29

Jodie and a very mellow Deke, who wouldn’t let Brenda take more than a step from his side, had called a meeting in the living room of the manse. They’d timed it for after church, because the women of Knit or Die said they couldn’t miss the service. Apparently Morag was doing the prayer, and that was always hysterical, although Jodie suspected the local baker never intended it to be. Jodie had pointed out that the Knit or Die women didn’t work for the spa and didn’t need to attend the meeting, and was promptly silenced by four “mum stares.” The meeting was moved to the afternoon.

As Deke and Jodie explained to the group everything that had happened in the past couple of weeks, Brenda stayed welded to Deke’s side. The look of pure adoration in her eyes was enough to make Jodie feel nauseated, but from the smile on Mitch’s face, he was just amused. And yes, Mitch was there, because it was Sunday and he told her that couples who were dating hung out on Sundays. There were a whole lot of complicated rules for this dating thing. Jodie was glad she’d skipped that stage with her ex-husband. It was a whole lot of hassle for very little return.

“I’m sorry, Jodie,” Patricia said, bringing Jodie’s attention back to her staff and the reason for the meeting. “I really appreciate everything you and Deke have done for us, but I need to think about my kids.” Her hands shook as she clasped them in her lap. “I think it would be best if we moved somewhere else.”

Jodie couldn’t blame her. Of course Patricia would be worried about her kids. The Invertary refuge hadn’t turned out to be the safe, quiet spot she’d been promised it would be.

“I disagree,” Margaret Campbell said. “You need to stay here, Patricia. Where we can all keep an eye on you and the children. This is your home. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

The other women of Knit or Die nodded fervently and Jodie wondered again why she’d allowed them to stay for the meeting. And they weren’t the only outsiders who’d turned up for the “secret” meeting to talk about “secret stuff.” Nope, somehow word had spread and their numbers had swollen to the point where the manse living room was starting to get crowded. The Knit or Die women were there, Lake and Grunt represented Benson Security and Matt was there unofficially as the police contact.

It didn’t end there. Betty was there too. Nobody knew why, but unless they wanted to physically lift her and toss her out, she was there to stay. Plus, it was entertaining watching her laugh at Grunt after she’d managed to stun-gun him into unconsciousness. Only evil Betty MacLeod would mess with Grunt.

“I completely understand your concerns,” Jodie told Patricia. After everything she’d told them about the break-ins and Brenda hiding, she didn’t blame Patricia for her reaction one tiny bit. “We can arrange for you to be moved on to another safe house. I’m so sorry this hasn’t turned out to be the haven we wanted it to be for you.”

Patricia lowered her eyes and Jodie could have sworn she was blinking back tears. This was hard for all of them.

“I think—” Deke started, but he was cut off by the front door slamming open.

All of the alpha males in the room were instantly on their feet, ready to go into battle. A sight that was comical when Matt’s wife Jena tottered into the room in her cut-off purple dungarees, sparkly rainbow tee and mile-high sparkly purple stripper shoes—in other words, wearing what she deemed to be her work uniform. Considering she worked in the local hardware store, the sight was bewildering.

“Are we late?” She ploughed into the middle of the room, kissed her husband then stole his seat.

“I brought cake.” Claire, Grunt’s wife, came in next. The young, very pregnant blonde smiled. “Chocolate cake.”

“What are you doing here?” Grunt managed to sound irritated, concerned and loving all at the same time.

“I’m here to support the effort, baby.”

Grunt didn’t even argue. He just picked her up and walked back out of the house with her.

“Hell,” Jena said. “She got further than I thought she would.”

Kirsty, who was Lake’s wife and the daughter of the leader of Knit or Die, Margaret, was grinning when she came in. “Claire gave me the cake. She said to tell you Grunt has her under house arrest.”

At the sight of Kirsty, Mitch tensed where he stood leaning against the wall. “Please tell me you didn’t bring...”

“I can’t believe you started without me,” Josh snapped as he came into the room.

“And you did bring him.” Mitch slumped at the sight of his best friend.

Josh confronted the room. “You lot are prejudiced against men who don’t have military training. Just because I sing doesn’t mean I can’t fight.”

“If we let you fight and you get injured,” Matt said, “Caroline will kill us. Half the time she acts more like your manager than Mitch does.”

“This is true,” Mitch said with a strange, considering look in his eyes.

“I wouldn’t kill you.” Caroline waddled into the room. “I would volunteer all of you for every single thing that I’m on a committee to oversee.” Deke instantly gave up his chair for her. She lowered herself into it and gave everyone a solemn nod as the men in the room turned white—Caroline was on a lot of committees.

“You brought your heavily pregnant wife?” Mitch looked at Josh like he was an idiot.

