Someone Like You Read online

  

  Praise for Rachel Dove

  ‘A wonderful read that made me laugh and cry at the same time, totally brilliant!’

  ‘Completely impossible to put down’

  ‘Emotional and uplifting. I read it in one sitting on a lazy Saturday’

  ‘I absolutely loved this book, a beautiful setting and a variety of gorgeous characters all rolled in one … without a doubt a five-star read’

  ‘A truly heart-warming novel that will give you all the feels … It’s the perfect feel-good book to curl up with’

  ‘I absolutely loved this heart-warming novel’

  

  About the Author

  RACHEL LOUISE DOVE is a wife and mum of two from Yorkshire. She has always loved writing and has had previous success as a self-published author. Rachel is the winner of the Mills & Boon & Prima Magazine Flirty Fiction competition and won The Writers Bureau Writer of the Year Award in 2016. She is a qualified adult education tutor specialising in child development and autism. In 2018 she founded the Rachel Dove Bursary, giving one working-class writer each year a fully funded place on the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme.

  

  Also by Rachel Dove

  The Chic Boutique on Baker Street

  UK

  US

  The Flower Shop on Foxley Street

  UK

  US

  The Long Walk Back

  UK

  US

  The Wedding Shop on Wexley Street

  UK

  US

  The Fire House on Honeysuckle Street

  UK

  US

  The Second Chance Hotel

  UK

  US

  Meet Me at Fir Tree Lodge

  UK

  US

  The Forever House

  UK

  US

  Someone Like You

  RACHEL DOVE

  HQ

  An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

  1 London Bridge Street

  London SE1 9GF

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  HarperCollinsPublishers

  1st Floor, Watermarque Building, Ringsend Road

  Dublin 4, Ireland

  First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2022

  Copyright © Rachel Dove 2022

  Rachel Dove asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

  E-book Edition © September 2022 ISBN: 9780008480998

  Version: 2022-08-04

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Praise for Rachel Dove

  About the Author

  Also by Rachel Dove

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Note to Readers

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Two years later

  A Letter from Rachel Dove

  Keep Reading …

  Acknowledgements

  Dear Reader …

  About the Publisher

  For all the Hannahs

  At any given moment, you have the power to say: This is not how the story is going to end.

  Christine Mason Miller

  Refuge Against Domestic Violence – Help for women & children.

  https://refuge.org.uk

  

  Note to Readers

  This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

  Change of font size and line height

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  Chapter 1

  You’ll never do it on your own. You’ll never survive without me. You’re all front. If I left, you’d be a complete wreck. You’re nothing without me, and you know it.

  The squeak of the pram wheels as they switched from pavement to polished tile floor was the only herald to the two women’s arrival into the busy train station. Kate walked slightly in front of her friend with the squeaky pram, looking around her and back to her pal. They were both still wearing their hoods up, despite the fact they had left the rain outside. Water dripped from the clear plastic rain cover on the pram onto the floor, leaving a trail of raindrops in their wake.

  ‘The departure boards are over here.’ Kate pointed. ‘Don’t lose your tickets. I put some extra cash in there for another too. If you need to get away again, you’ll have that.’

  Kate pushed a long cream envelope addressed to Hannah into her changing bag, zipping it up and checking her watch. ‘I hope there’s no delays.’

  Hannah checked the board, holding the hoodie strings tight to her chin. She shook her head. A tiny wisp of red hair poked out from the material around her neck, and she swept it back into hiding.

  ‘Nope, it’s on time. I’d better get to the platform.’ Her words sounded cut off, clipped.

  The two women came around the pram, hugging each other tight. The few other commuters passing by walked around them, taking no notice of a goodbye that meant more than many others on the platform that day. This goodbye was one that they’d fought hard to get to. Even with their success, it didn’t make parting ways any easier for these two women.

  ‘Oh God,’ Kate half sobbed into her friend’s shoulder. ‘I can’t believe we got here. I didn’t think I would feel like this.’ The two women pulled back, still holding each other tight. ‘I’m going to miss you both so much.’

  ‘I’m really gonna miss you.’ Hannah was clinging to her friend, even as her eyeline kept drifting to the entrance doors every few seconds. ‘I have to go. Thank you, Kate. I love you.’

  Kate’s eyes swam with tears, each little pool threatening to spill over the edge onto her cheeks, but she brushed them away. The pair of them were used to hiding their emotions now when it came to the other. Survival mode. They knew how to protect each other. They had become fiercely close in their short few months together, but their friendship was forged from something hard. Solid.

