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By the time the matron returned she was quietly composed, at least on the surface. Inside, her heart was a solid block of ice, it might never thaw, but she would nevereverforgive Soren.
It was meant to rain at funerals but the day they laid her grandfather to rest the sun was shining. It felt wrong, but then a funeral could not feel anything but wrong.
‘Right,’ said Sara. She and Penny had been there to support Anna but, other than a couple of staff members from the Merlin Clinic and a couple who Anna suspected had come to the wrong funeral, but ended up staying to swell the sparse number, that was it.
Most of the charity trustees were either in jail or on bail or, in one case, in the middle of being extradited. And all of his friends had long vanished into the woodwork. Her mum, who it turned out had always known about her grandfather’s nefarious activities, was spending the month in a retreat to equalise her out-of-balance chakras.
Penny and Sara had given her some time at the graveside alone before they decided to drag her away.
‘So how about we have a little wake down the pub?’ Penny said.
‘I don’t think—’ Anna began.
‘She’d love to,’ Sara said over her head.
‘I am here, you know.’
‘Herebeing the most depressing place in the world, so let’s go to the pub.’
Anna allowed herself to be dragged along, though she didn’t drink the shots and her friends pretended not to notice.
‘So who was the tall guy on the hill?’ Sara asked during a lull in the rather forced conversation.
‘What...?’ She caught Sara’s hand mid-shot. ‘Focus, Sara. What guy on the hill?’
‘The one who came late and didn’t like to intrude. You know...your average six-four, godlike, stepped-off-Mount-Olympus figure in a really expensive suit.’
Anna’s heart started to thud in her chest. ‘Did he have blue eyes?’
‘The man was like two hundred metres away. I didn’t get the eye colour, just the general aura of yumminess.’ She frowned a little blearily. ‘Why? Is he someone I should know? Was it the guy off the telly who advertises...? What’s-his-name...’ She stopped, her eyes widening. ‘You... A man... Wow, does that mean you finally—?’
‘Hush, Sara, it’s a funeral. Lower the volume.’
‘A wake—the wakes in my family are seriously loud. If you don’t get wasted, you’re not invited again.’
Over her head Penny rolled her eyes. ‘Well, I don’t have your stamina so sorry, folks, I need my bed.’
‘I’ll walk with you,’ Anna offered, and Penny mouthed her thanks over Sara’s curly head.
It was slow progress, hampered by the fact that Sara had moved from loud drunk to sleepy drunk.
‘She is such a lightweight,’ Penny said affectionately as they both watched Sara’s zigzag approach to the hotel steps. ‘But you’ve got to love her, and she has been so worried about you.’
‘I’m fine. Don’t worry.’ The two women embraced.
‘Well, you know where I am if you need me,’ Penny tossed over her shoulder as she hurried on her five-inch heels to catch up with her roommate.
In no particular hurry to get back to her flat, Anna walked through the park.
She knew she ought to be feeling something, but she just felt empty and a little ashamed when she realised how desperate she had acted at the mention of a random tall guy.
She fished the key out of her bag and stood at the door of her flat. It was not a big space, but as all the stuff from her grandfather’s house that hadn’t already been sold—for which read worthless tat—was stacked in cardboard boxes in her living room, the small space was even smaller.
As she put the key in the lock, a noise to her right made her spin round—a woman had been mugged two streets down only last week.
‘I have a...’ She paused, key in fist, and almost slid down the wall that her visitor had just slid up with a sinuous grace that made her stomach flip in a way she remembered very well.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, tipping her head back as he reached his full impressive height.
