She turned towards Thomas and could see that they finished their conversation. He motioned her to join him. Right on cue, she folded the cloth around the bottle and returned it to her bag.
‘I have to go, but I will see you both next Sunday.’
Martha wished she could spend some more time with them. As she retraced her steps through the graveyard, Martha dusted herself down. Her steps quickened and within minutes she was by Thomas’s side.
‘All done,’ he said, and grabbed hold of her hand. ‘I have asked Charles to dinner later.’
Martha thought of the extra work that would entail but didn’t complain.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MARTHA
It was on Martha’s insistence that they hold the next neighbourhood watch meeting. With just the two of them in the house – it was an uneasy truce. Thomas needed a routine, something to take his mind off his abstinence from alcohol.
They were a funny little bunch of people. Her dad would have said they were too posh for their own good, but that was the company she kept these days.
Not many people could venture over the threshold – apart from a few select neighbours and Charles. She still missed her old friends, family, but life had gone by without them.
Charles, the first to arrive, Thomas shook him warmly by the hand. Martha watched them embrace – brothers against evil from the start.
‘Martha, you look well, have you put on weight?’
‘Do you know I think I have,’ Martha said.