Page 12 of The Summer That Changed Us

It was a woman’s voice, Katie decided. Poor thing. ‘Hang on in there, we’re on our way!’

The ground was higher on her side of the gate and by standing on a rock, she could just about reach Robyn. She helped haul her up by the sleeves of her jacket.

‘I’ve got your top half,’ she said. ‘You deal with the bottom half.’

‘This has got to be the most intimate I’ve been with a stranger in a long time,’ Robyn spluttered.

‘Lucky you.’ Katie raised an eyebrow. ‘This is a pretty standard Monday morning for me.’

With a bit of effort and a lot of giggling, between them they managed to get one of Robyn’s legs over the gate.

‘Who’s actually there?’ said the voice, panting in pain. ‘Because I think I should warn you that I’m, what you might call, scantily clad.’

‘No worries,’ Katie shouted back. ‘I’m, sure it’s nothing either of us haven’t seen before.’

‘Maybe not,’ chuntered the voice. ‘But you haven’t seen mine before.’

Katie looked at Robyn, who was still laughing but had gone a peculiar colour. ‘You OK?’

‘This is more painful than I thought it would be,’ muttered Robyn. Beads of perspiration had popped up on her forehead. ‘At least it’s not wrought-iron bars, or I’d have had multiple piercings by now.’

The poor woman was balanced on a row of pointed boards, her arms tight around Katie’s neck. That wouldn’t be doing her nether regions any good.

‘It doesn’t look much fun, I agree. What do you want me to do?’ Katie asked, clenching her lips together to prevent a bout of hysterical laughter from escaping.

‘Um. Can you step backwards away from the gate and drag me with you?’ suggested Robyn, her breath hot against Katie’s neck. ‘And I’ll try and lift my other leg over.’

Katie nodded and did as instructed. She edged slowly backwards, staggering under the smaller woman’s weight and Robyn’s body bumped painfully over the gate.

Robyn winced. ‘I’m regretting that last pancake now and that second mug of tea.’

‘Now that’s a Monday morning I can fully get on board with,’ said Katie, holding on tight while Robyn set first one foot and then the other down on solid ground. On its way past the padlock, one of Robyn’s boots knocked against it and it slithered to the floor, taking the chain with it.

‘You’re joking! It was open all along,’ exclaimed Katie in dismay, gasping for breath.

‘So it was,’ said Robyn, examining a tear in the back of her leggings. ‘But that was the best fun I’ve had in months.’

‘Me too,’ Katie admitted with a snigger. ‘Gate one: Katie and Robyn nil.’

The two of them collapsed against each other in a fit of giggles before charging up the steps towards their next challenge. Just then Katie realised that for the last ten minutes, she hadn’t given that photo a second thought – and that had to be a win.

Chapter Five

Grace didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Actually, correction, she couldn’t do either at the moment. Any shuddering of her chest would be too uncomfortable. The best thing she could do was to take shallow breaths and say a prayer that her rescuers were fast, female and not too prudish.

She shifted her weight from her hands to her elbows and tried to ignore the pain running from her groin to her knee. She was such a fool. She’d only been here half an hour and already she’d unintentionally done the splits (not that she could remember ever attempting the splits deliberately), smashed a mug, done untold damage to the insides of her thighs and her pièce de résistance, which would be happening any second now, she’d be greeting two strangers by flashing her foof at them.

Grace risked a look down. Oh hell. Yes, definitely flashing. She was still wearing her towel, just about, but it was splayed open and there was a suspiciously cold breeze blowing up her backside.

She could almost hear Myles laughing at her from the great blue yonder. He’d always found it hilarious that she was so clumsy. ‘Sack the juggler,’ he’d always shout from the study when he heard her drop another glass in the sink. They’d had to replace all the champagne flutes they’d had as wedding presents before they’d even made it to their first anniversary. Still, at least it got her out of the washing up.

A coffee out on the terrace to admire the view. That had been the plan and now look at her. It had been the Byron family WhatsApp group’s fault. Grace had opened it up to see if Liv and Austin had mentioned anything about the solicitor they’d appointed, only to find that they had both left the group! So now the only ones left were herself and Myles, whom she hadn’t had the heart to remove. She’d been so hurt that she’d been too busy looking at the screen and not paying attention to where she put her feet.

Grace was not a woman who was ashamed of her body. At least, not anymore. Meeting Myles had changed all that. She’d spent her teenage years and her twenties hiding her curves under shapeless clothes that made her look like her gran, or dark colours to help her blend into the crowd. Myles had worshipped her. Every inch of her, every curve, dimple and wobbly bit. Because of his love, she’d learned to love herself. Words like chubby and plump had been replaced with Rubenesque and voluptuous. These days, she knew how to dress to suit her figure; the colours and silhouettes to flatter, the jewellery to add glamour to the simplest outfit.

But all of that notwithstanding, being found by complete strangers in this position was probably going to give her nightmares for a week. Mind you, it might possibly give them nightmares too.

After what felt like an eternity stuck in the most painful position on earth, Grace finally heard people coming up the stairs.