Finding Home, Kate Field [big screen ebook reader .TXT] 📗

Or pay for her own petrol back to Lancashire so she didn’t have to beg Bill. If she was even going back to Lancashire…

‘Do you think Paula would have any more work available?’ Mim asked. This might help her make a decision. The going rate in Devon seemed much better than in Lancashire, judging by the notes in her hand.

‘There’s no harm in asking. She said you were an excellent worker.’ Bea smiled and held out her glass for Olly to refill. ‘Does this mean that we’ve persuaded you to stay in Devon?’

‘I’ll go wherever there’s work. And a place to live,’ Mim added.

‘Plenty of spare rooms here now the mob have gone,’ Bill called over. ‘Don’t worry on that score.’

‘Oh no.’ Mim cringed at how her words must have sounded. ‘I wasn’t hinting about staying here.’

‘Wouldn’t have minded if you were.’ Bill laughed. ‘We rattle around this old place. We’d be happy to fill it up again. The more the merrier.’

‘Thanks, but I really couldn’t.’ Mim gulped at the Champagne that Olly had given her, wondering how she could explain without sounding ungrateful. It was an extraordinarily generous offer, but she couldn’t accept it, not after the trouble she’d had at the hotel. Gordon’s daughter had accused Mim of taking advantage of him when she’d first moved in, even though it had been his idea, and had never overcome her initial suspicion and hostility towards Mim. It had been the only blot on life at the hotel. She wasn’t risking that again. ‘I need my own space.’

‘Of course you do,’ Bea agreed, but Mim thought there was a touch of wistfulness in her reply. ‘You can stay in the caravan for as long as you like until you find somewhere better.’

‘Oh Mummy, have you seen the caravan?’ Lia exclaimed, looking up from her sketchbook. ‘It’s hardly fit for anyone to live in.’

‘It’s perfect for me,’ Mim said. She wandered over to the table and looked at what Lia was drawing. It was a pencil sketch of the two children, and though Mim knew nothing about art, it seemed an impressive likeness. ‘If you’re sure you don’t need it? But I can’t stay there for nothing.’

‘We certainly won’t take any money,’ Bea said. ‘So please don’t offend us by suggesting it.’

‘I can’t afford to give you any money.’ Mim wracked her brains, but there was only one solution she could think of. ‘What if we agree on a barter? I’ll do jobs for you in exchange for staying in the caravan. Is there anything you need doing? I’ve turned my hand to most things over the last few years. I can clean, drive, do some gardening or general labouring, manage basic accounts, cook a mean English breakfast…’

‘Sounds like the perfect woman, eh Jonty?’ Bill said with a grin. Ros silenced their laughter with an exasperated sigh.

‘You don’t need to do any of that, my dear,’ Bea said, giving Mim an apologetic look. ‘We already have a housekeeper, and a cleaner, and a handyman who deals with the garden.’ That explained the man in the woolly jumper, Mim thought. ‘You do too, don’t you Ros?’ Bea continued.

‘Yes, although I might be glad of a hand with these two sometimes when Jonty’s away.’ Ros smiled at Mim. She was a few years older than Lia and Olly, and had dark hair to their blond mops, but her smile was wide and friendly – and oddly familiar. ‘Corin doesn’t have a cleaner, does he, but we all know Corin’s views on such matters.’

The family’s laughter was interrupted by the sound of paws skittering across the wooden floor, swiftly followed by a posh male voice.

‘You know my views on what?’

Mim turned to look at the new arrival. Tall, strong, dazzling smile … and apparently not a Champagne-stealing handyman, after all, but Corin, Bea’s son and heir.

Chapter Four

Mim couldn’t believe she’d been so daft. How likely was it that a member of staff had stolen a bottle of Champagne and got hammered in the middle of a shift? But hang on … when they’d met under the trees, hadn’t he been grumbling about his life? She tried to remember what he’d said. Something about an empty future and wishing he’d been born into a different life, wasn’t it? She sank down onto a chair next to Lia and watched all the fuss that was being made over Corin’s arrival. Bea was giving him a hug as if she hadn’t seen him for a year, never mind since yesterday, and everyone else was laughing and talking over each other with evident warmth and unity. It looked like a pretty good life to her. What could he possibly have to complain about?

She looked away, trying not to make eye contact with him, and spotted a dog sitting at her feet. It was small and squat, with wiry hair that was mainly white but with the odd gingery patch on its body and around one eye. It was completely still, gazing up at her. She smiled at it – she’d never had a pet and didn’t know what else to do – and it jumped onto her knee, sniffed her trousers, circled a couple of times and curled up.

Lia laughed.

‘Wow. How have you managed that? Dickens is far too aloof to give me the time of day.’

‘Dickens?’ Mim repeated.

‘Corin’s idea of a joke,’ Bea called over. ‘He doesn’t appreciate Shakespeare.’

The man in question had wandered over to the sofas and was bending down to tickle one of the children – Maisie, Mim guessed from the floral dress, although they both had angelic blond curls that made it hard to tell them apart. He looked towards Mim and smiled. Did he recognise her? Mim couldn’t tell.

‘I’m glad to see you still have a glass,’ he said. That answered that question. ‘A worrying lack of shoes though.’

Reluctantly, Mim smiled. She’d left her shoes in the hall, wary of leaving footprints through the house.

‘Good job I don’t have holes