Cover

       Title Page

       Also by Cathy Glass

       Acknowledgements

       Epigraph

       17 Progress

       18 ‘I’d Rather Have You’

       19 Happy Holiday

       20 ‘Will You Love Me?’

       21 ‘No One Wants Me’

       22 A New Year, a New Social Worker

       23 ‘She’s OK for a Girl’

       24 Special Day

       25 Thunderstorm

       26 ‘I’ll Try My Best’

       27 Special Love

       Exclusive sample chapter

       Cathy Glass

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

Acknowledgements

      A big thank-you to my editor, Holly; my literary agent Andrew; and Carole, Vicky, Laura and all the team at HarperCollins.

Chapter Seventeen

       Progress

      ‘I wouldn’t ask but we’re desperate,’ Jill said. ‘I know we agreed you’d wait until Lucy had been with you for longer and had calmed down before you fostered another child, but Lucy’s taking her time to calm down, and none of our other carers are free. It would only be for two weeks’ respite and David’s very sweet. It’s just while his mother is in hospital.’

      ‘I really don’t know, Jill,’ I said again, wishing she hadn’t asked. Although I had the space in my house to foster another child, I had my hands full with Lucy, and David was sure to be upset at being separated from his mother. ‘Will I have to take him to visit his mother in hospital as well?’ I asked, feeling this would be impossible with everything else that was going on.

      ‘No, his aunt will take him,’ Jill said. ‘She can’t look after him during the day because she works full time, but she can take him to the hospital in the evenings and at the weekend. David won’t give you any trouble,’ Jill added. ‘And we’d be very grateful.’

      ‘When do you need to know by?’ I asked.

      ‘Now, please. His mother would need to bring him to you tomorrow morning, before she goes into hospital.’

      ‘And there really is no one else?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘All right, I’ll do it,’ I said. ‘Although I have big reservations.’

      ‘You’ll be fine,’ Jill said, with a confidence I didn’t feel. ‘And you never know, it might do Lucy some good. Give her someone else to focus on for a change, rather than herself.’ Although Jill was highly sympathetic to Lucy, as I was, I think she was starting to lose patience and felt that maybe Lucy was revelling in all the attention her outbursts evoked. ‘Thanks, Cathy.’

      We said goodbye and I went straight upstairs to the spare bedroom and made up the bed with a fresh duvet cover and pillowcase. That evening over dinner, I explained to Adrian, Paula and Lucy that David would be coming the following day to stay for two weeks while his mother was in hospital. Adrian and Paula were very enthusiastic, probably because a well-behaved three-year-old would be light relief after Lucy’s recent tantrums. Lucy looked at me, amazed by the news, shocked even, and then became confrontational.

      ‘You’re fostering another child as well as me?’ she asked disparagingly.

      ‘That’s right, love. Just for two weeks.’

      ‘Are you allowed to?’

      ‘Yes, of course. I’m approved to foster two children or a sibling group of up to three. Don’t worry. It won’t affect my care of you.’

      Lucy scowled, while Paula and Adrian wanted to know more about David. ‘Why’s his mother having to stay in hospital?’ Paula asked, concerned.

      ‘She’s got to have an operation, and she’ll need time to recover afterwards,’ I said. Jill had told me that Beth, David’s mother, was having a hysterectomy,