The Bookshop of New Beginnings: Heart-warming, uplifting – a perfect feel good read!. Jen Mouat

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СКАЧАТЬ sheepdog. Kate couldn’t keep from staring at Abby, marvelling at the changes these past six years had wrought. Dan’s wife. Dan’s child. And the look in Dan’s eyes saying he felt the bonds of connection still.

      But Dan was no longer a boy. The creases around his eyes implied a life of laughter and smiles; he was happy and Kate was glad – of course she was. Except for the flicker of envy, the memory of his throaty laugh, so intimate, once hers alone.

      Dan was staring; Kate had forgotten how forceful his gaze could be. ‘About bloody time,’ he said wonderingly. Abby laughed and chided him gently about minding his language in front of the bump – how could she not feel the tension and wonder?

      Because Abby was secure, certain – in Dan, and herself.

      ‘I know,’ Kate said calmly, directing her reply at Abby. ‘My visit is certainly overdue.’

      Dan rubbed his hands together, stood up. ‘Let’s open a bottle of something to celebrate. Jeez, Kate, I still can’t believe it. So, where did you spring from?’

      ‘New York.’

      ‘I want to know what the hell you were doing there and what brought you back, but hold that thought. I’m going to open a bottle of wine. Red?’

      ‘Sure.’ She nodded. Usually she didn’t drink mid-week – she was strict with herself about that – but here she felt as if all her rules had been suspended along with reality.

      ‘She’s my knight in shining armour, come to save my sanity and my business,’ Emily called, getting up from her seat and brushing Kate’s shoulder. ‘I’ll give you a hand, Dan.’

      When Dan and Emily were on the other side of the vast kitchen getting wine, bickering amiably, Abby leaned forward and touched Kate lightly on the arm. She lowered her voice. ‘I’m glad you’ve come. Emily needs help with this venture. Things haven’t been easy for her, I suppose you know that.’

      ‘I’m here to help,’ Kate said, a little uneasy; she didn’t want to discuss Emily’s divorce behind her back. ‘I can’t wait for us to get started,’ she added.

      Abby nodded. ‘Emily’s not the most practical person, you know. Dan’s worried she hasn’t really thought this through. It was all so sudden.’

      Kate smiled. ‘I lived with her at university. I know everything there is to know about her. And she’ll be fine. She just needs help to get out the starting blocks, that’s all.’

      Abby’s eyes held curiosity, but that was all. Obviously Kate had been seldom discussed.

      Dan brought their wine and a cup of peppermint tea for Abby, who screwed up her face. ‘I am so sick of this stuff,’ she grumbled.

      Dan sat beside Abby and rested a hand on the back of her neck, a casually affectionate gesture, but also a significant one. He took a gulp of wine. ‘We should have a family dinner,’ he said. ‘Give Ally a call and see if he can make it up, eh, Lena?’

      ‘At Bluebell Bank,’ Lena said, nodding vigorously and looking up at him. ‘A proper family dinner, with everyone; Austin will be home.’ Her eyes were clouded with the ghosts of her past, until the realisation of her mistake swept them away.

      ‘We can have it here,’ Dan said, his eyes locking onto his sister’s, holding her gaze for a moment. ‘You can all come here and then you wouldn’t have to worry about cooking, Lena.’

      Lena shook her head. ‘It should be at Bluebell Bank. Silly me, of course: not Austin at all. Jonathon, and Alistair, and … what is her name?

      Dan frowned and Kate remembered his stubbornness, his need for control in every situation. He was fighting Lena’s disease instead of rolling with its punches. ‘Dan.’ Em reproved him in a gentle voice. Dan’s frown deepened.

      Kate intervened. ‘Actually, it really should be Bluebell Bank. It just wouldn’t be the same for me if not. I can help Lena with the meal and that way Abby doesn’t have to worry about cooking.’ She glanced at Lena. ‘Melanie,’ she supplied quietly, the name of Lena’s daughter-in-law hovering so elusively on the tip of Lena’s tongue.

      Lena nodded, satisfied. ‘That’s the one.’

      Abby smiled and rapped Dan smartly on the arm. ‘That would be brilliant, Kate. The more pregnant I get the more Dan seems inclined to invite people for impromptu parties.’

      Dan was repentant as he leaned down to kiss her forehead, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes; Kate had to look away from the intimacy of their joined gaze. ‘I guess I keep forgetting,’ Dan said.

      ‘Lucky you,’ Abby replied, rubbing the bump. They all laughed.

      ‘Where is Noah? I was looking forward to seeing him.’ Kate remembered a skinny little boy, a little isolated from the rest of his family by the age gap. Of all of them, he would have changed the most.

      ‘Out with his mates,’ Dan said scowling darkly. ‘If he comes home drunk again I swear I’ll kill him this time.’

      Abby laughed, but it sounded a little forced, like this was a common thread of dissent. ‘If he does and he has any sense, he’ll sleep in the barn sooner than face you again.’

      ‘Hmm,’ Kate interjected with a knowing smile. ‘Underage drinking, how awful. You never did that of course.’

      Dan softened. ‘All right, I know I’m an old hypocrite. I was hardly perfect. Nor were any of us. But it’s different when you’re responsible for them.’

      ‘Better get used to it,’ said Emily.

      ‘We’re having a girl and she won’t be allowed to leave the house until her twenty-first birthday. I’m planning to be a very old-fashioned father.’

      ‘Poor kid,’ Emily teased. She drank the last of her wine. ‘You want some help bringing the cows down for milking?’

      ‘That would be great. Thanks.’

      As Dan and Emily steered the cows down from the pasture to the milking sheds, Kate followed at a safe distance, keeping out of the way of the great, inquisitive beasts who gazed at her as they sauntered past, flicking their tails against their haunches and swaying from side to side. She was watching Dan from a distance and marvelling again at how strange it was to be here. The cows would not be hurried, but took their time, no matter how much Dan and Em shouted and ran at them as they meandered this way and that.

      Kate lingered by the gate for a few moments of peace, trying to put together all the various pieces of Bluebell Bank and its inhabitants to form a new image, trying to process the inevitable changes. The image jarred with memory. Much as she liked Abby – and she did – it was difficult to fit her into the picture.

      *

      Before it grew dark, they walked home with Lena across the fields, both giddy from the wine.

      Home.

      It actually felt like home, as Kate was afforded her first glimpse of the slate rooftops of Bluebell Bank through the canopy of trees. She had never felt this way about any other place. And no one but the Cottons had come so СКАЧАТЬ