The Backpacking Housewife

by Janice Horton

  The girls and I have been prepping party food in the kitchen.

  Fresh supplies have been delivered from the mainland – a whole week’s worth, so we have more than enough to eat and drink, including champagne for the stroke of midnight.

  With the food prepped, I’ve come down to the water’s edge to cool off.

  I can’t seem to help it but, rather like Christmas Day, I’m suddenly struck with melancholy.

  But then, New Year’s Eve is always a time of reflection, isn’t it?

  It’s hard not to take stock of your life, to look back on the past twelve months and to think on the year ahead and wonder what it will bring. I feel optimistic because I’ve realised I’m in love. I haven’t told Ethan yet that I love him. Neither has he spoken those exact same words to me – not sincerely anyway, as I don’t count it said while joking or being flippant or cursory. But I know what I feel in my heart. So why the sadness?

  Right now, it’s because I’m thinking about my boys, my mum, and my friends back home.

  It seems that happiness always comes with a price tag.

  I’m sitting in the lagoon when Ethan came back with his haul of fish.

  I guess he knows from the look on my face that something is wrong.

  ‘Lori, what is it? Sweetheart, what’s happened?’

  ‘I miss my kids,’ I confess to him straightaway. ‘Here I am, in paradise, but I miss them so very much. I missed them at Christmas too and now it’s almost New Year. I’ve never been away from them in the holidays before. It all seems so strange and … well … it hurts!’

  I don’t really expect him to understand because he doesn’t have any children.

  But he holds out his hand to me in support.

  The way he’s always done from the first moment I met him.

  I take his hand and he pulls me to my feet and into his strong arms.

  ‘I’m sorry, my darling,’ he says to me tenderly, holding me and kissing me and wiping my salty tears away from my sweaty face with his big fishy fingers.

  ‘No, I’m sorry,’ I insist. ‘I have no right to spoil a lovely party with my silly tears. I’ll be absolutely fine in a minute, honestly.’

  And I do recover quickly. Soon, I’m swept up with the vibrant mood of our camp.

  Ethan and I are in charge of the cooking station. We have music playing. On the barbeque we have snapper and lobster and shrimps. The girls are keeping the beers cold and mixing mimosa’s and the lads are building a driftwood bonfire for later on the beach.

  The party fun, the food and drink, and the dancing on the sand, take us happily into the evening. After dark, we all sat around the bonfire, hoping the fire might deter the usual night time armies of hermit crabs from invading our area of the beach.

  We play Ethan’s ‘guess that pop tune’ game to great frivolity and then we all join in with him on the guitar singing along to those old classics. I notice Ethan is wearing his watch tonight, keeping a keen eye on the time for what he called ‘the bells’.

  When it’s almost midnight, we wade into the lagoon with our cups charged with champagne and count down the seconds to midnight under a sky filled with stars.

  ‘Three, two, one. Happy Hogmanay!’ Ethan yells.

  We all cheer and sing Auld Lang Syne and of course, Ethan, being a Scot, actually knows all the words. What a fabulous but totally surreal way to see in the New Year.

  Tropical heat and a gorgeous beach to ourselves; except for the hermit crabs.

  ‘Hey, Lori. I have a surprise for you.’ Ethan tells me, as he takes my hand and leads me up the beach. ‘What is it?’ I ask him. ‘Does it involve going into the jungle in the dark?’

  He shakes his head. ‘No. It’s something to make you feel better, I hope.’

  ‘But I do feel better,’ I insist. ‘It’s been such a lovely party.’

  He leads me up to the meeting room and offers me a chair in front of the computer screen.

  ‘We might have already celebrated New Year, but it’s still only 4 p.m. yesterday in the UK,’ he tells me. ‘So, I’ve arranged for you to Skype your family via the satellite link.’

  I’m completely blown away, not only by his kindness and thoughtfulness, but also because I know it costs an absolute fortune for him to secure a satellite link across the world from this location.

  ‘But you’ll have to bear with me for a moment and I just hope it works!’

