Chapter 13
‘Are you alright in there, or shall I call for someone?’ A woman’s voice came from behind the door as it opened a crack.
Robyn sat back in bed and hastily pulled the covers back over her. ‘I’m fine!’
The door opened further and a middle-aged woman dressed in dark blue skinny jeans and a cosy but loud woollen Christmas jumper with a large Santa on the front stood in the doorway. Despite the sudden interruption, Robyn smiled at the stranger. She loved her braided afro hairstyle, especially with the beads she had added to the ends of her braids, which were in the Christmassy colours of red, green, and white, matching her jumper.
‘Sorry to disturb you. I was next door and I thought I heard you call out.’
Robyn sighed and threw the covers off again. For a moment, before the lady opened the door wide, she’d thought it was a nurse come to check on her. ‘I dropped the television controls,’ she said as she flung her legs off the bed again.
‘You stay there – I’ll get these.’ She bent over to look under the bed.
Robyn winced. She anticipated that any second, the lady’s jeans were going to give way with an enormous ripping sound. It wasn’t that the woman was carrying a lot of weight – on the contrary, she had a very slim, almost athletic figure – but her trousers were so tight that it looked as though they had been stitched up with her in them.
‘There,’ she panted when she stood up with the single battery in her hand. ‘Now for the television controls.’
Robyn watched in amusement as she tried kneeling. Her knee wouldn’t reach the floor. So, with one arm on the bed, she lowered herself down and picked the controls up. ‘Gotcha,’ she said as she hoisted herself up. She put the battery in the compartment.
‘Oh, where’s the other one?’ she grimaced.
Robyn didn’t think she could go through one more bending session. She wondered how the lady ever sat down in her jeans.
‘Don’t worry.’ Robyn held up her hand, deciding to put the poor woman out of her misery. ‘I’ll get the other battery.’
A look of relief crossed the woman’s face as she handed Robyn the controls. ‘Wasn’t much help then – was I?’
‘Thanks all the same.’ Robyn was about to get out of bed when she looked at the silent TV screen and sighed. The TV was positioned too high on the wall to reach the sound controls. And now the accident bulletin had given way to the weather.
‘Dammit!’ Robyn swore. She looked wide-eyed at her visitor, and clamped her hand over her mouth. ‘Sorry,’ she said through her hand.
‘Whatever for?’
‘You must have heard me swear earlier when you were next door.’ Robyn indicated the room next door. Guessing at the age of her visitor, who was in her early forties, it had just occurred to Robyn that there may be a child next door.
‘Oh, not to worry – it’s just my father next door, and he’s too far gone to be aware of anything.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be, honey.’ She flashed a wide grin, showing a perfect set of pearly whites. Her infectious chuckle made Robyn want to join in, as though they were children sniggering in the playground. Robyn smiled. ‘I must have sworn awfully loud.’
‘Oh, yes. I wasn’t sure what nasty ogre was sitting behind the door.’ She pointed at Robyn’s door. ‘And who would have thought language like that would come out of a pretty little thing like you.’ She chuckled again, and that made Robyn’s smile broader.
‘I bet I looked pretty cross when you opened the door.’
‘Hmm, I’ll say. A bit like a pouting princess whose prince had run off with someone else. Say, talking of princes, or should I say knights in shining armour, where’s yours?’
‘My what?’
‘Knight in shining armour. You know the guy who saved you from going over that cliff like that.’
‘David.’ Robyn smiled. She added. ‘You know about him and the accident?’
‘I’ve seen him in and out of your room, fetching you this and that. Sorry, I know I sound so nosy, but there’s not a lot to do, hanging around the hospital over Christmas, and you’re new, so it kind of piqued my interest.’
Robyn understood. She expected there weren’t many head traumas brought in on Christmas Day, unless someone had drunk far too much and slipped over and banged their head. But normal people should be sitting around the table eating Christmas dinner, unwrapping presents, and watching old Christmas movies, or the King’s speech – enjoying spending time with their families, not going out in a car on a snowy afternoon and having an accident.
