Page 22 of Take Her from You

“Do I have to?”

“Walk?”

“No, Mama, change school. I won’t see my friends.”

My heart panged. “Sorry, but we don’t live near there anymore. You’ll love the new school, and I just know you’ll have friends straight away.”

She picked up her library book and held it in front of her face, not sobbing, but in a mini sulk that I totally understood.

Tobi was on Easter Holidays from her old preschool and attending a daily holiday club with Molly’s daughter. It was the perfect time to move her, and the new setting in the village where Valentine and I had gone to dinner had spaces.

The school was so remote there, they were more than happy to take a new child in, and guaranteed to me that the privacy of their students was taken seriously. On my visit there, I’d asked if they could promise no letters would be sent to my old address, revealing my new one, and they assured me of it.

Not that I had a new address yet, though Valentine had left me a note this morning saying he’d be working on the cottage for most of the day.

I was such a coward. After Daisy left last night, I’d hidden in my bedroom. What he’d done to me had me blushing every time I thought about it. The first man to ever gothere, and the speed in which he’d?—

“Are we all finished?” a voice asked.

I snapped my attention to the café worker, a familiar face as we’d been in here often. “Hi, Bette, I think so. Tobi, are you going to eat anything else?”

My daughter lowered her book to wrinkle her nose at the cold chips and congealed ketchup. “Did I eat enough to have pudding?”

A healthy eating ethic didn’t fly when she was having to live away from me. “I’d say so.”

“Yay! What can I have?”

“Anything you like.”

“What a kind mother ye have,” Bette said. “Come see what we’ve got behind the counter.”

Tobi jumped up and trotted after the woman. I went to follow, but my phone beeped with a message.

Daisy: Valentine wants your number so he can ask a question about the renovations. Is it okay to pass it on?

Mia: That’s fine, thank you for checking.

It still didn’t feel real that I’d get that cottage. I didn’t want to believe it, mainly because who knew what the rent might be. I’d searched locally, looking at ads and asking estate agents, but flats were few and far between, and houses out of our price range. The only places I’d found were a long drive away and not in the catchment area for Tobi’s new school.

Besides, I didn’t want to be travelling in and out of a town—it was the reason I’d picked the mountains.

Being out in public risked too much.

Here, in the library in Molly’s hometown, there was next to no chance we’d be found. None of the people I used to live with would set foot into a community centre, and they definitely wouldn’t stoop to eat in its café.

More so, the McRae estate felt perfectly secure.

I wanted to stay there. I wanted us both there, and yesterday.

My phone beeped again, and I peered around for Tobi first. At the counter, she chattered away to Bette who was all smiles for my little blonde cherub.

I checked the message with my heart hammering.

Unknown number: Hey, Mia, it’s Valentine. I’m wiring up the electrics for your cottage this evening. Free to chat quickly?

I saved him as a new contact, then before I could chicken out, dialled him.

New-Mia wasn’t quaking at the sight of a previous conquest. We lived together, for now. I needed to be able to look him in the eye.

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