The Girl in the Scrapbook by Carolyn Ruffles (reading women TXT) 📕

‘We’re playing sleeping lions,’ Grace explained, opening one eye, ‘which means I’ve just lost! Well done, Alex. You’ve won. You’ve beaten Grandma.’

Emily grinned. ‘Great choice of game,’ she remarked. ‘If it had continued much longer, I expect Alex might have been asleep for good!’

‘Exactly. That was my cunning plan!’

After Alex was tucked up in bed, they sat drinking wine and talked long into the night, telling each other their life stories, completely engrossed in discovering all they had missed, good and bad. The only discordant note was struck by Molly who paced fretfully in and out of the room on a number of occasions.

‘I thought she would be happy now we are altogether,’ Emily mused, her frown creased in concern. ‘I wonder what’s bothering her.’

Grace shrugged her shoulders. ‘It does seem odd. I really hoped, for her sake, that she could rest easy now, that maybe we would never see her again. Yet here she is. Maybe she can never escape.’

‘Oh, that would be truly sad.’ Emily watched as the troubled figure disappeared once more. ‘I wish there was something we could do to help her.’ She glanced at her watch and got to her feet. ‘Hey, look at the time. It’s almost one o’clock. Perhaps we’d better call it a night.’

Grace stood and smiled at her daughter. ‘Today has been the best day of my life. I’m so happy you found me.’

‘Me too!’ They hugged each other tightly.

‘Hey, you know what? I haven’t heard Jen come in. I hope she’s alright with that chap, David,’ Grace murmured.

Emily grinned knowingly. ‘Oh, I’m sure she’s fine,’ she replied.

◆◆◆

Jennifer was busy cooking breakfast and singing along to the radio when Emily and Alex surfaced the following morning.

‘Mm, someone’s in a good mood,’ Emily muttered under her breath.

‘Morning,’ Jennifer beamed. ‘Did you sleep well?’

‘Brilliant thanks. How about you?’ she added mischievously.

‘Oh, fine, thank you.’ Jennifer coloured slightly. ‘Isn’t it a beautiful morning?’

‘It really is.’ Emily wandered over to the window as Alex began tucking into a bowl of cereal. Outside, the sun was already shining and the sky was a cloudless blue. ‘Perhaps this morning we could do a walk all around the village. I know we’ve been up and down the High Street several times and to the play area but I would really love to get a proper look at Willow Farm and maybe wander down to the lake. From a distance, it looks really pretty. It’s hard to imagine it was the site of such a terrible tragedy when the chalk pits were there.’

‘That sounds like a plan. I’m up for it. Morning, Grace.’

Grace appeared dressed in black leggings and a baggy, purple sweater the same shade as her hair. She yawned theatrically and took a seat at the table. ‘Morning. I’d offer to help but my brain is mush until I’ve had my first cup of coffee. That smells good.’ She smiled at Alex. ‘Got a healthy appetite, I see. How are you my darling boy? Too busy to talk? Fair enough.’

Emily relayed her suggestion for a walk and Grace responded with enthusiasm. ‘I love walking. I just don’t get enough time for it these days.’ She patted her stomach ruefully. ‘I could certainly do with the exercise. It’s been a while since I was as slender as you.’

After they had finished breakfast, Jennifer had a few jobs to do so they agreed to go out at ten o’clock.

‘That will give me time to get cleared up and organised for our meal tonight. David’s coming around so we could all eat together, if that’s ok with you both?’ she asked.

‘Sounds great,’ Emily replied, looking across at Grace.

‘Fine with me.’

While Jennifer and Grace cleared the dishes, Emily took Alex in the living room. A fat, tabby cat was stretched out on the wall opposite the cottage and Alex immediately rushed to the window.

‘Cat! Want to stroke it, Mummy.’

‘It’s resting, darling. Let’s not disturb it. Maybe we can get a closer look if it’s still there when we go out later.’

Alex’s chubby face creased in a frown but then he spotted the toy garage and cars he had discovered at the bottom of the toy box the day before and he darted across the room.

‘Play with me, Mummy,’ he demanded.

‘Just for a little while. Then I’ll need to go and get ready for our walk.’

For the next twenty minutes, Emily drove toy cars, on all fours, around the carpet. They had an exciting car chase until Emily, legs and back weary from crawling, suggested a new game, sorting the cars into a car park. She left Alex driving the cars, complete with sound effects, into wiggly rows and retired to their room to change into more presentable clothes than the joggers she'd pulled on that morning and put some make up on. Thoughtfully, she stared at her face in the mirror. Already, she looked different, happier, more relaxed, ready to move forward. For so long, she had been meshed in the mysteries of her history, ever since that fateful day when she had discovered her parents were not who she thought they were. For a while, when she met Adam and then gave birth to Alex, she had felt she could be content without knowing, without unlocking the key to her past, but then Molly had reappeared. Was that because she was once more questioning her future? Was it because she felt unable to move forward without first taking a step back and having another attempt to discover Molly’s real identity? Now she and Jennifer together had unravelled the mystery of the photographs in the scrapbook and her link to them. There was still so much she didn't know but that was ok, she thought. She knew enough and had discovered her real mum; that was the most important thing of all.

She finished brushing her hair, added a touch of gloss to her lips and glanced at her watch. Ten minutes. It was time to prise Alex away from his cars