CHAPTER 45
THEY STOOD SILENTLY under the archway as the undertakers opened up the back of the hearse. As the coffin was lifted out with Maggie’s wreath of lilies on top, Lyn thought how small it seemed for once such an exuberant, larger-than-life man. She was aware that Neil had bowed his head, and she instinctively slipped her hand in his, feeling him giving her fingers a little squeeze of gratitude.
The chapel was full. She took her place on the first pew next to Neil and his mother, still holding his hand. There was nothing else to do but to look at the coffin as it sat on a catafalque in front of a pair of closed purple velvet curtains that reached from floor to ceiling. All around her people shifted uncomfortably in their seats, coughing and waiting for the service to begin, whi
