The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,76

back at the waffle house, and Sadie felt her cheeks flare. It was obvious where he’d been, and Melissa made certain that Sadie could see that she knew. Sadie quickly dropped the blinds, feeling as guilty for a crime she hadn’t committed as she would have done for one she had.

Chapter Thirteen

Of course, the thing that Sadie had most been dreading happened. There was no way it wasn’t going to happen but she had hoped for a stay of execution, if she couldn’t hope for anything else. But moments after she and April had finished cleaning (later and with more urgency than usual after the drama of the afternoon) and locked up for the night, Sadie looked up to see Ewan’s car screech to a halt on the promenade. Well, as screeching as a station wagon could be – it was hardly Starsky & Hutch.

‘Oh, hello, darlin’,’ April said as he strode down the pier towards them. ‘Come to take us home? You are a sweet dear.’

‘Yes, Grandma,’ he said, giving her a tight smile and reserving his death stare for Sadie. She pouted in return, ready for a fight. And if he wanted a fight he was going to get one. It was hardly her fault Gammy had decided to go walkabout, and she wasn’t going to take the blame. And she was even less inclined to stand for one of Ewan’s lectures.

He led them up the pier and the three of them drove home in almost perfect silence. April fell into a doze, but she wasn’t sleeping deeply enough for anyone to start a conversation about her, and they arrived at the house to find Henny, Graham, Kat and the kids sitting in the kitchen. Sadie grimaced inwardly and braced herself for the onslaught.

‘Oh!’ April said as she saw them all assembled. ‘Is it someone’s birthday? Did I forget?’

‘No,’ Kat said, giving the most natural, reassuring smile of any of them. In fact, the only smile at all. ‘Ewan and I just thought we’d stop by and say hello.’

Sadie looked to see her brother had taken a seat next to his wife.

‘Well, it sure is wonderful to see you,’ April said, settling on a chair herself.

‘Mum…’ Graham began gently, ‘what was going on this afternoon?’

April blinked at him. ‘Whatever do you mean?’

‘You left the waffle house and locked it up with Sadie still trapped inside.’

‘Why, I…’ April looked confused. But then she brightened. ‘I don’t exactly recall – I was so busy today I was just whizzing around doing everything without thinking too much. I expect I went to the bank because Sadie couldn’t go… Yes, that’s it. I went to the bank. Sadie didn’t have time – did you, darlin’?’

‘You left the money in the safe, Gammy,’ Sadie said. ‘We’d agreed to leave it in there until tomorrow because it was getting late.’

‘Did we? In the safe? I was certain I had it in my bag when I left you.’

‘Your bag was in the office too. You didn’t take it. You didn’t take your coat either.’

‘It was warm enough.’

‘I know, but…’

Sadie’s sentence simply ran out of energy. It was sort of how she was feeling right now. This was beginning to feel like swimming against a very strong tide. April looked at all the faces around her in turn, and then a shadow crossed her own.

‘Why are you all so angry with me?’ she cried, her voice wavering. ‘I’ve done nothing wrong!’

Freya looked up from the ubiquitous book clasped in one hand with a shocked frown, while Freddie simply stared down at his feet. A fleeting thought crossed Sadie’s mind that perhaps this wasn’t a place they ought to be right now, but she wasn’t about to say it to Ewan, who was already ready to blow, or to Kat, who must have thought otherwise and was their mother after all.

‘Nobody is saying that you have,’ Graham said patiently. ‘Nobody is angry with you.’

‘Well it sure as heck feels that way with everyone staring at me,’ April retorted.

‘Nobody is staring at you either,’ Ewan said, his tone as soft and patient as his father’s.

April swept a hand around the table. ‘Well, what do you call this?’

Ewan glanced at Kat, who nodded immediate understanding.

‘April…’ she began. It seemed to Sadie that Kat was the most reasonable, rational voice at the table right now, and certainly the calmest and kindest. She always was, which was why Sadie herself had more often than not over the years gone to her