Finding Home

by Kate Field

  The first guests were booked in for the half-term break at the end of May, only a couple of weeks away now. It was both a thrill and a relief that the idea of As You Like It holidays had taken off, but it was terrifying too. Their guests might not have enjoyed a holiday for years, if ever. It was a huge responsibility to get this right and make it an occasion they would treasure.

  Lia showed Mim the name-plates one by one. They were incredible: each name had been painted in fancy script and was surrounded by tiny images that either linked with the name or the seaside location. Mim knew nothing about art but these seemed quite exceptional to her.

  Bobby was still holding one board after Mim had inspected them all.

  ‘Now, you won’t be cross with me, will you, when I show you this?’ Lia said. ‘I made it as a surprise, darling. We couldn’t have one caravan without a name.’

  Bobby handed the final board to Lia and she held it up so that Mim could see the image. The words in the centre read, ‘Mim’s caravan’. The pictures round the edge showed a series of red-headed mermaids in different poses, both in and out of the water. It was perfect. She couldn’t believe that Lia had done this for her.

  ‘Oh darling, do tell me that those are happy tears and not because you loathe it.’

  ‘I love it. Thank you.’ Mim gave Lia a hug, something that would have been unthinkable five months ago.

  ‘Well, I still wish you would come and stay in the house and keep me company, but as you won’t be tempted we’re going to make this place as cosy as can be for you. I suppose it isn’t too bad when the weather’s like this. Perhaps you could live here in the summer and hibernate in the house with us over winter?’

  Mim hadn’t thought ahead to next winter. Would she still be here? She hoped so. The Howards were the next best thing to a family of her own; Bea and Bill certainly fussed around as she imagined that parents would, Lia behaved as if Mim were another sister, and Corin… That line of thought shuddered to a halt. Corin was a friend and one she would be sorry to lose if she had to move on. But why should she go? She could stay here, save her money, resume her education, and work towards a better future. Maybe even one day she could have a real home of her own. She wasn’t drifting anymore.

  Bobby attached Mim’s name-plate first and then he and Lia wandered off to the next caravan, just as Bea approached. She was carrying a pile of envelopes.

  ‘I thought I’d bring your post round, Mim dear, as it looks most intriguing. Shall we sit at the table and have a look? I think my days of perching on steps are long gone.’

  Without waiting for a reply, she headed over to one of the picnic benches that had been donated by a garden centre and dropped the post on the top.

  ‘Are you going back to college?’ she asked. ‘You simply must let me help. I’ve steered four children through education of one sort or another, from boarding school to sixth-form college, so I’m sure I can offer some advice.’

  Mim explained about Corin’s suggestion that she could continue her education. She’d looked it up on her mobile phone as best she could, and had discovered that there were courses she could do even with her limited qualifications to date. She’d applied for a few prospectuses to have a better look.

  ‘I think it sounds like a wonderful idea,’ Bea said, tearing the wrapper off a prospectus for a college in Exeter. ‘Good for Corin for persuading you. He’s always loved a cause.’

  Mim ran her hand over the glossy surface of the prospectus. Is that how Corin saw her? As a cause, like Benite in Rwanda? The idea made her feel curiously flat. She looked out over the field, watching Lia and Bobby as they attached the signs to the other verandas. They were laughing and joking and it was remarkable to see the change in Lia, and how confident she appeared around Bobby now.

  ‘Have I missed a development in Lia’s love life?’ Bea asked. She was looking in the same direction as Mim. There was no clue in her expression or her tone as to what she was thinking. Would she disapprove of a relationship between Lia and their handyman? Mim answered cautiously.

  ‘I think they’ve become closer while working on the caravans,’ she said. ‘But only as friends.’

  ‘Just good friends?’ Bea laughed. ‘That tells me everything I need to know. Lia never takes her time over a relationship. This one must be serious.’

  ‘Would you disapprove if it was?’ Mim asked.

