Chapter 46
Ascream broke through Kitty’s thoughts. She sprinted across the playground, recognising the voice crying out in agony.
‘Emily!’ She skidded to a stop beside the girl. Emily was writhing on the ground, clutching her arm. ‘What happened?’
The pale-faced lunchtime supervisor wrung her hands. ‘She was playing on the monkey bars and fell.’
Kitty knelt behind the crying child. ‘Emily, can you tell me where it hurts?’ she asked, despite it being obvious by the way Emily was gripping her left arm.
‘I bumped my arm,’ she said, stuttering through sobs. She tried to move to show Kitty where it hurt, and screamed again.
‘Ring an ambulance,’ Kitty told the supervisor. ‘Emily might have broken a bone. Hopefully, it’s merely a nasty bump, but we need to get it checked out.’
‘Of course,’ said the woman. ‘Shall I ring her… her dad while I’m there?’
‘No,’ said Kitty. ‘I’ll do it.’
Sam ran towards them, and Kitty stood. ‘Can you stay here with Emily until the ambulance gets here? I’m going to call Nick and tell him what’s happened.’
‘Sure,’ said Sam, sitting on the ground beside Emily and carefully placing a comforting arm around her.
Kitty ran to the classroom, grabbed her phone from her bag, and dialled Nick’s number.
‘Kitty?’ Nick’s voice was full of surprise. ‘Is everything OK? Why are you calling me at work? If it’s about what happened at rehearsal last night…’
‘It’s nothing to do with that,’ said Kitty. ‘Now, I don’t want you to panic, but Emily’s hurt.’
‘Hurt?’ said Nick. ‘What’s happened? What’s wrong with her?’
‘I think she might have broken her arm,’ said Kitty. ‘She fell off the monkey bars at lunchtime. We’ve called an ambulance.’
‘I’m on my way,’ said Nick, and Kitty could hear it was true from the panting breaths and the distant sound of feet slapping against pavement.
Kitty hung up, ran to Emily, and was cradling the girl’s head in her lap when Nick arrived.
He was ashen, covered in grime from the building site, with a smudge of dirt across one cheek and ribbons of black beneath his nails.
What struck Kitty most wasn’t the grime.
It was the blind panic in his eyes. Nick losing it wasn’t going to help anything.
‘Sit down,’ she told him, and he sat beside her on the asphalt. With one hand stroking Emily’s hair, Kitty curled the fingers of her other hand around Nick’s. ‘She’s going to be OK,’ she said.
‘How can you say that?’ said Nick. ‘Look at her.’
Kitty held his gaze. ‘You need to stay calm, for Emily’s sake,’ she said slowly.
Nick nodded his understanding, but as he bent down to whisper reassurances to his little girl, Kitty saw the tears swimming in his eyes.
She let go of his hand and placed her arm around his shoulders.
For once, she didn’t care who saw or what people thought.
She was Nick’s friend, and nothing was going to stop her from comforting a friend.
The ambulance arrived. The paramedics were kind, calm and efficient as they checked Emily over, helped her up, and carried her to the van, her small body rocked by her sobs.
They were watched by Suzanne Arnold, who turned to Kitty and said, ‘Why don’t you go too?’
‘I can’t go in the ambulance with them. There’s no room.’
‘No,’ said Suzanne. ‘You can follow behind.’
‘Are you sure?’ asked Kitty.
‘Yes, Sam can cover your class for the afternoon. Emily and Nick are going to need a friend, and with his parents away and everyone else at work, you’re the obvious choice.’
‘Thanks,’ said Kitty.
‘And don’t feel you have to rush back. They’ll be at the hospital for hours, no doubt, and we’ll manage fine here.’
Kitty nodded her thanks, ran to grab her bag from the classroom, and sprinted to her cottage. It was only after she climbed into the car that she realised a piece of paper and a thick envelope were stuck on her windscreen. With a sigh of frustration, she jumped out and grabbed them.
Her heart stilled as she read the note: Miss me? Barely able to breathe, she opened the envelope. When she tipped it up, a handful of photographs fell into her lap. A sob escaped her lips.
Rae.
All the photographs were of Rae: Rae playing in the park, Rae collecting an award at school, Rae at a birthday party, a party hat on her head and a balloon in her hands.
Rae. Rae. Rae.
The world around her blurred as her legs threatened to give way.
Then she remembered a different little girl with the injured arm, and the father facing his first parental crisis.
Kitty had spent years putting James first. She was damned if she was going to do so now.
Things were different. He couldn’t control her like he used to.
With a deep breath, Kitty climbed into her car, slipped the envelope into the glove box, threw the screwed-up note into the footwell, and set off at speed to the hospital.