  I sit and wait while he secures the link.

  Then, suddenly, there in front of me on the computer screen, are my mum and my boys.

  ‘Hi Lorraine!’ says my mum. ‘Isn’t this wonderful of Mr Goldman to set this up for us?’

  Ethan affords the same treat to everyone. Jamie gets to chat to his family in New York and Immie and Kara connect with their families in Johannesburg. Tom connects with his parents in London and everyone is happy and excited and delighted.

  Except, I notice that Ethan hasn’t yet connected with his family.

  He explains that he’ll arranged to chat with them later.

  I wonder if he’ll be chatting to the Jones family or the Goldman family?

  But I hold my tongue and pick up a bottle of water and head to the stairs.

  I’m tired and a little tipsy and feeling ready to retire for the night.

  Suddenly, Tom bursts out of the meeting room and urgently shouts out to Ethan.

  ‘Hey, Sir Ethan. My father said to pass on his congratulations to you!’

  Ethan, who is keenly striding up the staircase after me, turns to Tom in astonishment.

  ‘Why? Congratulations? What for?’

  Tom is laughing. ‘You’ve been awarded a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours list. For your services to conservation!’

  Ethan’s face drains of colour. His usual bronze was now grey.

  ‘Really? No … that can’t be true. It must be fake news,’ he insists.

  ‘Oh, it’s true. The list has been leaked. It’s apparently on the front page of today’s London Telegraph.’

  ‘Oh Ethan…!’ I gasp. ‘That’s such fantastic news and so well deserved!’

  But the very moment we’re alone in our bedroom together, I turn to face him.

  ‘Sir Ethan Jones has a real ring to it, doesn’t it?’ I quip.

  For the first time since I’ve known him, he looks nervous and uncertain.

  ‘Or should that be Sir Ethan Goldman?’ I question.

  I watch as his brow furrows at my waspish tone. I notice how he busies himself in a fumbled attempt to undo the buttons on his orange-yellow-and green frangipani patterned shirt.

  ‘On Koh Phi Tao, I’ll admit that I held back on you, Ethan,’ I confess. ‘I didn’t tell you everything about me or how I really felt about you. Or the effect talking to Marielle had had on me at the time. I didn’t talk much about my family – not the really personal stuff anyway. But here on this island and in our bed I’ve told you everything about me. I’ve opened my heart to you. I’ve told you all my hopes, my dreams, my fears!’

  I realise I’m yelling now. ‘And yet, despite our intimacy and my honesty, you have been holding out on me. Worse – you’ve been lying to me all along!’

  ‘I’m sorry Lori…’ he starts to say. ‘I might not have been totally honest with you…’

  I continue to rant. ‘Am I the only person on this island who thought you worked for the Goldman Foundation – not that you were the foundation? Why didn’t you tell me that you are Ethan Goldman? Why the charade?’

  ‘It’s not that I meant to deceive you – not purposely. It just that—’

  ‘It’s just that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me who you really are!’ I conclude for him.

  I pace the room wringing my hands. ‘So where does that leave me now? How do you think that makes me feel? Well, I’ll tell you. It makes me feel dreadful!’

  He laughs and shakes his head.

  I raise my eyebrows at him in disbelief. ‘Do you think this is funny?’

  I end
my tirade on more of a shriek than a high note. ‘I’ve been sleeping with you every night for weeks and I didn’t even know your real name. Right now, I can think of another few names I’d like to call you, and one of them is lying bastard!’

  ‘Ouch, that’s a bit harsh!’ he retaliates. ‘Okay. Let me explain. I use an alias with people at first, because if I don’t then I find they treat me differently. It’s awkward for me and they feel intimidated somehow. And, just to be clear, I’ve never actually lied to you, Lori. I’ve never directly told you any name except for my first name. You must have heard it from others.’

  That much is true. It was Laura and Jodie that told me Ethan’s name was Jones.

  I remember because they’d called him ‘Indiana Jones’.

