Blue Skies Over Wildflower Lock (The Wildflower Lock)

Chapter 80

Daisy didn’t know how long it took the ambulance to arrive. It felt like an hour, and maybe it was. All she knew was that with every passing second, she prayed they weren’t too late. When she finally heard a knock on the door and a voice calling out her name, she stood up and looked down at Johnny.

‘Stay with her, okay?’ she said to the dog, who had been holding a vigil by her side. ‘I’ll just be a minute. The people have come to help Yvonne, all right?’

Johnny lifted his head for a moment before dropping it back down by Yvonne’s arm, although when Daisy returned to the cabin with the paramedics following her, Johnny was on his feet. His eyes were wide and locked on the strangers, and for a split second, Daisy feared he might start snarling at them.

‘It’s okay, Johnny,’ Daisy said, crouching down as she moved towards the dog. ‘They’re here to help, okay? They won’t hurt her. These people are here to help.’

The dog’s head tilted slightly like he was taking in what she had just said, and while Daisy knew he was still wary about the strangers in his home, she was also fairly certain he wasn’t a risk to them.

‘He’s fine, he’ll be fine,’ she assured them, as they looked apprehensively at the border collie. ‘He’s the one that found her, that’s all. I promise he’ll be fine. He just doesn’t want to leave her.’

To make the paramedics feel more comfortable, Daisy shifted over to the other side of the cabin to a small tub chair in the corner, taking Johnny with her. When she sat down, she promptly lifted him onto her lap. Until that moment, she’d have thought sitting with a dog that size on her would have been utterly ridiculous and possibly quite painful, but it turned out it was exactly what she needed.

Holding Johnny tightly against her, Daisy watched on helplessly as the paramedics lifted Yvonne onto a stretcher, then manoeuvred her out of the cabin. It wasn’t easy, given how narrow the doors were, but, Daisy considered, it would have been even worse on the Ariadne. That boat was even narrower than hers.

When they were out of the cabin, she lowered Johnny onto the ground.

‘It’s okay, I’m just going to go with them, and make sure she’s all right. You’ll be okay here, won’t you? You can keep the boat safe for me.’

Outside, a crowd had gathered on the towpath, watching on with morbid interest as the paramedics carried Yvonne.

‘Can I come in the ambulance?’ Daisy said as they opened the doors and placed Yvonne inside. ‘Can I come with you? I don’t have a car here. I’m not sure how I’ll get to the hospital otherwise.’

The younger of the paramedics nodded.

‘No worries. Is there someone you need to call, though? Someone who can meet you at the hospital, maybe. Someone for you? I know events like this are quite a shock.’

Daisy nodded. Her body felt numb. Cold and shivery despite the warmth of the summer day. She was utterly drained, in a place she didn’t know, after a week of highs and lows that had taken every bit of her mental and physical strength to get through. And the only person who had been there with her was being carted off in an ambulance. She knew from their conversations that Yvonne’s family was limited, but Daisy would try her hardest to get hold of them. Still, there was someone she needed at that moment, like the paramedic said – someone to look after her. And so she picked up her phone and called.