Chapter 5
GOLDENWYCH, PRESENT DAY
‘Caitlin, wake up.’ Lee’s voice was urgent.
She could feel him crouched beside her, but her body was heavy, she was unable to move, everything around her felt uncertain as though the edges were blurred.
His fingers felt for her pulse.
‘What’s wrong with her?’ said Gillian, her voice sounded distant, far away, but underneath the harshness, Caitlin detected hints of concern.
‘Is she breathing? Check her bag for her inhalers.’ Rachel’s voice reached her through the lifting fog.
There was a rustle as her sister pulled the handbag from beside Caitlin’s chair and rummaged through it, ignoring any thoughts of privacy in the way only a sibling would.
‘Her pulse is steady,’ said Lee.
‘I’m fine,’ Caitlin murmured, but her voice was weak and it was a struggle to open her eyes.
‘Should we call a doctor?’ said Pete, Rachel’s husband.
‘I am a doctor,’ replied Lee. He squeezed her hand and she felt the heaviness lift, opening her eyes to see her sisters staring at her.
‘What happened?’ snapped Gillian. Her face was ashen, her eyes angry and fearful.
‘I don’t know,’ Caitlin replied.
‘Was it your asthma?’ said Lee, taking an inhaler from Rachel and passing it to Caitlin.
‘No,’ she said, trying to remember. ‘I was talking to Dad, then the woman came in, the one in fancy dress, there was the forest and the castle…’
Even to her own ears, she sounded demented and, with an effort, forced herself to breathe deeply, to focus.
‘I must have fallen asleep,’ she said, looking up at the ring of faces.
For an instant, the distress on the faces of her two elder sisters felt like a comforting balm, then their masks of dislike slipped back into place.
‘Trust you to make it about yourself, Moon,’ snapped Rachel, shoving Caitlin’s handbag, which she had been hugging like a lifebelt, back into Caitlin’s arms.
‘About—?’ Caitlin swallowed the end of the sentence, clenching her fists.
She glanced at Lee, who raised his eyebrows as though telling her not to bother responding to such a ridiculous statement.
She took a long calming breath. ‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured, but Dr George Glossop, Lee’s father, stepped forward and hugged her.
‘No apology needed,’ he said, forcing an end to the conversation before it could escalate into an argument. ‘We’re relieved you’re all right. We shouldn’t have left you alone, we should have gone to feed the meters in the car park in shifts, not at the same time.’
‘Except we needed a break from this oppressive room,’ Caitlin heard Rachel mutter and she understood her sister’s comment. The room was depressing and claustrophobic.
* * *
When the sisters had arrived at the hospital four hours earlier, George had told them in no uncertain terms their father’s health was the most pressing concern.
‘He needs peace and quiet,’ George had stated. ‘Whatever feud is going on between the three of you is to be left at the hospital door. As godfather to all of you, I insist you behave like the sensible, caring, loving women I know you are inside.’
Gillian, Rachel and Caitlin had glared at each other but were chagrined into silence.
Gillian was with her husband, Alan Albany, and a few moments later, Pete Cornish, Rachel’s husband had arrived grumbling about the cost of parking.
Lee had driven Caitlin to the hospital and on the way she had rung Stan, but his phone had gone straight to voicemail and she had heard nothing since.
‘How serious is Dad’s condition?’ Caitlin had asked as they had hurried along the corridor, its pale walls lit by harsh white lights, to her father’s room.
‘Luckily, we were together checking the final details for the announcement of the play before we set out for the theatre,’ George had said.
‘It’s very hard seeing your friend collapse, but that’s why a doctor’s training is rigorous, all other emotions leave you and you focus on the event.
As I was with him, his medical care began instantly and it’s helped a great deal.
The consultant believes your dad has had a transient ischaemic attack, or TIA.
It’s also known as a mini stroke and is caused by a temporary disruption in the blood supply to part of the brain. ’
‘Will he survive?’ Gillian had asked.
‘Yes, these are usually quite minor, although they’re often a warning, an indication that a more serious health issue, such as a full-blown stroke, might be imminent if the situation isn’t monitored.
