A cold white rage took over her. She grabbed the door handle and yanked.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she heard Magenta say as she pushed past the women and stormed over the road.
Kirsty didn’t care what kind of idea it was, she was going to find the English idiot and wring his neck.
“Holy smoke, here comes trouble,” Betty said. “I need to be somewhere else.”
“Stay right where you are, Bilbo. You caused this, you need to take some responsibility.” Betty glowered but sank back into the chair that fit her bum.
“You’re both bad, bad people,” Rainne told them before disappearing to her bedroom.
As far as Lake was concerned she could stay in there all day and sulk. He had enough to deal with without a whining sister following him around. A minute later Kirsty thumped at his front door to let him know she was there. He hung his head for a second to regroup. There wasn’t even time to pull on some clothes.
“You’re not letting a girl get to you, are you?” Betty mocked.
“Another word and it could be your last.”
“Son, I’m nearly ninety. If you think threats of death are going to scare me, then you need your head examined. You’ll have to come up with something better than that.”
There was more thumping. He got the impression Kirsty was kicking the door.
“I’ll deal with you later.”
“Promises, promises,” Betty said, and blew him a kiss.
He swallowed a smile as he went to the door.
“You rang,” he said as he opened it.
A red-faced Kirsty pushed past him and stomped into the living room.
“Right,” she said when she’d taken her position in the middle of the ugly orange carpet. “Which one of you thought to let Morag loose on me?”
“There’s been a mistake,” Lake said in the calm, soothing tone he was famous for.
“That”—Kirsty pointed at the window—”is not a mistake.”
Betty snorted. Kirsty spun on her. The soft black fabric of her skirt clung to her hips and made Lake lose the plot for a minute.
“It was you.” Kirsty pointed at Betty. “That idiot hasn’t been around long enough to know about Morag. It had to be you.”
“It might have been Rainne.”
“Rainne would never do anything like this.”
“Because she’s soft.”
“Because she’s a nice person, not like some people I know!”
“Ladies!”
Lake held up his hands as they turned towards him. It was a move practised to make him appear non-threatening. Kirsty’s almond-shaped eyes narrowed.
“Keep one hand on the towel, soldier boy,” Kirsty said with threat in her voice.
Lake did as he was told.
“We can work this out,” he said in a soothing tone.