Rivalry (The Cardigan Estate Book 4) by Emmy Ellis

Author:Emmy Ellis [Ellis, Emmy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Thursday, late afternoon, her version of morning, Rosie had to get out. Her flat walls penned her in, bringing on claustrophobia and the need to run. She walked to the end of the wind-filled street towards the bus shelter, watching for the author who lived opposite her flat. Difficult when she had no idea what she looked like. The thought of the woman writing her movements down meant Rosie had a crap sleep, and work last night had been nothing short of torture. When she’d got out of the taxi around three a.m., she’d glanced across the road, thankful the lights were out on the houses either side of the alley. That didn’t mean anything, though. The nosy cow could be staring in the dark.

Creeper.

A middle-aged man with a service dog, a golden retriever, stood beneath the shelter, the wind buffeting his woollen coat, his brown hair. The dog’s silky ears fluctuated in the stout breeze, one of them turning inside out, revealing the glossy pink interior. The weather had taken a weird turn, lots of gales that promised to bring down fences and uproot trees, according to the weatherman on the local news. She was silly to have come out really, rain also due, but the idea of spending the next few hours before work cooped up inside, feeling observed despite her curtains being shut, didn’t appeal.

A woman clip-clopped towards the bus stop, a skinny thing with short, bright-red hair and big specs, her long beige mac buttoned up to the top, a silk scarf swept artfully around her neck, cream with blue anchors all over it. The ends flapped. She spotted Rosie looking, so Rosie glanced away, embarrassed to have been caught, and she went on to have an internal monologue with herself about it: Does she think I’m weird? Should I apologise? She’d been thinking how effortlessly some people carried clothes off, the hairstyle, those big glasses. If Rosie attempted the same, she’d fail, but who knew, maybe she’d give a wardrobe change a try.

Aaron had dented her confidence, and it had just been coming back, almost at full blast, then the neighbour had happened. Now, despite her classy work clothes and the smart casual stuff she put on while not at the parlour, she seemed dowdy compared to the woman, who perched on the shelter seat. Her mac parted at the bottom over her dainty knee, showing the flash of a red skirt, and she took out her phone.

Rosie shifted her gaze again.

The bus appeared, coming from the way she’d walked, and she waited for it to halt and the man and his dog to get on. Then she climbed aboard, presented her Oyster card, and sat a few seats along, not quite halfway but nowhere near the front where the wind could clip her ankles every time the doors swooshed open at the various stops.

The woman paid and walked down the aisle, her attention fixed at the back. Her handbag smacked Rosie on the cheek as she walked past.

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