A Time for Hope Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Recent Titles by Anna Jacobs from Severn House

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Recent Titles by Anna Jacobs from Severn House

  CHANGE OF SEASON

  CHESTNUT LANE

  THE CORRIGAN LEGACY

  FAMILY CONNECTIONS

  A FORBIDDEN EMBRACE

  AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN

  IN FOCUS

  IN SEARCH OF HOPE

  KIRSTY’S VINEYARD

  LICENCE TO DREAM

  MARRYING MISS MARTHA

  MISTRESS OF MARYMOOR

  MOVING ON

  A PLACE OF HOPE

  REPLENISH THE EARTH

  SAVING WILLOWBROOK

  SEASONS OF LOVE

  A TIME FOR HOPE

  THE WISHING WELL

  WINDS OF CHANGE

  Short Stories

  SHORT AND SWEET

  Anna is always delighted to hear from readers and can be contacted via the internet:

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  Anna can be contacted by email at [email protected]

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  A TIME FOR HOPE

  Anna Jacobs

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  This first world edition published 2014

  in Great Britain and 2015 in the USA by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of

  19 Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM2 5DA.

  Trade paperback edition first published

  in Great Britain and the USA 2015 by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD.

  eBook edition first published in 2015 by Severn House Digital

  an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited

  Copyright © 2014 by Anna Jacobs

  The right of Anna Jacobs to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Jacobs, Anna author.

  A time for hope.

  1. Abused wives–Fiction. 2. Divorced women–Fiction.

  3. Lancashire (England)–Fiction. 4. Romantic suspense

  novels.

  I. Title

  823.9’14-dc23

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-8443-5 (cased)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-84751-550-6 (trade paper)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-78010-596-3 (e-book)

  Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.

  This ebook produced by

  Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Falkirk,

  Stirlingshire, Scotland.

  One

  As Stu got out of his car, Gabi flung open the front door and hurled his suitcase at him. ‘Get out of my sight, you cheating worm!’

  He gaped at her in shock as the suitcase bumped to a halt at one side of him. ‘What the hell’s brought this on?’

  ‘A woman phoned me this afternoon on my mobile. Radka, she said she was called. She rang all the way from the Czech Republic.’ She watched him stiffen and then hide his surprise. ‘Ah. I see you know her. She was very frank about knowing you and mentioned that little scar on your backside to prove it. And she also told me how pregnant she was.’

  He could have been a stone statue by the time she finished speaking. ‘I see.’

  ‘Is that all you can say? Who is she?’

  ‘You met her at the office dinner – the beautiful blonde.’

  ‘Who danced with you twice.’

  He smirked and looked round. ‘Look, we need to have this conversation in private. In case you haven’t noticed, our next-door neighbour is peeping through her window, and the way you’re yelling, she’ll hear every word you say.’

  ‘I don’t care if the Queen herself has us under surveillance. You aren’t coming into this house again, Stu Dixon.’

  He moved towards her, scowling. ‘I own a third of this house, actually, so I have every right to come inside. Every right.’ He shoved her out of the way so hard she bumped back against the wall.

  But she was quick enough to push him back outside. As he raised one clenched fist, she tried not to flinch. He’d hit her a couple of times in the past year, claiming afterwards it was just rough play that had gone too far. The second time she’d waited till he was asleep and then thumped him good and hard with her rolling pin. She’d made her point. He hadn’t touched her again.

  ‘You’ll have to fight your way in,’ she shouted, face thrust as close to his as their six-inch height difference would allow. ‘I’m not having you back, even in another bedroom. You’ll not sleep soundly a single night if you try to return.’

  Another silence, then he shrugged and took one step back. ‘Why am I bothering? It’s about time I did something about our marriage. You’ve been a big disappointment to me, Gabi. Radka is a much better proposition as a partner. She’ll be a good support in my job, too, because she understands how businesses really work.’

  He paused to eye her body up and down. ‘You’re not bad-looking for a woman of thirty-five, and you’re not overweight, I’ll grant you that. But your performance in bed leaves a lot to be desired. Radka, on the other hand, is superb at making love. It was a lucky day for me when my company sent me to liaise on this Czech project and I met her.’

  She folded her arms, keeping back her pain at these cruel accusations.

  ‘You should take lessons in what a man needs from a woman, or the next guy you get into a relationship with will also find you disappointing … and so very unadventurous.’

  Gabi snatched up the pot of petunias from the porch and chucked it at him, but he dodged it easily. She’d always been terrible at throwing things, had never regretted that lack of skill more than at this moment. She’d like to have drawn blood from him.

