Page 146 (1/2)

Lake threw back his head and laughed Yeah, like he’d trust Betty to sort out his life

Gru under her breath, Betty went to fetch the number

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Thewas gone The very worst had happened to Kirsty and the world hadn’t ended With resolve she wouldn’t have believed possible, she began to pick up the pieces of her life The strange thing was, because she’d built her life froain She thought it would be, but she rong It would just be hard Very, very hard Especially without Lake

Christmas came and ith no word froan to fade She told herself that it was pathetic to pine after hioodbye As New Year’s Eve approached, Kirsty wondered when she’d see the “for sale” sign on Lake’s shop She’d been expecting it since the Monday after the fire and it hadn’t appeared, whichTo add to her suspicions, Betty wasn’t talking And Betty always talked

Betty’s silence didn’t stop the speculation, though The ru in Invertary The local pub had becoue, mainly because Caroline wouldn’t tolerate it at the library and no one wanted to hang around the bakery Kirsty was perfectly aware of the talk She could hardly ave her almost hourly updates

“I hear he’s joined the foreign legion,” Jean said in a conspiratorial tone “It was all that testosterone Far too much for a wee town like this”

The women nodded

“A man like that needs an outlet, he’s better off in a war”

“I don’t know,” said her one to find his sister”

Shona nodded as her lips pursed

“Word is that she fell pregnant to that young Alastair and went ht of all that responsibility”

“Oh,” Heather said “I heard that she killed her parents in a fit of rage and was on the run”

Jean’s eyes ide

“Nobody’s seen the parents since the night of the fire,” she said in a stage whisper