  ‘Disapprove of Bobby? Why would I do that?’ Bea closed the prospectus she was flicking through. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever told you how Bill and I became a couple, have I?’ Mim shook her head. ‘I was brought up with my brother down near the Cornish border, on a glorious estate with land running down to the water’s edge. It was a charmed life, and an idle one, I admit. I had nothing to do but attend parties and make myself look beautiful so that a suitable young man would come along and choose me as his wife. My parents took it all very seriously and invited a parade of men they thought would be just the job.’

  ‘I thought that sort of thing had stopped years ago,’ Mim said, pulling a face. ‘It’s a bit sexist, isn’t it?’

  ‘It sounds it now, but my parents married late in life and they still liked to do things the old-fashioned way. They were keen to ensure their money would one day pass to an appropriate custodian, one selected by them.’ Bea’s disapproval was obvious. ‘Then, when I was nineteen, my brother brought home a friend of his from Oxford. His name was William Howard and he was quite the most handsome man I’d ever seen. Not only handsome – he was clever, kind, and his head was full of ideas and inventions. He wasn’t like any of the other men of my acquaintance. I was totally bowled over.’

  ‘And so you married him?’ Mim asked. She loved hearing this story. It was clear that Bea was still as bowled over now as she had been from the start.

  ‘I wish it could have been so simple,’ Bea replied. ‘He was the perfect man in my eyes but my parents didn’t agree. He had many fine qualities but he didn’t have the necessary breeding and he was poor as a church mouse, and that was enough to rule him out as a potential son-in-law. Bill asked for my hand in marriage and my father refused.’

  ‘That’s awful,’ Mim said. ‘I hope you ran away and did it anyway.’

  ‘Not straight away, I’m ashamed to say. I’d been brought up to respect my parents and old habits die hard. I carried on seeing Bill in secret and tried to persuade them to change their minds. But they found out about our meetings and were furious. They said that if I didn’t stop seeing him, they would cut off my allowance and my inheritance.’

  Mim leaned forward across the picnic table, engrossed. ‘What did you do?’

  Bea laughed.

  ‘Then I married him. It was simple, in the end. I found I could live without money but I couldn’t live without Bill. I’ve never regretted it for a moment. Don’t settle for anything less in a relationship, my dear. Look for that person who is the most important piece of your world.’

  Mim had no experience of that kind of relationship. It hadn’t been a feature of her childhood and it wasn’t anything she’d ever really thought of for herself. But why should her future be limited by her past? She wasn’t unhappy on her own but she could be happier. Seeing the relationship between Bea and Bill had made her long for more and dream of possibilities. What if there was a missing piece of her world out there, waiting for her to find him? Although, it seemed unlikely he was waiting in Littlemead. Most of the men she encountered in the Boat were over fifty, or were already attached. Or saw her as a cause.

  ‘Did your parents change their minds?’ Mim asked, turning away from that thought. She gestured around. ‘You have all this now.’

  ‘They never gave me a penny,’ Bea said. ‘We’re not as different as you might think, my dear Mim. I was cut off by my family and so I made my own instead. Eventually, my parents softened and divided my inheritance into trust funds for each of the children. I wish I could see their reaction to how Corin spends his!’ She laughed. ‘Everything we have now is down to Bill and al
l the more precious because of that. He promised when we married that he would make up for what I lost and though I assured him it didn’t matter, he did it anyway. He made our fortune with his invention and the business that flowed from it, and he bought this beautiful house for us to live in. I have the best life I could wish for. And so you see, my dear, I would never disapprove of my children following their hearts. I’d disapprove in the strongest terms of them doing anything else.’ She reached across the table and took Mim’s hand. ‘And to be absolutely clear, that applies to them all, not just Lia. Whoever they choose to love we would welcome as one of us.’

  ‘There was a bloke in here earlier, asking after you,’ Howie said, squeezing past Mim as she pulled a pint for Corin later that night.

  ‘It wasn’t Henry Burrows again, was it?’ Corin asked, leaning forward. ‘Is he still pestering you?’

  ‘Who said he was pestering me?’ Mim replied. ‘A man like that wouldn’t chase after someone like me.’

  ‘I don’t see why not.’

  ‘Then this clearly isn’t your first pint of the evening.’ Mim handed Corin his drink and turned to Howie. ‘Who was it?’

