Chapter 14
14
Aware that Ben was in grave danger, Finn shoved back the door, which Ben hadn’t re-bolted, and scooped the boy up in his arms. Fang snarled at him, but he swung away from her, kicking the door back in her face as she launched herself through the air. With Ben still in his arms, he slammed the bolt back into place. He wasn’t sure whether it was his own frantic heartbeat he could hear or Ben’s as, on the other side of the mesh, the little dog bounced up and down, barking furiously.
‘Finn, what’s going on?’ He heard Jade’s voice at the end of the run. Ben was big for his age and too heavy to hold for long. Finn put him gently on the floor, feeling the adrenaline pumping round his body, but for a few moments he was too breathless to speak.
‘I said, what’s going on?’ Jade shouted, and Finn could hear the panic in her voice as she hurried towards them.
Ben had begun to cry. ‘I wasn’t doing nothing. I wasn’t hurting her.’
‘It’s all right.’ Finn knelt on the concrete floor beside him, feeling the dampness creep through the knees of his jeans. ‘It’s OK. You’re not in trouble.’
‘Oh, yes, he is,’ Jade contradicted, reaching them and crouching down beside the boy. ‘Ben, you’re a naughty, naughty boy. What have I said about coming in here?’
‘Didn’t do nothing,’ Ben yelled, and behind them Fang’s barks grew ever more frantic.
Finn stood up, realising Jade was close to tears too. ‘It’s OK. He’s fine. No harm done.’
She didn’t look at him, just hugged the sobbing child, and he suppressed the urge to put his arms around both of them and hold them tightly. He was still a stranger, and he knew she hated appearing vulnerable in front of anyone. For reasons he hadn’t yet fathomed, she’d spent a lifetime building walls. He knew because he’d done exactly the same thing himself.
He was tempted to tell her it was Aiden, not her, who’d left the kennel door unlocked, but, satisfying as it would have been, it wouldn’t have helped, so he kept quiet and escaped from the all-pervading smell of dogs out into the bitter winter air.
Jade was only vaguely aware that Finn had gone. She hugged Ben to her. ‘It’s all right,’ she soothed. ‘It’s all right. I’m sorry I shouted at you. I was scared, love. Scared you were going to get hurt. I’m sorry.’
She held him in her arms until gradually his crying stopped. She’d never shouted at him before and she felt terrible. Especially as she knew she’d only shouted because she felt guilty. She’d promised Sarah she’d look after him and she’d let him walk straight into danger. She should have remembered he wanted her to walk a dog. She should have made it more difficult for him to get into this block. She shouldn’t have kept Fang in the first place. God knows what the little dog would have done if Finn hadn’t pulled Ben out when he did.
‘I only wanted to give her a sausage,’ Ben mumbled, and Jade saw he was still clutching something.
‘But you know what I told you about Fang, don’t you, darling?’ She tipped his face so that he was looking up at her with his huge, tear-washed eyes.
‘You said some horrible people hurt her and now she doesn’t like people any more.’
That was exactly what she’d told him, she remembered, blinking a few times.
‘But I wasn’t going to hurt her. I just wanted to show her that not all people are horrible.’
Jade swallowed. Telling him the truth, or at least a watered-down version of it, had seemed a good idea. But how the heck did she explain that Fang couldn’t tell the difference between horrible and nice? That Fang would have bitten him anyway. She shuddered and glanced into the kennel. The dog was quiet enough now. But Ben had been in here, she’d seen Finn grab him and then kick the door back in Fang’s face. What if he hadn’t reacted so quickly? Things might have turned out so differently.
‘Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go outside now.’
‘What about Fang’s sausage?’ Ben muttered, uncurling his fingers and showing her the squashed brown lump.
‘We’ll leave it here for her to have later. Come on now.’ She held his hand and they went outside again into the clear, sharp air.
Finn kept out of Jade’s way for the rest of the day. Or maybe she was keeping out of his, he wasn’t sure. When he finally went into the cottage, there was no sign of her and he went straight to his room, exhausted. Starting work at dawn and being out in the fresh air was very different from doing nine to five in a warm building.
He flopped on to the bed and promptly fell asleep. When he woke up, the room was dark and he felt stiff and cold. For a moment, he couldn’t think where he was. He rolled over, used to a double bed, and found himself on the floor. Cursing, he got up and switched on the light and reality came flooding back. He felt as though he’d been asleep for hours, but it wasn’t that late. Only just gone eight-thirty. Blinking, he stood still for a couple of moments to clear his head.
‘Are you all right up there, Finn?’ Jade’s voice came from the bottom of the staircase.
‘I’m fine,’ he called, going out on to the landing so he could see her. ‘Is it OK if I have a bath?’
‘Help yourself. Water’s hot.’
As he came down from his attic room with a towel and a change of clothes, Jade said, ‘Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to see much of you.’
‘It’s all right. I know you’re busy.’
When he got downstairs, feeling slightly more human after his bath, she was sitting at the table in the back room, surrounded by dozens of pieces of paper.
‘Still at it?’
‘Yes. Ben’s only just gone to bed so I couldn’t do it earlier. There’s a lasagne in the oven if you want some.’ She paused. ‘I had no idea there’d be so much paperwork when I started this place. I’m just catching up with some invoices. Most of my suppliers are great; they know I’m running a charity. Aiden’s wonderful; he lets me have all the drugs at cost and doesn’t charge too much for his labour, either.’
Finn was pretty sure the vet would have liked to negotiate payment in kind if he’d thought he could get away with it, but he said nothing.
‘The pet food supplier’s the worst,’ Jade went on. ‘If I’m a day or two over, Reg Arnold sends me these reminders with “Overdue” stamped all over them in red. Bloody cheek. He’s a horrible little man.’
‘Can’t you use someone else?’
‘I could, but he’s closest and he’s cheap. Besides, I might find I’ve jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. I’m a bit of a believer in better the devil you know.’
She paused and glanced up at him, her dark eyes troubled, and he knew she was wittering on to avoid the subject that was uppermost in her mind. ‘Thanks for what you did earlier, Finn. I feel terrible about that. I’d never have forgiven myself if anything had happened to Ben.’
‘Nothing did,’ he pointed out gently.
‘Yes, that’s what Sarah said when I told her.’ She pressed her fingers to her forehead and he wondered if the pain was physical or emotional – probably a bit of both. ‘But that’s thanks to you, not me. If you hadn’t been there… oh, God. I’m tempted to keep him locked in his bedroom until she comes back. At least he’d be safe.’
‘When is she back?’ Finn sat on the sofa opposite her.
‘The end of this week. They extended it because Callum’s dad took a turn for the worse. But they’re definitely back Saturday.’
‘I’ll get a proper lock system sorted out for the quarantine kennels.’ It was the only thing he could think of to say that would make her feel better without dumping on Aiden. ‘I’ll get on to it first thing tomorrow.’
‘That would be great. Thanks.’ She went back to her paperwork and he decided it would be best if he left her to it. He might not be comfortable about snitching on Aiden, but he would definitely say something to the vet next time he saw him.