For the Love of Liverpool

by Ruth Hamilton

  ‘Can I get you anything?’ Alex eyed her warily. He could tell she was putting a brave face on it. She must be in agony. ‘More painkillers?’

  ‘Kylie will bring them when the next dose is due,’ Kate predicted. ‘Then she can do my makeup. Can’t have me looking red-eyed when they all get here.’

  Alex laughed. ‘My precious Kate. You’ll look a million dollars, as ever. It would take more than a car accident and a house fire to change that.’

  Kate smiled up at him. ‘Isn’t it strange, that policewoman being so similar to Kylie? I mean, I know they look very different when you see them together, but for a minute back there I was convinced Kylie was going to come in and perish in the flames. It gave me a bit of a shock, I can tell you.’

  ‘Of course.’ Alex stroked her hair again, unable to imagine the full horror of those moments in the burning bedroom. ‘But, silver linings and all that, Monica was worried sick. Shows she loves Kylie after all, just in case we ever doubted it.’

  ‘I didn’t, not really.’ Kate was adamant. ‘She just has a terrible difficulty in showing it sometimes. Once Tim’s back, he’ll sort her out.’

  Alex’s phone beeped, and he glanced at the screen. ‘Talking of the man himself . . .’ He opened the text. ‘They’ll be pulling into Lime Street in fifteen minutes. Bang on time.’

  Kate straightened herself up in bed as well as she was able. ‘Then I’d better summon Kylie. She has some repair work to do.’

  ‘I’ll find her,’ Alex said, getting up from the bed and bending to kiss her very tenderly on the top of the head. As he strode from the room he reflected that a few months ago he would have been panicking at the threat to his house, the idea that his precious collection of Lennon memorabilia could have gone up in smoke. But now nothing mattered except the miraculous escape of his beloved Kate.

  Alex was checking that the dogs were quiet down in the mud room when he heard the sound of a car pulling up outside. He gave each furry head one more pat and then raced to the front door, flinging it wide. The taxi had just disgorged its passengers: the Bees, Tim and Julia and, standing in front of them, a little four-year-old girl in a pretty stripy dress. Amelia.

  He knew how much rested on this moment. It was imperative that they got along, both loving Kate as they did. But he mustn’t overplay his hand. So he crouched down to her level and said simply, ‘Welcome. You must be Amelia. There’s someone inside who can’t wait to see you.’

  She looked across at him, her eyes steady. ‘Is it my mummy?’ she asked.

  ‘It is,’ Alex told her, almost bowled over by the resemblance between this small child and her mother. Now was not the time to dwell on it, though. ‘Come with me and I’ll take you to her. I’m Alex, by the way.’

  The girl went to him, holding up her hand so that he could take it, completely trusting. He would have thought she had been treated with nothing but love and affection in all her short life if he hadn’t known otherwise. What strength of character she must have, to have overcome the injury inflicted upon her by her own father. ‘Is she better now?’ she asked.

  Alex was aware of all the others waiting for his answer.

  ‘Not quite, but she’s much better than she was,’ he told her. ‘You can give her a hug if you’re careful. This way.’ He led her through the door, followed by Brenda and Julia, while the men turned to gather the luggage.

  Amelia paused on the way up the stairs. ‘Will this be my new house?’ she asked quietly, as if she was still making up her mind about it.

  Alex nodded. ‘If you like it.’

  ‘And will you be my new daddy?’ was her next heartstopping question.

  Alex once more crouched down to her level. ‘If you’d like that. I’d like to be.’

  Amelia gave him a searching look and then nodded once, briefly. ‘Yes please. I didn’t like my other one very much.’ Then she carried on up the stairs, leaving Alex to follow in her wake.

  He had to run to catch her up. ‘It’s the door at the far end, the one that’s open a bit.’ He leant over her as she reached it and swung it fully open. The guest room was not quite as large as his smoke-damaged bedroom but it was still a generous size, and there in the white-covered bed at the end was Kate, now propped fully up on a mound of pillows, smiling in a way he had never seen before. She was also, for once, totally speechless, as she held out her arms wide.

  ‘Mummy!’ Amelia screamed, and flung herself across the room and onto the bed. Alex found his own eyes were smarting and his vision had blurred, the sight before him almost overwhelming as Kate hugged her daughter tightly, far too tightly for her injuries but with no sign of pain, only the love that she’d had to keep locked away while separated from her child.

  Alex turned away and took a sharp breath. This was it: his family unit of the future. Something he’d thought he would never have. Yet the nightmares of blood had not returned, and his once impermeable fortress against all emotion was well and truly breached. He felt his heart beating hard in his chest as mother and daughter murmured to one another.

