‘Let’s takeSwallowtail,’ suggested Danny. ‘It might have a calming effect on us all.’
They were cruising towards Horning when they spotted Callum coming out from the boatyard. They each slowed their boats, easing back the throttle and slipping into neutral.
‘I know I only spoke to her a short while ago,’ said Callum, ‘but I have a spare hour, so thought I’d go and see Rachel. Where are you off to?’
‘The butcher’s,’ said Alastair. ‘Danny’s idea is to have a barbecue for a late lunch, can you join us?’
‘I’m afraid not, I have to go to Norwich. I wondered if maybe Jenna might like to come with me for a change of scene. That’s if she doesn’t mind leaving Rachel.’
‘You can but ask,’ said Danny.
They’d only gone a short distance along the river when they saw Blake and his mother coming towards them. Once again they slowed their speed and idled the engine.
‘How’s Rachel?’ asked Laura. ‘Blake heard from Jenna that she was back from the hospital.’
‘She’s in bed resting,’ replied Simon. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at Blake. ‘Thank you for what you did. You saved our daughter’s life and my wife and I will always be grateful to you for that.’
Blake gave an embarrassed shrug of his shoulders, but his mother smiled, and not without justifiable pride, in Danny’s opinion. ‘I was wondering,’ she said, her gaze now on Alastair, ‘and when Rachel is feeling up to it, if you’d all like to come over to the Mill for a drink some time.’
‘We’d be happy to,’ replied Alastair, ‘if our party isn’t too much for you.’ He looked at Simon, as if seeking his approval.
Simon clamped his jaw shut and studiously avoided his gaze, at the same time thrusting his hands deeper still into his pockets; any deeper and he’d be touching his kneecaps.
When they were once more on their way, Danny couldn’t help but think that if it had been a woman like Laura Manning who had come into Alastair’s life, things would be very different.
Chapter Forty-Six
Rachel lay in bed trying to sleep. Her body was exhausted and craved the kind of oblivion only the deepest of sleeps would bring. But her mind just wouldn’t untangle itself; it was like a jumble of wire coat-hangers that refused to come apart and just kept on clanging noisily inside her head.
In an attempt to stop her parents worrying, she had made light of the pain she was in; but lying here alone, all she could think of was how awful she felt. Her lungs and throat felt as if they had been rubbed raw with sandpaper and every time she coughed, it was as if a knife was being thrust between her ribs. She had been told at the hospital that ribs were often cracked when CPR was carried out.
Yet perhaps what caused her the most pain was the knowledge of what she had put her parents through, and Jenna too. And all because she had been so intent on flirting with Nikolai; of trying to impress him. Was it to be her role in life, always to be the pathetic airhead of the group? Why couldn’t she be more like Jenna, or her brother?
She had a sense of this being the turning point in her life, when finally she realised it was time to grow up: no more playing the giddy goat, as her father used to describe her.
There was a soft knock at the door and hoping it might be Jenna defying her parents’ instructions that she should be left to rest, she said, ‘Come in, I’m not asleep.’
But it wasn’t Jenna; it was Callum.
‘Tell me to go away if you’d rather,’ he said, hovering in the doorway.
Only too happy to see him, Rachel eased herself into a sitting position. ‘No, no, come in, please. And then cheer me up.’
‘Not before I tell you what a bloody idiot you’ve been.’ He shook his head. ‘I know you never like to do things by halves, Rachel, but this was definitely a step too far. And worse still, you endangered Jenna’s life into the bargain. What if she’d drowned?’
It was a refreshing change for somebody to be brutally honest with her, to treat her normally and without kid gloves. ‘There’s nothing you can say that will make me feel any stupider, or more guilty than I already feel,’ she said.
He sat on the edge of her bed and regarded her severely.
‘Well, that’s a move in the right direction,’ he said, ‘I’m pleased to hear it. So stern words over, I gather it wasn’t entirely your fault, that you were egged on by Nikolai and Irina.’
‘I’m not going to use them as an excuse, Cal. Drunk or not, it was absolutely my fault. Poor Jenna, she tried to stop me, but I wouldn’t listen. I was actually quite nasty to her.’
‘She’s forgiven you, I’m sure.’
‘But do I deserve her forgiveness? I mean, like you just said, I put her life at risk too. What if we’d both drowned?’ Tears filled her eyes. ‘I’m such a failure, Cal; I get everything wrong. Why can’t I be more like you?’
He passed her a tissue from the box on the bedside table. ‘One massive error of judgement does not constitute you being written off as a failure. And frankly,’ he added with a grin, ‘you could never hope to attain my level of perfection, not in a million years.’
