Homecoming by Ellie Dean

Author:Ellie Dean [Ellie Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473565708
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2020-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

They’d just finished their lunch of home-made vegetable soup and toast, and Cordelia had returned to the garden with Daisy so Peggy could read Ruby’s letter.

It was as she’d thought, for Ruby was clearly finding it very hard to settle in Canada. Peggy was initially delighted to read that there was a baby on the way, but Ruby was feeling sorry for herself in the misery of morning sickness. The logging season would soon begin and she was dreading the long weeks when Mike would be away from home and the small, isolated settlement was cut off from the world by snow so deep it would be impossible for the men to come home even for a short while.

She’d heard the timber wolves howling and seen a couple of black bears moving in the trees behind the house, and despite all her determination to fit in with this new and very different life, she couldn’t help but yearn for Cliffehaven and Beach View. She confided that there had been times when, like the wolves, she just wanted to howl at the moon.

Peggy gave a deep sigh. There was nothing she could do to relieve Ruby’s loneliness and fears for the future, and she could only pray that Mike’s parents would do their best to console her. At least, once her baby was born, Ruby would have someone to love and cherish, which would take her mind off her homesickness.

She decided she would write to her tonight and send her some baby clothes she’d been keeping in tissue paper ever since Daisy had grown out of them, and was about to put the kettle on when Frank came up the cellar steps into the kitchen.

‘Hello, Frank. I wasn’t expecting to see you until the rugby match,’ she said, dredging up a smile. ‘What can I do you for?’

Her smile faded and she dropped the teasing tone as she noted his sour expression, and the fact that he seemed to have dressed in a hurry, with mismatched socks and the buttons of his shirt all askew. She’d heard from Brendon that Frank and Pauline had been arguing furiously all week and that the atmosphere at Tamarisk Bay had become quite poisonous. No doubt he was here for some respite and a bit of pleasant company – which was the last thing she was capable of giving today after those letters.

‘You look like you could do with a cuppa,’ she said lightly. ‘Sit yourself down.’

He plumped into the chair and sat there in silence until she’d placed the cup in front of him. Taking a sip, he leaned back and began to roll a cigarette. ‘You’ve no doubt heard that me and Pauline haven’t seen eye to eye lately,’ he muttered.

They hadn’t agreed on anything for years, but Peggy let it pass. ‘Did this latest falling-out have something to do with her new promotion at work?’ she asked.

He looked at her sharply. ‘So you know about that?’

Peggy nodded. ‘She mentioned it in passing the other day when I bumped into her at the factory estate.

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