  ‘And besides…’ Ethan continues in his own defence. ‘I honestly thought you knew who I was from the time we left Koh Lipe together. Because on the ferry, when we had our passports returned to us, my real name was called out right in front of you – twice, in fact.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t recall. I suppose my attention was set on hearing my own name at the time.’

  He steps towards me and reaches out to stroke my hair while his eyes are fixed on mine.

  ‘And you’re a billionaire…’ I tell him, quite unnecessarily, while I sulk.

  ‘Well, I hope you are not going to hold that against me?’

  And I see his expression is sincere as he holds me in his love-locked gaze.

  He cups my face in his big warm hands and his voice is soft and gentle.

  ‘I love you Lori Anderson, also sometimes known as Lorraine Anderson, and if I’ve hurt you, I’m truly sorry and I hope you’ll forgive me and that you’ll still want to be with me?’

  I try to look hesitant but who am I kidding?

  I nod. ‘There’s a romantic cliché that says, “I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth” and I’m saying it to you right now because I really would. I love you too, Ethan Whatever-Your-Name-Is – and I really would go anywhere to be with you.’

  He laughs with relief and delight and pulls me into his arms to squeeze me tightly.

  ‘Then that’s all settled. The ends of the earth it is - and we set sail tomorrow!’

  I lean into his bare chest and wrap my arms around his waist and squeeze him back with all the love in my open heart. ‘Set sail? I reply out of curiosity. ‘You mean we’re travelling all that way by boat?’

  ‘No, not by boat, by ship. I have one coming to pick us up tomorrow to take us to a beautiful island in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It’s an equal distance between the Cayman Islands and mainland Honduras. It’s almost a secret because hardly anyone knows about it. It’s exactly how you might imagine the Caribbean used to be before any tourism commercialised it. It’s special because it’s surrounded by the second largest barrier reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Except, this one is in pristine condition and our job will be to keep it that way. Not to save it this time but to preserve it. And the diving is incredible. I’ll promise you whale sharks and dolphins and turtles…’

  I listen to him describing this place and I’m captivated not only by his words but the passion in his voice. It’s like he’s describing the Lost City of Atlantis to me.

  ‘Your description of this island sounds familiar somehow…’ I reason.

  And I cast my mind back to when I was on the boat to Railay Beach with Summer and the lads and they were all talking about an island in the Caribbean with the best diving in the world.

  It sounded exactly like this one.

  Summer said she’d learned to dive there and I’d written down the name of it in my notebook.

  Could they be one and the same place?

  ‘Is this island called Geluk by any chance?’ I ask him, as soon as I recall the name.

  Ethan looks at me in amazement and nods. ‘Aye, so, you’ve heard of it?’

  ‘Yes,’ I say. ‘It’s a strange name, isn’t it? I believe it’s pronounced Gluck.’

  ‘Aye. It’s derived from an old Buddhist word. It means “place of happiness”.’

  A Q&A with the Author

  Acknowledgements

  My real-life backpacking hero and I are now into our fifth fabulous year of travelling the world.

  To date we have explored over fifty countries after selling up everything we owned once our children had grown up and flown the nest. Selling our home, cars, and almost all our possessions has not been the hardest thing in the world to do but saying goodbye to our loved ones for long periods of time has been both difficult and heart-wrenching at times. I love my family and friends very much and so my first big THANK YOU is to modern-day communications and the social media technologies that make our world a smaller place and keep us connected to those we love wherever we or they happen to be in the world.

  My next big THANK YOU is to my darling Trav, for being my best friend and my soul mate and my backpacking husband. Not only is he a great travelling companion, I’m proud of him for working so hard to achieve his dreams and personal ambitions of becoming a PADI IDC Staff Instructor, a PADI Elite Instructor, as well as a ITYW qualified boat captain during the time we have been travelling. Scuba diving has always been his passion. Over the many years we have been married, bringing up our three sons together, the diving has often been put on hold. I’m sure he’s enjoying it all the more now and deservedly so.

