‘We are all careless with happiness. I’ve been bitter about losing my Frank, blaming the money he won for his death. His clothes are still in the wardrobe, but d’you know what? Today I’ll take them out and, if they aren’t ruined by moths, I’ll offer them to Percy, him who was sleeping in SunnyBank. I think they’ll fit and it might turn things around for him if he smartens himself up a bit.’
‘That’s a wonderful idea, Mabs. It’s time for all of us to change direction.’
‘And something else, while we’re talking sense for a change. All these months since my Frank died, I’ve been trying to think who should have Frank’s money after I’m gone. Now I’ve decided.’
Lottie waited, watching Mabs’s smiling face with its bright eyes and its frame of untidy hair, sharing her smile.
‘I’m giving it to me! I’m going to buy a small cottage with a garden, I’ve always wanted a garden. There, what d’you think of that then? I’m inheriting from me!’
‘Wonderful! And I hope you spend it all. The best of everything is what you deserve.’
‘I might buy you a wedding present, mind.’
They laughed and hugged each other like the friends they had always been.
Zena decided not to add to the list of people she cleaned for now Roy Roberts no longer needed twice weekly visits. She had enjoyed the short career as ‘a lady who does’ and Nelda and her daughters had been a wonderful addition to her life. Roy had been a friend too, and she was sad at his death. But remembering some of the other people she had met, like Janey Day with her delusions of grandeur and her truly awful mother, Trish, she thought she would concentrate on building the office supplies business instead. Jake often found her a new customer and he took an interest in the stock she held, sometimes suggesting new lines.
But she would keep the two cleaning jobs that were left: Karen at SunnyBank still needed her, and she would continue doing her best to prevent Nelda from disappearing under an increasing pile of her crafts material.
She was on her way to Sunnyside when a car approached, coming from Sunnyside. She pulled in close to the hedge and, as the car went slowly past, a man on the back seat waved. Mr Penberthy? He wouldn’t have been able to recognize her. Perhaps the driver told him there was a cyclist and he was just being polite, she decided.
She went in and walked through the hall and down to the kitchen. Karen was sitting at the table and opposite her was Billy Dove.
‘We’ve been having a very interesting talk,’ Karen said. ‘It isn’t my story to tell, but if you’ll wait until James comes down, Billy has something to tell him that will interest you as well.’
‘I don’t want to intrude. I’ll get on with the bedrooms, shall I? Bedrooms, then the bathrooms and, if you’re still talking, I’ll go home and finish another day. All right?’
Karen just smiled and offered Billy more coffee. Zena declined and went upstairs. If he wasn’t so old, I’d say she was smitten, she thought with a chuckle.
She had finished the first bedroom when she heard the sound of a car, and voices as someone entered the house. She went into the bathroom and started removing the towels to replace them when Karen called. They probably want more coffee, she decided and went to the kitchen, calling, ‘Coffee for three?’
‘No, Zena, we need you here, please. Coffee can wait.’
Puzzled, Zena went into the comfortable lounge and sat on a chair near the window, then stared in surprise when she saw her mother there and her brother, Greg. Both were smiling. ‘Why are you here?’ she asked, then remembering her manners, she said ‘Good morning,’ to Mr Penberthy, who asked, ‘Can you move away from the window, please, Zena. The light affects my eyes.’
She moved to sit near the door and he thanked her. ‘I can now see a little,’ he told her and she showed her surprise and delight by jumping up, congratulating him and shaking his hand. ‘What wonderful news! I’m so pleased!’
‘I have more good news, thanks to Billy.’
She turned to look at Billy Dove and frowned. ‘You haven’t found out more of our mystery, have you?’
He reached out and touched Lottie’s arm. ‘My dear, I have found your son. Are you ready to learn about him?’
Lottie’s arm began to shake ‘Yes,’ she said staring at Billy.
Billy pointed to James. ‘James Penberthy is your son. Born on 7 October thirty-four years ago.’
Both Zena and Greg thought their mother would faint and stood to support her but the moment of shock passed and she stared at James as though trying to see in him the tiny baby she had loved and lost all those years ago.
‘James? You were called James? It was what I requested but I was told the adoptive parents make their own decision.’
‘They were kind, loving people and would certainly have done what you had asked.’
