Chapter 15
The entrance door was wide open when Zoe arrived back at Hilltop, and panicked voices that Zoe didn’t recognise shattered the indigo silence of the hills. Her breath rolled into the air as she picked up pace towards the house, senses pricked to something out of the ordinary going on.
But before she could go in, Alex dashed out. Between him and one of his guests was the man who’d come with his young boys to borrow the foot pump. His face was grey, and he was clearly in some considerable pain as he was supported by Alex and the other man.
‘What…?’ Zoe began, but Alex didn’t even look at her. ‘What’s happened?’ she asked again.
‘Sorry,’ Alex panted, only now seeming to register her arrival. ‘Have to go.’
Zoe’s mouth worked to form more questions, but she wasn’t to get any answers.
They dashed to Alex’s car and helped the man in before getting in themselves and driving off so fast the tyres sent gravel in all directions.
A shard of stone pinged onto the windscreen of Zoe’s car, and she winced at the sound of a sharp crack.
She dashed over, and sure enough it had chipped the glass, but she didn’t have it in her to complain.
Instead, filing the incident away as something she’d have to deal with later, she ran into the house through the open door.
Billie was in the living room, wrapped in a blanket on the sofa, while Louisa, thankfully, was sleeping in a basket next to her. There might have been some commotion – and Zoe didn’t know how much – but at least it hadn’t bothered the littlest member of the family.
At Zoe’s entrance, Billie looked up.
‘Something’s happened on the camping field. I was in here with Louisa when they knocked. There was a load of shouting, and then Dad put his head in and said he had to go with them to the hospital. I asked if he needed to help, but he told me to stay where I am.’
‘You don’t know what the problem is?’
Billie shook her head. ‘Nobody said, but it sounded bad.’
‘They were helping someone to your dad’s car when I got here. I’ve never seen your dad look so stressed.’
‘I suppose he’ll phone when he gets there.’
‘Maybe,’ Zoe agreed, though she wasn’t convinced. ‘I wonder why your dad had to go. It’s not like there weren’t enough of them… and why did they come up here to get him instead of going straight to the hospital if things were serious?’
‘I doubt they’d know where the hospital was – they don’t come from around here, do they?’
‘So they don’t have Google Maps?’
Billie gave a shrug. ‘Maybe the signal wasn’t so good on the field. Sometimes it drops in and out, doesn’t it?’
Zoe wasn’t convinced by that either, but she said no more about it. As she couldn’t do anything in the immediate term, she took a seat across from Billie and looked at Louisa. ‘Is she any better?’
‘She’s got a runny nose, but she’s not so hot now. I gave her the Calpol, and then she went to sleep.’
‘That’s good. How about you?’
‘I feel like crap, but I’ll live. I hope you and Dad don’t get it.’
‘Me too. It will be a right nuisance if none of us can function properly. We’d have to paint a big cross on the door.’
‘Huh?’
Zoe shook her head. ‘Never mind. It was a silly joke about what they used to do in the old days. Wasn’t even funny – don’t know why I thought it would be.’
‘Are you all right?’ Billie asked carefully.
‘Of course.’
‘I’m sorry I was so mean to you this morning.’
‘It’s fine. You had a lot on your plate – I know that.’
‘But I didn’t mean it.’
‘I know that too.’
‘And then you and Dad… you’re not going to leave, are you?’
Zoe regarded her for a moment. She should have realised the effect her argument would have on Billie, who had lost so many people in her life, people she cared about, that surely one of her biggest anxieties was losing more.
She took a long time to let people in precisely because she was afraid to lose them once she’d got close.
Zoe had worked hard to become her friend.
‘Is that what you think?’ she said finally.
Billie gave a faint shrug. ‘You still haven’t said.’
‘I would never end things here,’ Zoe said, keeping her tone as neutral as she could.
‘Dad’s mad about you.’
‘I’m mad about him too. You and Louisa as well. I think we make a good team.’
Billie was silent for a moment as she seemed to ponder Zoe’s words. ‘Maisie phoned me.’
Zoe’s forehead creased into a frown. ‘I’m sure she did.’
‘Do you really think Ezra is deaf?’
‘I don’t know, but there were things today that I couldn’t explain, so it makes sense to send him to someone who has more knowledge than me. If he is, the earlier we can detect that, the better we can help him and Maisie deal with it.’
‘Ezra’s dad will never want anything to do with him now.’
‘You don’t know that. Anyway, I thought he was out of the picture.’
