Page 74 of The Mended Hearts Bookshop

“We?”

He rubbed his nose. “Alright, so Billy’s working on finding the girl, and I’m going to help, obviously, since I can track down Jesús through his publisher.”

“Okay, then—”

“I’m not done,” George said. “Then Sarah Hanson is working on a collection and the vicar is going to the WI to set up a jumble sale. The Guptas have agreed to help run a bake sale as well. Oh, and I talked to Elspeth and she’s up for having the kids do some sort of sponsored thing, we thought a sponsored swim since they’re doing swimming this term. Oh, and Lucy’s working on something too but she won’t tell me what it is.”

The warmth spread even further through Pen, reaching the ends of her fingers and tingling her toes. Her chest felt heavy and her throat felt full. “You talked to everyone?”

“Well everyone wanted to help,” George said, shifting uncomfortably. “See, Billy and I were talking about it in the pub and I suppose they overheard and before we knew it we had more help than we could deal with. Billy said we’d need money, we’ll have to pay some kind of deposit of course as well as the bills and we’ll need a fund to run the shop from at first, since we can’t expect to use Mary’s money anymore.”

“And everyone just…”

“Just jumped in,” George said. “Oh, and Marjorie Thurst said that we’re more than welcome to use the field behind her house for a fete if we want to raise money that way. But I thought we probably have time to stretch out the fundraising a bit, don’t we?”

“Yes,” said Pen, warming to the idea. “We won’t need everything all at once.” She checked her watch. “We should get the bookclub onto a sponsored read as well. They’ll like that. And I should call Ash, let her know the news.”

George tilted his head to one side. “You sure? You said she wouldn’t be pleased about asking for help, even though we’re doing it without her asking.”

“I have to tell her, George!”

“Yeah, but maybe wait until it’s a bit more of a fait accompli?” he suggested. “I mean, we don’t even know if we can actually rent the place yet. So let’s deal with that first, and once we know for sure, then we can ask her if she wants to stay in the flat? That seems like a more sensible plan.”

Sensible plan. Pen considered it. “Alright,” she said. “I suppose that makes sense. Let’s not get her hopes up yet.”

“But this is going to work,” George said, eyes gleaming and taking her hand. “Just you wait and see.”

And Pen was far too busy being full of the realization that she loved Ash and that she could have her back here, in Tetherington, to worry about anything at all.

Chapter Thirty Two

The river rumbled below her, pouring on through its channel, churning and muddy in the rain. Ash pulled up her hood and kept walking.

She had thinking to do, and she thought best while she was on her feet. She tromped down the embankment, waiting for her thoughts to order themselves, waiting to bring all the pieces together.

The truth was that she wasn’t happy here. There were a lot of reasons for that. Most of which had to do with Tetherington and the people in it. Yes, Pen was a big part of things, but she’d put a pin in that and come back to it. There was more though.

The town had taken her in, whether she liked it or not. When the bookshop had been burgled, they had come unquestioningly to help her. And, Ash realized, she liked that. She liked the feeling of being helped and it prompted her to want to help.

Living in London had always been a question of anonymity for her. Growing up in small towns, her mother’s constant marriages had been fodder for gossip and Ash had become usedto everyone knowing who she was. So once the opportunity had arisen, she’d left, started out in the big city, become the person she wanted to be. Or thought she wanted to be.

She wasn’t foolish enough to think that she couldn’t change, that she shouldn’t change. She obviously had changed, through pure luck and happenstance, and she was okay with that. She found something there, not just someone, but something. Things about herself that made her feel more… well, more herself.

She’d been avoiding thinking about the issue of Pen because she didn’t want to tie any decision to one person. To Ash that seemed unfair. She didn’t want Pen to be the sole reason that she changed her life. She needed to know that she was changing her life for herself.

Pen was unavoidably part of things though. Pen provoked feelings that Ash had never known and as uncomfortable as that sometimes could be, she found that Pen occupied more and more of her thoughts.

It wasn’t just sex either, though that was part of it. She thought about Pen’s smile, her cakes, she thought about telling Pen things and hearing her laugh. She thought about Pen being a part of her every-day life and that singular thought made her happy. Actually happy.

Which all led to the inescapable conclusion that she had strong, deep feelings for Pen and that, logical or not, she didn’t actually want to be far away from her.

Pen was her other half. The words from Mary’s journal struck a chord with her. Finding Pen was like finding an entire other side of herself that she hadn’t known existed.

Pen was good and kind and beautiful and generous. She was so giving she’d almost given herself into debt. Pen was more than good though, more than in the sense most people were good. Because Pen didn’t just talk the talk, she acted. She mightbe foolish and optimistic and hopeful, but she put herself out there and acted on what she believed.

And in the end, that’s what made the difference to Ash.

She’d had enough of being hopeless, enough of being alone, and yet here she was pushing herself into the exact same situation that she’d left just because it was the sensible thing to do.

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