Page 81 of The Knitting Club at Wagtail Ridge

‘Mike? Is there something wrong?’

‘Not wrong. No. It’s just—’

‘Just what?’

‘Rose, are you rich?’

‘What?’ She had certainly not expected that.

‘Well, listening to you making all these plans. It’s going to take a fair bit of money. I couldn’t do it so casually like that and I’m not scraping the barrel when it comes to money.’

‘No. I …’ Her voice trailed off. She had never thought of herself as rich. When William was alive, their friends had been, like him, well-to-do members of the legal profession. She’d never really thought about money. And when he died …

‘My husband left me well provided for,’ she said. ‘In fact, I still get income from his firm. So, I guess, maybe not rich as such. At least, not very rich.’ Rose watched his face carefully. ‘Does that matter?’

Mike shook his head. ‘Not really. But I had kind of looked forward to—to looking after you, I suppose.’

Rose laughed loudly enough to disturb Jake. He glanced at her, shrugged and went back to his scribbling.

‘Oh, Mike.’ Rose darted closer to kiss him briefly. ‘You know, this is the twenty-first century. Even an old girl like me can look after herself.’

‘I know you can. But I’m an old-fashioned sort of a guy.’ He pulled her close and kissed her again. ‘You know, I used to joke with my brothers—I have two of them—about finding a rich wife. The family didn’t have much money when we were small and we used to say we’d find a wife to take us away from all this hard work. I’ve finally got a rich girlfriend and I don’t want her to take me away from the work because I really enjoy running a shearing gang.’

‘Yoo hoo! Are you there, Bree?’

‘She’s not here.’ Rose met Val as she came through the open door, her eyes taking in every detail of who was there and what they were doing.

‘Hello, Rose. How lovely that Bree has bought this place as part of her business. What a good place it will be for the knitting club to meet. And you know there’s a cottage at the back? With a bit of work, it would be quite lovely. And if you moved up, you would be closer to—’ the dratted woman gave Mike a long look before continuing, ‘—your granddaughter.’

Val had well and truly invited herself into the shop. ‘I thought I’d pop in to check everything was all right. There was a lot of tension with Kim’s mother the other day. I got the impression that Matt and Sally had fallen out. Is everything all right?’

Rose gritted her teeth. She didn’t like a busybody.

‘It seems such a shame,’ Val continued. ‘I was saying to Sally how happy little Vicki was. And how good it was that Matt wasn’t alone any more.’

‘And that’s the problem.’ The words were out before Rose could stop them. Then she threw caution to the wind. ‘I know you didn’t mean any harm, Val, but Sally is struggling with her grief. Now she thinks Matt is replacing her Kim with my granddaughter and she’s becoming a problem. Getting in the way, interfering and upsetting Vicki too.’

‘Oh.’ Val’s face fell. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise … You know I would never do anything to hurt Vicki or Matt. Or your granddaughter either.’

The look on Val’s face caused Rose to relent. The postmistress wasn’t a bad person, she just had trouble controlling her tongue. ‘I know, but gossip can be harmful. Especially when someone is struggling with their mental balance.’

For a moment, Rose thought Val was going to explode. Then the woman’s face and shoulders sagged. ‘Oh.’

Silence filled the room.

‘I know I can’t keep a secret,’ Val said eventually. ‘And sometimes, well, people avoid me. And I think the only way to get people to like me or even talk to me, is by telling them things they didn’t know.’

The woman’s words shocked Rose to her core. She took a step forward and laid her hand on Val’s shoulder. ‘Val, this is a small town. Everyone gossips. It’s just—sometimes you go a bit far and it comes across as nasty.’

‘I don’t mean any harm.’

‘I know you don’t.’ Rose was starting to feel awful. She had no right to attack Val; it wasn’t as if Val had ever done anything wrong by her. ‘I’m sorry. I worry about Vicki. She’s so very young to be caught up in something like this. And I know Matt worries because he can’t be with Vicki all the time. And I sometimes think he’s afraid of what Sally might do.’

‘That must be so stressful for him.’

‘I imagine it is.’

‘Well, I’ll make sure everyone knows there’s a problem there, and that people keep an eye on Vicki when Sally is about.’

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