Coming Home
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COMING HOME
A Castle Cluny Romance
By Rosie MacDonald
Published by Love You Love Life Live Life
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
All Rights Reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with KDP publishing and Rosemary Peck. The text of this publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products that may or may not be referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission (if used). The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorised, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
First Published 2015
Amended and updated 2017
Coming Home
Copyright ©Rosemary Peck 2015
‘So, I’m finally to get your attention then?’ he asked with a gleam in his eye. Anna felt a frisson of sensation flood through her, but put it down to tiredness, or maybe annoyance. It couldn’t possibly be attraction – this man was far too in love with himself, and definitely not her type.
‘If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be serving you at all, but this isn’t my business, so what can I get you?’ she said, biting back all the sarcastic comments she wanted to make about the need to be polite and wait your turn like everyone else.
‘Don’t think my mum would appreciate you talking to me that way’ he said with a grin.
‘Quite frankly I don’t care what your mum would think about how I speak to you. She should have brought you up with better manners,’ she barked back.
I would like to dedicate this, my second novel to the man who helps me to remember that there is definitely ‘The One’, and that true love is something that will last a lifetime – whatever life may throw at you!
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
About the Author
Excerpt
Chapter One
Anna perched uncomfortably on the back of the Ute. The sun was blisteringly hot, and the dust from the road was sticking to the sweat on her skin. She’d never felt lower in her life. She could hear the men in the front of the truck cracking jokes and laughing raucously and just wished she was back in Castle Cluny, sitting on the bench by the duck pond. She missed the peace and quiet, the moderate climate and especially the people she truly loved. Lost in her daydream, she was jolted harshly back to reality when the Ute screeched to a stop.
‘This is us love,’ the driver said cheerfully. ‘Sorry we aren’t going further, but Wallaby Creek’s just about 3 miles up the coast.’
‘Thanks for the lift. I appreciate it. Good luck getting the fences sorted,’ Anna said slightly absent-mindedly, not sure if she’d remembered exactly why it was that these men were stopping in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, but taking an educated guess from the kit that had been her only company for the last 100 miles or so. She hauled her rucksack onto her back as the Ute disappeared into a cloud of dust. She looked dolefully at the long and dusty road, deciding that wandering through the surf, feeling the cool water lapping at her ankles, looked far more pleasant. The beach had the odd plane tree along it, offering shade. She trudged towards the path, wishing that Wallaby Creek was closer. Hopefully there would be a place to stay there, and a job, so she could get the money together to go home.
A long and weary hour had passed before she saw a few buildings ahead of her. Anna decided to stop, have a quick swim and try to get rid of the dust that seemed to have become caked to her skin, making her look like a golem. She stripped quickly down to her bikini, and glancing around her, she ensured that there was nobody in sight who might steal her belongings. There was not a soul to be seen, so she ran to the sea and threw herself into the water eagerly. The ocean was cool and refreshing, and the gentle waves invigorated her as they beat against her body. She drifted on her back, staring up at the blue sky. She could feel the tension and misery easing from her as she relaxed and let the water support her. Turning onto her belly, she swam a few lazy strokes, parallel to the shore, then reluctantly waded back.
Her skin glistening with salt water, Anna sat quietly on a towel under one of the plane trees, watching the waves rush up and down the golden sand, her attention a million miles away across the oceans and seas, back home in Castle Cluny. She thought about the ducks on the pond, the village green, the cute parish church, the higgledy-piggeldy main street. If she tried really hard, she could almost imagine that she was back there, standing in front of the pub, about to go in and see Jim. She could feel the butterflies in her tummy, as she anticipated his reaction to her, and then her daydream would come crashing around her ears as she envisioned the response of his no-doubt beautiful girlfriend, the one he hadn’t thought to mention in his letters, but was soon to be his wife. He would be bound to have given up waiting for her by now. She hadn’t known how blessed she was to have his love, until she came here and had to live without it. She couldn’t blame him, and she would always wish him happiness. He was the sweetest, kindest man she had ever known and she missed him more than she could ever have imagined possible.
As a brisk wind came from out of nowhere, it’s sharp, stinging breath bringing her back down to reality with a bump. She realised, not for the first time, how stupid she could be. Nothing about this worldwide trip had been what she had expected, and she regretted her rash decision to just head off on her own. She had been lonely and miserable within a week, but her stubborn pride had kept her going. In the last three years she had travelled through India, Africa, South America, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand – all funded by a variety of crazy manual jobs - from pie and sausage factories, to courgette-picking. She had even spent time working at a salad nursery, putting those plastic condom-like wrappers on the cucumbers. Anna had low expectations of work, and did not mind what she tried, but that had been an all time low.
