Page 43 of Welcome to the Cornish Country Hospital

‘I don’t know, but I’ve got to give him the chance to try, because otherwise, if I get this wrong, I could end up being the one who gets pushed out of Esther’s life.’

‘I think you’re doing the right thing. Giving people a second chance, to become the person they should have been all along, is an act of generosity. I just hope, one day, Richard might be able to give that to Connie. But sadly not everyone is as brilliant as you.’

‘Brilliant is about the last thing I feel.’ There was that stab of guilt again. Charlie really was the most generous and thoughtful man Danni had ever met. But he had no idea who she really was, and she wasn’t sure even he would think she deserved a second chance if he knew the truth.

‘Well, I know that having you there tomorrow will help Connie feel better about things too. In the circumstances, it feels wrong to say I can’t wait to see you, but it’s true.’

‘Me too, see you tomorrow.’

‘See you tomorrow.’ As Charlie ended the call, Brenda came over and rested her head on Danni’s knee, staring up at her with eyes that understood everything.

‘I know I should tell him the truth about Lucas, but there’s no point if he’s leaving, is there?’ Danni looked at the dog, hoping that Brenda would give some indication that her silence was justified, but all she did was let out a long, low howl. It was always a sound that had seemed to encapsulate sadness for Danni and she just hoped it wasn’t Brenda’s way of predicting what was about to come.

23

When Connie had imagined the man her son might have grown up to be, she hadn’t dared dream he’d be as wonderful as Charlie. He was incredibly kind and there wasn’t a hint of arrogance about him. Calling her niece to explain why she’d kept Charlie a secret for so long had been relatively easy compared with making that revelation to Richard. Darcy had seemed to understand her reasons and the only thing she’d wanted was to find out everything possible about the cousin she’d always longed for.

Connie had been able to give her the basics and that was all someone of Darcy’s generation or younger seemed to need; with Google and social media, she’d been able to fill in all the gaps and find out more than Charlie had revealed of himself so far. And, best of all, it had all turned out to be positive information.

‘He’s got his own Wikipedia page, Auntie Con!’ The look of excitement on Darcy’s face when she’d made the video call had matched the tone of her voice. ‘He’s written eight best-selling children’s books and some of them are going to be made into a TV series next year. How amazing is that?’

‘It is and I think his parents have supported him a lot; his mother’s an artist like Charlie. He plays it down, but I suspect he’s had to work really hard to get where he has, even with their help.’

‘They sound wonderful.’ Darcy had beamed again. ‘But luckily for him he’s got good genes too. After all, it’s easy to trace where he gets his writing talent from.’

‘I never finished my novel, and I don’t think academic texts compare to fiction. None of this is down to me, anyway.’ Connie had been proud of Charlie from the moment he’d been placed in her arms. Her heart was full of love for the little boy who’d been alert and filled with a zest for life, the instant he’d opened his eyes. That pride had only grown as a result of getting to know him, but she couldn’t claim any part in his achievements and, as much as she loved Darcy, she hadn’t been willing to accept her niece saying otherwise.

‘Of course some of it is down to you. You made the decisions that put him on this path.’

Connie had changed the subject after that, knowing that her niece was every bit as stubborn as she was. Later on she’d snuck a look at the Wikipedia page for herself and had discovered that Charlie had donated a hefty percentage of the royalties from his last book to a children’s charity. Her son was a good man, who’d had a happy childhood, and the knowledge of that ought to have been enough. Asking for any more was greedy, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. She wanted Charlie in her life, and she wanted him and Richard to build a relationship, too. But now one of those things seemed much more likely than the other, even before Charlie turned up for a visit, accompanied by Danni and Gwen. It didn’t surprise Connie to see Charlie and Danni together. They seemed to have bonded over caring for Richard on the day he’d been admitted to St Piran’s, but she hadn’t expected Gwen to be with them.

‘This feels like an intervention. Am I in trouble for something?’ She’d struggled to smile much since the conversation with Richard, but somehow it was easy when Charlie was around.

‘Of course not. What kind of trouble are you going to get up to while you’re recovering from a broken pelvis, and not one but six operations!’ Gwen shook her head. ‘Not the fun kind, that’s for sure.’

