The Visitors(7)

Yet for now, her past problems were being overshadowed by her present-day predicament.

Overdue credit card bills, an unsatisfied county court judgement and a stack of unopened communications from a long list of creditors was just for starters.

Her only saving grace was that it was a well-known fact that it took credit and collection agencies a while to catch up with people when they moved house. And hopefully, she’d managed to make it doubly difficult for them.

There was also the problem of how she would ever find Geraldine again, now she was eighty miles away from Manchester. If it nearly killed her in the process, she would find a way to do it. And when the moment came, she would reclaim what was rightfully hers.

Holly squeezed her eyes closed against the menacing thoughts that threatened her new positive state of mind. Dr Freeman had warned her, trained her to spot bad thoughts and nip them in the bud before they could drag her down again.

The last eighteen months, in particular, had been a very difficult time. This period had included her very darkest hours. Times when she had quite honestly been a mere whisker away from ending it all.

It had been a chance remark from a fellow patient that had changed all that. Her words, over a shared cup of coffee, had been: ‘Don’t you just wish you could rewind it all and start over again?’

That simple question had somehow struck a chord with Holly and forged a way through the darkness where all the therapists and doctors could not. After that, she had never taken her eye off the faint light at the end of the tunnel as it grew steadily stronger, day by painful day.

On a brighter note, since making the final decision to come back to Nottingham, she had invested hundreds of hours planning and visualising – had taken on board everything the numerous self-help books she’d read had suggested – in order to give herself the best chance of succeeding in getting her life back on track.

Only then, when she felt grounded and secure again, would she be ready to do whatever was necessary to retrieve what was rightly hers.

The kettle clicked and she made the tea, feeling both determined and resolved that she would never let anything or anyone use or ruin her again.

She carried the tea through to the front room on a small decorative tray.

‘Thank you, dear.’ Cora Barrett reached eagerly for the china cup and saucer, her third of the afternoon. ‘Do you know, I feel quite spoiled. You’re an angel. Truly.’

Holly smiled, sitting down on the sofa, cradling her own small mug. ‘You’re the angel, Mrs Barrett, for letting me stay here for a while. For giving me the benefit of the doubt.’

‘How many times do I have to tell you… it’s Cora!’ the woman gently scolded. ‘If we are to be good friends, then I have to insist that you call me by my first name.’

‘Point taken.’ Holly smiled. ‘I’m very grateful to you, Cora, is what I wanted to say.’

‘Absolutely nothing to be grateful for,’ Cora said firmly. ‘Our meeting outside the post office was pure serendipity; in my book, it was a clear sign that you coming here was meant to be. It was perfectly obvious to me that you were a nice girl.’

Holly winced at her kind words, doubting that was the case at all.

It had been just over a week ago. Holly had been back in Nottingham for a matter of hours and had been trying to cash a cheque at the post office inside the Khans’ corner shop, but they’d insisted she hadn’t got the correct ID required for the transaction.

‘But I haven’t got a passport or a driving licence! It’s only for twenty pounds, for God’s sake,’ Holly had pleaded. ‘And I really, really need the cash.’

Customers behind her in the queue had shuffled and muttered. When she turned around to glare at them, she saw an odd mixture of pity and judgement in their expressions.

But the sour-faced old hag behind the counter wouldn’t budge an inch and a humiliated Holly had been forced to walk past the short queue to the door.

Outside, she’d leaned against the wall sobbing, the strength in her legs and resolve in her heart finally dissolving. To her, it had felt like the end of the world.

That was when she’d felt a firm hand on her shoulder and heard a concerned voice.

‘It can’t be that bad, dear, surely?’ She had opened her eyes to see an elegant older lady studying her inquisitively. ‘Fancy a nice cup of tea in the café?’

Despite her embarrassment, Holly had nodded and followed Cora to the small café at the end of the road. As they’d entered, the smell of freshly baked scones and fragrant brewed coffee instantly soothed her frayed nerves.

They had chatted over lattes for what seemed like hours, and Holly ended up telling Cora rather more about her problems than she’d initially intended. Once she started, she found she simply couldn’t stop. The relief had been enormous.

And now here she was, a guest in Cora’s home. Markus used to swear by harnessing the law of attraction to manifest one’s dreams, and finally, after ten long years, it seemed to Holly she might just have the hang of it.

‘It’s such a treat to have a nicely mannered young woman for company. I had the measure of you instantly that day, and finding out you grew up near here was the icing on the cake. Your good nature shone through, my dear.’ Cora looked towards the pale spring light that filtered softly in through the living room window. ‘Since Harold passed, it’s easy for me to go a day or so… sometimes longer, without speaking to another soul.’