Page 45 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

‘We lost a lot of it in the bankruptcy,’ she told him, with a yawn. ‘So I didn’t have a chance to be sentimental about anything after that. There’s some photographs, of course. And a few pieces of jewellery that my grandmother left me. But other than that, I don’t carry anything with me.’ She stared into the flames. ‘I guess I’m always scared that I might lose it all again. So what’s the point?’

She shook her head. The illness had obviously made her woolly headed because she had never thought about it before now. Let alone the fact that she was declaring new feelings to herself in front of Ryan as well.

She braced herself for his reaction as she took a glance at him. But he was looking at her with a question in his eyes.

‘The bankruptcy?’ he asked softly.

She blew out a soft sigh. ‘My dad was a dreamer,’ she told him. ‘Life was always supposed to be an adventure, that’s what he kept telling us. So he dragged me and Mum around the country when I was growing up, starting up one business after another. They all failed though. Then one day all our money was gone and the house was repossessed.’ She yawned again. ‘So I’ve always thought it better not to hang on to anything for too long, just in case.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Ryan, after a short silence. ‘But at least I’m beginning to understand why you won’t accept any offers of help.’

‘I’ve never needed it before,’ she replied.

‘Well, there’s a first time for everything,’ he said.

‘You don’t understand,’ she told him. ‘I’ve had to be strong and independent. Mum fell apart when Dad walked out on us when I was eighteen. We were pretty much homeless and needing money. I had to take care of Mum, so I got a job. I had to work all the hours that I could so we could get by. But I had to get on with it, otherwise I don’t know what would have happened to us.’

He sat and looked at her, nodding thoughtfully. ‘And you’ve been working hard ever since.’

She fiddled with the edge of the blanket. ‘Better to keep working just in case life falls apart again.’

‘But it sounds as if work took over from life,’ he told her. ‘Haven’t you been lonely? Where are the friends? The support?’

She gulped away the unexpected tears and didn’t reply. In fact, she couldn’t have done without her voice sounding thick and full of emotion. It was as if he had seen inside to her very soul and recognised things that she had never even admitted to herself.

‘You know that you’ve got people here that like you,’ he carried on. ‘People that care for you.’

Katy thought back to her laughter-filled evening with the girls, as well as the kindness shown to her by Eddie and Grams.

‘Look at what you’ve done for Dad already,’ said Ryan. ‘You didn’t need to stick around and support him but you did.’

‘I’m happy to help him,’ she replied. ‘Anyway, the history of the station intrigues me. I always loved history.’

He raised his eyebrows at her in question.

‘I was going to take a course on history when everything fell apart; I’ve always enjoyed learning about the past and what it can teach us now,’ she told him. ‘All the hotels I worked at had a huge history. They were all built in the art-deco period, sometimes older. I made sure of it.’

There was a short silence while he watched her. ‘Listen,’ he finally said. ‘Stay here as long as you want. God knows there’s enough to do around here! You could even try to learn how to relax.’ He looked concerned for a moment. ‘Unless you need to get back to London, of course.’

She shook her head. ‘There’s nothing for me there.’

Ryan appeared to relax. ‘I’m sorry you’ve had such a tough time,’ he said.

She shrugged her shoulders, trying to make light of all the emotions she was feeling. ‘It was a long time ago,’ she told him.

‘But the hurt still lingers even after so many years,’ he said.

She looked at him and realised he was staring at the fire with a dark look on his face, lost in his own memories. She wondered what had happened and found herself wanting to help him.

She was going to ask him gently when her eyelids suddenly felt heavy. ‘Did you put something in that soup? I’m so sleepy again.’

‘Just good, honest home cooking,’ he told her, standing up to pull the blanket around her. ‘You should try some more whilst you’re here.’

‘Only if I’m not doing the cooking,’ she murmured.

Ryan said something in reply, but Katy was unable to catch his words as she slid into a dreamless sleep, with only the crackle and spit of the fire to fill her thoughts.

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