An owl hooted from the top of one of the trees in the garden, followed by a flap and whoosh of wings as the bird swooped the length of the lawn, before being swallowed up by the velvety blackness of the night sky.
‘Are you really going to leave Suffolk and move here?’ asked Simon, when seconds had passed.
‘It’s what Danny’s always wanted to do,’ Frankie said softly.
‘But what about you? Is it your dream, or just Danny’s?’
‘I’m happy if Danny’s happy. Wouldn’t you do the same for Sorrel?’
‘Good question.’ He rubbed his face with one of his hands. ‘It would depend on what it was she wanted to do.’
It was on the tip of Frankie’s tongue to ask him if he had any idea what dreams and wishes Sorrel held, but she kept the question to herself.
‘Look,’ said Simon, staring into the darkness, ‘there’s a light. It’s a boat. Come on, let’s go and give those damned kids merry hell!’
Chapter Forty
‘Of course we must take her to hospital!’
‘But, Dad,’ wailed Rachel, ‘I don’t want to go. I hate hospitals.’
‘Rachel, just once in your life, will you do the sensible thing and do as we say? We’re taking you to the hospital and that’s an end to it.’
‘Please don’t shout,’ said Sorrel, ‘it’s not helping; can’t you see the poor girl’s in shock?’
Simon blinked and told himself to count to five. He made it to three. Shock was whathewas in and venting his feelings by raising his voice was all that was preventing him from killing Nikolai and Irina. He’d known they were bad news from the moment he set eyes on him. Valentina too. Now perhaps Alastair would wake up and realise what he’d got himself into. They were not their type of people. They were reckless. They were divisive. They were bloody great cuckoos in the nest!
When he and Frankie had gone to help Danny moor up and find out what had been going on, he’d never known an emotion so strong as the one he’d experienced in that gut-punch of a blow when he’d discovered what had happened. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, that Rachel had come so close to death. Filled with a fiercely protective love for her, he’d carried his daughter up to the house. With Sorrel’s help, he’d laid her on the sofa in the sitting room, and ordered the others to fetch blankets and hot drinks, and to be damned quick about it. By then, roused by the commotion, Alastair and Valentina had appeared and not trusting himself to look at Alastair, Simon had left it to Jenna, Blake and Danny to explain. Valentina had immediately suggested she take Nikolai and Irina upstairs for a hot shower and dry clothes. ‘Yes, get them out of my sight,’ Simon had muttered.
He bent down beside Sorrel who was cradling their daughter in her arms as she cried, her sobs loud and choking. It was a heartbreaking sound and Simon couldn’t bear to listen to it.
‘I’m sorry, love,’ he said, putting a hand to Rachel’s cheek, a gesture he hadn’t done since she was a little girl, ‘but Blake seems to know what he’s talking about. He says that even though you might feel okay, it would still be better to have a doctor check you out, just in case there are any repercussions. Would you do that for me, for your old dad, to put his mind at rest?’
Her shoulders heaving, her lower lip trembling, Rachel sniffed. ‘If I go, Dad, I don’t want to stay there. I want to come back here as soon as the doctor says there’s nothing wrong with me.’ Her eyes were huge and round, like those of a frightened child –hischild,hisvery precious daughter. In a flash he recalled her as a toddler screaming as a large dog barrelled towards her and how, without a thought for his own safety, he’d put himself between her and the snarling beast. He had roared at it so convincingly, the dog had slunk away into the bushes of the park where he’d taken Rachel to play. A parent’s need to protect their child knew no bounds.
Simon nodded. ‘That’s my girl. We’ll have you tucked up in bed in no time. I promise.’
And I promise I’ll have Nikolai and Irina for this, thought Simon, a lump of bitterness burning the back of his throat and threatening to erupt like steaming hot lava.
*
With Simon and Sorrel now taking Rachel to the hospital, Jenna was fresh out of the shower and dressed in warm dry clothes. She was outside on the terrace with Blake, each of them nursing a mug of hot tea in their hands. Mum and Dad were in the kitchen with Alastair; they were all reluctant to go to bed – or back to bed for some of them – too agitated to sleep. Valentina and her stepchildren had made themselves invisible, which was probably the right thing for them to do.
‘I’m assuming you did theCPRcourse at work,’ Jenna said to Blake. ‘I’ve yet to do mine.’
‘I’d already done one a while ago, but I did the Heart-to-Heart course as a refresher.’
‘Well, it was obvious you knew what you were doing.’
‘Just as you did when you found Rachel in the water.’
Jenna shook her head. ‘That was different, I just swam, there was no real skill involved. I couldn’t have done what you did.’
He took a long sip of his tea. ‘I guarantee you will as a consequence of tonight.’
There was something about the way he spoke that made her give him a sideways glance.
‘A very good friend of mine drowned in similar circumstances,’ he said, in answer to her unasked question.