As she thought about that, she remembered they were in the Cairngorms. She only knew because David had chatted about the weather in that part of Scotland and had mentioned how good the skiing was that year. She guessed it was possible that there could be more head traumas or broken bones – the Christmas break wasn’t over yet.
‘Don’t tell me he’s missed a visiting session,’ the lady said in mock surprise, interrupting Robyn’s thoughts.
‘No. I felt tired.’
‘You had a headache?’
‘No, I just—’ Robyn looked up and caught the lady pointing at her bandage and chuckling.
‘Oh. Right.’ Robyn realised her new visitor was having some fun with her. She laughed at the joke too.
‘Did you say your visitor is called David?’
Robyn nodded.
The woman repeated. ‘Not David Gillespie?’
Robyn gave a noncommittal nod, as she didn’t actually know his last name.
‘I thought I recognised him,’ she said, snapping her fingers.
Robyn didn’t find that surprising after her chat with the doctor. It sounded as though everyone in town would know of the once-famous ice hockey player.
‘You wait right here.’
Robyn found the instruction quite funny, as she obviously wasn’t going anywhere. She watched the lady walk out in her high-heeled sandals and wondered how she didn’t get frostbite, wearing such shoes in the middle of winter.
A moment later she reappeared, flapping a newspaper. ‘You made the local newspaper – today’s edition!’
‘I did?’ Robyn said excitedly, reaching out for the paper. She didn’t think newspapers were printed on Boxing Day, but she was glad they were. She thought the publicity would be good because perhaps someone who knew her, family or friends, would come and visit her when they saw her name and picture in print.
‘You’re the girl that this David fellow saved from going over a cliff like that!’ She flapped the paper under Robyn’s nose.
Robyn took the local paper, the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald . She read the news article, and saw a photo of one of the cars, a badly damaged sports car that had been recovered from the scene, the bonnet crumpled. The car looked beyond repair.
‘See. You made the front page.’
Robyn stared at the photo. Beside the picture of the car was a small picture inset of a young man wearing a black gown and a college mortarboard – a photo obviously taken a few years earlier. There was a caption reading, Local Hero David Gillespie .
‘Well, I’ll leave you to read it in peace.’
Robyn mumbled a thank you, not taking her eyes off the picture.
‘Oh, and here.’
Robyn looked up as the woman handed her a set of TV controls. ‘My father doesn’t need these. Just in case.’
Robyn took them. ‘My name’s Robyn, by the way.’
‘I know.’
Robyn eyes were wide. ‘You do?’ She caught the woman’s bemused expression, and glanced at the newspaper.
‘You’re in the paper, remember?’
Robyn frowned, wishing she hadn’t used that word – remember.
‘I know there’s no picture of you,’ she continued, ‘but I recognised your boyfriend, and I’m pretty good at putting two and two together.’ She tapped her temple.
Robyn didn’t bother correcting her when she said the word boyfriend .
‘Hey, buck up. It may never happen.’
Robyn looked down at the paper on her lap, thinking that it already had.
‘I’m Gayle, by the way.’ She held out her hand.
Robyn shook hands, but Gayle didn’t let go. ‘Will you do me a favour?’
Robyn couldn’t imagine what she could do for Gayle, but she nodded all the same. ‘What is it?’
‘When I visit my father, can I sneak in here from time to time, just for a bit of light relief? It’s so dismal in hospital. I just sit watching my father, and he doesn’t say much – well, nothing coherent, anyway. So then I just watch TV, but I feel guilty if I don’t come – especially over Christmas. This afternoon has been the most fun I’ve had in this place.’ Gayle gave an infectious chuckle, which made Robyn laugh.
‘Yes, please do come and see me again,’ she replied enthusiastically.
‘Great.’ Gayle patted her hand before releasing her grasp. Then she pointed at Robyn and her tone turned serious. ‘Just don’t ask me to bend down again. I think I nearly split my skinny jeans.’
