How Laura Lewis Met Richard Brown

Chapter Thirty-Four

Six months later

August soon came around and Buttermarsh looked completely different in the summer months. The lanes were now full of wildlife, with colourful butterflies fluttering in and out of the hedgerows, followed by the fluffy, buzzing bumblebees. Locals enjoyed a potter around the lanes and a trip to the Cottage Bun before heading back to their homes. The children played in the safety of the playground, and the rose garden in Cedar House care home was full of red, yellow and pink roses, surrounded by wild lavender. The air smelled sweet, people were happy and the sun shone. It was like a scene from a country-life magazine.

Laura still couldn’t believe how lucky she was to live and work in this friendly, close-knit community, where everyone looked out for each other. Hazel was now part of that community. Sue had given her a job at the Cottage Bun and she made a surprisingly good latte. Given time, Laura hoped they could be friends. If someone had told her six months ago that she would still be working at the home, and that she would be the manager of that home, and that she was surrounded by people who loved and cared for her, then she would have laughed at them and told them they were mad.

But that was her reality now.

She had been incredibly lucky. Was incredibly lucky.

She had been able to extend the six-month lease on the cottage, with the owner only too happy to rent it out on a long-term basis to a local, and a nurse at that. Laura had grown to love Church View Cottage and now really did consider it home.

Lottie and her kids visited her regularly and enjoyed the odd weekend with her. Laura’s mother had also visited for a long weekend and had been delighted to see her daughter finally settled and living life. When Laura had taken Maureen to the Cottage Bun, Sue had been so happy to see mother and daughter reunited that she’d given them a huge box of cakes to take home in celebration.

So Laura spent her days at the home and her days off catching up with her chores and reading. Nothing much had changed in that respect, but she now had friends. She also had Richard in her life.

* * *

Laura was determined to keep her promise to Gertie. In the quiet hours she’d sit and read Gertie’s letters, the ones from Jim. She hadn’t read them all yet, but she would, just as she’d honour her promise to keep Jim’s memory alive. She wouldn’t forget what this man had meant to Gertie, just as she would never forget Mark. He’d been a huge part of her life, but a new chapter was beginning. A new life and she was more than ready to move on and live it.

Life was good.

During the long summer evenings, Richard told her and Henry stories about Gertie and her past. They both wanted Henry to remember his gran. Richard told his son the stories she used to tell him as a little boy, about her love of books and life. Henry would listen, mesmerised, soaking up the words, as if saving them to memory.

Laura and Richard decided to take things slowly. Partly for Henry’s sake, but also because they were both in counselling. They needed to heal themselves before they could think of any future together. But Laura knew that it would only be a matter of time.

It would happen.

* * *

Richard kissed Henry goodnight and padded back downstairs to the warmth of the kitchen where Laura was sitting, a paperback open on the kitchen table next to a cup of coffee and photographs of Gertie when she was younger. He sat down next to her and picked up the nearest photo.

The photo had been taken in the back garden of the house he had grown up in. The house he was in now. He couldn’t remember who had taken the photograph, but he remembered that day as if it had been yesterday. They had spent the afternoon in the garden, sprawled out on blankets, reading and drinking ice-cold lemonade. In the photograph, Gertie had her arm around his narrow shoulders. He must have only been about six or seven. Her face was pressed close to his. Both of them were smiling at the camera. She looked so young, was Richard’s first thought. So young and happy, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. But she had lost her son and daughter-in-law in the most tragic of circumstances. Yet she had carried on. Kept smiling. She had been a remarkable woman.

‘A penny for them,’ Laura said gently, as she placed her hand on his.

Richard squeezed her fingers. Smiling, he shook his head. ‘Just thinking.’

‘You know,’ Laura said, ‘if it wasn’t for her, then we would never have met. Isn’t that strange?’

Richard smiled at her and winked. ‘Oh, I don’t know. If Gertie was here now, then she would tell us that fate always finds a way.’

Laura nodded. ‘Yes, I suppose that’s true,’ she said with a smile. ‘Fate always finds a way.’

Richard thought about the note that was burning a hole in his wallet. The one he’d found in the safe. He would carry it with him always, wherever he went. The note written by Gertie that told him he would meet Laura, a young woman from the city, who wore bright-yellow wellies, loved jelly babies and who had lost her husband in tragic circumstances. A woman who was a nurse. A woman who needed him, just as much as he would need her. In the note, Gertie told him to be patient — that they would both need time to heal — but that second chances of happiness did happen and that Laura was his second chance, as he was hers.

The letter had been written two years ago. Gertie had dated it, sealed it with a wax seal and had put it in the care home’s safe for safekeeping. It hadn’t been touched since. Linda had verified this. She had been the signed witness and had placed it in there, alongside letters for Henry as he grew, for when Nana Gertie was no longer around.

He had yet to tell Laura of the letter’s existence. He wasn’t sure if he ever would.

He looked at Laura and felt the love in his heart. He smiled around the lump forming in his throat and thought, Yes, Gran. Fate found a way .

THE END