After adding the flourish of his autograph, he handed the book back to Olive, who grinned as she scanned what he’d written there.
“Thank you very much,” she said and closed the book. “Gillian will get a real thrill out of this. And although I know she already has a copy of this latest book, I’m sure she’ll enjoy having a signed hardback copy, too. Will you also oblige by posing for a photograph with me, Mr Stone? Gillian will be tickled pink to see me in the company of an esteemed young author such as yourself.”
“I’d be glad to.”
She dug a phone out from her handbag and handed it to Ellie to take the photo. While Olive held up the signed copy of the latest Maura Shaw hardback, Travis grinned for the camera. Ellie snapped a succession of photos and handed the phone back to Olive.
“Wonderful, dear!” Olive smiled as she flicked through the images. “These are perfect. Thank you so much, Mr Stone.”
“It’s my pleasure.”
“Now, while you’re finishing your cake and coffee before you leave, I was hoping you could help me with something that’sbeen puzzling me about the first Maura Shaw book, which I only just finished reading the other day,” Olive said.
“Of course.”
“Well—”
Before the older lady could ask her question, Travis’s phone rang. Apologising to Olive, he looked at the screen and saw the call was from his assistant, Ruth.
When he’d arrived at the library earlier, and just before the book talk got underway, he’d seized a quick moment to send Ruth a message, asking her to get in touch and explaining his concerns about all those notifications piling up in his author social media accounts. Desperate to speak to his assistant and get to the bottom of the matter, he excused himself from Olive and Ellie and stepped away to take the call.
“Ruth, thanks for phoning,” Travis said. “Did you get my message earlier?”
“I did, and I’m afraid I’ve got bad news, Travis,” Ruth replied.
Travis heard the shaky tone in his assistant’s voice, as if she were close to tears. “What’s happened? Is everything okay?”
“No, it’s not. I was in a car accident two days ago. I’m still in hospital after surgery.”
Stunned by this news, which was just about the last thing he’d expected Ruth to say, Travis scrambled for a response.
“My God! Are you all right? No, of course you’re not all right, or you wouldn’t still be in hospital. Sorry, that was a stupid thing to ask. Tell me everything.”
“I was hit by a drunk driver,” Ruth said, her voice tiny. “He came off the road and mounted the pavement. It happened so fast, all I heard was a roaring engine and a scream from another pedestrian and then I was on the ground. I don’t remember much after that until I woke up in the back of an ambulance. I had to have surgery to fix a broken arm and now I’ve got pins in my wrist. My ankle’s broken, although thankfully that didn’tneed surgery, but there’s probably a bit of physiotherapy ahead of me once I’m healing. I’m bruised from head to toe, and I hit my face on the pavement when I landed and needed stitches on my forehead. In other words, I’m a complete and total mess.”
“I’m so, so sorry, Ruth. Bloody hell, that’s terrible. I feel awful for you. What can I do to help? Just say the word, and I’ll do whatever I can.”
“That’s kind of you, Travis, but my parents are arranging for me to stay with them once I’m discharged from the hospital, so I can recover at their house. I’ll need help to get around and fixing meals and so on. God, it’s humiliating having to move back in with my parents when I only moved out a year ago, but there we are.”
Ruth was only in her early twenties and Travis understood how much of a huge blow this was to her. Suffering severe injuries in a road traffic accident caused by a drunk driver and being forced to move home to live with your parents would be a huge blow to anyone, but for someone who’d just struck out on their own independently, it was a cruel turn of events to digest.
“You’ll be on the road to recovery in no time, I’m sure of it,” Travis reassured her.
“Thanks, Travis. Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t let you know sooner about all of this, but between surgery and being out for the count on pain killers, I had no choice but to wait until I was up to it before getting in touch with all of my freelance clients. I’m sorry I’ve left you in the lurch these last few days.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Travis said. “None of that matters right now.”
“Given the state I’m in and the fact that one of my wrists is now stuffed with metal pins and both my hands are ripped to shreds, I won’t be able to do any work for at least a few weeks, possibly even longer.”
“Of course you can’t work. You have to concentrate on your recovery.”
“I’m sorry, Travis. I feel bad about letting you down like this.”
“Don’t feel bad. None of this is your fault.”
“I know you’ll have to find another assistant to deal with your author marketing tasks and so on while I’m out of commission, and I know that’s not ideal.”
“That’s the least of your worries. I’ll sort it out. Just rest and recover and let me know when you feel able to get back to work, and we’ll take things from there.”