Now, here she was in Australia with no job, no friends, and no money to buy herself a ticket home. Yet Anna had written letters to her parents, her best friends, Martha and Carrie - and to Jim - that all was well and she was having a ball. She wondered why she felt she had to lie to them, but if she was honest she knew the answer. Because she had always been little, blond and cute, everyone had instinctively treated her as if she was a fragile, breakable child who needed to be protected.
Her travels had been a way to prove she could do it all alone, that she could look after herself. She had wanted to prove to them that she meant it when she said she was tougher than she looked and to prove that she was a grown woman - to herself as much as to everyone else. The more stubbornly she had persevered with her solo travels, the harder it had become to ask anyone for help. Anna knew that if
she called any of them, they would send her the flight money in an instant, but she was too proud to admit she couldn’t hack it in the world without them - that she had failed to prove her own point. She was no woman – she truly was still a child.
So what should she do next? Sitting on the beach wasn’t going to help. She needed a job, and somewhere to stay. She hoped and prayed that this would, at long last, be her lucky day. The clouds overhead were definitely threatening rain, so sleeping on the beach would be out of the question, though she had done so many times during her travels to save her meagre funds. She picked up her rucksack, struggling to get it onto her back as it wasn’t much smaller than she herself was, and headed up towards the strip of road that would eventually take her to the next town along the coast.
Her heart sank as she wandered into what she presumed was the town she’d been told to head for. Wallaby Creek was tiny – more of a large hamlet, really – with only about fifty houses, a short row of shops and a small bar/café called ‘Misty’s’. She didn’t hold out much hope that there would be anywhere she could stay, and it was unlikely that there would be any work here. Still, she didn’t have many other options, and her travels had taught Anna that the local bar was often the best place to scope for possible work.
Dropping her rucksack outside the door, mainly because she didn’t trust herself not to knock over all the tiny tables and chairs on her way through, but also because it showed that she trusted people, and didn’t think they would rob her, which in small towns seemed to count a lot to locals who prided themselves on their decency. She had nothing worth stealing now anyway. Three years of travelling had left her belongings in a very beleaguered state.
The red-headed lady behind the bar reminded Anna a bit of an older version of her best friend Carrie, and she hoped that this was a good omen.
‘Hi. Can I have an orange juice, please?’ she asked politely, praying that she had enough to pay for it. Some small-town bars could be pricier than others. She only had a few dollars left, and she really needed to eat too.
‘Sure, one OJ. You English?’ the woman queried as she rang up 50 cents on the cash register. Anna hadn’t realised that she had been holding her breath until she gasped for air, realising she would still be able to afford a loaf of bread and some Vegemite. She craved proper Marmite, but when in Oz she had no choice. It was cheap and didn’t need to be refrigerated while she was on the move.
‘Yes, from Suffolk,’ she replied, sipping at the icy cold, sweet juice as if it were a fine wine that needed to be savoured. ‘Mmmm,’ she sighed. ‘That is lovely.’
The woman laughed.
‘It’s only OJ, not champagne, but glad to have been of service. What brings you here? We don’t get many strangers round here, certainly not one’s who obviously haven’t had a decent meal or a bed to sleep in for some time,’ she said observantly. Anna grinned sheepishly.
‘I must stink too – I didn’t even think about that, hoped that my swim might have helped a bit.’
‘No worries. I’ll grab you some brekkie - on me. Name’s Daphne, and you are?’
‘Anna, Anna Craven. Thank you, that would be amazing! I’ve been walking along the coast road for a week now, looking for work. Do you know if anyone round here needs anything doing? Even if it’s just a few hours of chores it would give me enough to last for another few days.’
‘Not got a mum and dad to help you out?’ Daphne asked.
‘I don’t want to have to call them, plus, the places I’ve been recently, there would be nowhere for them to send the money to,’ Anna admitted.
‘Well, as it happens, Anna Craven from Suffolk, I am in need of a bit of a hand. My boy Tom has just broken his leg, and he normally does the evening session in the bar for me. You ever done any bar work?’
‘God yes, I worked in the pub back at home, in a bar in Bangkok for a week, and in Cape Town for two months.’
‘Sounds like you’re qualified, you’ll do. Now where are you intending to stay?’
‘I have no idea. I’ve been sleeping rough on the beach, but …’
‘No worries, there’s a little flat up top. It’s mostly filled with stock for the bar, but there’s a bathroom with a shower and a loo, a small kitchen, and, most importantly I’d guess, a bed. No charge while you work for me – I couldn’t let it out as it is. So, shall we say eight bucks an hour, six six-hour shifts a week?’
‘Done,’ Anna said, grinning from ear to ear. ‘Can I nip up and shower before that breakfast you promised me?’
