Bridie stopped and looked at her sister, wondering what she was doing there. Hannah returned from the car, carrying Barney’s crate into the shop. She put it down, and said, ‘I’ve put the Closed sign in the window.’
‘But it’s not closing time yet,’ said Bridie.
‘It’s fine. I don’t think we’re going to get any customers in the next hour, to be honest – not with this weather.’
Hannah looked at Kate. ‘I’ll just help Bridie up with this dog crate, then I’ll go.’
Kate nodded.
On the way up the stairs, Hannah carrying the crate, and Bridie her shopping bags, Bridie whispered, ‘You didn’t mention the theatre, did you?’
‘No, of course not. You asked us to keep a secret, and we will.’
‘Oh, thank god. When you said you’d spoken to her, I thought it was about the theatre.’ Bridie had been worried that her mum had told Kate. The last thing she needed was Kate getting on her high horse and telling her what a bad idea it was to do up the theatre and stage a play.
‘No, not at all – it was about a job.’
‘A job?’
‘As I said, she’ll fill you in. Now, have a good weekend. And by the way,’ she lowered her voice, ‘we all want to know when we can come back and help out at the theatre.’
‘Ah, yes. I’ve got some news.’ Bridie had told her about Jack investing in the theatre. That was the good news. The bad news, which she wasn’t looking forward to sharing, was that they wouldn’t be helping out anymore. It’s not what she wanted, but Jack was right; it was time to call in the professionals.
They were on their way back down the stairs to the shop. Bridie paused at the bottom of the stairs. She wasn’t looking forward to telling Hannah the bad news.
‘It’s all right,’ Hannah whispered, ‘I get that you can’t talk now. Tell me on Monday.’
Bridie followed her across the shop floor to the door and gave her a hug goodbye. She closed the door and turned around. Kate was perusing the shelves.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked. Hannah had mentioned something about a job, but she knew that wasn’t it. She expected that Hannah, knowing it was her sister, had mentioned a job in the shop next door. She just hoped that Kate hadn’t been rude and told her what she could do with her lowly shop work.
‘Kate?’
‘You told them, didn’t you? Mum and Dad. About my job.’
Bridie sighed heavily. So, that was it. If Bridie was that sort of person, she would have said,serves you right for showing Mum and Dad that social media post about me.But she wasn’t that sort of person. She didn’t gloat. And besides, she’d had no idea that their parents didn’t know. Bridie looked at Kate. All she wanted was for her to leave as soon as possible. She had shopping to unpack and a puppy to feed. She raised her eyes to the ceiling when she heard Barney crying.
She thought that if she quickly explained that she’d had no idea their mum hadn’t known Kate had lost her job, then her sister would leave. ‘Look, I bumped into Mum outside the—’ Bridie caught herself before she said something she’d regret. ‘Um … on the promenade, and we got chatting, and I just mentioned it in conversation.’
Kate flopped down on the sofa, not looking as though she was leaving any time soon. ‘Fair enough.’
Bridie looked at her. ‘What do you want, Kate?’
‘A job.’
‘Yeah – very funny. I’ve got things to do, unless there’s something else besides having a go at me for telling Mum. I am telling the truth when I said it wasn’t intentional, by the way.’ That was a subtle dig at her sister for showing their mum her spectacular downfall on the London stage. She added, ‘How was I to know you hadn’t told them about losing your job?’
Kate fell silent, which was very unusual for her big sister. She stared at the coffee machine. ‘I’m surprised this works.’
‘Of course it works.’ Bridie glanced at the two empty coffee cups. Kate must have sat with Hannah and had coffee. What had they talked about? Whatever it was, at least Hannah hadn’t mentioned the theatre.
‘I just thought it looks old.’
‘It is old, but it makes the best cup of coffee.’
‘I know,’ Kate replied.
‘Mabel brought it over from the charity shop.’
