“I’m old enough to be your mother, young lady. Have some respect.”
“At least we agree that one of us is a lady,” Kirsty told her.
Morag’s grey skin briefly turned pink.
“Is that the kind of thing they taught you to say to your elders while you were taking all your clothes off and parading your wares in front of men? For money.”
Kirsty sucked in a lungful of bitter autumn air.
“You.” She pointed down at the woman.
At six foot tall, Kirsty was one of the few women in Invertary who could look down on Morag. Morag always took her height to be a point of pride and had made it quite clear over the years that she wasn’t impressed that Kirsty had outgrown her.
“You,” Kirsty said again, “need to pack up and clear out.”
Morag’s dead eyes scrunched to slits as her lips thinned out into a mirthless smile.
“What are you going to do?” she said. “Officer Donaldson is in Fort William on a training course. He’ll be gone all day.”
Now Kirsty really did want to thump her. She’d obviously planned her protest for the only day in months that the town was without a police force. To make matters worse, Morag turned her back on Kirsty and signalled to her little group.
“Don’t be distracted, get on with the protesting.”
She waved her hands in the same way someone did when they were conducting an orchestra.
“Oh, no, we won’t go,” the group began to chant.
“No, no,” snapped Morag. “The other one.”
The four women, all dressed in the same uniform of polyester coats and scarves, flinched under her direction.
“Sorry, Morag,” one of them mumbled.
“What exactly are you objecting to?” Kirsty said. “Good underwear? Cleavage? Anything that isn’t beige? What?”
Morag gave her the look that made people think twice before buying pies in her bakery.
“Smut. Pornography. You’re selling sex toys. Dirty things that don’t belong
in a good, clean family town.”
Kirsty reeled back on her heels.
“I am not!”
“What do you call that, then?” Morag pointed at the shop window.
Kirsty was confused.
“That’s the Victoria’s Secret autumn range,” she said.
“Exactly,” Morag said.
Kirsty clenched her fists, feeling helpless as her throat began to tighten and her breathing sped up.
“Breathe slowly.” Magenta appeared beside her and put a calming hand on Kirsty’s arm.
Kirsty nodded, grateful.