The Barn on Half Moon Hill

Milly Johnson is a joke-writer, greetings-card copywriter, newspaper columnist, after-dinner speaker, poet, winner of
Come Dine With Me, Sunday Times
Top Ten author and
winner of the Romantic Comedy of the Year award 2016.

She is half-Yorkshire, half-Glaswegian, so 1) don't mess with her and 2) don't expect her to buy the first round.

She likes cruising on big ships, sparkling afternoon teas and birds of prey, in particular owls. She does not like marzipan or lamb chops.

She is proud patron of Yorkshire Cat Rescue (www.yorkshirecatrescue.org), The Well, a complementary therapy centre for cancer patients, and the Barnsley Youth Choir
(www.barnsleyyouthchoir.org.uk), who have conquered the world and are now moving onto other planets.

She lives happily in Barnsley with Pete, her long-suffering partner, Tez and George, her teenage lads, Teddy the dog, Hernan Crespo, Vincent and Theo the cats and Alan Rickman the rabbit. Her
mam and dad live in t'next street.

Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage
is her twelfth book.

Find out more at www.millyjohnson.co.uk or follow Milly on Twitter @millyjohnson

Also by Milly Johnson

The Yorkshire Pudding Club

The Birds & the Bees

A Spring Affair

A Summer Fling

Here Come the Girls

An Autumn Crush

White Wedding

A Winter Flame

It's Raining Men

The Teashop on the Corner

Afternoon Tea at the Sunflower Cafe

Sunshine Over Wildflower Cottage

Available in ebook

The Wedding Dress

Here Come the Boys

Ladies Who Launch

First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2016

A CBS COMPANY

Copyright © Millytheink Ltd., 2016

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

No reproduction without permission.

® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

The right of Milly Johnson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

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

ISBN 978-1-4711-5871-1

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual people, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Typeset in Bembo by M Rules

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Dear Reader,

I'd like to thank you for buying this short story because in doing so you've helped raise a little bit of cash for a very worthy cause. One of the most worthy.

You may have read about Claire Throssell in the newspapers or seen her on the TV. On 22 October 2014, Claire's estranged husband lured their sons to the family home with the promise of
a brand-new expensive train set. He barricaded all three of them in the loft and set fire to the house, killing himself and the two boys in an evil attempt to destroy everything in Claire's
world: her children, her home, her memories. And he succeeded because Claire's world was torn apart. Paul, aged nine, died at the scene, Jack, aged twelve, had horrific burns but survived for
a few days in hospital and was able to tell the police what happened before he too slipped away. Claire was left with absolutely nothing but the love of people around her and is in the long, slow
process of getting some semblance of a life back together. Until she does, the awful legacy of her ex's ‘curse' still stands – and we can't allow that to happen, can
we?

Claire's local community in Penistone has been amazing because Claire really has had to start her life from square one. They set up the ‘Care for Claire' fund to help her.
You can find it on this page: www.millyjohnson.co.uk/links. I think it is fair to say that
Claire has seen the best and the worst of human nature. As a mother of two boys myself, I
can't imagine what she has gone through, but you don't need to be a parent to know that the road ahead for her is going to be tough. Claire is dignified and calm, lovely and so strong,
and has ploughed her energies into raising money for terminally ill children to realise their dreams, because her boys never got the chance to live theirs.

Everyone who has worked on this book has contributed their services freely, so ALL profit will go to Claire. Let's hope, between us, we can give her some more of the help she so badly
needs.

Yes, you may say that the story on the next pages is unbelievable but, as with Claire's story, there are as many unbelievable things that occur in real life as there are in fiction. So
wouldn't it be nice to imagine, for once, that though horrible things happen to undeserving people, that crazy, wonderful things bring some magic to the deserving too?