“You try stopping her sometime, see how well that works out for you. Anyway, she needed to be here for strategy. Nobody does planning like Caroline.” He beamed with pride until he spotted the chocolate cake. “Ooh, cake.”

Everyone held their breaths waiting for Caroline to put a stop to Josh consuming extra calories. Instead she gave her husband an indulgent smile that shone with love.

“Abby couldn’t be here,” Kirsty said as she leaned into Lake. “She’s having problems with the twins. Flynn said he’ll be over later.”

“Good,” Matt said. “I need to talk to him.”

“So, it’s okay for an ex-footballer to come to the secret meeting, but not the singer?” Josh complained around a mouthful of cake.

He was uniformly ignored, so he settled himself on the arm of the chair his wife sat on and consoled himself with cake.

Like everyone else, Jodie stared in the direction of the door, waiting to see who would come through next. It didn’t take long for Dougal and Reverend Morrison, who was as old as Betty, to come into the room. They said hello and took up seats at the wall. When it appeared all of the unwanted and uninvited attendees were in place and no more were coming, Jodie slowly stood, put her hands on her hips and scanned the room.

“You want to tell me what you lot are doing here?” she said, her tone ice-cold.

“We’re here to help,” Dougal boomed. “This town sticks together. You’re part of us now. We’re going to help protect you. Don’t go looking a gift horse in the mouth, lassie.”

“Aye,” Reverend Morrison said. “Say thank you and be done with it.”

“That’s what I tell him when we play hide the salami.” Betty cackled loudly as Reverend Morrison scowled and the rest of the men in the room turned green.

“What part of ‘secret refuge’ was hard for you folk to understand?” Jodie asked. “You’re putting the lives of these women in danger by telling everyone what’s going on here.”

Caroline’s chin went up. “That isn’t true. The more people who know and band together, the safer it will be. Now there are more people looking out for them. More places they can stay, if need be. More bodies willing to fight on their behalf.” She looked at the spa staff. “You can’t keep running. We want you to stay and we will make it as safe as possible for you here. You have the backing of the town council on that front too. We want this to be your home. We want you to know that you can depend on us.” She looked back at Jodie. The room was so silent that you could almost hear hearts beating. “The Domino Boys are here too. They’re setting up outside. They plan to watch the perimeter for anyone sneaking around.”

Jodie turned to the window, and sure enough, two deck chairs were set up at the side of the spa and two old men were drinking tea and scanning their surroundings. Jodie didn’t know what to say. She looked at her brother and saw he was in the same state. The looks of pure awe and raw emotion on the faces of the women hiding out in Invertary almost undid Jodie. She cleared her throat. The gift these people had given them was overwhelming. They were putting their lives on the line to support the refuge. They were standing with the women in the house, whether they wanted it or not.

“Jodie?” Patricia’s soft voice cut through the thick silence. When Jodie looked at her, she saw silent tears running down her cheeks. “I’ve changed my mind,” she said. “I want to stay here.” She took a deep breath and whispered, “Forever.”

Jodie blinked back her own tears as she smiled at Patricia.

“Well, that’s settled.” Caroline pulled her laptop out of her bag. “Now we need a plan of action. Lake, let’s start with you.”

Lake’s lips twitched, but when he opened his mouth, it was Betty’s voice that came out.

“We need to start with weapons,” she said. “Lake needs to issue everyone with stun guns and pepper spray. Maybe a gun or two.” She reached into her handbag and pulled out a paper bag with a Scotch pie in it and proceeded to snack.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this,” Margaret said, “but I agree with Betty. We would have dealt with the problems at the castle much faster if we’d been armed with something other than water balloons.”

“Condoms,” Jena coughed the word into her hand, then tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle a giggle.

As everyone argued about what was most important and had to happen first, Jodie caught Mitch’s eyes over the crowded room. He stared at her with a combination of pride and relief. It was in that second Jodie realised who was behind the gathering in front of her. Mitch had called in the cavalry. These were all people who’d weathered trauma in the past. People he trusted. People he relied upon. And he’d gifted them to her. She should have been mad at his interference, but instead she felt the wall around her heart crack and wobble.

“What we need,” Jena said, “is a moat, and I know how to build a drawbridge.”

“No,” was the unified cry as Invertary’s most accident-prone woman pouted.

“Nobody would get injured. I’m real good at DIY now. Ask Matt.” Jena pointed at her husband, who squirmed.

Matt looked at Lake for help.

“No moat,” Lake said. “It will interfere with the land sensors.”

That shut Jena down, but not before she gave her husband a look that promised retribution later. Matt seemed more amused than anything else.

As everyone continued to argue, as though each of them had an equal say in what measures they took to protect the manse, Jodie realised that they did. The refuge and the women in it had truly been welcomed into the bosom of Invertary.

