The Piper by Lynn Hightower

Author:Lynn Hightower [Lynn Hightower]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Published: 2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-FOUR

Olivia sat in Charlotte’s kitchen, trying to absorb the comfort of suburban normality while Charlotte checked on the kids. The kitchen floor was beige linoleum, the appliances stainless steel, and the round wooden table was exactly like a million others in furniture showrooms in every city of the United States. Olivia wanted comfort and was finding it hard to get.

Charlotte came in from the hallway, pausing behind Olivia to put a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m so very sorry about your friend. I know how bad you must feel. How shocked.’

‘Thank you, Charlotte. Thank you for taking us in.’

‘And look, I know you’re worried about Teddy, and rightly so, she was pretty shook up when you left. But she was asleep when I checked the girls, all of them were. She’s got Winston curled up with her on the pillow, and I left the hall light on. Look, you didn’t eat anything. You want me to warm up that bowl of beef stew?’

‘Sure.’

‘Are you going to eat it?’

‘No.’

‘Then why do you want me to warm it up?’

‘That’s just in case you need something to do. So putter around all you want, Charlotte. Go check the kids three more times, and drink another twenty-seven glasses of wine.’

‘You sound angry.’

‘Not with you, Charlotte, sorry. Evidently I’m going through the stages of grief really fast and I’ve just fast forwarded to really pissed off.’

It surprised Olivia when Charlotte laughed.

‘It isn’t like that, one stage moving in a straight line to the other. You can go from shock to anger to denial then back to shock in fifteen minutes. I know, because I’ve done it. There’s no fast way to get through it, Livie, I wish I could tell you there was.’ Charlotte settled herself into the chair next to Olivia as if she were an achy old woman a hundred years old. ‘But you know it as well as I do, don’t you? Maybe better.’

‘I do, yes. And I think next up on the agenda is going to be guilt.’ Amelia would be fine if she hadn’t come here. She’d be in California, alive and well.

Charlotte topped off Olivia’s wine glass, though Olivia had left it untouched. ‘For God’s sake, Livie, lose the guilt, you’re as bad as Chris. Ever since I’ve known your brother, it’s been very clear that he felt responsible for what happened to your sister, Emily, so much so that it seemed almost pathological.’

‘He had good reason to feel that way. In a way, it was his fault. Because of whatever it was that happened that night, when he went to the Waverly. You do know about that, don’t you, Charlotte? It happened when he was a senior in high school, when he and his buddies were up in Louisville for a wrestling championship. How they all sneaked out to go ghost hunting at the notorious haunted sanatorium. He must have talked to you about it, Charlotte.’

Charlotte didn’t answer, would not meet Olivia’s eyes.

Olivia clenched her hands into fists. ‘You know, Charlotte, I think I could handle anything.

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