Читать книгу Hidden Sin: Part 3 of 3: When the past comes back to haunt you - Julie Shaw, Julie Shaw - Страница 7

Susie lived on her own, on Little Horton Lane, in a cottage she rented just near the Brown Cow. It was handy for work and also handy for Paula to nip in for a coffee if they were on different shifts. Or outside, in Susie’s little suntrap of a back yard. Paula had great respect for her friend, not least because of her independence. She was only a couple of years older than Paula, but had been long engaged – almost married – till her fiancé was unfaithful, and where she could so easily have headed back home to her parents with her tail between her legs, she’d chosen to remain there and go it alone, even though, financially, Paula knew it was a struggle. Her mam’s words about her own naïvety still rankled. It was a word that really rankled, full stop.

It was getting dark when she pulled up in the pub car park and locked the car – where had the time gone? How could it be so late already? – but there was a light burning a welcome over the front door.

‘Changed your mind?’ Susie said as she opened it. ‘What a lovely surprise. Come on in, mate. I have wine. Not much in the way of food, like, but wine I can do. You okay?’ She scrutinised Paula more closely under the light in the hallway. ‘You’re not okay, are you? What’s up?’

‘I wouldn’t know where to start,’ Paula said as she followed her friend into the shabby but cosy sitting room, breathing in the familiar scent of cheap floral air freshener. ‘Pour me a large one of whatever you’ve got while I get my head straight and I’ll tell you. I’m not sure I’ve got my head round it yet myself.’ She flopped down onto the little two-seater sofa while Susie went to get glasses and a bottle from her galley kitchen.