Page 17 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

‘Rome?’ said Katy, looking somewhat surprised. After all, he had effectively employed her for the week and now was disappearing.

Ryan nodded. ‘My apartment was flooded,’ he told her.

‘I see. I’m sorry to hear that. But I could really do with some answers as to how to go about organising all of this,’ she told him, gesturing at the piles of stuff filling every nook and cranny.

Ryan blew out a sigh. ‘I’ll try to give you a hand this afternoon, but after that I guess it’ll just have to wait until I return. If you could get it into some kind of order in the meantime, then that would be hugely helpful.’

‘I guess that’s all I can do,’ she replied, bending over to open up another box. ‘This one appears to be more toys.’

‘Toys?’ Ryan headed over to stand next to her. He looked down and came face to face with his childhood. ‘Hey!’ he said, smiling for what felt like the first time that day. ‘I remember this.’ He picked up the boxed model train set, in the faded, somewhat battered box. He lifted the lid and chuckled to himself as he stared down at the red locomotive and the tracks. ‘Gosh, we used to play with this for hours.’

It had taken him back to a happy time, before he had discovered the reality of his parents’ marriage.

Katy was quiet, so he looked up but found that she was just staring blankly at him. ‘So shall I place it on the charity or rubbish pile?’ she asked.

Ryan blanched and quickly came back to the present with a bump. He suspected that nothing sentimental got in the way of Katy’s work. ‘I think I’ll take this one up to my bedroom,’ he said. ‘By the way, did you mean what you said earlier? About not having anything personal in your home, I mean.’

She nodded. ‘Absolutely.’

‘But what about happy memories from the past?’ he urged her, suddenly wanting to know more.

‘Not everyone wants to remember the past,’ she told him, before turning away.

Ryan frowned at her back but didn’t say anything. Perhaps not everyone was lucky enough to have plenty of happy memories to look back on. Even just standing there, he could remember his own childhood, playing with the train set with Ethan. He seemed to remember that his grandad had given it to him for a birthday. His late grandmother had always baked amazing birthday cakes. His mum and dad smiling on. Happy times, at least in the early years. Then everything had begun to change.

He looked over at Katy once more. Perhaps there was some kind of sadness in her past. That she had suffered some kind of trauma that had made her closed off to any kind of sentimentality.

He suddenly found himself feeling sympathy for the woman who had answered the advert and had offered his dad hope when all else seemed to be lost.

And Ryan wondered if perhaps he had been mistaken in thinking the worst of her and realised that he really was grateful that she was staying with them after all.

10

Katy woke up the following morning with her face pressed up against a cold wall in a single bed, briefly wondering where on earth she was.

With a shiver, she suddenly remembered. She was in Cranfield in a cold tiny bedroom.

It was really cold, she realised. Of course, it was October outside, but she was inside the station. Why was it so cold in here as well?

It was only when she got out of the bed that she discovered why. She hadn’t seen it in the dim light of the bedroom lamp the previous evening when she had come to bed, but in the bright sunny morning light, she could see daylight in between the top of the wall and the roof in the far corner right in the eaves. She held up her hand and felt the cold air whistling through the narrow gap.

She quickly got dressed, grateful that she wouldn’t need to be in the freezing-cold room for longer than a week.

She went across to the bathroom, listening out for anyone moving around, but all was quiet. Perhaps no one else was up yet.

It had been a strange day yesterday, she thought as she splashed her face in the sink. The atmosphere with Bob had still felt strained in the evening. So when Ryan had offered to cook them both shepherd’s pie for dinner, she had declined. She had made herself some toast and excused herself to hide in her bedroom away from Bob’s hurt glances. She hadn’t meant to upset him, but she obviously had by throwing out some of his much-loved possessions, despite them being redundant timetables from many years ago.

She decided that it was probably for the best that she kept herself to herself whilst in Cranfield. She was useless with small talk anyway. Besides, she was used to her own company and that was fine. She wouldn’t be staying long enough to get to know anyone properly, so surely it was better for everyone that way?

She made herself a mug of coffee and crept downstairs. It was early, but she had always worked long hours. Besides, she was reminded as she unlocked the door to the station and went inside, there was still plenty to do. She switched on the overhead lights to see the chaos a little better before grimacing.

She took a sip of coffee, wondering where on earth to start when she heard footsteps outside on the platform.

She looked around to see Harriet, the redhead whom she had met the previous day and who ran the Lavender Spa just along the platform. She was with two other women, who were all waving at her from outside.

A little embarrassed at the unexpected attention, Katy gave them a small wave in reply.

They appeared to take this as a welcome so the door was suddenly opened and in came the three women along with the large golden retriever.