How to Find Love in a Book Shop(44)

‘How can you say that?’

‘Come on. We should be celebrating the fact that she’s not got a brain injury—’

‘As soon as she comes back from X-ray, you’ll be able to see her,’ said the consultant.

‘She’s going to be as right as rain. I know it,’ said Ralph. ‘She’s made of stern stuff, my daughter.’ He managed a smile. ‘Like her mother.’



Sarah looked up from her seat in the waiting room when Hugh walked back in, smelling of freshly smoked cigarette and Wrigley’s. He gave a tentative smile. He was, quite rightly, wary of Sarah.

‘The nurse just told me. She’s going to be all right—’

Sarah cut him off.

‘You were driving too fast,’ she said flatly.

‘Sarah!’ Ralph stood up.

Hugh looked down at the floor, then sighed.

‘I know I was,’ he said, quietly. ‘And I’ll never forgive myself. But there’d been a bit of an incident in the pub. I was trying to get Alice home as quickly as I could.’

‘What do you mean – incident?’

There were fisticuffs in the White Horse sometimes. Not often, but it was inevitable sometimes after a few too many beers.

‘It was your gardener chap. He was being a bit … aggressive.’

‘Dillon?’ Sarah was incredulous.

‘Yes,’ said Hugh. ‘I should have taken him outside, but I didn’t want trouble.’

‘What do you mean – aggressive? That doesn’t sound like him.’

‘Everyone’s different after a few.’ Hugh put on a pained expression. ‘I think he’s got a bit of a thing about Alice. It was pretty embarrassing. He was following us. In his car. I put my foot down to get away from him. It was just instinct.’

Sarah shook her head. ‘I don’t believe you. Dillon wouldn’t put Alice in danger.’

‘Well, I can assure you it happened.’

‘Following you and then what, exactly? What was he going to do then?’

Sarah was staring at Hugh, her eyes hard. He shrugged.

‘I don’t know. Beat me up? I think he’d had a few too many. Maybe I should have reported him. Stopped him from driving. In retrospect, that would have been the responsible thing to do—’

‘I don’t think any of this is true.’

Ralph stepped forward. ‘Darling, I don’t think this is the time.’

Hugh looked distressed. ‘I’m sorry. I was trying to protect Alice. And yes, I put my foot down on the gas—’

‘So it was your fault.’

‘Sarah – this isn’t an inquisition.’

‘I want to get to the bottom of what happened. And I’m not convinced Dillon had anything to do with it. It sounds completely out of character.’

Ralph and Hugh shared a complicit look.

‘Oh, Sarah,’ said Ralph. ‘You always see the best in everyone.’

‘Not everyone.’ She looked at Hugh. ‘I don’t always see the best in everyone.’

Hugh attempted a disarming smile. ‘Look, we’re all a bit upset. We’re bound to be. The great thing is Alice is going to be all right. Let’s not lose sight of that.’

‘All right?’ said Sarah. ‘She’s going to be scarred for life.’

‘Sarah.’ Ralph’s tone was sharp. ‘This isn’t helping.’

The door swung open and the three of them looked towards the nurse. She was smiling.

‘If you want to come and see Alice, just for five minutes …’

‘Just me,’ said Sarah. ‘I want to see her. Three will be too much for her.’

Neither Hugh nor Ralph dared to remonstrate.



Alice was a tiny bundle in a bed in the middle of intensive care, a mass of bandages and wires and bruised flesh. There was barely a bit of her Sarah recognised. Even her voice was just a croak.

Sarah didn’t want to say much. She didn’t want drama. She didn’t really do drama. The confrontation in the waiting room was as high as her voice had been raised for years. She was the epitome of calm, brought up to be serene and gracious.

She held Alice’s little paw, the one without the cannula, and stroked it gently.

‘Poor sweetheart,’ she whispered.

‘How bad is it?’ asked Alice. ‘I can’t move anything and my head hurts. I can’t think.’

‘You’ve bashed your poor leg up a bit,’ said Sarah. ‘They’ll need to pin it back together.’

She swallowed. She couldn’t look at Alice’s face. She couldn’t say anything about her face. Not yet.

‘We’ll have to cancel, won’t we? The wedding?’ Alice’s voice was a quaver.

Sarah looked at the floor. Something inside her said yes. That would be the answer to everything. Cancel the wedding. She had a bad feeling about it. About Hugh. But she didn’t want to upset Alice by agreeing, because it would imply that things were terribly serious. Which indeed they may well be, but Alice had been through enough already. She needed soothing.

‘We don’t have to worry about that at the moment. It’s a long way off.’

She suddenly felt drained, and incredibly emotional. She didn’t want to cry in front of Alice.