  He brushed away the earth that had showered over him. ‘Look what you’ve done to my new suit, you bitch!’ He moved forward, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her hard. ‘Don’t you dare throw anything at me again.’

  Suddenly she was afraid of him. To her relief, he let go of her, but he stayed where he was, just inside the door. It was she who moved back.

  ‘I could come right inside if I wanted, because I’m much stronger than you.’ He took a step forward, moving across the threshold. ‘You’d do well to remember that.’

  After a pause during which
she could feel her heart beating too fast, he added, ‘Our break-up has happened a little sooner than I’d planned, but that’s all right, Gabi my sweet. You don’t think I wanted to live in a village near Swindon for much longer, surely? Bucolic life in Worton does not appeal to me.’

  ‘Then why did you buy a house here?’

  ‘I agreed to buy this house because I thought it’d increase in value in such a pretty little commuter village. I intended to sell it within a year or two. But the bottom has dropped out of the damned house market and prices have slipped.’

  She glared at him. ‘Too bad. I hope the house doesn’t sell. I like living here.’

  ‘Well, make the most of it, sweetie, because one way or another we’re selling in the next few months. After our nice little divorce, we’ll split the proceeds of the house sale and I at least will move somewhere more upmarket.’

  That hurt. Oh, it hurt so much that he could toss the word ‘divorce’ at her casually, as if it was just a business matter, not the end of their marriage. She raised her chin and said as calmly as she could manage, ‘Good. That’ll suit me.’

  ‘Oh, more than good. I’m going to take away a nice profit from our relationship, and you’d better not try to stop me.’

  ‘Profit!’ This was the last thing she’d have expected to hear. She stared at him in bewilderment. ‘But house prices have slipped.’

  ‘When we divide our goods, I shall be the winner. You brought a lot more to the marriage than I did, but you didn’t document all of your contributions.’ He laughed. ‘In fact, you lent me quite a lot of money, some of it cash, and then I paid money out of my account as part of the deposit on this house. I have a cash trail that says I’m half-owner. Our agreement to divide it a third and two-thirds was only verbal. You are so stupidly trusting, Gabi.’

  She was too shocked to reply. Had he ever cared for her?

  ‘I came out of my last relationship smelling of roses, too,’ he went on, jabbing one finger into her chest. ‘Though Patricia didn’t have to be bought by an outmoded institution like marriage, as you did, so breaking up with her was much easier. But it was worth marrying you, because I’ll get much more out than I put in.’

  He stepped back, raising one hand and wiggling his fingertips mockingly in farewell. ‘I’ll see you in court, pet. Keith will be acting for me, of course.’

  Trust him to have a lawyer as his best friend, she thought bitterly.

  Picking up the suitcase, Stu moved to his car but stopped at the end of the garden path to study the house, as if assessing its value. Then he put the suitcase into the boot of his car and brushed the last flecks of soil from his suit. The look he gave her as he did this promised retribution.

  He always made a big fuss about his appearance, but, as her grandmother had said, ‘Handsome is as handsome does.’ He hadn’t acted at all handsomely after the first few months of marriage.

  Gabi let out a long shuddering sigh as she watched him drive away and rubbed the painful part of her chest where he’d poked her. She’d been afraid of him today. It was as if he’d ripped off a mask and shown her the real Stuart Dixon, someone she’d only caught brief glimpses of before.

  He was much stronger than she was – six foot to her five foot six – with muscles well honed from working out at the gym. She’d take care not to be alone with him again.

  Then she got angry at herself for being afraid. Profit from their marriage, would he? She’d make damned sure he didn’t get anything he wasn’t entitled to.

  She slammed the front door shut and leaned against it, shaking. No word of regret for the end of their relationship. Not a single one.

  Well, there hadn’t been any affection between them for a while. At first, she’d been foolish enough to put that down to his stress at work, where his company was laying off staff in a ruthless cull and he was trying to make sure he wasn’t dumped. Then he’d been away in the Czech Republic part of the time.

  When he didn’t want her in bed any more, she’d begun to wonder whether he was being unfaithful. But she hadn’t found any real proof of it, so she’d done nothing except hope things would improve.

  More fool her.

  Didn’t it upset him at all to break up? Had he cared about her at all?

  He was right. She was a trusting fool.

  Gabi went online to search for information about divorce and found government-sponsored sites, giving all the details of how to do it. It seemed such a straightforward procedure these days that she decided to save money and do it herself. After all, Stu wouldn’t be contesting the divorce, and they could use a mediator to help them decide on the division of property before they got to the final stage, the decree absolute.

