Page 3 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

After one final read-through, she gave a sigh of relief, grateful to be in control once more. Katy pressed the Send button on the email before she passed out on the sofa with a triumphant smile on her face.

2

‘You’ve done what?’

Ryan Connolly stared at his younger brother, Ethan, in utter disbelief. He couldn’t believe what he had just been told.

‘I posted an advert online for someone to tidy this place up,’ repeated Ethan, with a shrug. ‘I thought it would help you and Dad out.’

Ryan glared at him. ‘We don’t need help,’ he replied.

Ethan rolled his eyes before staring around the living room, barely able to disguise his grimace at the state of the place. ‘You truly believe that, bro?’

Ryan followed his brother’s look around the chaotic and messy family home, already knowing the state of the place before his eyes reminded him. No, of course he didn’t believe what he was saying. But what other choice did they have but to battle on by themselves?

The apartment above the railway station in Cranfield had been Ryan’s family home since he was born thirty-three years ago. But it had been in the Connolly family for many decades before then. His great-grandfather, his grandad and his dad all had the railways in their blood and had loved working on the trains and at the station. His grandad Eddie had been the stationmaster before passing on the apartment and the job to his son, Bob, and his family.

But whereas once it had been a happy home for the older generations, it wasn’t any more. It had been nearly a month since their mum had walked out on their dad to start a new life in Spain with her lover. A month since she had walked away from her husband and from the family home. Everything had changed and not for the better.

The apartment above the old railway station had always been a bit messy. Ryan’s mum had never been particularly house-proud and his dad had always collected old railway items to the point of obsession, which had been the cause of many rows as to how much the place was beginning to fill up with the collection. But now, if possible, it seemed worse than ever.

It didn’t help that there were three men living there in the upstairs apartment at the moment – Ryan, his dad and his younger brother Ethan. Two generations of Connolly men all trying to find a way forward in their new and strange existence. Ryan and his brother were trying to keep their dad from sinking into a deep depression. A wife walking out after thirty years of a seemingly happy marriage would do that, they thought.

Was it actually a happy marriage? In truth, Ryan knew that it hadn’t been for a very long time. Both he and his brother had had to listen to their mum’s many complaints about her husband over the years. She had always been a glass half-empty kind of person, but Ryan had assumed that it had been his mother’s personality and that hopefully deep down she was happy in her marriage and living in Cranfield. It turned out that actually she was happy with neither.

However bad the apartment was though, it wasn’t anywhere near as awful as the main part of the station downstairs, long since closed to the public and almost full with every piece of junk and train paraphernalia that Bob had laid his hands on.

After his dad had been made redundant a couple of years ago and suddenly given early retirement, Bob’s hobby had become a full-on obsession and he had quickly become fixated on the full-sized old steam train that was in the railway workshop alongside the station. It needed major renovation work to even get the engine going once more and each day a new oil-covered steel rod or box of valves would appear.

It had been the last straw in what had already been an unstable relationship between husband and wife and the small gap between his parents had widened to an insurmountable gulf. But Bob had been so wrapped up in his renovating the steam train that he hadn’t noticed his wife growing ever more distant. Therefore, the shock of his wife walking out had hit Bob harder than anyone had expected, least of all his sons.

Every evening, Bob would work on each new part for the steam engine. Normally, his dad was talkative and friendly, but the past few weeks he was almost silent. Ryan could only watch him and worry.

Ryan had tried just once to gently broach the subject of the mess in the apartment, but his dad had burst into tears and Ryan had quickly told him to forget about it, anxious not to cause his dad any more hurt.

And that was the worst thing, because Ryan felt completely helpless about the situation and could do nothing but sit and twiddle his thumbs.

What Ryan was really missing was his beloved cooking. It had always soothed away any stresses in his life, but now it felt as if he had lost that as well.

From the very first time that his late grandmother had shown him how to bake bread, he had been hooked. His favourite lesson at school had always been cooking and he had worked his way up through many years of hard days and late nights from the food preparation area inside many kitchens until he had reached the pinnacle as head chef in a fancy restaurant in Rome. He had rejoiced in creating amazing food night after night for the past three years.

Then, a few weeks ago, he had been falsely accused of food poisoning by a celebrity customer. It had been a simple mistake and Ryan was completely innocent, as proved later when the customer had confessed to eating a mushroom which had been rumoured to be great for weight loss.

But the ensuing publicity had been fatal for the reputation of the restaurant. Suddenly, the celebrity crowd that had frequented the place found somewhere else to eat. The restaurant had moved swiftly to stop the fallout, but Ryan had ended up being sacked by the owners as they tried to save their business and Ryan was the scapegoat.

The worst thing of all had been the sneering headlines in the food pages about the sacking. His critics had crowed that Ryan had never been a great chef after all and, in that moment, his confidence had been destroyed. He had never doubted his abilities before, but reading all the criticisms, suddenly he wondered whether he had ever been as good as he had thought.

On the same day as being sacked, Ryan had received a phone call to say that his mother had walked out and he had swiftly flown home to comfort his dad whilst their marriage lay in tatters.

Back in Cranfield, Ryan had discovered that the scandal that had surrounded his dismissal had ensured that none of the restaurants in Rome wanted to hire him. His stellar career in Italy was over.

In truth, he was relieved not to have found another job for now, despite needing an income. He was still so embarrassed by the false accusation of poisoning that he was keeping his head down and hiding out in Cranfield. Worst of all, he had somehow seemed to have lost his nerve to cook or even think about food. His self-belief in his own skills had disappeared as quickly as his career.

Not that he had confessed the truth to anyone, not even to his brother. He had told his family that he was on a sabbatical from work, which was only half a lie. In fact, he still had to return to clear out his apartment in Rome, but he couldn’t face heading back there any time soon.

‘Anyway, we’ve already had an application in reply to the job advert, so I reckon it’ll all get sorted soon enough,’ said Ethan, bringing Ryan back to the present.

Stunned by this unexpected development, Ryan stared at his brother. ‘Who?’ he asked.