She couldn’t think of a single question to ask apart from, ‘Have you had a happy life?’ which sounded banal, foolish.
James smiled, ‘I couldn’t have asked for better.’ He turned to Zena and Greg. ‘The only time I was in serious trouble and they couldn’t help, it was your father who came to my rescue. A good and generous man.’
‘D’you mean he was your father?’
‘No!’ the protest came from Lottie and James in chorus.
Billy spoke for the first time. ‘He had asked me to find your son, Lottie and when I did he watched over him and when he found out he was at risk of losing his business and his parents losing their home, he lent James the money he needed. It was a bridging loan, as I said. Unfortunately James was involved in an accident, and he was in hospital for several weeks. It was then he lost his sight. The loan from your father helped his business to survive, but there was a delay in the money from the property transactions. When he eventually managed to get back to dealing with things, he was shocked to find the loan hadn’t been repaid. He searched desperately but couldn’t find the address to return it.
‘Since then there have been several more visits to hospital for operations and all the time he was searching for me to enable him to return the money to your father.
‘Messages from Roy Roberts reached me eventually and when I knew James was recovered and looking for me I came, and – the rest you can guess.’ He pointed to the table. ‘There’s a cheque there which will cover the loan and the interest it has accrued.’
‘It has been in a separate account, you see, waiting for you to be found,’ James explained. ‘My parents will be pleased to meet you when the shock of all this has faded a little,’ he added. ‘If you would like that?’
‘We would like that very much,’ Lottie whispered.
They were silent for a moment, then they all started talking at once. Karen made coffee, then opened a bottle of wine instead and the meeting, so full of unexpected delight, became the very best kind of party. When they eventually left, James rather formally hugged them all, then Lottie kissed his cheek and there were kisses all round including Karen, and there were tears when the three left to return to Llyn Hir.
The first thing Lottie did was to go to see Mabs. She was sleeping but soon forgot catching up on her night’s activities as Lottie shared the unbelievable news.
‘Come this afternoon and meet him,’ Lottie invited. ‘My son, your nephew. It’s like a dream, but one from which I don’t want to wake!’ It was as an afterthought that she told Mabs about the return of the missing money and that was another story that brought tears. ‘Ronald knew about my shameful past, the beautiful son I’d had to give away and he said nothing. But he watched over him in a lovely, caring way. And helped him when he needed a large sum of money, still without telling me he knew.’
‘A wonderful man, like my Frank,’ Mabs said sadly. ‘How they would both have loved being a part of this special day.’
The family were gathered for lunch few weeks later at Llyn Hir, where Lottie and Zena had prepared a large meal. Sam was there with his father, Neville, Jake and Susie had been invited and James and Karen too. There w
eren’t enough chairs but no one minded. Garden furniture was brought in and somehow people found a place to sit and eat.
The meal went cold. With so much to say, there was no urgency to satisfy hunger, but it was eaten anyway. Photograph albums were produced by James and Lottie and it was five o’clock before anyone thought of leaving.
Mabs said thoughtfully, ‘We’ve all been on a long journey. Greg went looking for answers to Rose’s anger, and his homecoming was finding Susie. Zena has been searching for someone and realized that she didn’t need to look, Jake was here all the time – he just needed to grow up! Jake went to London looking for a miracle but discovered that Cold Brook Vale is the place for miracles. Lottie went searching for the reason for Ronald’s missing money and found something more precious, a gift of a new member of the family, our James. I’ve been on a sort of journey too, trying to hold tight to my Frank, but I’ve accepted that although he’s gone, he will always be a part of me and I’m ready to move on.’
Greg patted Betty. ‘Even Betty’ – he waited for her to bark – ‘even she has been on a journey. We don’t know where it started but she found her way to us, thanks to Jake, and we’re so glad to have her.’
‘That’s it! This is the end of a journey for all of us,’ Zena said, reaching for Jake’s hand.
By the same author
Time to Move On
The Runaway
Facing the World
Gull Island
Goodbye to Dreams
Paint on the Smiles
Nothing is Forever
© Grace Thompson 2014
ISBN 9780719815461 (epub)
ISBN 9780719815478 (mobi)
ISBN 9780719815485 (pdf)
ISBN 9780719813238 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of Grace Thompson to be identified as
author of this work has been asserted by her
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988
The End of a Journey Page 30