Page 45 of Snowflakes Over Micklewick Bay

‘But you were an eight-year-old little girl who’d just lost her mum,’ said Lark, her eyes brimming with sympathy.

Hannah simply responded with a shrug. As she’d got older, she’d struggled to understand how he’d seemed to lose interest in her, his lack of empathy when she told him she missed her mum. It had added a greater depth to her appreciation and love for her aunt and uncle who’d been there for her when no one else was.

‘It wasn’t just Polly who’d gone power mad, Darryl had, too. He seemed to think moving into our home had increased his status. Him being a couple of years older didn’t exactly help either. He treated me as inferior, was always whining to his mother about me, blaming me for bad things he did.’ Hannah puffed out her cheeks, her anger rising for the bully that she knew she’d have to come face to face with soon.

‘Then, just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, the unthinkable happened: my father married Polly and I found myself with the stepbrother from hell.’

‘Were you at the wedding?’ asked Maggie. ‘Must’ve been hard for you if you were.’

‘No, thankfully. They went abroad, did it there.’

Stella gave a knowing ‘Hmm.’

The fiddle music struck up again, with many of the locals singing along to a well-loved song.

‘To cut a long story short, it got more and more unbearable living at Midsummer Haven – it was about as far removed from a haven as you could imagine. Midsummer Hell, more like.’

‘Sounds it.’ Florrie gave a nod of agreement.

‘The trouble-causing and tale-telling from Polly and Darryl to my dad went on for years, but things took a sinister turn when Darryl started accusing me of stealing and telling lies.’

Jasmine shook her head in disgust. ‘Slime ball!’

‘I’ll second that,’ said Stella.

‘Polly’s things would disappear and there’d be a right old fuss about it. Then I’d find the things planted in my room. When I confronted Darryl about it, he’d go running to his mother saying I’d stolen them.’ Hannah’s skin began to prickle with goosebumps at the memory, her heart rate quickening. ‘And then I started finding odd items stuffed under my bed, in the drawers of my desk, in my wardrobe, bedside cabinet, you name it. But these things didn’t belong to Polly, they’d still got the labels on them.’

A gasp came from Lark’s direction. ‘No?’

‘What kind of things?’ asked Florrie, her brow crumpled.

‘Oh, a right mix. Chocolate bars, deodorant, trinkets, books – I’m guessing they were from your bookshop, Florrie. Honestly, there was loads of stuff, clearly stolen from shops. I didn’t know what to do with it all. If I confronted Darryl about it, he’d only go to his mother who wouldn’t believe that I didn’t know anything about them. And my father would only listen to what she had to say cos he didn’t want the hassle of standing up for me.’

New things had started appearing in Hannah’s room on an almost daily basis, but she really started to worry when an expensive radio turned up on her chest of drawers. It was quickly followed by a mobile phone and an expensive pair of designer sunglasses.

‘So what happened?’ asked Jasmine.

‘It was just after I found the sunglasses in my bedside table that my dad and Polly told me they needed to do a search of my room.’

Hannah had been forced to stand and watch as they’d rifled through her stuff, Darryl watching with glee from the doorway as his mother waved stolen items under her dad’s nose.

The following days had been a living hell for Hannah. She’d overheard Polly on the phone to an array of different people, telling them all about the problems she’d been having with her ‘wayward’ stepdaughter who’d ‘gone off the rails’ and was out of control. In typical Polly style, she’d over-exaggerated every argument they’d ever had, painting herself very much as the wronged party.

Hannah’s subsequent punishment had been harsh. Not only had she been grounded and banished to her bedroom on her return from school, but she’d been banned from attending her various clubs, had her mobile phone confiscated along with the television in her room and her laptop. But what had been the hardest to swallow was that her father would no longer look at her. She could take any of the punishments they’d doled out – unjust as they were – but her dad not speaking to her other than to reiterate his disappointment broke her heart.

‘I ran away to my aunt and uncle’s in Beckinthwaite, and I can’t tell you how relieved I was when they said I could move in with them. Of course, I missed my dad really badly, but he’d changed so much from the father he’d been before we lost my mum that I felt I really didn’t know him at all. I have to admit, it hurt when I heard he’d encouraged Darryl to follow him in a career in law and offered him a place at the firm where he and my mum had first met, yet he chose not to support me. I’m over it now, though.’

‘How ironic that he should choose a career fighting justice after what he did to you, planting stolen stuff in your room,’ observed Florrie. That had crossed Hannah’s mind when he’d first announced his intention to do a law degree and train to become a solicitor.

‘Oh, Hannah, you’ve been through so much,’ said Maggie. ‘I’m glad Bear and me stopped for you today.’

‘Fate set it all up for you; you were meant to meet like that, and bring Hannah to the pub to have a catch-up with us lot.’ Lark gave an other-worldly smile.

‘Our Lark’s big on stuff like that,’ said Jasmine. ‘She gets feelings about places and things, too.’

‘I do, and that’s why I had Polly and Darryl sussed years ago.’

‘Aye, you did, flower,’ agreed Jasmine.