  ‘No idea. I’d not seen him in here before. Here’s an odd thing, though. He called you Miranda. It wasn’t until he’d gone that I made the connection. I’ve not heard Miranda since I filled out the paperwork when you started.’ Howie let out a rumbling laugh. ‘Not in trouble with the law, are you?’

  ‘No,’ Mim said. Corin was still standing at the bar. Dickens was sitting on a stool next to him. They were both watching Mim. ‘What?’ she said to them. ‘I thought we’d established that I wasn’t a dodgy criminal.’

  ‘We have, but do you think Yvonne was satisfied? Does she have a partner?’ Corin asked. He called over to Howie, who had moved along the bar. ‘What did this man look like?’

  ‘Barely a man at all, actually. He was young, lanky, sandy-haired. I’m no good with faces. There was nothing remarkable about him. He was one of you, though.’

  ‘One of me?’ Mim repeated.

  ‘You know, a northerner.’

  Mim looked at Corin.

  ‘You don’t really think Yvonne would have another go, do you?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t know. Is there anyone else who might be looking for you?’ Corin scratched the top of Dickens’s head. ‘An old boyfriend, perhaps?’

  ‘No one ever hung around long enough to earn the title of boyfriend. The men I knew rarely thought I was worth visiting at the hotel, never mind at the opposite end of the country.’ Mim laughed. ‘And don’t even think of dragging out the pity face. I wasn’t interested in a boyfriend then. I got what I needed and that was fine by me.’

  ‘Then?’ Corin looked up. ‘So you are interested now?’

  ‘I might be up for it. The trouble is, now I’m stuck in a land of southerners and I’m not sure I’m up for that…’

  Corin laughed and Mim went over to serve another customer. He was still at the bar when she’d finished.

  ‘So what changed your mind?’ he asked when she joined him again. ‘I thought you didn’t believe in all the hearts and flowers.’

  ‘I didn’t, but then Bea told me about her history with Bill.’ She’d thought about it a lot over the last few days and how it might tie in with what she wanted in her own life. ‘It’s a good story. Perhaps there’s something in this romantic stuff after all.’

  ‘Perhaps there is.’ He smiled. ‘Dad has set the bar high. He built a business and made a fortune to show Mum he loved her. How do you follow that?’

  ‘Not everyone wants grand gestures,’ Mim said. ‘It’s the thought behind it that matters, isn’t it? He understood what she needed and provided it.’ She passed him a bowl of water for Dickens. ‘Are you worried about taking over? Because it means so much to them?’

  ‘Yes. The business is Dad’s Taj Mahal – it was built as a symbol of love. I can’t let it fail.’ Corin spun his glass round on the bar. ‘It’s not just the personal connection. We employ over a hundred people in the factory. We pay above average wages and offer good benefits. Our employees are happy. We have a responsibility to them to keep the business running.’

  ‘You don’t have any vacancies going, do you?’ Mim grinned, but Corin’s words had reminded her of the awful day when the hotel had closed and she’d had to tell the staff that they were out of work. It hadn’t been her decision but she’d still felt guilty and had hated being responsible for ruining Christmas for the families involved. How much worse would it be for Corin, having the fate of a hundred families in his hands? Especially when it wasn’t the career he’d chosen for himself. No wonder the rest of the family didn’t want to take it on. It would be easier to employ someone to run the business and sit back and enjoy the money but that wasn’t Corin’s way.

  ‘Don’t forget that you need to be happy too,’ Mim said. ‘Is there no room for compromise? Can you work in the business part time so you can carry on with the fossil tours and the educational work? You know what else Bea said? She wants you all to follow your hearts.’

  Another customer came up to the bar and Mim started to move away.

  ‘She said that?’ Corin smiled at her. ‘Perhaps on this occasion I should follow her advice.’

  Over the next few days, Mim had the odd sensation that she was being watched but when she turned round there was no one there. She told herself she was imagining it, but when it happened a fourth time she mentioned it to Karen and Heather after their next swim. It was now warm enough for them to sit outside the campervan for their tea and cake, on deckchairs provided by Heather.

