Godmother's Footsteps

Chel and Oliver flee westward to Cornwall to escape unacceptable interference and some challenging problems, each the result of Oliver's crippling encounter with a gang of thugs in his home town of Embridge. They have no idea of where they are heading, or what they will do when they get there. Their impulsive flight has only made what was bad get even worse - for what can you do with a permanently disabled adventurer whose past included sailing single-handed round the world, delivering yachts and diving to the uttermost depths of the sea, when you are parked in a mobile home in an almost deserted caravan park, with no friends to hand, no resources, and let's face it, no visible hope for the future?

Oliver's stepsister, Susan has suggested, "Buy him a paintbox - Oliver was always rather good at painting at school," but, as Chel knows, there is no hope that he will do anything that he might owe to his artistic mother, who fled from both marriage and child to follow her own dreams when Oliver was barely two. Chel, tired and stressed, afraid of the consequences of her own impulsive action, and feeling alone as she has never felt before, is ready to break down and howl to the wind... and that is when Judy, daughter of the caravan park's owner, delivers a box of new-laid eggs from her mother, and from that moment on, things begin to change...

Jane Hatton spins a fascinating story with her usual deft touch.