He’s been talking lucidly and the consultant is confident he’ll make a full recovery,’ George had said.
‘However, he was very tired and fell asleep a few minutes ago, so let’s try not to disturb him. ’
When they had entered her father’s private room, tears had welled in Caitlin’s eyes.
He had looked so small and fragile in the hospital bed Caitlin could hardly believe this was her dynamic father.
She always thought of him as larger than life.
He was the owner of a huge factory complex, inherited from his father and grandfather, and he relished the day-to-day challenges of running his business empire.
He was never still, always exclaiming with joy and delight over his newest favourite hobby, of which there were many, but his true passion was amateur dramatics.
It was common to find him reciting lines or rehearsing sword fights in his office in the middle of the day or scribbling possible dialogue during meetings.
On one memorable occasion, he had asked his board members to read a new scene he had written for the evening’s rehearsal as he wanted to judge whether it worked or not.
To see him brought to this frail, white-faced old man hooked up to banks of machines was heartbreaking.
* * *
‘It’s late,’ George continued, bringing Caitlin back to the present. ‘And we shouldn’t have left you alone—’
‘Don’t even suggest I should go home,’ Caitlin interrupted before he could say any more.
‘Nor me,’ said Rachel and Gillian together.
There was a tense silence, broken by the arrival of a nurse, who smiled at them vaguely before checking Larry’s monitors and doing his observations.
‘How is he?’ asked George.
‘He’s fine,’ said the nurse, replacing his chart on the bedside table. ‘Fast asleep, perhaps you should all go home and do the same – have a good night’s rest. There’s nothing you can do here and you’re more likely to disturb him. We’ll call you if anything changes.’
The nurse left but no one moved.
‘What do you think, Lee?’ asked George as the silence grew.
Lee walked to the end of the bed and picked up the blue folder containing the notes.
He flicked through them, pausing to check a few details, then passed them to his father.
George read the sections Lee pointed to, then returned the file to his son.
The two men were GPs in the village, but this was a relatively new position for Lee.
He had taken over the role six months earlier after years of working his way up to the level of consultant in neurology in a busy London hospital.
‘He’s not my patient, of course, so I can’t comment officially but from his notes, he appears stable,’ said Lee, then he turned to Caitlin and her sisters.
‘I think the nurse is right. You’ll be more use to your dad alert and rested tomorrow when he wakes up, rather than staying here all night and exhausting yourselves out of a sense of duty. ’
He slotted the folder back into its holder and smiled at them all.
‘His doctor has said it was a mild TIA, and with rest and recuperation, he should make a full recovery,’ Lee said, trying to offer some reassurance. ‘It’s nearly midnight, perhaps we should follow the nurse’s advice and allow the staff to do their jobs.’
‘Wise words, sir,’ said Alan, scooping his jacket from the chair and draping it over his arm. ‘Come on, Gilly-Bean, let’s head off. We’ll need to pop into the factory first thing tomorrow to give everyone an update, then we can come back and assess the situation.’
‘But—’ Gillian began, then was silenced by an unexpected and enormous yawn. Alan raised his eyebrows at her affectionally and stretched out his hand to take hers.
‘See you all on the morrow, blessèd family,’ he said, blew a kiss to Caitlin and ushered his wife towards the door.
Gillian was her father’s second-in-command at the family business, King’s Enterprises, while Alan bore the title Managing Director.
However, the trio worked together in a seamless dance to ensure the smooth running of the many subsidiaries which made up the company.
The largest was the ball bearing factory, followed by the haulage section, but the divisions were many and varied, with Larry often investing in small companies and giving them office, warehouse or other business space.
‘We’re a family business,’ he liked to say, ‘and we help many other families along the way.’
‘I’ll need to inform the board members…’ Caitlin heard Alan say as they left the room.
‘Why does he have to speak like a Shakespearean character all the time?’ grumbled Pete. ‘The way he talks, you’d think he was an eighty-year-old retired colonel, but he’s only seven years older than me.’
‘On his birth certificate,’ sneered Rachel, ‘but in his mind he’s about 200.’
