Blood Ties: Part 3 of 3: Family is not always a place of safety

Blood Ties: Part 3 of 3: Family is not always a place of safety
Julie Shaw

Family is not always a place of safety.Kathleen was just eight years old when her mother was tragically killed in a car accident. And when her father remarries it is to the bitter and resentful Irene who has two children of her own and no space in her heart for another. Irene goes out of her way to make Kathleen's life as miserable as possible and will stop at nothing to get her out of their lives…When Kathleen is sixteen, a shocking incident rocks the family, and life takes a darker turn.Among this darkness, Kathleen finds a glimmer of hope in an older man, but Irene is ruthless in her mission to destroy her

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Copyright (#udc4ae593-7bdf-5ac5-84c0-9fd6222baa85)

Certain details in this story, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.

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First published by HarperElement 2016

FIRST EDITION

© Julie Shaw and Lynne Barrett-Lee 2016

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Front cover photograph © Sarah Monrose/Gallery Stock

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Source ISBN: 9780008142919

Ebook Edition © February 2016 ISBN: 9780008142902

Version: 2015-12-04

Contents

Cover (#u8f24e34e-1244-55be-8d63-f84bfdda8818)

Title Page (#ulink_48b17657-bbce-5921-984c-14208dd8e6a7)

Copyright (#ulink_91efb7ee-2e16-53c8-b790-6086c2e78416)

Chapter 19 (#ulink_6c5e879e-87c3-57b6-855c-439fd9a442b2)

Chapter 20 (#ulink_442c003f-4e6f-5c9e-b39c-a3ef0e204024)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Also available in the Notorious Hudson Family series (#litres_trial_promo)

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#udc4ae593-7bdf-5ac5-84c0-9fd6222baa85)

Having had no real mother in her formative years with whom she could discuss such things, Kathleen knew almost nothing about pregnancy. She knew a little, though; enough to feel a welling of certainty that her Aunt Sally was spot on in her diagnosis.

Now she thought about it rationally it all made perfect sense. However much time she’d spent poring over the calendar, and that comforting ‘only three days a month’ thing stuck in her mind, other facts now struck her as well. Such as the fact that you could get pregnant without even ‘doing’ it. Hadn’t she been told that back in school, too? When that lady had come in and shown that film to them? Such as the fact that her last period had been not quite as expected. Hardly anything even – and another thought hit her. Hadn’t her friend Sandra said you could have a period even when you were pregnant?

God, what an idiot she’d been! ‘Yes, Terry,’ she’d say, every time he’d asked her if it was safe. ‘Yes, it’s fine,’ she’d say blithely, ‘I’ve worked it out.’ Such an idiot! An idiot wrapped up in a big bow of ignorance – of thinking everything was fine because of some half-baked optimism; that things like that didn’t happen if you were ‘careful’. She almost laughed as she set off to walk the long way to the pub. Being ‘careful’ doing something where she’d never felt so carefree, or passionate, or abandoned. Well, now she was paying the price, and she still didn’t know how to feel. Only enough to know that perhaps clambering over walls wasn’t the best thing to be doing.

For the first time she could remember, she was actually hoping not to see her dad. She even crossed her fingers as she let herself into the pub – as quietly as possible – and continued to do so mentally as she set about the cleaning, moving around the various rooms like a burglar. God forbid she’d see him; something would show on her face, she didn’t doubt that. And the last thing she wanted was for him to get any sort of inkling; not before she’d been to the doctor’s and confirmed it – if that were even possible? How would the doctor be able to tell? And definitely not before breaking the news to Terry.

Heart in mouth. That was the expression for what she was feeling, she thought distractedly, as she hurried round the taproom and the bar area and cleaned. For all that Sally’s diagnosis had made her head spin, and it had, grim reality was beginning to creep in – in the form of questions she couldn’t answer. An unmarried mother at her age. What would people think? And what if Terry hated the idea? Was cross with her, even? Or worse – the idea came to her in a cold draught of anxiety – what if he didn’t accept the truth of it? That she’d simply been stupid and naïve and dozy. What if he thought she was trying to trap him into marriage? For the first time, Irene’s situation with Darren and Monica’s father hit her hard. What if Terry was furious? What if he threw her out?

The little bubble of unreality suddenly popped.

Kathleen returned home after finishing at the pub, thankfully having seen no one. Not even Monica, who she’d heard leave while on her hands and knees behind the bar. And once home, she’d stayed home, for a long, thoughtful hour, drinking tea and dithering about going to the doctor’s on Park Avenue where she’d be bound to see someone she knew. The morning surgery finished at eleven, and she knew she’d probably have a wait; they did a first-come-first-served thing and if you weren’t there when the surgery doors opened, you could have a dozen or more patients in the queue in front of you, especially at this time of year, with everyone suffering from coughs and colds.

Which was what decided her. She might feel shameful and silly turning up with her questions about possible pregnancy, but she could legitimately go because she’d been ill with an infection, too. She poured the last of her tea down the sink and berated herself for being so daft anyway; no one would know anything – consultations with doctors were confidential. So, having given Tiddles the milk she’d promised earlier, she set off down Louis Avenue and across to Park Avenue. Impossible to deal with something when you didn’t even know what it was you were dealing with, after all.