  I’m also quite proud of myself, in that I too have been able to realise my own dreams and ambitions of being a published author both before and during our travels and more recently in signing a contract with Harper Impulse for this novel - The Backpacking Housewife - a romantic adventure story loosely based on my own travel experiences. I need to say a huge THANK YOU to my lovely writing friend Linn B Halton, who encouraged me to submit to Harper Impulse and an equally huge THANK YOU to lovely editorial director Charlotte Ledger and her wonderful editors and staff at HarperImpulse with a special mention to Eloisa and Sahina and Claire.

  I’m often asked if it’s hard not having a home base? Is it difficult living out of a backpack? Do I regret anything? My answer is no, sometimes, and absolutely not. The years my husband and I have been travelling and exploring this beautiful world of ours have brought us great joy and happiness and fulfilment and it’s all been a fantastic adventure. I’m very thankful that we took the decision to do it now, while we’re still reasonably young and healthy, and I really hope we can continue to travel for as long as possible.

  The most special thing I’ve found about travelling? Without doubt it’s the new friends we’ve made all over the world who have now become lifelong friends. To facilitate the writing of this novel, we settled down in south west France for six months on a housesitting assignment, which was fantastic. THANK YOU to homeowners Frances and Piers, who trusted us to look after their gorgeous five-hundred-year-old chateau and their handsome cat, Mr Smudge.

  Most of the places and islands that Lori, the heroine of The Backpacking Housewife, visits in Thailand and Malaysia are real places that I have travelled to myself but a couple of the locations mentioned - Koh Phi Tao in Thailand and Reef Island in Malaysia - are fictional locations. At the real locations, there are people I’d like to thank for inspiring my story and for educating me on the aspects that dealt with the conservation of endangered species. In the story, our heroine Lori finds new purpose in her life by helping at a turtle sanctuary and she also visits an Orangutan orphanage. I did these things for both the experience and for research purposes.

  So, I would like to say a sincere THANK YOU to the staff and volunteers at The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre for all the important work they do in saving threatened and endangered and orphaned Orangutans in North Borneo. Seeing these beautiful animals being so lovingly cared for and rehabilitated by such dedicated people was heart-warming.

  A huge THANK YOU also goes to Bubbles Turtle and Reef Conservation on Perhentian Besar in Malaysia, for the important work they do on turtle conservation on
the island and for the truly unforgettable week I spent there learning about Green Turtles. Holly Fletcher and James Fowler and Jorge Palomo kindly and patiently answered all my turtle questions and allowed me to see for myself the nesting turtles coming up the beach at night to lay their eggs. I also loved being part of the excitement of nests erupting and baby turtles being born and released into the sea. It’s an experience I’ll remember and treasure all my life.

  Finally, I’d like to THANK YOU dear reader for buying and reading this book. This novel has been an adventure and a joy to write and I hope you enjoy reading it. If you do enjoy this novel, please do consider leaving me a favourable review on Amazon. This helps other readers to find my books amongst the millions of others available and plus, I will be ever so grateful. If you’d like to contact me or keep up with my travels and adventures or find out what I’m writing about next please do follow me on social media – Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and on my Website at www.janicehorton.co.uk. Don’t feel shy about messaging or asking me anything about travel or my books. I promise to reply from wherever I am in the world as soon as I have an internet connection.

  Happy backpacking!

  Love, Janice xx

  About the Author

  Janice Horton writes contemporary romantic fiction with a dash of humour and a sense of adventure. In 2014, after her children had left home, Janice and her husband set off to explore the Caribbean. In 2015, they returned to the UK only to sell their material possessions in favour of travelling around the world.

  @JaniceHorton

  www.facebook.com/‌TheBackpac‌kingHousewife

  www.instagram.com/‌janicehortonwriter/

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  About HarperImpulse

  HarperImpulse is an innovative, award-winning digital imprint. In the four years since launch, we have continually hit digital bestseller lists, hosted the UK’s first online romance festival, published into over ten countries and grown an exciting stable of commercial women’s fiction authors.