Bridie grinned at her sister. She’d never thought she’d see the day when Kate showed such enthusiasm for theatre.
Chapter 56
Kate stopped a few paces from the ambulance.
Bridie noticed. She halted too. ‘Kate?’
‘Are you okay, Bridie? I know it’s a stupid question, really, after … all that.’ Kate glanced at the ambulance.
Bridie said, ‘I think so. But are you okay? It’s been a lot to hear that you had a sister, Lucy, and if things had been different … if she hadn’t died, and Dad hadn’t had an affair with Isobel, and found me, you would have grown up with Lucy instead, yourpropersister.’
Kate vehemently shook her head and took Bridie’s hand in hers. ‘You’re my sister, Bridie.’
Bridie blinked back tears.
‘But what about Dad and—?’
‘Look, whatever happened in the past … that’s their affair,’ she said, glancing at the ambulance once more.
‘You’re an amazing sister – do you know that?’ Bridie said.
‘And so are you,’ Kate replied.
Bridie and Kate hugged and then stepped back, smiling at one another. Bridie said, ‘Come on.’ Bridie noticed that the crowd of onlookers on the promenade was now dissipating as the fire crew packed away their gear and got ready to leave.
Kate glanced back at the ambulance. ‘What do you think that’s about?’
Bridie thought of Jack and Oliver. ‘I think they’ve all got things to iron out from their pasts.’
Kate nodded. ‘I get that, but can’t it wait until later? Couldn’t they meet up over coffee or something?’
‘No, I don’t think so. There’s no time like the present, not after all these years. I understand.’
‘Do you?’ said Kate raising her eyebrows.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’d apply that logic to you and Jack.’
‘I am going to apologise – if that’s what you mean.’
‘Um, not exactly.’
Bridie stopped and looked at her a long moment. ‘Oh, you mean Jack and me. Do I need to remind you that Jack is married?’ That wasn’t the issue, and Bridie knew it. But she didn’t want to tell Kate that she’d made the biggest mistake of her life, rejecting Oliver all because of Jack.
‘Separated,’ Kate said matter-of-factly.
‘What?’
‘I heard she’s going to take him to the cleaners. Oh, and he’s moving there.’ She pointed at an old run-down cottage next door to the theatre. ‘It’s a bit different to where he was living with Jade – you should have seen their house.’
Bridie thought she probably had seen it when she’d taken Barney for a walk by the allotments and had looked at those beautiful properties that backed on to the lane – some new, others renovated, but all very large, probably five or six-bedroomed, with gorgeous back gardens.
Kate continued, ‘He was going to knock down that cottage he’d acquired next door to the theatre and replace it with a modern new build house, and sell it for a profit, but now he’s going to keep it to live in. He thinks it’s all he can afford oncethe divorce goes through. It might take some time to renovate, though, because he’ll have to do it himself.’
‘How on earth do you know all this?’
‘He told me.’