  ‘There is someone looking for you,’ Karen said. ‘I was going to tell you. I was in the shop yesterday—’

  ‘Janet’s shop?’ Mim interrupted. ‘How could you go in there after what she did?’ There had been no further activity against As You Like It holidays but Mim was still nursing a grudge.

  ‘I know, I have tried to boycott it,’ Karen said, holding up her hands as if to ward off any further criticism. ‘But Susie wanted brownies and I’d run out of cocoa powder. I don’t hear you complaining now,’ she added, pointing to the half-eaten brownie in Mim’s hand. Mim grinned.

  ‘Tell me who was looking for me,’ she said. ‘Someone’s been in the Boat as well. A young bloke according to Howie.’

  ‘Could be the same person,’ Karen said. ‘This was a young lad, early twenties I’d say. Tall and gangly, gingery hair. A bit anxious-looking but he was talking to Janet so that might account for it. You can imagine how helpful she was.’

  ‘Did you hear what he wanted?’

  ‘A little. He asked if she knew Miranda Brown and Janet said she didn’t and that she was running a shop not an information service. Then he showed her a newspaper clipping. It was about the charity launch – you know, the one with the photo of you with Lia and Corin.’

  Mim knew the one. It was the photo she kept in her emergency box – that, embarrassingly, Corin must have seen. It was also the photo that had brought Yvonne to Vennhallow. Her heart sank. What trouble was it causing now?

  ‘He pointed at your picture,’ Karen continued, ‘and asked Janet if she recognised you.’ She smiled. ‘I won’t repeat Janet’s exact words. She made it clear that if he was another of your sort he wasn’t welcome in the shop.’

  Mim was beginning to feel sorry for whoever this man was. She could imagine that Janet wouldn’t have minced her words.

  ‘Did he say what he wanted?’ she asked.

  ‘No. He was persistent. He asked if you lived in Littlemead but Janet refused to tell him anything.’

  ‘Quite right,’ Heather said. ‘She can’t be giving your address out to strange men.’

  ‘I think she refused out of bloody-mindedness rather than for Mim’s protection. But you’re right. That’s why I didn’t speak to him. He carried on up the hill towards the café but I didn’t see him again after that.’ Karen passed the box of brownies to Mim. ‘Have you no idea who he is?’<
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  ‘None at all. But it’s not likely to be good news, is it?’ Mim picked out the largest brownie she could find, deciding to console herself with chocolate. ‘Hopefully Janet will have scared him away.’

  Mim was taking a break in a quiet corner of the Boat the next night, reading one of the books that Corin had given her for her birthday when a shadow fell over her table. She looked up. There was a young man standing at the side of her table – tall, skinny, early twenties, exactly as Karen had described him. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and had a rucksack on his back, which wasn’t unusual around here. The Boat was a regular stop-off for ramblers walking the South West Coast Path. He didn’t look much like a walker though. One gust of wind might blow him off the cliff top.

  ‘Are you Miranda Brown?’ he asked, in a definite northern accent. ‘Mim?’

  ‘Who wants to know?’ she asked. She put down her book. ‘What’s going on? Have you been asking around the village about me over the last few days?’

  He nodded. Colour rose in his cheeks, making him look even younger.

  ‘I’ve been trying to find you for months,’ he said.

  ‘Why?’ Mim asked. ‘Who are you?’

  He smiled – a nervous but determined smile.

  ‘I’m your brother.’

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was the last thing Mim had expected to hear.

  ‘I don’t have a brother.’ She pushed back her chair and stood up. ‘If this is a joke, I don’t think it’s very funny.’

  ‘It’s not a joke.’ The young man slipped his rucksack off his back, opened it, and took out an envelope. He pulled out a sheet of paper and gave it to Mim. ‘This is my birth certificate. Have a look at my dad. He’s your dad too, isn’t he?’

  ‘I never met my dad.’ Mim sank back down into her chair and studied the paper. It confirmed that a boy called Lucas Hamer had been born twenty-four years ago. His mother was a Carol Hamer – the name meant nothing to Mim. His father was a plasterer called Martin Hamer. She stared at the name with a jolt of surprise and confusion. She recognised it. It was the only information she’d ever had about her father, along with the photo she kept in her emergency box.