The Kindness Club on Mapleberry Lane - Part Four

by Helen Rolfe

Genres: Small Town & Rural; Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

A heartwarming new story about kindness and community, from the author of The Little Village Library A little kindness goes a long way... It's the most wonderful time of the year, and Mapleberry is glowing with festive cheer - but will this Christmas bring the women of Mapleberry Lane their own happy ever after? After finding the courage to step outside, Veronica is feeling a little braver every day. This year she's received the greatest gift of all - her family around her again - but there's just one thing that would make it the perfect Christmas... Sam has finally learned to forgive, but she's still afraid of losing her daughter. Can she hold her family together, and open her own heart again? Before she came to stay with her gran, Audrey dreamed of joining her dad in New Zealand - but now, with the friendship and love she's found in Mapleberry Lane, she's finally discovered what it means to belong. The kindness club they've created has changed all their lives, and there's just one task left for the year: to make Veronica's own secret wish come true... An uplifting story told in four parts about the little kindnesses that make the world a better place. Perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley and Holly Hepburn! This is Part Four.

Release date: December 10, 2020

Publisher: Orion

Print pages: 96

Sample

Veronica’s thoughts flipped between Audrey’s tearful account of what had happened and the rage Sam would surely feel if she knew how Veronica’s legs didn’t want to move right now.

Six minutes until the taxi was due.

Layla was perched at the lounge window, arms resting on the sill, looking between the wooden shutters out onto the street.

Veronica was on the sofa, coat on, shoes on, brown paper bag clutched on her lap, her phone too in case by some miracle Audrey was able to call again. She’d a good mind to wring this Alex’s neck, this boy who’d got Audrey into trouble when she should’ve been enjoying a pizza and a movie. She tried to focus on what she’d do to him to teach him a lesson, not on how heavy her limbs felt, how much her heart was beating as though outside of her chest.

These four walls had become her safe place; for the last five years she’d known little else. Her mouth went dry when there was a knock at the door.

‘Come on,’ Layla urged. ‘Veronica, get up.’ The little voice went on at her but she was frozen on the cushion of the sofa, the cushion only hours ago she’d relaxed into.

And then Layla went to the door. In a minute the taxi driver would ask her to come out and when she didn’t, he’d drive off. Audrey would be left, still in trouble, scared and alone, the way Sam must have been when Veronica hadn’t been there for her over the years. Maybe the situation wouldn’t have been quite so dramatic, but there would’ve been times Sam needed her to step up and she’d failed miserably. All the big milestones in Sam’s life – leaving home, getting married, having a baby, going through a divorce – had been negotiated on her own because her mother didn’t have enough oomph to pull herself out of her pit of misery. And the only person Veronica could blame for all of this was herself.

A man bobbed down beside the sofa. Veronica couldn’t look at him. She wasn’t even sure Layla should let a taxi driver come in like that, he could be casing the joint to come back another time and ransack the place.

A soft voice said her name. It was a velvety, smooth voice that calmed her in an instant. She shut her eyes as he talked. Saying all the right things, ‘Let’s go and get your granddaughter’, ‘Audrey needs you’, ‘There’s no time to waste’, and lastly, ‘You can do this’.

‘I can’t.’ She daren’t open her eyes.

The man’s hands, cool but reassuring, clasped her own. ‘We’ve got this.’

Her eyes popped open and she gasped with surprise. Because this wasn’t a taxi driver. This was her friend. ‘Morris, it’s you. What are you doing here?’

He didn’t take his gaze from hers. ‘A little birdie replied to my Facebook message.’ He winked over at Layla. ‘Good job she did as I was about to have another nightcap and go to bed.’

Veronica looked at Layla, who still had hold of her teddy bear. She couldn’t thank her enough, because having Morris here was, she knew now, exactly what she needed. And she never would’ve asked him herself.

‘She wrote with nice big capital letters to say you were in trouble, then she gave your address and told me to come quick,’ Morris went on. ‘I didn’t hesitate. A friend in need takes precedent over my hot cocoa.’

‘I thought it was whiskey.’

‘Oops,’ he said, grinning. ‘I confess, I was trying to be cool, pretending I had a whiskey, but to be honest a milky drink before bed is much better for me. I think it keeps me looking young.’

More giggles from Layla but she shot up when she heard the taxi’s horn beep outside.

‘Your granddaughter needs you,’ Morris urged, ‘and you can fill me in on the story in the taxi – how does that sound?’

She found herself nodding as she stood up, her hand looped through the crook of his elbow. She had to go to Audrey, be the one to put things right rather than the one who was responsible for every damn thing that went wrong.

They filed out to the taxi and she breathed steadily as though that same paper bag from earlier was over her mouth and nose. She focused on the vast expanse of sky above, the endless space that had always felt less fearful than it should when she looked out at it from the back garden or the kitchen window. And now, it was a comfort blanket, the delicate stars peppering the dark, one of them winking as Veronica reached the end of the path.

Veronica managed to give the name of the farm to the taxi driver and tell him she wanted the car park at the edge of the woods, the closest point she suspected they could park up to reach Audrey if she was where Veronica believed her to be. Hopefully the girl had had the sense to stay put, by the stream, near the stile with a view of the stables.

Layla shuffled all the way up and along the back seat. ‘I should go in the middle as I’m short,’ she said as though this were just another outing, rather than not only a ridiculous time for a girl her age to be going out but also Veronica’s first time beyond the safety of her house in years. ‘But you need to sit there. Then you’re next to Morris,’ she instructed as Veronica took the middle seat, ‘and he can hold onto you like I’m going to.’

Veronica shut her eyes and stretched her hands to each side, finding Layla’s small warm hand on one side and Morris’s much larger hand wrapped around hers, giving it a squeeze, from the other. And then, as the car pulled away, Morris asked what Audrey had told her about the area of the woods she was in. He believed it was exactly where Veronica thought, the perimeter of the farm, and assured her they’d have no trouble finding her.

Veronica didn’t dare let doubt creep in, her only focus his soft voice and positivity until the taxi pulled into the car parking area she remembered from years ago when she’d taken herself off on long walks, enjoying the shade of the woodland in the summer, the crisp leaves in the autumn and the bite of cold in the winter.

The bite of cold. She felt panic rise, thinking of Audrey freezing to death out here, but now that Morris had paid the taxi drive extra to hang around and wait, she didn’t have time to think about anything other than finding her granddaughter.

They took the path down into the woods, the steps that led all the way to the perimeter of farmland. Layla walked between them. Veronica felt sure she saw her skip part of the way as though she couldn’t help herself, but the action kept her spirits lifted.

They trudged on, Veronica’s heart pounding. They were getting close. They were almost t. . .