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‘Claire was so busy I didn’t like to disturb her’ Polly stopped as she reached the tall figure, her hand auto up to nervously knot her hair, only to fall away as she spoke ‘I wondered if maybe you wanted some lunch, if I could buy you soise’

She let a shuddering breath go and waited

Lunch, work, an excuse not to face up to the past, to push it away for another decade

‘That would be nice,’ he said after a long o first Polly, I’d really like it if you came with me’

The river rushed along, white-topped as it bubbled over rocks and dropped overLeft the mind free to wander

Polly wasn’t entirely sure that this was a good thing She searched for so to say

Nothing

Now didn’t seem appropriate to discuss work and she had already ventured into personal territory once that day Look hoell that had gone down, a clear indication to mind her own business

Only It was just

He had asked her to co

She hadn’t gone all the way into the rather macabre cemetery with its carved headstones, statues and faraveyard as a Brie from Cheddar, rather she had waited by the wall as Gabe had walked steadily to a white ravestone, topped with a carved cherub, and dropped to one knee in front of it He had stayed there for five , praying or just frozen in silent conte shivers had rippled down her spine

She had witnessed so deeply personal

So she should say so to do when someone allowed you to see a part of their soul?

Only it had never happened before She had no couidance

Even at her very proper boarding school there hadn’t been a lesson on how to handle this kind of situation

How to greet an aarden party etiquette? Of course

But this? She was clueless She was going to have to go in blind

‘Are you okay?’

Not the inal icebreaker in the world, but it was a start