Then he turned his attention back. “Brigid. And Allan. Like I said, I knew them all my life. We grew up here. I won’t say we never had our disagreements or that we occasionally didn’t have different groups of friends. Youngsters are like that.”
He looked straight at her. “But there was no one in this town less surprised than I when they decided to get married. There was an unbreakable bond between them despite the inevitable ups and downs. It always felt like destiny.”
Hillary nodded, forcing herself to eat another forkful of pie, mindful of not upsetting the locals. “Did you all enlist at the same time?”
He gave a crooked smile. “Never hesitated. We talked about it for years, then did it. The Army was the first thing that separated us.”
“It has a way of doing that. Physically, at any rate.”
“It does. We had different paths to follow for a while. But the closeness remained. What about you and Brigid?”
“We met at an operating base. It was instant friendship.” She paused. “Brigid talked a lot about Allan. She missed him every minute of every day.”
“He felt the same. If they regretted anything about their choices, that was it.”
Hillary put her fork down, refusing to force any more pie down her throat.
“I miss her,” she said quietly. “So much.” The Norwegian words came first to her tongue. “Det er som om hjertet mitt har blitt revet ut.” Then remembering him, she translated, “I feel as if my heart has been torn out.”
“Pretty much the same here.”
He’d lost two friends, she reminded herself. Did that double the grief or just make it a hell of a lot worse? Could grief even be measured?
His somber expression matched her mood. So much pain between the two of them. Maybe she should just end this visit now. She had no comfort to offer. She doubted he did, either.
Off to their separate worlds to deal with the gaping abyss in their lives.
When he spoke again, it was another diversion. “Was it hard to make it into the Valkyries?”
“It is never easy.”
“Like the women being admitted to the Rangers. No slack.”
“Slack would make us useless.” Undeniable. Special operations allowed no weakness. “Brigid was talking about training into spec ops.”
“Allan mentioned it. She wasn’t entirely happy with guarding convoys.”
“Dangerous enough. Obviously.” Too obviously. “Allan?”
“He wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea, but he never would have interfered.” Trace paused a few beats. “Did Brigid tell you? Allan was invalided out, discharged for medical reasons. Too much shrapnel in dangerous places, and they couldn’t remove it. Near his heart. Threatening his spine. He hated it.”
“I can imagine.”
“But he felt the greatest pride in Brigid. He wouldn’t have dishonored her.”
Then Trace leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Someone killed him.”
Copyright © 2021 by Susan Civil-Brown
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ISBN-13: 9781488072901
The Bait
Copyright © 2021 by Carol Ericson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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The Bait Page 21