Songbird

elsewhere.

From the shore, Brad had seen her stop and raise her arms, and though the wind carried her voice away, he realized she was grappling with herself as to what must be decided. “Do what you think is right, my darling,” he murmured. “That’s all you can do.”

Far off, Maddy paced up and down for what seemed an age. Then, when the air struck colder and the skies took on a frown, she made her way back, and as she came toward him, Brad saw the look of resolution in her face.

“It’s time now,” she said softly. “It’s time for us to go.” Her sad smile touched him deeply.

“Are you sure?” he whispered.

She merely nodded, and he understood. “You really are a remarkable woman,” he told her.

What she did next was also remarkable.

She went across the street to the news agents, to buy paper and an envelope, and right there, leaning on the promenade wall, she penned a letter to Ellen:

My dearest Ellen,

I came to take my son away from you, but I now realize that he left me long ago. He’s your son now. And if the day ever comes when he discovers the truth, tell him now, I could not have loved him more than you have done.

When he’s older, and a chance discovery might tell him of his past, please… show him this letter.

I so want to forgive you, but for now, you must be content with the knowledge that I leave my son in your hands, and you in his. Giving him up to you is so hard that I cannot contemplate forgiveness.

In time, I pray I will come to feel compassion toward you, and the forgiveness will surely follow.

Until then, be happy with this wonderful boy, and guide him well through his life. Sometimes I may be watching from a distance, and at other times, I will be far away. But I will think of you both always.

God bless, and be content.

She added a P.S.

You need to contact Nora. There is good news and bad. But in the end, the good may help you build a secure life for you – and our Michael.

Though you hurt me, Ellen, I can’t help but love you both with all my heart.

Maddy

XX

She crossed the road and, unseen, she entered the cafe, went straight to the counter and left the envelope, simply addressed to Ellen. On the way out, she was shocked to the core when Michael smiled on her. Yes, he had the look of Steve Drayton, but the kind, chestnut-brown eyes told her he was not his father’s son at all.

He was her son. And he always would be.

As Maddy and Brad walked back to their car, Ellen saw the envelope and, thinking it was a tip, she was about to thrust it into her apron pocket when she caught sight of the handwriting. It was familiar. Her heart gave a strange leap in her chest. She opened the envelope and read the letter. Then “Maddy!” She ran out to the road and looked up and down, calling MADDY… Maddy!” There was no sign of her old friend.

Returning to the cafe, she read and reread the letter, and when Michael came to ask what she was looking at, she quickly folded it up and put it in her handbag. “It’s a tip,” she told him, adding softly, “the most wonderful and generous I’m ever likely to get.”

She looked again up the road, hardly able to speak for the lump straddling her throat. “Thank you, Maddy,” she whispered. “From the bottom of my heart.”

As the tears ran down her face, she quickly turned away. After all, she would not want Michael asking difficult questions, would she?

A week later, after Maddy’s preliminary letter to Raymond, Brad took her to meet with him.

Waiting in the hotel foyer, in the little Cambridgeshire village, Maddy was like a bag of nerves. What would she say? How would she greet her old friend Alice, and had she forgiven her and Raymond for what they had done?

She didn’t know. She could not tell.

Yet when Raymond walked in the door, accompanied by Alice, it was as though the years fell away, and they were back there in the Pink Lady, laughing and talking, with Alice telling her she was “too skinny by half.”

When the two women saw each other, their eyes were moist with emotion. For a seemingly endless moment, they looked at each other each with tears rolling down their faces, soaking in the love and regrets, and slowly the emptiness that had been between them was no more.

Now Alice was close, her arms opened wide to take Maddy into her embrace.

Maddy stood up, hardly able to see for the tears that swam across her vision.

Then Alice held her fast. And the long, aching years were as nothing.

“You’re too skinny by half!” Alice complained. And Maddy laughed out loud.

She had her life back.

More than that, she had Brad.

And her joy was complete.

Acknowledgments

Huge love and acknowledgment to Chloe and Milly.

Two very special little girls.

Also to our two fine sons,

Spencer and Wayne,

and Jane.

Thank you all, for the joy you give me.

About the Author

A major bestselling author in her native Great Britain, JOSEPHINE COX’s story is as extraordinary as anything in her books. At the age of sixteen, she met and married her husband, Ken, and had two sons. When her sons began school, Cox decided to go to college, eventually gaining a place at Cambridge University, which she was unable to accept. Becoming a teacher, she set about renovating a derelict council house as the family home, coping with the problems of her own mother’s unhappy home life while writing her first full length novel – all of which earned her a Superwoman of Great Britain Award after her family secretly entered her in the contest. Currently living in Bedfordshire, England, she gave up teaching to write full-time and is the author of nearly three dozen novels.