The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #10)

by Louise Penny

Their close friendship had grown closer and more intimate as Clara opened up. All the stuff stuffed down, all the stuff that women were not supposed to feel, and never, ever show, Clara had showed Myrna. The neediness, the fear, the rage. The terrible, aching loneliness. “Suppose I’m never kissed on the lips again?” Clara had asked one afternoon in midwinter, as they ate lunch in front of the fire. Myrna knew that fear too. She knew all of Clara’s fears because she shared them. And admitted them to Clara. And over the course of the year, as the days grew longer, their friendship deepened. As the night receded, the fear had

also receded. And the loneliness of both women had ebbed away.