  Behind him in the doorway, Tim appeared. ‘All right, old man?’ Even now his habit of checking on his friend had not abated.

  ‘Never better,’ Alex assured him. ‘Never better.’ He turned back to the room and saw that Kate was reaching out an arm towards him.

  ‘Come and join us,’ she said. He needed no second bidding, taking his place beside her, one arm gently around her and the other, for the first time, around the little girl who would henceforth know him as Daddy.

  It felt utterly right, as if he’d finally found his true place in the universe. Now nothing would ever be too much for his two girls. They deserved the best after everything they’d gone through, all that they’d survived, despite so many people’s attempts to harm them. Well, now the world would have to deal with him first. He would go to the ends of the earth to defend these two precious beings.

  ‘Who’d have thought it?’ Kate laughed, speaking his own thoughts and not for the first time. Her face now appeared almost unmarked, thanks to Kylie’s ingenious ministrations and of course Monica’s magic potion. Their fears that she would be too damaged for Amelia to deal with were unfounded. Amelia’s sheer delight at being back in her mother’s arms was evident for everyone to see.

  And there was everyone, crowding in at the doorway: not only Tim, but Julia too, hugging him closely – and did Alex’s eyes deceive him or had she finally put on a little weight? Brenda was peering forward fiercely, eager to check how her newest little charge was faring, while still anxious for the man who was as close to a son as she would ever have; Brian was right behind her. No doubt they were both heartily relieved to be back where the food was familiar and the language intelligible. Peeping around the side was the diminutive form of Monica, with the towering figure of Pete behind her, and the body language between them was far from the recent antagonism. Perhaps they were on their way to recovering their marriage. And just visible behind them was the bright blonde head of Kylie, the girl who’d thought she was unwanted, but had come into her own just when they needed her. A swift movement at knee level revealed Troy pushing his way through the sea of legs, his eager face brightening as he saw someone close to his own size to play with at last.

  Kate raised her eyebrows. ‘Well, this is quite the audience,’ she observed archly. ‘Seriously, I cannot thank you enough for bringing Amelia safely home. What an adventure, wasn’t it, darling? I’m so happy to have you back, I truly can’t tell you how much.’

  Amelia nodded, calmer now after her initial excitement at seeing her mother again. ‘It was. But now I want to stay with you.’

  ‘And you shall,’ Kate promised.

  ‘Too right you will,’ Alex echoed, his eyes sparkling. ‘And when you are sufficiently recovered, Kate, I trust that you’ll do me the honour of becoming Mrs Price in reality, legally, and forever.’ He dropped to one knee, no elegant ring this time, but with all the certainty that this was absolutely the correct thing
to do and what he wanted most in the world. ‘Do you accept my proposal, Kate? Will you be my wife, not in a pretend marriage but one with all the love I can give you? And will you,’ he turned to Amelia, ‘be our bridesmaid? Do you want to do that?’

  The little girl smiled even more, and both she and her mother answered immediately.

  ‘We do.’

  For the Love of Liverpool

  Ruth Hamilton was the bestselling author of numerous novels, including Mulligan’s Yard, The Reading Room, Mersey View, That Liverpool Girl, Lights of Liverpool, A Liverpool Song and Meet Me at the Pier Head. She became one of the north-west of England’s most popular writers. She was born in Bolton, which is the setting for many of her novels, and spent most of her life in Lancashire. She also lived in Liverpool for many years, before passing away in 2016.

  By Ruth Hamilton

  A Whisper to the Living

  With Love From Ma Maguire

  Nest of Sorrows

  Billy London’s Girls

  Spinning Jenny

  The September Starlings

  A Crooked Mile

  Paradise Lane

  The Bells of Scotland Road

  The Dream Sellers

  The Corner House

  Miss Honoria West

  Mulligan’s Yard

  Saturday’s Child

  Matthew & Son

  Chandler’s Green

  The Bell House

  Dorothy’s War

  A Parallel Life

  Sugar and Spice

  The Judge’s Daughter

  The Reading Room

  Mersey View

  That Liverpool Girl

  Lights of Liverpool

  A Liverpool Song

  A Mersey Mile

  Meet Me at the Pier Head

  Midnight on Lime Street

  Daughters of Penny Lane

  For the Love of Liverpool

  First published 2018 by Macmillan

  This electronic edition published 2019 by Pan Books

  an imprint of Pan Macmillan

  20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 978-1-4472-8356-0

  Copyright © Ruth Hamilton 2018

  Cover photography: woman © Shutterstock, background © Epics/Getty Images

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

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.

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

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