Milly Johnson

Dear Franco,

I felt that I had to write to you after seeing you on ‘The Boy who Danced Around the World' at the pictures yesterday. You was so good. I can tell you are going to be a big star and
a very famous dancer. My mam says that she hasn't seen a boy as handsome as you since she laid eyes on my dad in Butlin's Pwllheli. He's very handsome is my da. He's got
blue eyes and jet-black hair just like you have, and he met my ma when she was eight and he was eleven, which is funny because my uncle Effin met my auntie Angharad when he was eleven and she was
eight as well at Sunday School. And I'm eight and you're eleven.

I suppose I better tell you a bit about myself seeing as I hope we will be penpals. My name is Cariad Williams and I go to school in Dolgellau, which is in North Wales where I was born. My
dad's from Carmarthen in the south but he moved up here when he married my mam. I'm going to be a dancer when I grow up. I have long black hair and brown eyes. It was my birthday last
week and I got a puppy. He is a Collie, he is ten weeks old and I've called him Fenn. I think he's going to be quite naughty.

All right then. I better go and not bother you much more. I hope you enjoy reading this and good luck with getting more film work. I know you won't be replying but I'll write again
anyway. I'll draw a little red Welsh dragon on the top left of the envelope so you know it's me as you'll have loads of mail I'm sure.

Lots of love,

Cariad Williams x

*

Hello again,

Sorry, I haven't written for a bit. I was so sad to hear about your dad. My dad went to heaven seven months ago, which is why I haven't sent you a letter for a while. He was in a car
crash though; he didn't pass over like your dad did from his heart going wrong. I know I can't say anything to make you feel better but I've written down a sort of help list of
things that I learned for myself. It's on a separate page so you can stick it on your wall, where I put mine. I miss my dad every day still, but I can think of him without crying now. Well,
sometimes anyway. I really wished he had been here last week when I got my GCSE results. Studying at school helped me a lot because I know my da wanted me to do well. I'm not going to be a
dancer anymore. No idea what I will be, but I'm sure I'll find out one day. I just want to make my dad proud. You're lucky that your dad got to see you make a big success of your
life.

Anyway, you won't want to read much so I'll leave you be.

Take good care,

Your friend, Cariad x

*

Hi Franco,

I was so sorry to hear that you had split up with Mary-Jade Wild. I thought you made a stunning couple. You must be awfully sad. So am I at the moment, to be honest. My beautiful big Fenn died a
couple of weeks ago. I suppose twelve is a decent age but he was still such a springy boy until a few days back and he went downhill very fast. He fell asleep in my arms at the vet's and this
is the first day that I haven't cried. Well, I hadn't until I started writing this note. I know you've never replied to my letters because you've been so busy but I always
felt that you read them and so it helps me to think you'll be reading this and that I'm not just writing for the sake of it.

I've also split up from Wyn. He couldn't come to the vet's with me because he said he was working. Then, can you believe, when we were driving home, there he was snogging
Gywneth Owen in the bus shelter. My mam shouted out of the window, ‘Wyn Allun, don't you ever come around to our house again. We've seen what you're doing behind our
Cariad's back.' He hasn't, because he daren't but he keeps texting. He couldn't be there for me when I needed him, so he can bugger off.

Here's my big news: I'm leaving North Wales and going to live in South Yorkshire. My mam says a change of scenery will do me good because I've been very low about Fenn so
I'm spending the foreseeable future working in a theme park called Winterworld. My uncle Effin is there a lot of the year doing building work on it. I'm going to manage an ice-cream
parlour. The lady who used to run it has done a Shirley Valentine, went on holiday and stayed there. But to Majorca, not a Greek island. Apparently, she had a rotten husband and had been unhappy
for a long time. She went on a hen night with a few girls and just refused to come home.

So, there will be a different address on the letters from now on, just in case you ever decide to put pen to paper. Doesn't have to be a long letter, a postcard would do.

Don't be too sad about Mary-Jade. She doesn't deserve you if she went off snogging another man. How could she prefer that Harry Berrender to you? (More like Bell-ender!) Anyway
– you're an Oscar nominee and he isn't. So her loss. Sending a virtual hug.