Page 69 of Forgive Not Forget
“Grief isn’t a task to be completed; it’s an alteration to yourself.” Laura stopped a moment to yawn. “As much as we try not to, we’ll always carry it with us in some form. I just realised I had to carry it differently.”
Katherine nodded. She could understand Laura’s feelings of guilt. It was something she felt daily.
When Laura yawned again, she said, “I’m sorry, I’m keeping you from your rest.”
Laura rose from her seat, wincing as she used the table to help herself up. “I’m going to head back to the sofa. I don’t fancy attempting the stairs just yet.”
“Thanks again for letting me stay. I really appreciate it.”
“You and Anna are welcome anytime. I really can’t thank her enough for what she’s done for me this weekend. Well, both of you, from what I understand.”
Katherine smiled. “Anna truly is a wonder, andIwas more than happy to help. There’s a good lad underneath all that angst.”
Laura tapped Katherine on the shoulder as she passed her. “Thank you for reminding him of that.”
“Ready?” Anna called from the doorway, her laptop bag over one shoulder.
“As I’ll ever be,” Katherine replied as she followed her to the front door.
She drew in deep breaths of crisp air as they made their way up the high street to the pub, where anything could be awaiting them. She sensed a pair of eyes on her; Anna was clearly worried about her. She’d given her a lot to worry about over the last few weeks and would no doubt continue to be a cause of worry. There was so much she wanted to say to Anna, but she couldn’t say it all on the short walk to the pub.
“Are you okay?” Anna asked. “The discovery of the bomb must have been quite a shock.”
Katherine exhaled with a partial laugh. “One minute I was writing an email, the next I was being escorted into Abbey House by two policemen to pack some knickers. It certainly wasn’t what I envisaged for the day,” she replied, trying to keep it light-hearted.
Anna gave a light laugh in response and then stopped suddenly. “Shit! What about Virginia?”
“They told me to lock her indoors; she’s safer inside than out.”
“Makes sense, I suppose,” Anna replied, catching up to Katherine again. “Are they sure it’s a bomb?”
“Yes, I managed to speak to Sophie before I left. One of the less experienced archaeologists was making good headway uncovering it before Sophie spotted what she was exposing and called the police.”
As they neared the pub, they could see the entrance to the abbey and Abbey House were cordoned off and being patrolled by three police officers. A stout man, dressed in military camouflage, with a large moustache resting on his upper lip, was speaking to a local resident. His voice grew louder as they approached.
“We have worked as quickly and diligently as possible to limit the disruption caused, madam. As you can expect with an incident of this nature, public safety has to be our primary concern.”
The woman huffed and walked off.
“It’s not like anyone else was evacuated from their homes. Only we were within the radius,” Anna whispered as they passed.
“People like to have something to complain about, Anna. I would have thought you would know that by now, especially living in a village like this,” Katherine remarked as she stepped into the pub.
The pub was a hive of activity. The right-hand side of the bar had been taken over by police officers; on the left-hand side, they found Carrie and Sophie at a table, being served coffee by Chris.
“Ladies, what can I get you?” he asked. “On the house of course.”
Katherine resisted the urge to ask for a double whisky; the last thing she needed was to talk to people about such an official matter with whisky breath. They ordered coffee and joined the others at the table. No one spoke for a few minutes as they removed their coats and greeted Moose, who’d appeared between Katherine and Anna’s chairs.
“Bloody hell,” Anna said, blowing out a breath as she sat.
“Indeed,” Carrie replied, taking a sip of her coffee.
The door was opened with a bang. Mark approached them, his eyes bursting with rage.
“You said you’d find nothing that would shut the site down,” he shouted at Sophie.
Katherine noticed Sophie pull herself back a little at Mark’s manner. She instinctively rose from her seat to create a barrier. “No one could have envisaged finding a bomb, Mark. Calm down, please.”