‘Sure, see you in twenty minutes, love,’ Daphne grinned back and gave her a welcoming wink.
********
‘I’ll have a beer, love,’ the young man by the bar called to her. Daphne had popped upstairs to grab some bottled lagers, and Anna was alone in the bar for the first time. Typically, it had suddenly got busy, and she was feeling a little flustered.
‘In a minute,” Anna said, regretting the impatient tone in her voice as soon as she said it. “I’ve got to finish serving this gentleman first,’ she said, slightly more gently, hoping the good-looking, but obviously slightly arrogant, guy at the end of the bar might realise that being polite might stand him in better stead. She felt the skin on the back of her neck prickle with what she assumed was annoyance. She was still getting to grips with the till and the pumps in the bar, that were all old and more than a bit temperamental, without having to deal with difficult young men, too.
‘I’ll help myself, if you want,’ he called back, cheekily.
‘No you ruddy well won’t,’ she retorted. ‘I catch you anywhere near this side of the bar, and there will be some serious trouble. You will wait your turn, just like everyone else.’
With her hands shaking, she tried to pour a large vodka for a shabbily dressed woman, who perched like an old blackbird at the end of the bar.
‘Ok, ok, put your claws back in. I was only trying to be helpful. If you don’t want a hand, I’ll just stay here and watch you panic.’
Anna was on the verge of screaming. He really wasn’t trying to help, she decided. He was trying to drive her crazy. Now she’d gone and forgotten what the chap she was now serving had said he wanted, she was so wound up. She tried to ignore the handsome idiot at the end of the bar, and pulled all her focus back to where she was. Anna managed to deliver the order correctly, and serve two other people, who had been waiting long before the obnoxious creep at the end of the bar had started making trouble.
‘So, I’m finally to get your attention then?’ the young man asked when Anna finally turned to him. He had a wicked a gleam in his eye. Anna felt a frisson of sensation flood through her, but put it down to tiredness, or maybe annoyance. It couldn’t possibly be attraction – this man was far too in love with himself, and definitely not her type.
‘If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be serving you at all, but this isn’t my business, so what can I get you?’ she said, biting back all the sarcastic comments she wanted to make about the need to be polite and wait your turn like everyone else.
‘Don’t think my mum would appreciate you talking to me that way,’ he said, with a grin.
‘Quite frankly, I don’t care what your mum would think about how I speak to you. She should have brought you up with better manners.’ she barked back.
‘I did,’ Daphne said, smiling broadly as she came back down with a crate of beer and leant across the bar to receive a kiss from the obnoxious idiot. Anna was mortified, her face flushed bright red, and she started to stutter an apology.
‘No, don’t,’ Daphne said. ‘He can be a terrible tease, and has gotten used to being every girl’s dream round here.’
‘It’s hardly my fault they all trail around after me, and make me think I’m greater than I am,’ he said, looking utterly unrepentant.
‘I guess you’re Tom?’ Anna said speculatively, and peeked around the side of the bar to confirm that his leg was encased in plaster. ‘And that I am your replacement until your leg heals?’
/> ‘That would be the case.’
‘Hence the offering me a hand, I suppose! I should have known who you were, I’m sorry,’ Anna said, feeling a little chagrined.
‘No, you were right. I was being rude, and I should have introduced myself – but at least we know you have your priorities right! You were spot on to serve everyone else first, and to let me know my place. You can obviously handle yourself and others. Good skills,’ he said, admiringly. ‘Shall we try a formal introduction now? I’m Tom, Daphne’s son, and usual bar dogsbody. You must be Anna- bubbly English temporary barmaid, crashing upstairs amongst the chips and crates?’
‘That’s me, traveller extraordinaire, desperate to try and save enough money to get back home,’ she said, smiling at him for the first time, strangely flattered by the thought that there was at least one person in the world who believed she could take care of herself.
‘Wow,’ he said, ‘that smile could topple trees. You know, maybe you aren’t the ugly harridan I took you for, you could even be kinda cute.’
********
Anna was exhausted when she finished her shift, but, for the first time since she’d left Castle Cluny to go on her travels, she actually went to bed feeling that she wasn’t alone. She had made a good friend in Daphne, and, unless she was very much mistaken, Tom was definitely interested in her. He wasn’t the kind of guy you could ever trust in a relationship, but he had a roguish charm that could be very exciting. She wasn’t looking for a relationship, and had even less desire to have a one night stand, so she didn’t want to lead him on, but she would be glad to have someone to hang out with - even if there was something about him that sent her pulse racing. He promised to introduce her to some of the other local youngsters tomorrow, and she was really looking forward to a day on the beach with people her own age.