The Home for Broken Hearts

by Rowan Coleman

  “She showed you the list?” Eric looked supremely uncomfortable.

  “All three categories,” Ellen confirmed.

  “You’re right,” Eric said. “I know that you are. Sabine told me to go to the woman I loved. So I did. I came to Sabine.” Just at that second, the garden gate swung open and Sabine stood at the top of the path, staring at her husband. “Sabine is the woman I love, and I don’t deserve her but I hope she might reconsider leaving me.”

  “Ask her yourself,” Ellen said, nodding over his shoulder.

  “I came for you,” Eric turned and told Sabine. “I came to tell you that you are the woman I love, and that I’ve been a fool. I want you back, Sabine.”

  “You treacherous, stinking, hideous pig,” Sabine said as she marched down the garden path. And then she kissed him.

  “Blimey,” Matt said as he and Charlie arrived a few seconds later. “It’s busy, busy, busy here.”

  “Love is in the air, that’s why,” Charlie said pointedly, winking at his mother as he walked past the embracing couple as if it were a sight he saw every day.

  “Random bloke?” Matt asked Ellen.

  “Returning husband,” Ellen explained, before calling to the couple, “I’ll just leave the door on the latch. Do come in if you fancy a cup of tea.”

  They did not break their embrace to reply.

  When Ellen made her way back into the kitchen, she found Allegra making herself a pot of Earl Grey tea.

  “I do believe I have finished my book,” Allegra stated as Ellen joined her. “Normally I like to celebrate with a bottle of vintage champagne, but we are in Shepherd’s Bush and needs must, so Earl Grey it is. I telephoned Simon to tell him all about our plans for you, my dear. He was very excited.”

  “What plans?” Charlie and Matt asked simultaneously.

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” Ellen muttered.

  “It’s everything. I have discovered that your mother has a rare gift for writing that if nurtured correctly might one day almost rival mine. So I intend to turn Velvet Waters here into the next big publishing sensation!” Allegra declared. “I do so love a challenge.”

  “Cool!” Charlie exclaimed.

  “Brilliant,” Matt said, smiling steadily at Ellen. He wondered how it was possible that she could seem even more beautiful every time he looked at her. She was like a flower blossoming before his eyes, which was what he had tried and failed to write a poem about.

  “So go on then.” Charlie elbowed Matt in the ribs.

  “What?” Matt looked at him.

  “Ask Mum that thing you wanted to ask her,” Charlie growled out of the corner of his mouth, as if he could not be any more conspicuous.

  “What thing?” Ellen asked.

  “Oh… um, it was about… um—the loo—I’ve run out of toilet cleaner.” Matt winced.

  “That’s not it!” Charlie laughed. “You are so gay.”

  “Charlie, how many times!” Ellen exclaimed. “Don’t use the word gay in that context please.”

  “Well, he is,” Charlie muttered.

  “There are about a million people here,” Matt said. “I’m not doing it in front of an audience.”

  “Doing what?” Ellen asked, confused.

  “Ohhh,” Hannah said as she caught Charlie’s eye. “Oh, I see—I’ve got it. Allegra, would you like to join me for a turn around the garden? And you, too, Charles.”

  “Well, we might need a machete to get through some of the undergrowth, but I should be delighted.” Allegra nodded, gesturing at Charlie to follow. “Come along, young man. I will teach you the Georgian art of flirting. It’s all about the angle of the fan, you know.”

  “What? What’s going on?” Ellen looked anxiously at Matt. “Have you got bad news or something?”

  “Depends.” Hannah winked at Allegra. “Come along, Charles.”

  “I always get to miss all the good bits,” Charlie moaned, following the others reluctantly.

  Matt suddenly found himself standing alone in the kitchen with the woman who had somehow come to embody every single one of his dreams. Funny how love is so unpredictable, Matt thought as he looked at her, evening sun dusting her skin with gold, lighting her green eyes from within. He had never thought that the woman who would capture his heart would be an older, widowed agoraphobic. But she was.