‘He was, but Maisie said she sent a photo anyway, and he’d been texting her again. Like they might get back together.’
‘She hasn’t said anything about that to me.’
‘She’s not going to, is she?’
‘And I can’t say he sounds like the most reliable lad. He’s messed her around all through the pregnancy, and now he wants to pick up like he did nothing wrong? And if he rejects Ezra just because there might be a problem, then he wasn’t worth the effort in the first place.’
‘That’s what I said. He sounds like a dickhead, and I told her she should steer clear.’
‘I’m glad she’s got you to talk to.’ Zoe got up. ‘I need a drink. Do you want anything from the kitchen?’
‘I might have a sleep here.’
‘You must be shattered. These viruses can take a lot out of you, and you’ve had Louisa to deal with too.’
‘A bit.’ Billie sank into the bank of cushions propping her up and closed her eyes.
Zoe made for the door but was halted by Billie’s voice.
‘I am sorry for what I said this morning.’
‘Let’s say no more about it,’ Zoe said, before turning back to the door. ‘It’s already forgotten.’
None of her messages received a reply, and Zoe couldn’t decide if it was because things were bad where Alex was or because he was angry with her about their spat earlier that evening.
If things at the hospital were so bad that he’d been forced to stay with the family and wasn’t able to contact her, then they had to be very bad indeed, and she didn’t want to think about that.
But if he wasn’t replying simply because he was annoyed at her, then she didn’t particularly want to think about that either.
The best she could hope for was that there was a bad signal where he was…
assuming it was the accident and emergency department. Why was he still there?
Sitting at the table with a cup of tea, Billie having gone to bed and taken Louisa with her, Zoe glanced up at the clock to see it was gone eleven.
She ought to be in bed herself – she had an early start for work the following day.
But how could she go to bed? Even if she did, there was no way she’d be able to calm her racing thoughts enough to sleep.
At the risk of being demanding, she was about to message again when the door opened and Alex walked in. Grizzle shot from his basket and danced around him. Alex put a vague hand to the dog’s head and ruffled his fur before sitting at the table across from Zoe.
‘That’s an evening I don’t fancy repeating any time soon.’
‘What happened?’
‘One of the party we have staying on the field had an accident. Fell down a hole or something – at least, that’s what they’re saying, though I can’t think for the life of me what kind of hole there’d be on the fields that would be big enough for him to get stuck in.
But they’re insisting that’s what happened.
He got his leg caught, but the rest of him carried on going, and the damage is pretty bad – torn ligaments and a couple of nasty fractures.
He’ll need pins – the works – and loads of time…
The doctor who saw him said he might be off his feet for months rather than weeks. ’
‘That’s awful!’
‘I know.’
‘It was good of you to take them to the accident unit.’
‘It was the least I could do, considering the accident happened on our land. I don’t want to tempt fate, but I’m worried we haven’t heard the end of this. They’re all packing up and leaving in the morning. I said I’d give them a full refund, but someone mentioned compensation.’
‘You’re insured?’
‘Yes, but I don’t know if it will cover something like this.
I can’t be sure until I see for myself where he did the damage and whether we could be held liable for what happened.
’ He rubbed a hand through his hair and wrapped it around the back of his neck.
‘It’s a bloody mess, Zo. I don’t even know where to start with it. ’
‘You must be knackered.’
‘I’m all right. I mean, I’m tired but I’m too wired to sleep right now. I’ll stay up for a while and go through my insurance docs to see if I can get a handle on where I stand. What about you? You didn’t have to stay up for me.’
‘I was too wired to sleep as well. I didn’t hear from you, and…’
‘Yeah, sorry about that. I was trying to keep them all sweet, you know; I didn’t want it to look as if I was more bothered about being on my phone than paying attention to what they were saying.
It was relentless, to be honest. I’ve never been set on by a pack of wild dogs, but I have a pretty good idea after tonight how it might feel.
To think I actually liked them when they arrived. ’
‘I’m sure they’re still nice people – they were just dealing with a crisis.’
‘So was I. You were right – I should have kept a distance.’
‘That wasn’t what I meant. Who knew something like this might happen?’
‘I’ll go over to the field in the morning to see what’s what… Call me a coward, but I’m going to wait until they’ve gone.’
‘I don’t blame you. But it might not be as bad as you think, even if they are still there. With luck, they’ll have all calmed down by then.’
‘Hopefully.’
‘How have you left things?’