How to Find Love in a Book Shop(42)

Dillon looked at him. What a bloody state. But now he thought about it, it explained a lot. Hugh was loaded. It would take the pressure off if Alice married him. A source of ready cash.

That was how these families worked, wasn’t it? It wasn’t so far from an arranged marriage. He felt ill at the thought. Was Alice having to pretend to love Hugh, in order to save Peasebrook?

‘If she dies,’ Dillon told Hugh, ‘I’ll kill you.’

‘She’s not going to die,’ said Hugh, but he looked as pale as the moonlight as lights appeared around the bend accompanied by wailing sirens.

Next to him, Alice stirred and moaned. She reached out a hand. Dillon took it.

‘It’s all right,’ said Dillon, squeezing her hand as hard as he could. ‘It’s all right, Alice. The ambulance is here. You’re going to be all right.’



In no time, there were people swarming everywhere, shouting instructions, the elaborate choreography of an emergency procedure taking shape.

Dillon and Hugh were taken to one side, removed from the scene of the accident.

‘I lost it on the bend,’ Hugh was telling a policeman. ‘I’m not used to this car, and there was some black ice. I was taking Alice home to Peasebrook. We’re due to get married in three months …’

He was trying his best to look the modicum of respectability.

‘Come and sit in the car with me a moment, sir,’ said the copper to Hugh.

‘No problem,’ said Hugh, but he looked daggers at Dillon.

Dillon didn’t know what to think as he watched Hugh follow the policeman. He didn’t want trouble for Alice, but the man was an idiot. He’d got what was coming to him. Dillon hoped they locked him up and threw away the key.

It seemed to take forever for the ambulance men to get Alice out of the car. The minutes seemed like hours. Eventually they lifted her gently onto a stretcher. She looked so small, so still, as they carried her over to the ambulance.

‘Who’s coming with her? Is anyone coming with her?’ One of the paramedics asked.

‘Yeah. I’ll come.’ He didn’t want Alice turning up to the hospital on her own. He climbed into the back.

‘Are you her husband? Boyfriend?’

‘No – I work for the family. Is she going to be all right?’

No one answered. Someone was taking her blood pressure. Someone else was wiping away the blood.

Then suddenly Hugh was banging on the door. Someone opened it to let him in.

‘Is she all right? I’m coming with her.’

‘There’s only room for one.’

Hugh looked at Dillon. ‘Out.’

Dillon was astonished. It looked as if Hugh was in the clear. How on earth could he be? Dillon had seen him with his mates. They were all roaring drunk. What had he done? Had he bribed the policeman? Or was he genuinely not over the limit? Dillon couldn’t understand it.

‘Can you blokes sort yourself out?’ asked a paramedic. ‘We need to get going.’

Hugh’s eyes met his. There was a message in them to say his card was marked. Dillon didn’t care. Hugh couldn’t touch him. All he cared about was Alice.

Without another word, Dillon climbed out of the ambulance.

Another policeman walked past.

‘Somebody get on to Peasebrook Manor,’ Dillon heard him say into a radio. ‘Best for them to meet us at the hospital.’

Dillon felt sick at the thought of Sarah being given the news. She would be distraught. He couldn’t imagine there was anything worse than being told your child had been in a car accident. He wished he could be with her, to reassure and comfort her, but it wasn’t appropriate. It wasn’t his place. Even though Dillon spent hours with her every day, it was Ralph who would and should be with her. He didn’t even feel entitled to go to the hospital. This was a family matter. He was staff. It was his duty to step away, and wait until he was needed.

The ambulance doors slammed shut and the driver turned on the siren. Dillon wondered if Hugh would hold Alice’s hand and tell her it was all going to be all right. He thought probably not. All Hugh would be worried about was saving his own arse. How was he going to explain the accident to the Basildons? He looked up into the night sky. He couldn’t believe the stars were there, twinkling happily. How was it possible, when Alice lay there so still and small?

The ambulance drove off and Dillon was left there, watching Hugh’s car being hoisted onto the tow truck. There was the sound of hydraulics and clanking chains, the mechanics shouting instructions to each other. A remaining policeman removed the accident sign.

And suddenly, everyone was gone and it was deathly quiet. It was as if the accident had never happened, except for the scar on the old oak tree. Dillon stared at it and wondered how fast Hugh had been going. He felt sick thinking about it. He felt totally helpless. What could he do? Pray, he supposed, but he’d never been a praying man. As far as he was concerned, nature took its course, man interfered from time to time, and what happened, happened. No greater force had any influence.

He went back to his car, still parked in the gateway. He drove slowly home, seeing ghosts in the shadows as the light turned from granite to gun-smoke. If he phoned the hospital, they wouldn’t give him any information: he wasn’t family. Was Alice a cadaver, under a white sheet, eyes shut? Was she on an operating table, waiting for a surgeon to perform his magic? Was she sitting up in bed, pale and shaken but laughing, drinking tea and chatting to the nurses? How was he going to find out?