Read Online 12 Days At Silver Bells House by Jennie Jones - Free Book Online

hat, shading her eyes in case someone suddenly pounced her from nowhere and made her honorary townsperson number eighty-nine. Swallow’s Fall was too small for Kate. She was used to an expansive world. This little town was too isolated for her industrious mind. Cute and all that, with its never-changing atmosphere. But it wasn’t for Kate. Should she decide to move to the country, there’d be other towns, close to the city. And if she moved to the country she’d have made The Decision to let you know who have it all.
    Fat Jacques Burch. And she wasn’t referring to his waistline. She meant fat as in greedy and petulant and downright nasty. Jumping jalopies, Jacques made her blood boil and her mind seethe.
    Putting that scumbag to the back of her mind she stopped outside the petrol station and stared at a beautiful, pressed metal sign. A wonderful, welcomed and mouth-watering sign: Ice Cream . She nearly went down on bended knee in front of it to sing a halleluiah.
    â€˜Good heavens. You walked all that way?’
    Kate swung to the only fuel bowser at the station and the lady standing next to it. She recognised the short, plump, smiling person with her hair piled high in a bun. Still-jet-black hair, even though she must be close to retirement age. Mrs Z? Mrs P? ‘I’ve walked from Silver Bells House,’ Kate said, throwing a hand behind her to indicate the excessive kilometres she’d journeyed by Wellington boots.
    The lady, whose smile hadn’t left her face, beckoned her inside the petrol station shop. ‘Come on in, dear. You must be exhausted. What are you wearing wellies for?’
    Don’t ask .
    Once inside the air-conditioned little shop — no more than a clean white room with a counter, a twirling rack of postcards and metal shelving full of all the expected mechanical oils, jump leads and car air fresheners — Kate’s heated skin and dehydrated internal organs breathed a sigh of relief.
    â€˜Kate Singleton,’ Kate said as way of introduction while the lady peered under the rim of Kate’s straw hat. ‘I’m Sammy’s friend. I think I met you at the wedding.’
    â€˜I know. I remember you. Heard you were in town. Jamie’s girlfriend, is it?’
    Excuse me ?
    â€˜Sammy and Ethan are away,’ Mrs P or Z said. ‘But you know that. Jamie’s been at Silver Bells House for over two months now. Fancy you and Jamie being together. Did you walk?’
    â€˜Yes,’ Kate replied to the last question, and, ‘No,’ to being Jamie’s girlfriend. ‘I’m not his girlfriend.’ Sweet lady, but oh, so wrong about the situation. ‘There was a bit of a misunderstanding. I came down to rent the cottage for Christmas, not realising it had been bought, then I bogged my car because of a flock of parrots, and Jamie got me out and there was nowhere else to go.’
    â€˜How kind of him. Such a gentleman. Were they gang gangs?’ She held her hand out. ‘Mrs Tam. And I meant the parrots.’
    â€˜Hello again,’ Kate said, shaking Mrs Tam’s little hand. ‘Lovely to see you. Not sure what kind of parrots they were but there were thousands of them.’ Slight exaggeration but this was the country. Anything could happen, and for all Kate knew, probably did.
    â€˜Fancy Sammy forgetting to tell you that Jamie bought the house.’ Mrs Tam shook her head. ‘Most unusual.’
    Wasn’t it? Kate had been thinking along the same lines during the last two hours’ trudge into Sammy’s township. Have you been playing me, Samantha ?
    â€˜Can I buy an ice cream?’
    â€˜Of course, and no buying. It’s on me. Can’t have Jamie’s girlfriend wilting from heat exhaustion. Homemade, you know. Which flavour?’
    Kate followed Mrs Tam to the ice cream refrigerator. Rainbow colours of ice-cold ice cream made her forget about the girlfriend remark. ‘Two scoops