The Girl Who Came Back
Page 34
With twinkling eyes she said, “Careful, I might hold you to that.”
“Do,” he insisted.
A few minutes later, having made it to the car and out of the street with the press recording every inch of their progress, they were heading down the hill toward Hope Cove, leaving Andee to act as their spokesperson. Behind them Danny was keeping close to their tail, just in case anyone tried to follow, and Aileen was already calling to find out if they were on their way yet.
“What do you really think of her pleading temporary insanity?” Jules asked as they pulled up at a set of lights halfway down the hill.
Kian barely hesitated. “That there’s nothing temporary about it. But right now I’m trying to do what we promised each other, and not think about the girl or the trial at all.”
Happy with the answer, Jules reached into the depths of her bag, searching for her phone as it bleeped with a text. “I expect it’s your mother,” she said as her hand closed around something that clearly wasn’t the phone. Unable to make out what it was, she drew it out and felt her heart turn over with surprise.
“Look,” she whispered, holding it up for Kian to see.
He blinked, curiously. “So you decided to take it?” he said.
“No,” she replied. “It was still on the library mantelpiece the last time I saw it.”
Frowning, he said, “So how did it get in your bag?”
“Maybe Misty put it there.” Except she knew Misty hadn’t. She’d have seen her do it, and the shoe had still been in place when they’d left the library.
Looking down at it, she turned it over in her hand, remembering all the times she’d found it in odd places around the pub and the flat, as though Ruby was trying to have fun with her, or even to communicate something. She recalled how attached Ruby had been to Daisy, settling in Daisy’s room with the mermaids as if it were where she’d always belonged. She’d even sensed Ruby’s overwhelming sadness after Daisy died.
Somewhere deep inside her she felt Ruby was trying to reach her now. Why else would the shoe be in her bag?
Lifting it to her cheek, as though to embrace it, she smiled sadly to herself, and whispered, “I should have thought to take you with us. Thank you for coming.”
As Kian pulled away from the lights she heard something rattle inside the shoe, and tipped it upside down to find out what it was. When she saw a tiny mermaid drop into her lap her heart filled with tears. “Oh, Kian,” she murmured, picking it up and showing him, “look what was inside the shoe.”
Glancing over, Kian started to smile. “There are probably better ways of putting this,” he said, “but it looks to me as though our girls have found their own way of coming with us.”
To James, again and forever
Acknowledgments
An enormous thank you to Andrea Bright at the White Hart in Littleton-on-Severn for guiding me so patiently through the running of a pub. Also to Sabrina, Mark, and Nikki at the Royal Oak in Cromhall.
Once again my thanks go to Ian Kelcey for so much invaluable advice regarding the trial. Any errors, or journeys off into dramatic license, are entirely mine!
By Susan Lewis
Fiction
A Class Apart • Dance While You Can
Stolen Beginnings • Darkest Longings
Obsession • Vengeance • Summer Madness
Last Resort • Wildfire • Chasing Dreams
Taking Chances • Cruel Venus • Strange Allure
Silent Truths • Wicked Beauty • Intimate Strangers
The Hornbeam Tree • The Mill House
A French Affair • Missing • Out of the Shadows
Lost Innocence • The Choice • Forgotten
Stolen • No Turning Back • Losing You
The Truth About You • Never Say Goodbye
No Child of Mine • Don’t Let Me Go
Behind Closed Doors • No Place to Hide
Too Close to Home • The Girl Who Came Back
Memoir
Just One More Day • One Day at a Time
PHOTO: © COLIN THOMAS
SUSAN LEWIS is the internationally bestselling author of thirty-three novels. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the deeply moving and often hilarious memoirs of her childhood in Bristol. She lives in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.
Sign up for her newsletter at susanlewis.com
Facebook.com/SusanLewisBooks
@susandlewis
What’s next on
your reading list?
Discover your next
great read!
* * *
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.
Sign up now.