Out of the Storm by Joann Ross

Author:Joann Ross [Ross, JoAnn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, General, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780743494083
Google: QEFLS8Xhny0C
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2004-10-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Gannon had been right about the rain; while the clock thermometer on the village tower revealed the temperature had dropped by a few stingy degrees, the humidity had skyrocketed. The sky had already begun lowering while she'd been inside the pub eating breakfast, turning from bunding blue to tarnished silver.

Not wanting to get caught in a rain shower and show up at the hotel dripping wet after a mere two blocks, she dropped her plans to walk along the harbor to the hotel and flagged down a passing cab. A cartoon Blackbeard leered at her from the side of the door; the driver was wearing a hoop earring the size of the wrist bangle she'd bought on sale at the Chevy Chase Tiffany's.

"Ahoy, me beauty," the driver said with a flash of gold front tooth. "Where ye be headed, darlin'?"

"The Wingate."

As she climbed into the back seat to Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates ofPenzance blasting from the cab's speakers, Laurel wondered how long Buccaneer Days lasted.

While in the car, she checked the DC phone for messages again.

"Hello, Ms. Stewart," the now familiar voice said. "This is Sandra Squires again. Editor of the Falls Church Bee? I just came from a meeting with Lois Nettleman, the head of our advertising department, who assures me that having your byline appear in our little shopper will bring in enough extra revenue that we'll be able to pay a bit more. Not that we could equal what you were making at the Post, of course, but we like to think of the Bee as a big happy family. I believe you'd fit right in."

She repeated the number she had given the first time she'd called, and although Laurel had no intention of calling, she couldn't fault Sandra Squires's enthusiasm.

After getting out of the cab in front of the hotel, Laurel couldn't stop herself from looking up at the balcony where Sissy had spent her last few moments. Ice skimmed up her spine and she considered returning to the loft to wait for Gannon.

But she'd always fought her own battles. She wasn't going to turn tail and run just because things had gotten a little—okay, a lot—uncomfortable.

A doorman in gold braid and epaulets held the door open for her. The blast of refrigerated air hit like a dart to her temple as Laurel entered the hotel lobby.

Unsurprisingly, while they hadn't been banished to that ill-named First Amendment zone, reporters were being held behind a rope line guarded by a burly pair of local cops. Embarrassed to have landed in a scandal, and secretly afraid that those who didn't believe her capable of fabricating a story might be enjoying some schadenfreude at her misfortune, Laurel paused.

Retreat was tempting. Reminding herself that she had nothing to be ashamed of, she waded into the breach.

Her former colleagues reacted like a pack of hounds who'd just had a fox wander into their midst. "Hey, Stewart," an all-too-familiar voice bayed out, "a little birdie tells me you've been offered a new job working on the Drudge Report.

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