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CHAPTER 14
Liam was right. If anyone in Heaven’s Cove knew of Morag MacIntyre it would be Belinda. And she was currently in The Smugglers Haunt, sitting at the bar with her husband.
Rosie stopped peering through the window, smoothed down her simple cotton dress, and pushed open the pub door. A wave of sound hit her and she hesitated, unable to put one foot in front of the other.
‘This is ridiculous,’ she murmured, as butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She’d moved across continents to reinvent herself in far-flung places, struck up conversation with total strangers, and built a new life for herself in Spain. Yet here she was, in her home village, too scared to face the people she’d grown up with. Perhaps it was the realisation that her reinvention wouldn’t wash here.
‘Get a grip,’ she said to herself, more loudly, crossing the pub threshold and plastering a smile on her face.
The place was packed and, with its low, beamed ceiling, absolutely roasting. For the first time since arriving in Heaven’s Cove, Rosie felt comfortably warm in her summer dress that she’d picked up for a song in a Spanish market.
Belinda, perched on a bar stool, glanced at Rosie before putting her hand over her mouth and murmuring to her husband. The back of Rosie’s neck prickled, as it always did when she suspected she was being talked about.
‘Hey, Rosie!’ Nessa was waving from a table in the corner, near the stone fireplace. ‘Rosie, we’re over here,’ she yelled again. ‘Come and join us.’
Rosie waved back and wandered over. She was mostly here for Belinda, but maybe it would do her good to mix with other people for a while.
Nessa was sitting in a huddle of people Rosie recognised, including Katrina, who was wearing a leather jacket and huge, sparkly diamond earrings. Rosie scanned the pub for Liam, but he was nowhere to be seen.
‘You came!’ said Nessa when Rosie reached her. ‘That’s great. We’re just dissing Larry the Lech and his wandering hands.’
Their old PE teacher did have a disconcerting reputation among his students for being rather too hands-on. He’d resigned abruptly one spring term and was never mentioned by the teaching staff again.
‘Come on, sit down,’ said Nessa, shifting along the wooden bench to make room for her.
Rosie sat down and smiled, though her heart was hammering. ‘Hello, everyone.’
‘Well, look at you, Rosie Merchant, all grown up,’ said the man next to Nessa. ‘Excellent tan, and sorry about your mum. Shame you weren’t here when it happened. You know everyone, don’t you? I’m John, you know Nessa, obviously, and that’s Heather, Phil and Katrina.’
‘Of course. It’s nice to see you all after so much time.’
The group nodded while Rosie checked them out. John was heavier than she remembered with a thicker neck and less hair, but otherwise he looked full of mischief and much the same as he had at school. Heather, who gave Rosie a shy smile, must have ditched her glasses with their pebble lenses for contacts and her amazing amber eyes were now on full show. Phil’s wedding ring glinted when he raised his pint and took a slurp. And Katrina, now minus her jacket, sat at the head of the table like a queen bee, looking even more fabulous than when she’d been flirting with Liam in the farmyard.
Her flimsy halter-neck top, a scrap of midnight-blue silk, revealed toned arms and shoulders, and her glossy dark hair, streaked with chestnut highlights, shone under the fairy lights strung above the bar. The scarlet nails she was drumming on the table were either false or she had a live-in maid. Those were not hands accustomed to housework. Rosie moved her own paint-splashed hands off the table and placed them in her lap.
John bought a round of drinks and after necking a glass of red wine with indecent haste, Rosie began to feel more at ease amongst her old school friends.
It was interesting to hear how life was treating them, and she didn’t have to say much. John and Phil seemed happy to keep the conversation going with their tales of skinny-dipping on the beach in their teens, and climbing the cliffs while drunk.
But Katrina wasn’t about to let her relax.
‘What about you, Rosie, sitting there all quiet as usual, like a little mouse?’ She leaned forward, cutting across Phil’s anecdote. ‘You must be going back to Spain quite soon.’
‘Yes I am, in a couple of weeks or so.’
‘Not until then?’ said Katrina, raising an eyebrow. ‘I thought you’d be desperate to top up your fading tan.’
‘There are a few things I need to do at the house first.’
‘Before it’s knocked down to make way for a hotel.’ She gave a faux pout of sympathy. ‘That’s such a shame. You won’t have anywhere to come back to.’
‘We’ll see.’
‘I didn’t realise that the house didn’t belong to your mum. Nobody did.’ Katrina twirled a diamond ring on her right hand and gave a perfect pearly-white smile. She’d definitely had work done on her teeth. ‘Did you know I’m living in Bellesfield now?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘I have a rather gorgeous new-build on the edge of Bellesfield Park, right near the river.’