  ‘Not half as much as I am going to miss you, and your little girl.’ Her voice cracked but her face was determined.
br />   Hannah tried not to cry. She didn’t want that to be the last thing Kate saw before they parted. This was a happy day. She tried to remind herself of that often, but now it was here, all she felt was loss, and fear.

  ‘But we stick to the plan. It’s not forever. Just till we can figure it all out. Okay?’

  ‘You just be safe back home. He might—’

  Kate cut her off, her voice sounding like steel. ‘I don’t care what he might or might not do. I’m not going to let him win. He won’t win. Today we win, right?’

  She could only nod to Kate. There was no other way. It was a moot point anyway. Hannah knew it would just feel mean to point that out now, especially after everything they’d done to get her here. To this point. He’d already won though, hadn’t he? Isn’t that why she was standing in a train station, with the only three bags of possessions to her name slung on her pram?

  ‘Right?’ Kate pressed, locking eyes with her.

  ‘Right.’ She had to push hard to force the certainty of her answer into her tone. ‘Today, we win.’

  Kate sounded certain, but the truth was that she had tried to talk Hannah out of it for months, not that Hannah didn’t understand her fear. It was madness, really. She was standing here, ready to go with her baby, but she still didn’t quite believe it herself. Going alone was a big step, but it was really something that she needed to do. She had to do it. Kate understood that now, after the last beating it had been made crystal clear. Hannah didn’t think he was going to stop. She had Ava to think about now. What if he hurt her too? What if next time, he didn’t stop?

  At the women’s next meeting, Hannah bruised and sore, Kate stopped talking about trying the police again. Or trying to go to a local shelter, and Hannah didn’t want to put Ava into that situation. When Kate had examined her, the boot prints left on the skin of her back added to the other marks and blemishes. Added together, her body read like a road map of her marriage. What Victor didn’t realise at the time, was that his beatings had made his wife a new friend.

  A secret friend. One he didn’t know about, so she was allowed to keep her.

  A midwife friend. Who didn’t know him, or his temper. Kate wasn’t afraid of standing up to him, but his wife knew better than to try now. The time with Victor had almost taught her not to even hope for good things.

  Since that first appointment, the two women had been bonded. They’d both stood in that room, looked at the pregnancy in her belly, the bruises and scratches on the body surrounding it, and made a plan.

  ‘How long has this been going on?’ Kate had asked, that fateful day, once Hannah was up on the table, the doppler on her growing stomach. The room rang out with the sound of the baby’s heartbeat, and the lie already primed to fall from her mouth didn’t come. In fact, she swallowed it in favour of the truth. Perhaps it was that heartbeat that changed things. Made her bolder somehow. The terrified mother-to-be on the table didn’t know what it was but listening to that strong, determined little piece of her and the strength of the heartbeat, she caved.

  ‘Too long,’ she’d said to the midwife. They’d only met once before, when her pregnancy was confirmed. Victor had been there, the epitome of the loving husband. ‘Too long.’

  She’d never expected the woman to do anything. Anyone who met her husband was bowled over. And if he got a sniff of anything suspect, she’d never be able to go to her appointments alone again. It was only his work schedule that had saved her this time. He kept a close eye as it was, but he thought he was pretty safe. Arrogant with it even. Once, he’d broken her finger by holding it too tight at a dinner for his company. He’d not liked the way she’d laughed at one of his colleague’s jokes. Too flirty, he’d said. Gripping her hand so tight her finger bone snapped. She’d had to sit through the rest of the dinner in agony, trying not to show how much pain she was in. He’d watched her the rest of the night, along with his colleague.

  She’d lain there on the table as Kate listened to the heartbeat, off in her own desperate thoughts. Kate had removed the doppler, and the heartbeat went quiet.

  ‘I can help,’ Kate said to her, wiping the gel off her belly with one hand and holding her other tight. ‘Let me help you both, okay? We have some time.’

  Now there was no more time left. This was it, no turning back. She’d got through the rest of Christmas and got the hell out of there the first chance they could get to enact their plan.

  Silencing the negative thoughts in her head for once, she smiled at her best friend. ‘Yes, we stick to the plan. We have to. I love you, Kate, thank you.’

  ‘Love you too. Both of you. Now, get gone, girl.’

  By the time Hannah had reached her destination, emotional and exhausted, her baby daughter sound asleep in her pram, all thoughts of going home were far from her mind. She had made her decision, and she had a new life to lead. She just hoped that everything she had done would be enough.

