by Leah Hope
“So where is she starting off?”
“Peru.”
“Peru? But that’s in…”
“South America, yes I know, it’s half way around the world.”
“I though you meant a gentle tour around Europe, a bit like the Grand Tours the gentry used to embark on years ago. But Peru, well that’s a different story. And on her own too I assume?”
“Yep. I suggested I go with her but for some reason she feels she has to do this on her own. You hear such awful things of women travelling on their own Bridge, not just in South America, anywhere. It’s not as if she’s a seasoned traveller either. From what she’s told me, she and David never got any more adventurous than a dodgy boat trip to Turkey when they were visiting Rhodes.”
“How long is she planning to be away? Hasn’t she got the builders lined up to do her kitchen in the autumn?”
“Oh that’s all cancelled too. She doesn’t see any point now, well not until she’s back home anyway. After South America she intends heading for New Zealand and Australia but she hasn’t planned anything beyond that. As if that’s not enough for heaven’s sake! I mean how long will that take her?”
“I’m so sorry Gil, I don’t know what to say” Bridget said clearly shocked at the news. “But look on the bright side, when she gets back she’ll have got it out of her system and you two can be together.” Bridget had been trying to reassure her brother that this didn’t necessarily mean the end of things between them, but from the look on his face she had failed, dismally.
“What after she’s dallied with dashing gauchos on the pampas or gone on trail rides with hunky sheep farmers in Wagga Wagga, or wherever she ends up! Do you think she’ll look at me twice? A pale, scrawny mechanic looking sixty in the face, I won’t stand a chance. I’m just amazed that I ever did. I mean look at her, she’s lovely, inside and out. What can I offer her compared to some muscle-bound, tanned Lothario?”
“Oh Gil, you don’t understand women at all. If I know Maggie, and I'll admit I don’t know her that well, but she doesn’t strike me as the type to have her head turned by a handsome face or a seven-pack…”
“Six-pack.”
“Whatever. But you know what I’m trying to say. You may not be able to compete with some muscle-bound hunk but you have so much more going for you. You’ve got a successful business, you’re kind, loving, caring, ok you may need to brush up on your culinary skills, but you’ve got a lot to offer any woman.”
“Thanks Bridge, I know you’re only trying to help but I can’t help feel I’ve lost Maggie for good. Not that she was ever really “mine” to lose, but I thought we had an understanding. I thought we might have some sort of a future together. I’ve been so careful not to rush things, not now when she’s so vulnerable. I didn’t want her, or anyone else come to that, to ever accuse me of taking advantage. Now it seems that far from being vulnerable, she’s ready to travel to some far-flung part of the globe all on her own. I don’t even think I’d be brave enough to do that. I can’t help feel that I’m the one that’s been taken advantage of.”
“I know you must feel horribly let down Gil but I don’t think it’s fair to accuse Maggie of using you in any way. Now that she’s had time to let things settle and reflect on the dreadful ordeals she’s been through, she just wants to have some fun, to have an, an adventure if you like while she’s still young and fit enough. I don’t think there’s anything more sinister to it than that.”
“I can see that Bridge, of course I can and I wouldn’t begrudge her a second of that. But why doesn’t she want to have an adventure with me?”
Bridget didn’t know how to respond. She could tell her brother’s heart was breaking and at that moment hers was for him too.
Gil got up slowly from the sofa and looked out of the window at the trees and shrubs in the garden that were being buffeted by a sudden strong wind that had got up. “I’m going for a walk along the seafront, I just need to get out of here for a bit. It’s all doing my head in.”
“But it’s blowing a gale out there, you’ll get swept away.”
“So what.”
*
Gil returned an hour later looking rather bedraggled, but the gloom that had threatened to overwhelm him earlier seemed to have lifted a little.
“Are you feeling better?’ Bridget asked, still clearly concerned.
“No, not really, but I have come up with some ideas that I want to put to Maggie. I know that she wants to do this trip on her own but I’m going to suggest that as well as skyping with her regularly, I meet up with her every few months or so. Just for a week at a time so she doesn’t feel I’m trying to muscle in. I’m also going to suggest she writes a blog so if I can’t be by her side on her big adventure, I can at least follow what she’s up to. What do you think, I’m not being over-protective am I?”
“Not at all, I think that’s a brilliant idea. Now why don’t you go and put your feet up and I’ll make us a nice cup of tea.”
“Thanks Bridge, you’re an angel.”
As Bridget was about to pour the tea, she heard Gil call weakly from the living-room.
“Bridge?”
“Yes love?”
“Any of that coffee and walnut cake left?”
“Coming right up” Bridget replied with a smile.
FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you so much for reading this book. If you have enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. It would be very much appreciated.
ALSO BY LEAH HOPE
Colours of the South First in the Gil and Bridget Honeyman mystery series
When the mayor of a pretty French village is found shot through the head following Bastille Day celebrations, former pastry chef and would-be amateur sleuth Bridget Honeyman, is intrigued by the murder mystery unfolding on her own doorstep. An arrest is soon made. But a second murder, seemingly unconnected to the first, convinces Bridget that they’ve got the wrong man. Torn between supporting his sister in her quest for the truth and protecting her from danger, Gil Honeyman gets caught up in the frantic race to prevent the killer from claiming a third victim. But will they be in time?
Shadows of the Past Second in the Gil and Bridget Honeyman mystery series
Frederick Honeyman, husband, father and respectable bank manager, was knocked down and killed as he crossed the road on Christmas Eve 1984. The driver didn’t stop. To add to the family’s torment, the accident took place in a little street nowhere near Frederick’s route home from the bank. What was he doing there? Where was he going? As the years passed, the family came to accept they would never know the answers. Until now.
Years later, Bridget Honeyman finds a letter amongst her father’s old books which she believes could be the key to finally unlocking the mystery. After much soul-searching, she and her brother Gil set out to find the truth behind what really happened all those years ago. But are they ready to hear it?