Bleeding Hearts. Lindy Cameron

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СКАЧАТЬ her hair and peered at her mother closely. "A tram driver ran you into the wall of a hotel? Were you in his way or was the tram derailed at the time?"

      "Neither, Katherine. There was no tram, just a tram driver - in a blue Commodore. He was on his way home from work."

      "Right, of course he was," Kit acknowledged. "But you're okay?"

      "Yes, as you can see." Lillian waggled her hips.

      "Fine. Good. Um, I've just finished work, so I might go and have a drink at the bar with Del, while you finish your game. Unless you want me to take you home now."

      "No, not yet darling. Rabbit's about to teach me how to sight my stick to sink the eight thing," Lillian said.

      "Good," Kit headed back to Del. "Why did you bring my mother here?" she asked sweetly.

      "Because she was mildly shaken, extremely stirred up and could not be left to her own devices. Brigit said you were coming here, so here we are."

      "And where is Brigit, or shouldn't I ask?" Kit said.

      Del put her hands around her own throat and pretended to strangle herself. "Brigie is either going through early change of life, the longest case of PMT in history, or she is losing her mind. She hasn't decided which - yet. And she may well scare my mind into a very small cupboard before she figures it out. In the meantime she's..." Del hesitated, as if she didn't quite know how to break the news, then she called out to Angie who was at the other end of the bar: "Kit is really going to need that drink soon."

      "Del? In the meantime she's... what?"

      "She's gone to have a workout at the gym."

      Kit just stared at Del.

      Del shook her head slowly. "It's truly scary, I know."

      "To which gym has she, ah, gone?" Kit queried politely.

      "I don't think I should tell you," Del stated seriously. "It's taken me nearly two hours to get over the shock."

      "Oh Del, she hasn't gone to Lulu's Powder Puff?" Kit asked, pressing her hand dramatically to her forehead. "She'll be struck off the Seriously Feminist List. We have to go get her."

      "It's too late. Besides it's not Lulu's," Del said, trying to keep a straight face. "She put a pair of boxer shorts on over her track pants and went down to... um, she went to ask Mangle to sign her up for 'the works', including that karate boxing stuff. She wants to learn how to, and I quote: 'kick some serious butt'."

      "Oh my god!" Kit exclaimed. "Mangle's building is held together by jockstraps and testosterone. The gym is a known haunt for sweaty men, she'll hate it."

      "In her state, I doubt she'll notice," Del stated. "Perhaps we should go and get her though."

      "Yeah," Kit agreed. "After a drink or six."

      "What are you going to do after sex?" Angie asked, placing Kit's bourbon on the bar.

      "Nothing. Who said anything about sex?" Kit asked.

      "I did, just then," Angie grinned. "And I do, quite often. What about you, now that you've won the heart of the gorgeous Alex Cazenove?"

      Kit sighed deeply. "Angie, could we get this straight, once and for all? I have wooed Alex. I still have no idea whether I've won or not. Subject change, please."

      "Granted," Del stated obligingly. "If Brigie's mind and body is still in turmoil tomorrow, would you like to take her place and come to the airport with me to pick up my Aunt Sylvie?" When Kit looked puzzled by the request, Del shrugged and added, "Well, it's a different topic and it beats sitting around the office all day."

      "Thank you. And I'd love to Del, but I actually have to see my new client in the morning."

      "God, another one? They seem to be coming out of the woodwork," Del commented.

      "Yeah, it's great," Kit enthused. "The income, of course, is lovely and having a couple of jobs at a time keeps my mind off..." Kit sculled her drink, while her expression recovered from the mental kick she'd given herself. God, O'Malley, she thought. You can't even keep your mind off keeping your mind off it. "It keeps me occupied," she finished.

      "You'll have to take on a sidekick at the rate you're going," Del said. "Oh dear. No matter how busy you get, you must not mention that idea to Brigit. She may think one session with Mangle qualifies her to be your muscle girl."

      "Oh, I don't know," Kit grinned. "Brigie could always give the bad guys a good tongue lashing."

      "Keeps your mind off what?" Angie asked.

      "Aaggh!" Kit exclaimed putting her head down on the bar.

      "Well, that was your fault," Del said, stroking Kit's head. "I tried to keep the subject changed."

      "What, what?" Angie demanded.

      "The gorgeous Alex Cazenove. What else would she be trying to keep her mind off?" Del said.

      "But?" Angie began.

      Kit, head still down on the bar, waved her hand at Del. "Go on, tell her."

      "After the shootout on the docks," Del explained, in a mock-dramatic voice, "Alex checked herself out of hospital and caught a plane to Adelaide from where she rang Kit to apologise for leaving so abruptly. Her grandmother, it seems, had taken ill."

      "But the docks thing was weeks ago," Angie said. Kit held up nine fingers.

      "Nine weeks ago," Del verified. "From Adelaide she went to Perth to 'sort stuff out'."

      "What stuff?"

      Kit sat up. "Stuff stuff. Ex-relationship stuff."

      "Must be complicated," Angie noted. "But then, Alex never was noted for a lack of complexity. You didn't do anything to scare her off, did you Kit? I mean she's not hiding from you is she?"

      Kit rapped her empty glass on the bar and scowled at Angie. "I don't think so."

      "Sorry," Angie stated, raising her hands in surrender before reaching for the Bourbon. "Well when is she coming back?"

      "Sometime this week," Kit replied. "She has to because she's getting married on Saturday."

      "Married?" Angie said reflectively. "I see." She reached for Kit's glass and sculled the contents. "No I don't. You are going to have to explain. I thought you were joking about that."

      "It was very nice indeed of Elizabeth to give you this jeep, Katherine," Lillian commented as she slammed the passenger door and waited on the footpath.

      "It's not actually a jeep Mum, and 'nice' is kind of an understatement," Kit said, as she remote-locked her still almost brand-spanking-new dark blue RAV4. "I refused it of course, but Quinn had already registered it in my name. She said if I didn't drive it she'd leave it in the street to gather parking tickets, which I would have to pay. What could I do?"

      "Accept it graciously," Lillian nodded. "You know you could have taken me home. I'm perfectly okay," СКАЧАТЬ