  “What are you grinning at and what’s going on?” Ellen asked. “Have you done something, have you burned a hole in my carpet because you iron your shirts on the floor? I know you do it, you know.”

  “No,” Matt said. “I… look, there’s this poem. I didn’t write it, I tried to write one but it came out all wrong, but there’s this other poem that another bloke wrote and…”

  “And?” Ellen looked at him, the intensity in his gaze causing her to catch her breath.

  Matt took a step toward her as he quoted:

  “Come, madam, come, all rest my powers defy;

  Until I labour, I in labour lie.

  The foe ofttimes, having the foe in sight,

  Is tired with standing, though he never fight.’”

  “I beg your pardon?” Ellen asked.

  Matt stood in front of her and traced a finger along the line of her jaw down to the hollow at the base of her neck.

  “Licence my roving hands, and let them go

  Before, behind, between, above, below.

  O, my America, my new found land,

  My kingdom, safest when with one man mann’d,

  My mine of precious stones, my empery;

  How am I blest in thus discovering thee!”

  As Matt whispered the words, he leaned in to kiss Ellen ever so gently on the cheek.

  Ellen looked up at him, his face a hair’s breadth from hers.

  “Did you just tell me that you fancy me?” she asked.

  “Yes, but in sixteenth-century poetry it sounds better, doesn’t it?” Matt replied. “You are my discovery, Ellen. You are my newfound land, and it’s through you that I’ve found me again. The bloke I used to want to be before I somehow ended up the one I am. Charlie wants me to ask you out. I want to ask you out. But I have to warn you, I’ll be asking you for more than just a date, because I’ve… I’ve fallen for you Ellen, hook, line, and sinker.” Ever so carefully, Matt placed his hand over Ellen’s heart. “‘To enter these bonds is to be free, then where my hand is set, my soul shall be.’ Ellen Woods—will you go out to dinner with me?”

  “You know that I’m the best part of twelve years older than you, don’t you?” Ellen asked.

  Matt shrugged.

  “And that I’m recently widowed with a demanding son and a very complicated past, not to mention a panic disorder that means going out to dinner would be a bit of an issue, at least initially.”

  “I had noticed that.” Matt nodded.

  “And none of that bothers you?”

  “None of that is you,” Matt said. “You are beautiful, bold, brave, brilliant. That’s you.”

  Ellen smiled and placed her palm against his cheek. “And what about the fact that I haven’t had a second to stop and think, to find out what I really feel, or even if I could ever feel anything serious for another man again? Does that bother you?”

  Matt hesitated for a moment, feeling his heart tremble as he placed it on a knife edge. “A friend of mine told me that life isn’t all about dead certs. It’s about making a gamble and taking a risk. I’m prepared to take a risk on you, because if you do find out you feel the same way about me, it will be more than worth it. And if you don’t, then—well, I won’t be lying awake at night wondering, will I?”

  “Well, going out to dinner is out of the question,” Ellen said softly, moving her lips against his as she spoke. “But I suppose we could always stay in and see how that works out.”

  For Freddie born August 22, 2009

  Acknowledgments

  It was during the writing of this book that I got to know lovely Kara Cesare, and I would like to thank her so much for all the suppo
rt and inspiration she has given so generously. Also thank you to the team at Gallery Books, especially Katherine Dresser and Ayelet Gruenspecht, for doing such a wonderful job on my behalf and for continuing to believe in me.

  I count myself very lucky to have two wonderful agents working so hard for me on both sides of the Atlantic. Thank you so much Lizzy Kremer and Jill Grinberg.

  On a personal note, thank you to Adam, source of so much support and inspiration, and to my wonderful daughter, Lily, who truly is my best friend, and not forgetting my baby son, Fred, who always makes me smile, even at three in the morning. Love to you all.

