The Drowned Village by Kathleen McGurl

Author:Kathleen McGurl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

LAURA

The next morning Laura awoke, still remembering the delicious taste of Tom’s lips on hers. It had been a magical evening, only ending when they’d reluctantly parted to go to their own tents, the bottle of wine half empty and re-corked to finish another night. She knew she wasn’t ready for a relationship; Tom had made it quite clear he didn’t want one either and that the kiss was just a kiss, and meant nothing. That suited her perfectly. Only after he’d gone did Laura look at her phone to check that latest text message. It was, as she’d expected, from Stuart. Saw your Gran today. She told me where you are. Am coming to see you. Give me another chance. Martine is moving out.

The words had sent a chill down Laura’s spine at the thought of Stuart going to her gran’s. Gran knew that Laura wanted nothing more to do with him, so for her to have told him where she was meant that he must have applied some pressure. And he was coming up to the Lake District to find her? She knew she needed to speak to him to make it clear it was all over and she would not take him back under any circumstances, but she did not want to be forced to have that conversation here, while she was on holiday. She fervently hoped he’d sent the text when drunk and was not really on his way.

This morning, however, she made herself put Stuart out of her mind and instead, think about the day’s plans. She and Tom had planned today to go back to the ruined village and start looking for this tea caddy Gran had been talking about. First, Laura needed to talk to Gran, and find out more details about exactly where it had been hidden. As soon as she was dressed and out of her tent, gazing around at yet another day that promised glorious sunshine and not a single cloud in the sky, she pulled out her phone and punched in Gran’s number. It rang and rang, and eventually the answerphone cut in.

‘Gran? If you get this, could you call me back? Or if one of the carers picks up this message, could you call me, it’s Laura – my number’s in the emergency contacts in Gran’s care folder. Just a bit worried I haven’t been able to get through to her yesterday or this morning. Hope all’s OK. Thanks.’

She frowned, and tried to console herself, again, with the thought that if there had been a real emergency and Gran had been taken to hospital, the care agency would have called her. Or texted if they had not been able to get through.

It was no good. She knew she would worry about it all day. She picked up her phone again and called the agency.

‘Stella Braithwaite?’ the administrator said, after Laura had explained why she was calling. ‘Yes, Sophia was there last night, all was well.’

‘What about this morning?’

‘Sophia’s on her rounds still.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.