the Broken Hearts Book Club and we use books as a means of dealing with the awful things that have happened to us. They’re a lovely bunch and they’ll need someone to lead them after I’m gone. My challenge to you is to lead them, be there for them as I was and help them find a way through their grief. If you choose to pick up where I left off, you’ll choose the books, run the meetings and lead the discussions. You’re more than up to the challenge, my beautiful brave girl.
You’re an incredibly loving and giving person, darling. You just need to be reminded of that and stop being bogged down in the past. The thought of you taking the members into your heart and making them smile again is such a lovely one. I know you can do it.
Love Nana Lily
‘What?!’ I stared at the letter in front of me, unable to believe what I’d just read. ‘This is bloody insane!’
The idea was absurd; too much had happened for me to come back. Nana Lily had been extremely generous in leaving me the cottage and I knew I should’ve been in an excited daze, picking out paint samples and making plans.
But I wasn’t; I was in a complete tailspin about the contents of the letter and trying to find some sense or logic in them. I was utterly taken aback by what I’d just seen and scanned the letter again to see if my eyes had played a nasty trick on me.
‘What is it?’ Mum asked.
I handed her the letter and watched her take the words on the page in, hoping and praying she’d agree that me coming back to live in Luna Bay was the worst idea in the world.
‘I think it’s a wonderful idea.’ She passed the letter back to me and smiled.
Bollocks.
‘Mum, this place hasn’t been my home for eight bloody years! I can’t just come back. And what the hell do I know about running a book club? I didn’t even know it existed until a few seconds ago! Did you?’
She stared into the middle distance and pursed her lips while she prepared her answer.
‘Well I knew she had a group of people she liked to meet up with of a Wednesday night. I think I even remember her mentioning it was a book club a few times. If you want my opinion, I think you’d be great at leading them. Judging by the name and from what I saw in the letter, they’re all going through pretty tough times. You could spread a bit of cheer and get them feeling good again, just like Nana Lily mentioned. And you’re so good at making people like you and finding out what makes them happy. People just warm to you Lucy, and that means you could really make a go of this. You can come up with some creative ways of getting the members feeling good again too. Won’t that be fun? It might even help you get past what happened with… well, you know what I’m talking about.’
People warm to me, do they, I thought, I don’t think so. I’m Public Enemy Number One as far as the residents of Luna Bay are concerned and I’ll never get past what happened. Never.
‘Mum, I can’t think of a worse person to “get people feeling good again” than me! I’ve got a life in London to get back to and I can’t do that if I’m stuck here leading a, what was it called, a Broken Hearts Book Club?’
Mr Shields reached over the desk and took the letter from Mum, peering at it from behind his glasses.
‘If I could bring your attention to your nana’s will, it says that in order to fully inherit Rose Cottage, you must lead the book club for a minimum period of three months.’
I threw my head into my hands. ‘Shit.’
Mum picked up the will and looked carefully at the paragraph Mr Shields had pointed out.
‘He’s right,’ she said. ‘You have to be chairwoman of the book club, run all the meetings, choose the books and lead the discussions. She says if you decide to do it, Mr Shields will call round every so often to check you’re doing OK, that you’re living in the cottage and running the club. If you don’t, Rose Cottage goes on the market.’
She handed the letter to me, making me feel like I was in a particularly bad game of Pass the Parcel. I saw it there in black and white and wanted to scream.
‘Do let me know what you decide to do, won’t you Miss Harper? Shall we say, oh, a week to make your mind up? If at the end of the week, you don’t want to act on your grandmother’s wishes, the house will go on the market and the proceeds will be split between your parents and the various charities she was devoted to.’ He bore his teeth at me and I felt more than a little creeped out. He looked so much like Mr Burns from The Simpsons.
I nodded and left the office as fast as I could. I was now faced with a straight choice: go back to the mess I made in London or stay and face the mess I’d made here.
Brilliant, just chuffing perfect.
Rose Cottage was a short walk from the solicitor’s office, and lay just off a grassy embankment that led directly down to the beach. It was a sturdy whitewashed cottage with a thatched roof and vines of climbing roses growing around the door. Seeing it for the first time in years made my heart skip a beat. It really was a breath-taking place. I looked at it and a barrage of memories came rushing back to me. Running up the path to Nana Lily’s open and welcoming arms, the wind blowing in my hair and a huge dopey grin on my face. Following her around the garden with my bright yellow plastic watering can and giggling like mad when she let me water some flowers. Helping her spoon gloopy cake mix into cases before putting them in the oven. All the memories I’d made at Nana Lily’s beautiful beachside cottage had a blissful and halcyon haze to them that tugged at my heartstrings. I’d felt safe and happy during that time and couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt those things. They seemed an entire world away. A knot of emotion brewed deep inside me and I tried desperately to bring cool logic and reason into the situation. I had to detach myself, to look at things rationally so I could perhaps forget that one of the most important people in my life was gone forever.
I thought about turning my back on Rose Cottage. I could walk away, go back to London and forget about the whole thing. However, I found myself walking up to it, with Mum hot on my heels.
‘So what do you think?’ she asked, falling into step with me. ‘Are you going to stick around here and give things a go or head back to London?’
I sighed and ran my hand over the gate before pushing it open, ‘I’ve no idea Mum, I’m just trying to take this all in at the moment.’
I walked up the gravel path, loving that the crunch and scrunch beneath my feet drowned out the cacophony of voices in my head, which were all shouting equally bad advice. The air tasted of the sea – fresh and salty – and a light breeze bobbed in and out of the trees and long grass. There was a chill in the air – the last remnant of a classic Luna Bay winter – so I pulled my jacket closer around me and shivered. Weak sunlight fell in dappled shades across the gravel path as it sliced through the leaves on the trees. I unlocked the front door, which creaked when I pushed it open, and stepped inside.
The second I stepped in the hall though the smell of damp hit me right between the eyes. It was certainly different to the aroma of freshly baked bread that had greeted me before. I knew the house had been empty since Nana Lily had gone to live in a nursing home further up the coast. Spotlessly clean furniture had been engulfed by dust and grime and the house’s shiny, welcoming lustre had completely vanished. A sense of panic enveloped me. What was I supposed to do with this? The enormity of the potential task lying in front