Over the heads of the squabbling crowd, Jodie met Mitch’s eyes again. As though the room were empty, they shared a smile that was only meant for the two of them.

The arguing stopped dead when the front door slammed open and a mobility scooter zoomed into the house.

“Right!” James waved a fist with fury. “Which one of you buggers painted my scooter pink?”

Everyone in the room stared at the bright pink scooter and the angry old man. When there was no answer, he spun the scooter around and zoomed back out. “Bloody women, running riot,” he muttered as he left.

“Should we tell him about the glow-in-the-dark words that will appear on the back of it when the lights go out?” Shona asked the room.

“Probably not,” Margaret said.

“I wonder if Findlay has spotted his upgraded phone yet,” Jean said as she reached for a biscuit.

There was a loud shout of outrage from outside the building.

“That’ll be him now,” Shona said. “He doesn’t sound happy. Maybe we should have bedazzled it with blue sparkles instead of pink?”

“I’ve just about had enough of this war of the sexes,” Dougal called over the women. “I’m the one who’s caught in the middle of this nonsense. Do you have any idea how stinky wet wool is? I had a toilet full of it. Not to mention that bloody sister song. I can’t get it to shut off. I’ve had enough. As unofficial mayor of Invertary, I’m putting a stop to this right now.” He stood and pointed at the women of Knit or Die. “This childish fighting with the Domino Boys will stop this instant.”

Everyone stared at Dougal’s red face for a few minutes and then Margaret and her cronies started laughing.

“We’ll stop when you become the official mayor,” Margaret said.

“I’m putting all of this in the minutes,” Caroline said. “I will also make sure to minute that I’ve arranged for counselling and gender awareness classes for both the Knit or Die women and the Domino Boys.” She smiled sweetly. “As per point fourteen, subsection three, paragraph two of the town charter, any person who is undermining the stability of the town must, by law, take part in such efforts as the town council deems appropriate to amend the situation. There is even a codicil that states the unofficial town council has these powers should the town fail to turn up and vote for an official town council. Now, unless you ladies would like to attend classes for the foreseeable future, as well as any other conciliatory measures I can arrange, I suggest you put aside your squabbles with the old men outside and undo any damage you may have done so far.”

There was a stunned silence.

“What she said.” Dougal pointed at Caroline.

“That’s my wife.” Josh wrapped his arm around her. “She’s a genius.” He looked like he was going to burst with pride.

Jodie noted that Mitch was looking at Caroline with unconcealed speculation. She made a note to ask him about that later. Margaret Campbell looked sheepish when she stood.

“We’ll sort it out, Caroline,” she said. “No need to organise any brainwashing for us.”

“Mum!” Kirsty stared at her mother.

Margaret turned to her fellow knitters. “Come on, girls. We need to go sort out the men.”

Four demure women left the house as Mitch sauntered up to Caroline.

“Is there really a point fourteen, subsection three in the town charter that gives you those powers?” Mitch asked.

Caroline smiled serenely up at him. “There isn’t even a town charter, Mitch.”

He barked out a laugh that made his eyes sparkle. Then he pulled up a chair beside his best friend’s wife. “I have a business proposition for you,” Mitch said, but his eyes were on Jodie while he said it, making her wonder just what he was cooking up now that involved her.

She was pretty sure, at the rate he was going, he’d have her married by the end of the week and wondering how it happened.

Strangely, that thought wasn’t as terrifying as it had once been.

––––––––

As the meeting degenerated into a social, Brenda looked up to find Lake standing in front of her. He didn’t say a word, only handed her a piece of paper.

“What’s this?” Brenda said as she stood.

She felt Deke’s presence beside her a second before his arm went around her waist.

“Proof,” Lake said.

Brenda was unsure why her hands trembled as she unfolded the paper. She just knew that Lake had given her something important.

Her knees gave out as she started to read. Deke caught her, easing her onto the sofa behind her as a hush stole over the room.

“Is it real?” Brenda’s voice trembled as she looked up at Lake.

“Holy crap.” Deke exhaled as he finished reading over her shoulder. His arms tightened around her.

“It’s real,” Lake said. “It’s why it was difficult to find him.”

Brenda looked back down at the death certificate in her hands. Clive Emerson had died eight months earlier, after a bar fight in a Spanish resort.

“It’s over,” Brenda whispered.

She wasn’t even aware she was crying until she was sitting in Deke’s lap, surrounded by the man she loved.

“We owe you,” she heard Deke tell Lake. “Anything, anytime.”

“Make her happy,” Lake said. “That’s enough.”

Brenda heard him walk away.

“It’s over,” she whispered to Deke.

“No, Bren,” he whispered back. “It’s just beginning.”