“Thank you,” he said with deep relief.
A hand squeezed around her heart. Poor old man. An image of his vivid blue eyes when she first met him:Come closer, I don’t bite. And last night those same eyes clouded with pain he could no longer hide, not even behind a bad temper.
Millie turned to her, eyes dancing. “Our wonderful doctor? So happy…” Then as she took in Laura’s expression, her smile faded. “What’s the matter?”
Laura shook her head. She would have to find a way to bring up the subject; perhaps her workroom would be more private. “Shall we try on the dress?”
But Millie didn’t move. “What’s wrong? I can tell something is.”
In the end the dress remained in the studio; Millie didn’t even look at it. They stepped outside, into the spring sunshine, and Laura started slowly. The temper tantrums, the worry she’d seen on Nurse Ann and Liam, Adam’s troubled expression.
Millie listened without interruption, but as Laura got to what she’d witnessed last night, Millie reached into her pocket pulling out her own phone.
“And what does Adam think?” she asked.
Laura paused trying to walk a fine line between lying and breaking her promise to Adam. In the end she went for, “He can’t break a patient’s confidentiality.”
“Was that him just now?” She indicated Laura’s phone. “Did he tell you his diagnosis?”
“No, he…I don’t think he can talk about it.”
“Men!” Millie rolled her eyes. “Thank you for telling me.”
Her thumb was busily texting as she took her bicycle out of the rack and climbed on. “I’ll see you at home.” And off she sped away.
Laura hoped by the time she got home Millie would have made a difference and Adam would be happier.
But by the time Laura made it home that evening, Millie was gone.
And so too was Adam.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lord Mand Adam had gone by air ambulance to a hospital in Guernsey; Millie and George followed by ferry.
The rest of the house, even Emmett the photographer, gathered in the kitchen for the big dinner Cook had prepared. Roast goose with apples and prunes took pride of place on the table surrounded by blackcurrant sauce, rosemary potatoes and endless delicious vegetables.
No one seemed to have an appetite, though. Mrs B filled her plate but didn’t touch any of it; her eyes kept going to the large clock on the wall. Nurse Ann nibbled on some potatoes, and Pierre just toyed with her food without eating it. Liam, always the first to be kind and friendly, complimented Cook on the meal but chewed his food as if it was made of wood.
Stilted conversation was punctuated by long pauses and phones being checked for any messages, any news.
Everyone may have known Lord M was unwell, but seeing him taken by stretcher into an air ambulance made it seem much more serious. So they sat in near silence and spoke in muted voices.
Until Nicole marched into the kitchen, heels clicking on the flagstone floor. everyone looked up hoping for news.
“Was that your doing?” She glared at Laura.
“Excuse me?”
“What did you tell Millie? About his lordship?” her entire body quivered with fury. “He said he was fine. But you couldn’t leave it alone could you? Now you’ve ruined everything two weeks before the wedding, and we still have a million things to complete!”
Emmett, her fiancé pushed back his chair from the dinner table and went to calm her down. She shook his arm away. “You really are the most annoying interfering stupid girl.”
Pierre got up too. “I think it was the doctor—”
“Shut up, who asked you?” Nicole barely spared a glance at the younger woman.
The attack had stunned Laura for a moment but now, with time to collect her thoughts, she squared her shoulders.
