When a woman moves into the sleepy town, it rouses everyone's tongues to start wagging. She is strange and distant in her manner. Tia Frost is blissfully unaware of the townsfolk's discomfort with her. With Burt at her side, she wonders about the wo...
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I stopped the car and Tia jumped out as Tobin ran to her. He was crying. I came around the car as she knelt in front of him. He made those odd hand gestures at her and she made them back at him. I watched her as she used one of the tissues I'd given her, to wipe his face. She made another few hand signals and he turned running back towards the house.
Roland stood in the doorway and Tobin stopped. To my surprise, Roland made one of those hand signs and Tobin made it back and then ran in.
Tia started towards the house and I followed. "Is he going to be OK?"
"He is..." Tia was flat again, this time I wasn't sure if it was because she was thinking or tired.
Her voice had been warmer when we had been talking in the car.
"Are you going to be OK without Burt?" She nodded at Roland's question.
Roland looked at me as Tia walked past him. "She needs to process I think."
Roland patted my shoulder and I walked in after her. She was standing in front of her chair staring at a bottle of whisky.
"After the day you've had I think one drink is a good idea."
She put the bottle back under the table. "I promised Burt I wouldn't drink without him here. It sets me off and without him, it's an unnecessary risk." She turned and walked out to the kitchen.
She stiffened in the doorway as Roland came up behind me. "I was clearing up when you came back... I thought I could distract Tobin with some cooking."
She walked in and I moved to the doorway. There was flour and eggs on the worktop. A cake cooking in the oven, and washing up half done in the sink. Tia picked up a cloth and Roland walked up behind her. "You go, sit down I'll make some tea and bring you a few of the biscuits we made."
She put down the cloth and turned to him. "Thank you." Her tone was still flat and she didn't meet his eyes.
It's interesting seeing her interacting with someone else. She was a lot more distant with Roland than she was with me earlier.
She left the kitchen. Roland put the kettle on and started cleaning. I turned to watch Tia. She sat in her chair looking over at Burt's chair. She seemed lost without him. I walked to the table and sat down, which seemed to snap her out of it.
She stood and walked to a bookshelf. She was looking through the titles there when Roland came in with a cup of tea. She pulled the books down that were stacked in front of the others and it looked like she was organising them.
She found the book she was looking for and moved to a new shelf. It looked like she was fiddling with something whenever she picked up a book. By the time Roland had cleaned the kitchen she had reorganised all the shelves and found three books which she had put to one side. Roland sat at the table with me as she was looking through another shelf.