They both laughed, and Robyn was still giggling as Gayle left the room. She wiped a tear away from her eyes and listened to the click of Gayle’s sandals as she entered the room next door.
Then she looked down at the newspaper in her lap and her face fell. She looked at the black-and-white picture of the two cars again. She hadn’t realised the accident had been so serious. She wondered whose fault it had been. Then she had a terrible thought. Perhaps David was just being nice to her to find out whatever he could before suing her for wrecking what looked to have once been a very nice sports car.
However, she realised that David hadn’t asked her a single question about herself. That was why she appreciated his company, under the circumstances. He hadn’t made her feel uncomfortable because he hadn’t asked her about her past. But then, come to think about it, he had not talked about his either.
Robyn started to read the article. She was anticipating finding out some information about herself, imagining that the journalist who had written this article had been interested in uncovering the facts.
After she finished reading the article, she threw the newspaper across the room in frustration. She knew no more about herself than when she had started.
She should have known that the article would be about David Gillespie. After all, the headline did read, Local hero saves young woman. The article more or less repeated what Dr Jamieson had said about David being a famous sports star until an injury had ended his career. But the article also touched on his family background. His mother had left when he was a child, leaving him and his younger brother to be brought up by their father. There was no mention of a wife, or a girlfriend.
Robyn cast the newspaper to one side and sat staring at the flickering images on the silent TV screen. The familiar face of the newsreader she had seen earlier appeared. Robyn resigned herself to trying to lip read when she remembered she had the TV controls. Robyn hoped they would work, as the word Accident had just flashed up behind the newsreader. Robyn hoped they had more to say about her than the single line afforded her in the local paper. She turned up the volume.
‘This is an update. In what police are describing as a tragic incident, the daughter of William Ross, the philanthropist and owner and CEO of the Ross Corporation, who went missing on Christmas Day, is now believed to have suffered a tragic skiing accident in the Cairngorm mountains. The family are not available for comment, and will not be making a press release at this time.’
Robyn leaned forward, listening intently. ‘There but for the grace of god go I,’ she said under her breath as she saw a photo of three people flash up on the screen. It looked to Robyn like a pose from a TV series that she couldn’t remember. The three were linking arms. The two tall, handsome guys were wearing tuxedoes. One of the young men was dark-haired with black eyes and pale skin – he was quite striking in appearance, and his eyes were partially covered by a flop of hair. He was looking across at the other guy, who was blond, with faintly tanned skin. They looked like male models who had just stepped out of a magazine.
The blond guy was looking down at the woman in between them. Her lack of height contrasted with the tallness of her brother and husband. She wore a gorgeous, flowing, black silk evening gown that Robyn imagined had cost a small fortune. Her head was thrown back in what looked to be a laugh-out-loud moment, so her features were obscured by the camera angle. But then, who wouldn’t be laughing, leading a glamorous lifestyle like that? Robyn frowned at herself for enviously thinking such a mean after what had happened to the young lady.
Robyn listened as the newscaster continued.
‘Although the family live in London, and travel abroad frequently, sources say they always spend Christmas in the Cairngorms. But this year their trip has ended in tragedy. It is believed she was skiing with her husband and brother. She leaves behind her husband of five years, Jake Campbell-Ross.’
Robyn shook her head. How sad. It didn’t sound as though they had any children. Perhaps that was just as well.
‘This isn’t the first time her husband has suffered a loss. He was taken in and raised by the Rosses after his parents tragically passed away when he was a child. The family are asking for privacy at this time as they come to terms with the tragedy.’ She paused. ‘And now for the weather …’
The camera panned to a young man standing by a map of the Cairngorms, looking subdued . ‘Thank you, Jane. What a tragic end to Christmas Day.’ He turned to face the camera. ‘ Now, let’s look at the weather map …’
Robyn clicked the TV set off. She leaned back on her pillow and stared up at the ceiling, thinking that she wasn’t the only one who’d had a Christmas Day from hell. She thought how lucky she was that she’d crossed paths with David and that he’d been there to save her. If he hadn’t, things could have been a whole lot worse.