  That first cold January night, she slept on the floor of the living room of a strange new house, her daughter sleeping on a thick pile of blankets next to her. Fireworks were still going off, people making the New Year festivities spread just a day or two further. She used to love fireworks. Now the bangs and pops jarred in her skull, and she jumped at the shadows they cast through the bare windows. She touched her sleeping child’s chubby little cheeks, pulling a smile from her lips as she slept. She knew how hard it was going to be. They had each other though, and that would be enough for now. It had to be. There would be no going back. Not again.

  The park across the street was one of the biggest selling points to renting the little terrace Hannah had saved for. Kate had shown her the details for the house, and she’d had a good virtual look at the area on her phone. She needed to feel secure, safe. The park looked so beautiful, so normal. She’d imagined walking with Ava there, in her pram. Watching her from the window when she was older, playing there with all her school friends. Waving to people as they passed by, a normal mother and daughter out for the day. It had helped to calm her terror, thinking of that park. This was the first time she’d had the courage to go, and she hated herself for waiting so long. Being so shut down. Still under control.

  Being here now seemed surreal, like a dream come true in a way, but like a living nightmare in others. It took her two days to really take in the fact that she was here, a new mum, in a new place. The house was nice, luckily. A contact of Kate’s had really come through, having a tenant-free house that they didn’t mind taking a little cheap rent on for a while. She had her start, thanks to Kate, and in between the sleep deprivation, worrying about money and feeling utterly alone, she got to know her new home, just a little. Kate had sent money through the landlord as well, and it was sitting in an envelope on the fireplace when she arrived. She’d been to visit the local charity shop, and the owner had a little van for deliveries.

  The locals who were in the shop had all fallen in love with baby Ava on sight, marvelling at how happy and inquisitive she was for her short time in the world. It was true; Hannah had seen it herself. Ava was happier here. She laughed and smiled more; she didn’t sit quietly as much as she once did. That thought cut her to the quick, and she pushed it away. She was so tiny, surely she wouldn’t be tainted by the horrors of what they’d left already? The thought made her more determined never to have to return. Her little house might be sparse, and a bit cold, but it was theirs. It was a happy house.

  Her new house was overlooked by neighbours, but not too overlooked. An odd distinction, but Hannah had learnt to tell instantly the difference between the two. Ava loved the colours, the muted greens and yellows of the grass, the hedges lining the streets here. Hannah noticed little changes in her every day, little differences and things learnt for the first time. Experiences she cherished and committed to memory to keep her going on the dark days. And if the days were dark, the nights were truly black. Isolated. Days turned into weeks. But then Hannah stopped jumping at every little sigh her new home made. She got used to the click
and whoosh of the boiler as the heating turned on every evening. The way the roof seemed to sigh late at night, as if this little abode of hers was settling in for sleep too.

  Once Ava was settled and the little terrace was clean, Hannah would end up in bed before nine at night. She’d managed to pack a few books to bring with her, but they weren’t going to last long. She couldn’t afford a television, although she would like to get one before Ava got much older. She wouldn’t want her to start school feeling different from the other kids – not that it was a concern right now. The area was quiet, a great relief to Hannah when she arrived.

  They’d been there in the sleepy Yorkshire village called Leadsham a couple of months now, March just beginning to make its presence known in the weather. Which is more than Hannah and Ava had done since their arrival. Aside from the odd supermarket shop or charity shop, she’d hunkered down with her baby. No visitors, other than a couple of doorstep sellers. She didn’t even open the door to them. The thought of a random man in her new space overwhelmed her.

  The furthest they had been was on the bus to the next town. Hannah had registered them both at the doctor’s surgery there, and headed straight back home. She didn’t feel right being outdoors yet, she realised. It made her teeth clench. She still wasn’t free. She still felt alone.

  They’d even seen Ava’s first birthday in alone. Poor Ava. A homemade cake and a new outfit and toy. No family. No friends. Kate sent a card and some money through the post, but it wasn’t the same. Everything Hannah had bought Ava was from the supermarket reduced aisle. Hannah knew she wouldn’t know about it. She wouldn’t remember her first birthday at all, but Hannah still resolved to be in a better position when the terrible twos came to call.

  Now though, money was on her mind. When another Monday rolled around, she decided it was about time she got out of the house and venture out further. Ava had slept later than usual, Hannah managing to grab a cup of tea to take to bed as she gave her daughter a sippy cup of milk. Kate had shown her the ropes with breastfeeding back when Ava was born, but of course it was something else she’d been denied trying by Victor. Another piece of control she’d lost. Jealousy was a twisted thing, and it fuelled her husband. Even though it was never warranted. Ava had taken to the bottle like a champ though, and weaned like a dream, which was a good thing, especially given the price of formula milk and Hannah’s tight budget. It was a relief that she was on cow’s milk now. Cheaper, even at the rate she drank it.