They shared a spiteful laugh as Rachel gathered her Mulberry handbag and checked her iPhone – the latest model – for messages.
‘See you tomorrow, Uncle George,’ said Rachel, hugging him. She smiled at Lee, then glanced at Caitlin and said, ‘Don’t be a martyr and stay all night, Moon. We all know you’re Daddy’s Little Princess, you don’t have to make yourself ill by proving it.’
She stalked from the room, leaving Pete looking embarrassed. He nodded hasty farewells to everyone and hurried out.
‘Rachel’s been sleeping in the knife drawer again,’ murmured Lee and Caitlin forced a smile as though Rachel’s comment had been irritating and faintly amusing rather than hurtful.
‘When does she sleep anywhere else?’ she said.
The machines bleeped and, in his sleep, Larry sighed. Caitlin squeezed his hand, but there was no response.
‘Are you sure we’re safe to leave?’ she asked Lee.
‘Yes,’ replied Lee. ‘Uncle Larry needs sleep and if his condition changes, I’ll drive you straight back.’
‘I can drive myself,’ she said.
‘True, but I want to help,’ Lee replied and Caitlin smiled. He had looked after her since they were children, she knew the habit was a hard one for him to break even if she would soon be married to another man.
‘He’s well cared for here,’ said George.
It was with great reluctance that Caitlin allowed herself to be led away. She hugged George goodbye in the car park and she and Lee waited for him to pull away, before climbing into Lee’s car.
‘Do you want me to take you to collect your car from the church?’ he asked as they drove back through the deserted streets towards Goldenwych.
‘No, I’ll walk down in the morning and fetch it. It’s perfectly safe in the church car park,’ she replied, checking her messages.
‘Any word from Stan?’ asked Lee.
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘He’s probably turned his phone off.’
She stared out of the window at the summer night. The shortest of the year, the turning point where the Earth began its slow descent into darker days. An image of a bonfire and people dancing flashed across her mind.
‘We missed the solstice celebrations,’ she said. ‘No dancing around the firepit for us.’
‘Not necessarily,’ said Lee. ‘There’s a full moon out and the sun will rise again soon. We could drive to the stone circle and wait?’
‘We haven’t done that since we were teenagers,’ she laughed, but her heart quickened with excitement at the idea.
It had been a long and stressful evening, the sensible thing was to return home.
She knew she should sleep, shower, then return to her father when she was rested, but suddenly, every cell in her body longed for the coolness of the stones in the tumbled circle on the edge of the village.
Her body ached to lay on the grass at its centre, to watch the stars on their journey across the sky, to catch her breath as the moon set and they waited for the glorious sunrise.
‘Do you mean it?’ asked Caitlin and Lee grinned.
‘We both know we should do the right thing and go home.’
‘But…’ She let the word hang in the air.
‘There are blankets and a hamper in the boot,’ said Lee.
‘What?’ said Caitlin. ‘Why?’
‘Once I’d finished setting out the chairs for Dad, I was going to go up there myself,’ he said.
‘It’s my first solstice since I moved home and I fancied a night communing with the ancients.
I guessed you might be at the theatre too and I was going to invite you and Martha, but then the emergency call came and things changed. ’
‘What about Stan?’ she asked. ‘It was quite a bold move to think he would be fine with me spending the night with another man.’ She batted her eyelashes in an exaggerated fashion.
‘Hardly,’ said Lee. ‘We’ve grown up together and Martha would have been there, too. Anyway, Dad told me Stan was away and I know you love the solstice, so I was going to surprise you.’
‘Lee, you’re amazing.’ She reached over to squeeze his leg. ‘My favourite big brother.’
She did not notice the look of sadness flitter across his eyes at her words.
‘Come on then,’ she said. ‘Let’s go.’
Lee revved the engine as he had always done when they were teenagers and they burst out laughing.
She did not understand the rush of delight coursing through her.
Was it the intense shock of hearing her father had collapsed, followed by the relief of being told he was going to make a good recovery?
These were heady emotions to process. Or was it the excitement of watching the sun rise with Lee?
Caitlin had no idea, but as they drove past her cottage and out through the village, she could not stop smiling.