Read Online Heartstones by Kate Glanville - Free Book Online

little – what is it that you say in English? Bad for wear? But you were very sad last night. You were crying when we try to get you into bed. All the time you were saying, “David, David, I miss David”. He is your man? Have you had row? Split up?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Then do you want me to phone him and tell him where you are?’
    ‘No, no,’ Phoebe moaned. ‘You can’t phone him.’
    ‘But he could chat with you, cheer you up.’
    ‘He hasn’t got a phone.’
    Katrina shook her head in surprise, her glossy bob swung against her cheeks. ‘No mobile? No work number? There must be some way you can be getting hold of him.’
    Phoebe sighed, she hadn’t wanted anyone to know, she hadn’t wanted anyone to feel sorry for her, but since she had managed to reveal her broken heart to the whole town within a few hours of arriving, what did it matter?
    ‘He’s dead.’
    ‘Oh! You poor thing,’ Katrina leant down and stroked Phoebe’s hair. Phoebe started to cry. ‘You know him long time?’ Katrina asked, taking Phoebe’s hand again.
    ‘I met him when I was fifteen.’
    ‘Was he your husband?’
    Phoebe thought about explaining that he had actually been someone else’s husband but found herself nodding her aching head instead.
    It was nearly midday by the time Phoebe managed to drag on some fresh clothes and make it down the stairs. In the kitchen she found Katrina sitting at the table; a round of rolled-out pastry lay beside her while two big iron pots emitted delicious smells from the Rayburn. Despite her hangover Phoebe was suddenly starving.
    Katrina didn’t hear Phoebe; she was reading, completely absorbed in the thin sheet of paper that she held between her manicured hands. She sniffed and picking up a tea towel wiped her eyes. Mascara smudged down her cheek.
    ‘Are you all right?’ Phoebe asked. Katrina jumped.
    ‘Oh, Phoebe, you give me fright out of my skin,’ she quickly folded the letter and slipped it into the pocket of her apron.
    ‘Sorry,’ said Phoebe. ‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ Katrina smiled broadly and stood up.
    ‘Yes of course, I am as OK as the rain. Did you eat the bread and jam?’ Phoebe shook her head. ‘You must eat, I have told you this. You will feel better if you eat.’ Still smiling, she hustled Phoebe into a windsor chair at one end of the table and pushed a crocheted cushion behind her back. After a few seconds a steaming bowl of soup appeared in front of her and another plate of soda bread, spread thick with yellow butter. ‘Good for the morning afterwards – it will help your head, and after soup you must have stew.’ Katrina gave the second pot a stir and sniffed its contents. ‘Mmmm. Is good I think.’
    ‘What are you making with the pastry?’ asked Phoebe between mouthfuls of the comforting soup.
    Katrina nodded to a bundle of rhubarb sticks at the end of the table, ‘Rhubarb and almond pie. I will serve it with some honey and ginger ice cream for the lunch-time customers.’
    ‘I didn’t expect food like this in Carraigmore,’ Phoebe said, wondering how Katrina managed to cook with those incredible fingernails; now the glittering stars had gone and each nail was painted with a leopard-skin effect.
    Katrina effortlessly lifted the thin pastry and draped it over a pie dish, gently pushing it down into the base with her knuckle, easing it up the fluted sides. ‘I am a good cook. I learn it from my mother.’
    ‘In Slovakia?’
    Katrina nodded and Phoebe noticed that her expression was suddenly sad again.
    ‘What brought you here in the first place?’ Phoebe asked after a little while.
    Katrina started to trim pastry from the edge of the pie dish.
    ‘Maeve’s funeral.’ She didn’t elaborate and Phoebe let the silence linger, not wanting to press her. Katrina looked deep in thought as she slowly turned the dish around, then she looked up. ‘When she die I come all the way from Dublin to say goodbye to my friend.’ She gathered up the pastry