  Gallery Readers Group Guide

  Introduction

  Ellen Woods hasn’t left her home in nearly a year. Mourning the death of her husband, Nick, she stays sheltered inside, quietly doing her freelance work while her eleven-year-old son, Charlie, refuses to eat anything but fish sticks. Grief-stricken and unable to pay her mortgage on her measly salary, Ellen knows she has to do something. But when she takes her sister Hannah’s suggestion to board lodgers, she doesn’t expect to find anything more than a way to keep a roof over her son’s head. She certainly doesn’t expect to find herself.

  Now, with the help of her newfound friends—Sabine, a bold German woman on the run from her cheating husband; Allegra, a cranky bestselling historical romance author; and Matt, a handsome young magazine writer and serial dater—Ellen’s numbness begins to fade. But when she finds out a shocking secret about her late husband and is accused by her son of being not only agoraphobic but also unable to take care of him, Ellen has a choice to make. She can either fall apart or she can pick herself up and start to live again.

  Discussion Questions

  1. A well-known English proverb claims that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Discuss how this saying is relevant to The Home for Broken Hearts.

  2. Ellen mourns Nick’s death for most of the book, as do Charlie and even Hannah. In what ways do their behaviors reflect their grief? How does the grieving process differ for each of them, and in what ways is it the same?

  3. Ellen and Hannah have a complex relationship fraught with envy, hidden anger, and jealousy. Is their conflict simply a case of sibling rivalry? How is it more than that?

  4. Throughout the story, both Matt and Charlie undergo major changes. In what way does the twenty-six-year-old Matt come of age? How does it compare and contrast to Charlie’s growth from child to adolescent?

  5. Discuss the phrase “it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Would Ellen agree or disagree with this statement? How might her opinion have changed throughout the course of the book and why?

  6. What was your reaction when Charlie accused his mother of being agoraphobic? Did the notion cross your mind before he voiced it or did it take you by surprise, just as it did Ellen?

  7. Discuss the author’s portrayal of men in the novel, both in terms of main characters and smaller players. What do you think Coleman was trying to say about men in today’s society?

  8. Ellen, Hannah, Charlie, Sabine, Allegra, and Matt are all seemingly different people with different beliefs, jobs, and roles. In what ways are they alike? What do you think their similarities say about humanity as a whole?

  9. Ellen spent the majority of her marriage fitting into the mold of who Nick wanted her to be. In what ways did she conform? Was she simply afraid to be her true self, did she just seek his approval, or did she change for another reason entirely?

  10. What would you do if you found out your significant other was having an affair with your sibling? Do you think you’d be able to forgive either of them for their betrayal? Why or why not?

  11. In chapter twelve, Allegra tells Ellen that “in life there isn’t always a hero to save a damsel in distress.” How does that advice foreshadow xEllen’s character development? How does it contrast with Matt’s involvement in Ellen’s growth?

  12. Ellen describes herself as a “sexless being” while Matt, Hannah, and Simon are depicted as characters who sleep around. Even Allegra is a more sensual character than Ellen. Discuss how each character’s sexuality reflects his or her personality.

  13. What message do you think the novel conveys about self-discovery and identity? How does the message relate to your life personally?

  14. Ellen’s life changed in a positive way after a tragic circumstance. Discuss one such event in your own life and how it affected you in a similar way.

  Enhance Your Book Club

  1. Ellen’s pivotal moment of power, confidence, and clarity occurs when she dons her green dress and sexy undergarments. Go to your book club meeting dressed up in the outfit that makes you feel your most self-assured. Take turns sharing with the group why it’s your favorite ensemble.

  2. Matt and Ellen get to know each other over late-night cups of tea. Bond with your book club by having a tea party or mix it up with some Long Island iced tea!

  3. Allegra helps Ellen come up with the pen name Velvet Waters by putting together the name of Ellen’s first pet and the street she was born on. Come up with a device to create your own pen names and take turns sharing.

  4. The concept of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is present throughout the novel. Bring an item from your home that you don’t want anymore and have a white elephant swap with your fellow book clubbers.