Just Between Us

one The previous December, two weeks before Christmas Rose Miller hated committees. Which was a bit unfortunate, because she was on three of them. The Kinvarra Charity Committee was the most irritating for the simple reason that its internal wranglings took so much time, there wasn't a moment left to actually raise any money for charity. Discussions about the size of the type on the menus for the annual ladies' lunch, and whether to serve salmon or beef, had taken endless phone calls and two lengthy meetings. If Rose hadn't practically lost her temper, the committee would still be arguing over it. "Does it really matter what the menus look like or what we eat?" she'd demanded fierily at the final, drawn-out meeting, rising to her feet and making all the other committee ladies clutch their copies of the minutes in shock. Mrs. Rose Miller with her dark eyes flashing in anger was not a common sight. A tireless worker for the local charities, she was known for her calm self-possession and for her organizational skills. Tall and strikingly elegant with her trademark upswept hairdo, she was almost regal in her anger. "We're here to raise money, not waste it. Is this our best effort for the underprivileged of this town? To sit in a cozy hotel bar and slurp our way through urns of coffee and entire boxes of custard creams while we discuss minutiae?" "Good point," squeaked Mrs. Freidland, the current chairwoman, who'd been stubbornly holding out for flowing script type and seafood chowder followed by beef despite the fact that the majority wanted salmon for the main course and tiger prawns to start. "We've been wasting far too much time; let's stop arguing and vote." Feeling rather shocked at her own outburst, Rose sat down and wondered, as she did every year, why she didn't just resign and take up something less stressful, like hang gliding or swimming with sharks. But every year she let her name be put forward because if she wasn't on the committee, no money would be raised at all. And she passionately wanted to help people. A life lived selfishly was a life half lived; that was her credo. The only difficulty was that for some of the other committee members, charity work was more a sign of social status than anything else. The Church Hospitality Committee only met a couple of times a year and was the least trouble, as it only involved putting together a couple of suppers for interchurch gatherings and, occasionally, a party for a visiting missionary priest. Rose's third committee, the Kinvarra Motorway Action Group, was halfway up the scale of annoyance. Set up to oppose the proposed new route through Kinvarra's nature park, an area of outstanding beauty around the midlands town, the KMAG committee included a highly efficient local solicitor, several prominent businesspeople, and three local politicians. Therefore things got done. But the public meetings were a total nightmare that usually ended up with the committee being instructed to work on at least four wildly differing approaches. Rose needed a stiff gin and tonic after the KMAG public meetings, although Hugh grinned and told her that in his experience of public meetings, she'd be better off with a stiff drinkbeforehand. As one of Kinvarra's leading legal brains, Hugh was a committee veteran. He'd even served his time as the town's mayor many years before, which he laughingly said had been a lesson to him Not To Get Involved. Rose had a photo of him in his mayoral robes on the mantelpiece: tall, stately, and handsome with his immaculately brushed silver hair setting off the high forehead and the benevolent gaze. The camera hadn't picked up the wicked glint in Hugh's eyes that day, a look that said he didn't mind the job but could have done without the mayoral necklace hanging like a cow chain around his neck. "It's impossible to pKelly, Cathy is the author of 'Just Between Us ' with ISBN 9780743490269 and ISBN 0743490266.