Last Kiss Goodnight by Teresa Driscoll

Author:Teresa Driscoll [Driscoll, Teresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-910751-83-1
Publisher: Bookouture

28

Martha and Kate are up very early.

‘I know you didn’t want to talk – in the night, Kate – but I heard Toby’s car leave and… Well, I’ve been really worried. Are you all right? You look absolutely exhausted. Is there anything… ?’

‘I just need a bit of time. We’ve been having a very rough patch.’ Kate did not go to bed at all. Just lay down fully clothed and cried pretty much the whole of the night, though she will not tell Martha this.

‘This is all my fault, isn’t it?’

‘No, Martha. I promise you that it absolutely isn’t. It’s mine. Not Toby’s. My decision. My fault. No one else’s.’

‘You should stay home. Get back to bed, Kate.’

‘No. That won’t help. Honestly. I need to see you through this. I need to be doing something. Let’s just concentrate on today, Martha. Then we can talk.’

And so they walk in awkward silence, and on arrival at the court precinct there is the shock of placards everywhere. SAVE OUR SHOPS. MILLROSE MOUNT: LOCALS VERSUS LEECHES.

The lawyer is loudly demanding that all litigious banners be moved – we will be done for contempt – and looks nervous as he spots Martha and Maria, and takes them aside to repeat his pep talk.

‘You understand, both of you, that our strategy is one of extreme regret? Yes? You are very, very sorry to have lost control. Mortified. That this behaviour – the frying pan and the streaking – was completely out of character. Born of the trauma. And will not be repeated. Peaceful protest only from this point. Yes?’

He then turns to address the crowd being moved to the other side of the road by the court staff.

‘No stopping traffic. No stepping into the road. Understand? Any nonsense and I mean it: they will have you in the cells for contempt of court. It won’t help your friends. It will make things very, very much worse.’

And then, as they sit in a silent row in the corridor outside court number one, Geoffrey appears, whispering that he has left Matthew in charge of the shop and admitting that for the first time in his life he wishes he smoked.

Kate sits, still in a state of detached shock born of exhaustion, to learn that luck is on their side – the chairman of the magistrates today is Gerald Smith, a self-made man. Twenty five years an ironmonger and leading light in the confederation of small businesses, he retired early only when his prices could not compete with the larger DIY stores springing up all around the neighbourhood. A man who understands shopkeeping.

‘A frying pan?’

‘Yes, sir.’ The prosecutor adjusts his glasses and checks his notes.

‘And this brouhaha followed notices to quit their shops?’

‘Yes, sir.’

Kate has managed to get a seat at the front of the public gallery and forces a smile of encouragement at Martha as she stands alongside Maria to listen to all the evidence. Finally, the spotlight is back on the chairman of the bench.

‘And has your client any history of this kind of behaviour.

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