High Society by Lesley Whyte

"Did you hear about Katrina?" Camilla asked.

"No, what happened?"

"Howard lost the company, apparently. The money, the house, everything. All gone. Mary saw him at the job centre last week and when she called Katrina...well, it's all gone."

"I would have thought he would be too proud for that," Catherine said, gazing out at the grassy slope that tumbled and rolled down to the line of trees. "Well, it couldn't have happened to a nicer woman. You remember what she said to Lillian at her party? She kept criticising the food and the wine and the entertainment just within her earshot, and then she as good as admitted that she and Nigel...in college."

"You told me about that years ago. I thought everyone knew."

"Everyone except for Lillian. True or not, Katrina shouldn't have said what she did."

"She's always been that way, though. What are the kids going to do now?"

"Get jobs, I suppose," Catherine said, pulling a face. "I don't know how they'll manage. I imagine they'll move away. Katrina will probably say that they've decided to sell up and move to the continent, for the weather. For the slower pace. Everyone knows Howard's been struggling for the last few years. After the second heart attack..."

"I thought the first one wasn't."

"Annabelle told me the doctors called it a heart-attack-like event," Catherine said, and Camilla laughed. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but that really is what they call it. Katrina won't admit he lost the company, that the money's gone. She's always had more than anyone else and she's never been shy about looking down on us all. Something like this could kill her."

"We can only hope," Camilla said, smiling.

"Can you imagine the funeral, though? Although if there's no money anymore...after that wedding she had, you just know she would have had an amazing funeral. She always did like to think of herself as high society. Oh, that's the eighty-three. I'll see you next week," Catherine said, heaving herself up off the bench. She picked up her tartan shopping bags and shuffled onto the bus. She waved merrily through the window at Camilla, who waved back at her friend. High society indeed.