because Mrs Talbot had closed the door. And locked it.
Without saying a word, she had walked over to her telephone and picked it up. She dialled three numbers, and Leo thought that without a doubt it had to be the police. But she was wrong. Mrs Talbot was calling directory enquiries, and asking for Leo’s home number. This was, after all, a village. Everybody knew where she lived, and where she had come from. Now, she wished it had been the police that Mrs Talbot was calling.
It hadn’t taken long at all for her stepmother to arrive, and what came next didn’t bear thinking about. To Mrs Talbot’s credit, even she had looked shocked at the hard slap across the face that Leo had received, but Leo knew that was nothing to what she was going to get when they got home. And then, to her eternal shame and degradation, her stepmother grabbed a handful of Leo’s hair, twisting it to get a better grip, and dragged her from the shop, past all the sneering kids on the church wall, and took her home. Leo had never set foot inside the shop from that day to this.
But now here she was. A comfortable looking lady of about sixty stood behind the counter. Dressed in a pink cotton top with short sleeves and some elaborate beading around the neck, she had a pleasant smile, and to Leo’s surprise her face lit up when she looked at her customer.
‘Leo Harris - well, I’ll be blessed,’ she said, beaming at a stunned Leo. ‘It’s good to see you, lass. I’d have recognised you anywhere. Come to visit Ellie, have you? I bet those twins are running you ragged.’
Leo was momentarily lost for words.
‘Oh, don’t look so worried, love. It’s me - Doreen Talbot. I know I’ve changed a bit. I’ve been ill, but I’m okay now. I feel twenty years younger, and I’ve been waiting a long time to apologise to you.’
Leo finally found her voice.
‘Mrs Talbot, what can I say? I had no idea that you were still here, but I don’t know why you feel you need to apologise to me. I stole from you. I am so ashamed that I did that. I could blame peer pressure, but I should have been strong enough to resist.’
Mrs Talbot leant against the counter on her folded arms.
‘Listen, Leo, we all know you had a dreadful time with the old battle-axe. But nothing prepared me for the way she treated you that day. If it had been nowadays, I’d have called child services or whatever they’re called. I’m sorry, love. If I’d known and if I hadn’t been feeling so ropey myself in those days, I’d have handled things different.’
Leo didn’t know what to say. But Mrs Talbot hadn’t finished.
‘We all knew, you know,’ she repeated. ‘Not only about you and how you came to be here, but everything else that went on. It’s a village. We talk. Your stepmother was evil, there’s no doubt. But then she had a lot to put up with, I suppose.’
Not entirely sure that she understood what Mrs Talbot was getting at, it suddenly didn’t matter to Leo. Feeling as if her last battle had been fought and won, she was about to thank Mrs Talbot and leave when she spotted the local paper with the headline about the hit and run on the back road splashed across the front page. Mrs Talbot followed Leo’s gaze and pointed to the image of a happy looking Abbie.
‘And there’s another poor young girl. A bit of a solitary soul, or so I’m told. Not many friends. Just like you were at that age, if you don’t mind me saying so lass.’
Not knowing how to respond to this, Leo thanked Mrs Talbot for being so forgiving, and shook her hand.
The lightness that she felt at being exonerated from the shoplifting incident was replaced with sadness for Abbie Campbell. It sounded like she was a loner too, and Leo knew better than most how difficult that could be. Conflicting emotions were fighting for supremacy as she closed the shop door.
‘Hello! This is a nice surprise.’ She heard the voice before she noticed him, and blinked to bring the day back into focus.
‘Tom. It’s good to see you. I was miles away.’ Leo suppressed her confused thoughts and attempted a smile. ‘I’m sorry we missed you yesterday, it would have been good to meet Lucy.’