Carol wiped her eyes. ‘I’m finding it hard to forgive him. You should have been part