Blue Skies Over Wildflower Lock (The Wildflower Lock)

Chapter 81

‘Daisy!’

Her mother raced across the hospital foyer. The minute the two were together, Daisy collapsed into her arms, buried her head in her chest and sobbed. It didn’t matter what they had gone through in the last year or how much healing Pippa and Daisy still had to do. When a disaster struck, there was only one person she wanted by her side.

Daisy had phoned her mother from the ambulance as soon as she knew which hospital they were heading to. Though she was barely coherent as she stuttered out words between her sobs, she must have said Yvonne’s name at least a dozen times, and the name of the hospital. She hadn’t needed to ask her mother to come and meet her, though. It hadn’t been necessary. Pippa had known exactly what Daisy needed.

‘I’m coming now.’

Those were the only words she’d said before the line went dead. Relief had flooded through Daisy. She had no idea how long it would take her mother to get to them, but she was coming. That was what mattered.

Two hours later, when the hospital doors opened and her mother ran across to her, Daisy noticed that she was still dressed in her whites from the kitchen, having clearly raced straight out of work to come to her.

‘My darling girl.’

Her mum’s voice was all it took for Daisy to crumble again. It was like she was a teenager. Or worse still, dealing with that first proper break-up that had made her feel as though her heart would never be whole again. They stayed there, standing in a room full of strangers, until Daisy finally stood upright, and brushed away the tears with the back of her hand.

‘I didn’t know how sick she was, Mum,’ Daisy said, her words still staggered from her shallow breaths. ‘The doctors said it’s cancer. Late stage. And she knew about it. She was on meds. So many of them. I should have never asked her to come. This is all my fault. She was sick, and I asked her to do this.’

‘Tssh,’ her mother said, stepping back and wiping Daisy’s cheeks as if she were a child who had scraped her knee at the park. ‘Yvonne knew exactly what she was doing. She’s a grown woman, and she was aware of any risks she was putting herself under by taking that trip. What have the doctors said now? Is she doing okay?’

‘She’s responsive,’ Daisy said, her words still warbling slightly. ‘But they need to keep her in. At least for the night. I’m such a fool. I should have known. Johnny knew. That was why he wouldn’t stop whining. He didn’t want to go out at all. He knew something was wrong.’

‘Johnny?’ Her mother frowned.

Daisy let out a long sigh. There was so much she had to tell her mum. So much she needed to say, but she didn’t want to do it under the sterile white lights of a hospital foyer.

‘Do you think you could give me a lift back to the September Rose?’ she asked, the pressure of the day falling on her shoulders like a physical weight. ‘I’ll explain everything then.’