‘We were just on our way down the corridor when Gwen came out of the shop, heading this way. Shall I borrow an extra chair, so we can all sit down?’ Danni looked across at one of the other beds in the bay that Connie had been moved into after her latest operation. The damage her broken pelvis had done to her internal organs had been responsible for three of the six operations, and the other three had been needed to repair the pelvis itself. The final one had gone ahead just the day before, when a scan to investigate the cause of the ongoing pain in her pelvis had revealed that one of the screws seemed to have shifted position, causing the fracture to become unstable again.

‘I’ll get it.’ Charlie took a chair from the bed opposite Connie’s, whose occupant had gone off for a physiotherapy session. The four of them exchanged a bit of idle chit-chat about the weather, but Connie only lasted about two minutes before she blurted out the question Charlie must have known she’d been wanting to ask.

‘Did you get a chance to speak to your father… Richard, I mean.’ Just because Connie thought of him as being Charlie’s father, it didn’t mean she could expect Charlie to feel the same. Any more than she could expect him to consider her his mother. He’d called her Mum on that first day, but ever since then it had been Connie. She was determined not to let the tinge of sadness she felt every time he said her name affect how grateful she was to have him back in her life.

‘I did. It took a while and I don’t think he was that keen to talk, even when he finally agreed.’ Charlie put his hand over hers. ‘I think he’s still in shock and it all seems really hard for him.’

‘I can’t blame him for being shocked. In fact, I can’t blame him for any of this; it was all me.’

‘Richard clearly feels the need to lash out, but blaming you is just projecting his own guilt. It’s something I learnt early on in the counselling course I’ve been doing.’ Gwen looked willing to challenge anyone who might disagree, but Charlie and Danni were already nodding in agreement. ‘From all the things you’ve told me, Connie, he knew what the boundaries were in your relationship, and that the end of the summer would be the end of the two of you. I know he wrote you those letters afterwards, but it was him who’d told you just how much he stood to lose if he didn’t marry Fiona. Deep down, I think he knows that by telling you those things he left you with no choice but to keep the baby a secret from him.’

‘That’s what I think.’ Danni was biting her lip and Connie hadn’t seen her looking this much on edge since the day of the accident. It was obvious there was something more than friendship building between Danni and Charlie too, and maybe that was what was making her seem so nervous. ‘I’ve got this friend who’s had feelings for someone, but it never went anywhere because that person was engaged to someone else. The strange thing is, when there was finally a chance of them being together, my friend realised that nothing could ever happen between them, because of the guilt that would come with it. I think Richard feels so bad about what happened with Fiona that he can’t allow himself to build a relationship with you and Charlie.’

‘He doesn’t want to get to know Charlie?’ There was a tigress inside Connie she’d never known existed when she looked at her son, searching for signs that he’d been hurt by his father’s rejection. Richard was entitled to hate her, but Charlie was innocent in all of this and, for the first time, she felt something akin to rage bubbling up inside her. Richard was just lucky she wasn’t capable of getting out of bed and tracking him down.

‘He’s not ready yet, but I think he might be eventually.’ Charlie was so balanced in how he saw things, and that definitely didn’t come from Connie or Richard. ‘I just wish I could be as sure that he might change his mind about seeing you.’

‘I don’t need him to.’ Connie forced a smile and, even though her face felt stiff with the effort, she hoped it was convincing. The knowledge that Richard never wanted to see her again might make it feel like someone was trying to rip her heart out, but Richard rejecting Charlie would have broken it forever. If the possibility for the two of them to finally have the relationship they deserved relied on her staying away from Richard altogether, she was willing to do it. ‘Is there any chance you might stay on in Port Kara after your rental of the holiday cottage is over, to try and get him to open up to you? I know it should be the other way around, but you’ve known that you were adopted a lot longer than he has. And maybe when I’ve gone back to Yorkshire, it’ll all be easier.’

‘Funny you should mention that, but I’ve decided to stay around for at least another six weeks.’ Charlie smiled and Connie saw the change in Danni’s expression; it was as if someone had switched on a bright light. ‘I’m not sure if Richard will let me keep renting the cottage, but I’m looking around at other things just in case. And I’ve only got one condition to agreeing to stay.’

‘What’s that?’ Connie looked at her son, half of her desperately hoping he was going to say what she was expecting him to, and the other half of her terrified that he would.

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