  Stu agreed through his lawyer that the only times he and Gabi would meet from then on would be on neutral territory. Not trusting him, she changed the locks of the house.

  His secretary phoned a few days later to ask her to pack the rest of his clothes, his sports gear and his CDs.

  Gabi did that, dumping the bags on the porch outside the house at the arranged time, rather than letting him come inside to collect them. She watched from an upstairs window as he picked them up, chatting to the woman in his car as he loaded his things into the boot.

  When she heard the name ‘Radka’ and the word ‘darling’, she studied her successor, who was very thin, blonde and sharp-featured.

  Gabi had always refused to have her hair bleached to the blonde he preferred. She liked her own colour; anyway, the dark roots showed through within twenty-four hours. What was wrong with brown hair, for heaven’s sake?

  And what was wrong with her? He’d really upset her saying she was disappointing in bed. She’d only slept with two or three men, ones she’d cared about, but it had been a pleasant experience.

  She shouldn’t let Stu get to her, but he’d always been able to press the right buttons to upset her.

  She was surprised how smoothly the divorce was progressing. Well, Stu could hardly contest the reason she gave – his adultery. A couple of acquaintances had made a point of telling her that he was openly shacked up with an attractive blonde woman in Prague, where he was working on a special project.

  This Radka female, no doubt. Well, she was welcome to him.

  A few weeks later, Gabi came home to find her bedroom in disorder. She rushed round the house, but all the windows and doors were locked.

  How had the intruder got in?

  She spent a long time going through her clothes, but nothing was missing. Nothing at all! What was this? Some kind of joke?

  She reported the break-in to the police, but they said she should have left things as they were and there was nothing to be gained by sending detectives round for a non-crime. They would ask the police on patrol to keep an eye on her house while she was at work.

  Grimly, she arranged for the locks to be changed again and told her neighbours what had happened, asking them to keep an eye out for people loitering.

  Just as she was thinking that was that, it happened again. But this time the intruder left a set of her underwear on the bed, arranged as if a person was wearing it, but with a knife stuck through the bra. That felt downright creepy.

  The police did come out this time and seemed to take it seriously. So did she! But they could find no fingerprints except hers, and again there was no sign of a forced entry.

  This left her so nervous, she jumped at the slightest sound after dark and found it difficult to get to sleep, which was wearing, to say the least.

  She began to wonder if this had a purpose.

  One day, during her lunch break, she passed Stu in town. He stopped and she nearly walked past, but she decided there was nothing to be gained by antagonizing him. And, anyway, it would be cowardly.

  He greeted her with, ‘Sleeping all right, are you? No intruders?’

  Smirking, he walked on without waiting for an answer and she could only stand there and watch him in shock.

  He must be the one responsible for the bre
ak-ins. But how could she report him to the police when she didn’t have a shred of proof? He knew that, of course. Besides, he was part-owner of the house.

  How had he got in? The locks had been changed twice.

  As she watched, he stopped about fifty yards further along the mall and turned to look at her. Laughing, he blew her a kiss and carried on walking.

  She hoped she hadn’t betrayed her feeling of shock and betrayal, but she doubted it. She’d always found it hard to conceal what she was thinking.

  Why was he doing this to her? She simply couldn’t understand it. What could he hope to gain from it?

  That evening, she couldn’t get the encounter out of her mind. Stu was tormenting her for the hell of it, she decided in the end. He hated anyone to get the better of him, and she supposed he considered her throwing him out of the house to be just that.

  The sooner she was completely rid of him, the better.

  A few months after their divorce paperwork went in, the decree nisi was granted. The next step was for them to state how they would divide their property.

  Stu astounded her by making a grab for everything he could think of, even listing items she’d brought from her first marriage.

  If Gabi hadn’t fought back, she’d have lost a lot more, but that didn’t reconcile her to having to dip into her savings to hire her own lawyer.

  Stu stopped her in the centre of Swindon one day, grabbing her arm so that she couldn’t get away without creating a scene. The pedestrian precinct was busy, with people streaming past, making the most of their lunch breaks, and she could have screamed for help. But that would have been embarrassing.

  ‘You’ve wasted your money on that lawyer, my pet. It’d have been just as cheap to let me have what I wanted.’

  ‘I’d rather give him the money and keep my things out of your greedy hands.’

  ‘You really are stupid to antagonize me any further. Very … very … stupid.’