Page 90 of Duke It Out
“None of this would have happened if she hadn’t come to visit.”
“I know.” I think the worst thing about it is Anna thinks she’s the injured party here. “As soon as I found with Jamie this morning?—”
“You did?” Kate takes a big gulp of wine and pauses for amoment, glancing out of the window. “Well, he always did go for the low-hanging fruit,” she adds, a moment later.
I steal a sideways glance at her, but she’s readjusting the fringes on the edge of a cushion. “Did you and Jamie ever have, you know, a… thing?”
“God no.” Kate shakes her head emphatically. “Why would you ever think that? He’s like a child with far too much money and not enough sense.”
I shrug. “What do I know. Turns out I’m a pretty shitty judge of character all round.”
I tuck the blanket round my knees and watch the flames dancing in the window of the log burner.
“I’m done. I think it took being here to realise that it’s not a friendship with Anna. Not the kind I want, anyway.”
“What do you want?” Kate stares into the fire, cupping her almost empty glass.
“Me?” I frown for a moment. “I want to live in a place like this. I love it here in the Highlands. I love the history and the magic and the people. And it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever felt like I belong somewhere. I’m not willing to give it up and go back to living in London and wishing for something else.”
Kate smiles at me with proper warmth. “Time to be the main character in your own story, I think.” She clinks her glass gently against mine. “To cutting ties.”
“And writing a new beginning.” I take a sip of wine. The clock by the window chimes eight o’clock. It’s still broad daylight outside, the sky clear of clouds now and streaked pink and orange.
“I never liked her,” Kate adds, casually. Then she makes a face. “Sorry.”
“Seriously?”
She shakes her head emphatically. “She’s like a magpie. I feel like she’d help herself to anything shiny you had that she took a fancy to.”
I look at her for a moment and wonder.
I think about the times in the past when she’s helped herself to my things, to friends I made in London, even to my ex-boyfriend Dave, although she was welcome to him. The only reason she didn’t help herself to Rory was that she didn’t quite find a way in. And I realise that I don’t ever want to go back there to that flat, to feeling second best and waiting for scraps.
“I want to start over,” I say surprising myself. “I’m going to write. I’m going to make it happen, somehow.”
“Janey said your book is amazing.”
I feel my cheeks going hot and put a hand to my mouth. “She told you she read it?”
Kate nods. “I don’t know why you look so surprised.”
I put the wine glass to my cheek, suddenly too warm. “It’s been rejected a million times over.”
Kate sits back, thoughtful.
“I’ve got a friend down in Glasgow. She used to be traditionally published – God, the stories she can tell – but she gave it all up. Went indie, never looked back. She bought a house in Spain with the proceeds. I mean literally paid for it in cash.”
Something flutters in my chest. It’s not quite hope, but it’s a tiny little seed of something.
“You need a plan,” says Kate decisively. She clambers out of her sofa nest and straightens up, putting another log on the fire. “I bet you can find a job here somehow. Between the stables, the village, and the estate, there’s always something going.”
I wince. “Maybe not the estate.”
“Yeah, alright.” Kate grins. “Maybe not the estate. But you can stay here for now. I’ve got a spare room, and Bert and Ernie approve of you and that’s a pretty good sign.”
“They’re Labradors. They approve of anyone who comes bearing food.”
Kate shrugs. “This is true. But not everyone gets the sofa snuggle treatment, so I’d take it.”
