Annelise once said the pressure Hope put on herself was merciless. Anybody could see that she lived a tightrope existence and that those around her had to dance to her tune. Stanley wondered how Edmund put up with it. He must love her an awful lot was the only conclusion he could reach.
‘Over there, Stanley!’ Romily suddenly shouted, making him start. He looked to where she was directing the beam of light from the torch and then they hurried to where Tucker was peering into the ditch at the side of the road. His ears were pinned back and his tail low and between his legs. He was giving off alternate growls and whimpers. Pushing the dog aside, Stanley saw what Tucker had found.
With Romily’s help, they lifted Hope out of the ditch and on to the road. It wasn’t easy; her body was a deadweight, wet and slippery, mostly from the rain, but there was blood too. He fumbled to feel for a pulse at her neck. He couldn’t find one. Next he tried her wrists, first one, then the other. Still nothing.
He shook his head at Romily.
Romily stared back at him, her eyes wide with disbelief. ‘She can’t be,’ she said, wiping the rain from her face. ‘Let me try.’
He watched Romily do the same as he had just done. An eternity seemed to pass as he silently watched, numb with shock. Only minutes ago he had been thinking less than kindly about Hope, now she was dead. With Tucker at his side, shivering with the rain and cold, he knelt on the ground willing Romily to do the impossible, to bring Hope back to life.
‘I’ve found a pulse!’ she blurted out, her fingers pressed against Hope’s neck. ‘It’s faint, but it’s there. Just. Can you run and fetch help? I’ll stay here and try to get some warmth back into her. She’s frozen.’
Stanley shook his head. ‘Better still, why don’t I carry her back to Island House?’
Romily looked doubtful. ‘Do you think you can?’
He nodded. ‘If you think it’s safe to move her, that is?’
‘We’ve already moved her once, so let’s risk it again,’ said Romily.
Taking off his coat, Stanley wrapped it around Hope and had just lifted her when, in the light cast from the torch, he noticed something white drop to the ground and land in a puddle at his feet. It looked like a letter.
Romily noticed it too and bent to pick it up before stuffing it into the pocket of her raincoat.
ChapterForty-Three
Chelstead Cottage Hospital, Chelstead
November 1962
Romily
‘How is she, Edmund?’ asked Romily. She and Stanley had been waiting anxiously for more than an hour at the small cottage hospital.
They had been making slow progress returning to Island House with Stanley carrying Hope when they’d been caught in the headlamps of a car coming towards them in the rain. Flagging it down for help, relief had flooded through Romily when she’d recognised it as Edmund’s Jaguar.
‘Not good,’ he murmured in answer to her question. ‘She has a serious head injury and is still unconscious. On top of that, she has three cracked ribs, a broken wrist and a whole range of cuts and bruises.’
‘Oh, Edmund,’ murmured Romily. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘The car that hit her,’ he went on, ‘and I can’t think of anything else that would have produced the level of injury she’s suffered, must have been going at a hell of a speed.’
‘The driver had to have known he’d hit something or someone,’ said Stanley.
‘Whoever the bastard is,’ Edmund said furiously, ‘he left Hope to die.’ He ran a hand through his hair, which was already sticking up as though he’d been repeatedly tugging at it. ‘What sort of person would do that?’ he demanded, his voice breaking. Then, and as if all the energy had now drained out of him, he took a step back and slumped against the wall of the corridor in which they were standing. Lowering his head, he rubbed his eyes. ‘I just can’t believe this is happening,’ he groaned. ‘And the worst of it is, that bloody row we had. What if those are the last words we—’
‘Don’t say it, Edmund,’ Romily said firmly. ‘Don’t even think it. You have to believe Hope is going to pull through.’
‘I wish I had your confidence.’
In the silence that followed, Stanley said, ‘I did as you asked and telephoned Annelise. I didn’t actually speak to her, but left a message with one of the college porters. I told him it was urgent and that Annelise should ring the hospital as soon as she could.’
Edmund straightened up and stood away from the wall. ‘Thank you. And thank you both for finding my wife. Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to be with her.’
‘Is there anything we can fetch for you, or Hope?’ asked Romily.
He shook his head. ‘You’ve done all that you can. You should both go home and get out of those wet clothes.’
