“Jonah. I know, I know…Josef, Jonah, Joe. We’re an original bunch.”
I tried for a smile. Failed.
“Look,” Emma said quietly, “I can’t expect him not to drink at all, but he’s promised he’ll stay sensible till Joe gets back.”
I shook my head. “Emma, Joe’s not coming home for a few days, and even when he does, he won’t be fit to work for at least a few weeks. If your dad can’t keep it together for longer than one night, you’re going to have to think of something else.”
Easy for you to say.The accusation was clear in Emma’s tired face, but she didn’t say it. “Let’s get through tonight,” she said. “Dad won’t come in the house, and George is sleeping at the bungalow to keep an eye on things and help me. If Toby pulls some extra hours, the girls too, maybe it will be enough.”
I hoped so, for their sake, because Whisper Farm was the end of the road for most of the horses here. If Emma couldn’t find a way to care for them while Joe recovered, some of them would have to be destroyed.
With a heavy heart, I made Emma promise that she’d go to bed when George got up and then retreated into the house to try and claim some sleep of my own. But Joe’s couch felt like a bed of nails without him, and I managed nothing more than a fitful doze.
It was still dark when I got up and peeped out the window, smiling in spite of myself as Emma kept her promise and swapped places with George.
The smile faded when Jonah appeared in the yard a few minutes later, and I couldn’t make sense of how the sight of him made me feel. He was clearly nothing like the only father I’d ever known, but he’d hurt his family multiple times just the same. Did that make him as bad as mine? Better? Worse?
I was still puzzling it over sometime later when the landline in the living room rang. My hand hovered over the receiver. What if it was a horse rescue? The farm had no capacity to take any more horses—and no Joe to coordinate a rescue—but was it my place to refuse?
It wasn’t, but I picked up the phone anyway. Whoever it was deserved a straight answer. “Hello? Whisper Farm.”
“Good morning. Could I speak with Harry, please?”
I frowned. The chipper female voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. “Erm... this is Harry.”
“Hello, Harry. Sorry to disturb you so early. I’m Dawn, one of the AAU nurses at Truro hospital. I’ve been looking after Joe this morning.”
My hand gripped the phone hard enough for it to creak. “Is he okay?”
“He’s a little agitated,” the nurse said. “I think it might be helpful if someone could come to the hospital and sit with him. Are you able to do that?”
“Of course.” I started for the door before I remembered that the landline phone was connected to the wall. “I’ll be there in half an hour. Tell him I’m coming.”
I dropped the phone and blurred around the room collecting the T-shirt, socks, and shoes that I’d discarded earlier in an effort to convince my brain that it was time for sleep. Outside in the yard, I got all the way to the gate before I remembered that my car was still in the garage.
Fuck!I dashed back to the house and searched the kitchen for the keys to Joe’s van, the horsebox, even the battered motorbike that George tinkered with from time to time—anything with wheels. Anxiety gripped me so entirely that I didn’t notice Jonah watching me until I barrelled right into him. “You’re not supposed to be in the house.”
It came out fiercer than I’d intended. Jonah stepped back, his gaze mild. “I ain’t coming in. Just poked my head around the door to see what’s got you all fired up. Something wrong?”
“I’m looking for the keys to Joe’s van. The hospital called and asked me to go back.”
Nothing changed in Jonah’s expression—not even a flicker of concern as he inclined his head to the dresser by the door. I followed his direction to a bowl, with half a dozen sets of keys in, and recognised Joe’s van keys immediately.
I grabbed them. “Thanks.”
“No worries. You going to be okay driving on these wet roads?”
“I’ll be fine. What are you going to do?”
“Get back to work, I suppose, lad.”
Jonah took another step back, allowing me to barge around him and shut the front door behind me, locking it. I jogged across the yard, feeling Jonah’s eyes tracking me. I was in the van, the keys jammed in the ignition, when he called out.
I wound the window down. “What?”
“Tell the boy the horse is fine.”
“Which horse?”
