Chapter 84
EIGHTY-FOUR
Nancy closed down her phone and quickly put it in her pocket as Lara came downstairs.
‘Ready?’ asked Nancy, putting on a smile.
She’d been talking to Martin and was planning on going to the hospital to visit Beth later.
There was no change. Beth was still unresponsive.
Nancy waited for Lara to tie her shoelaces then they walked to school.
In the village high street, someone had put posters up for the Straw Bear Festival.
‘Will Auntie Beth be better for the festival?’ asked Lara.
‘Let’s hope so,’ said Nancy brightly. She still hadn’t told Lara the extent of Beth’s injuries, but the hope she was pinning everything on – that Beth would make a full recovery – seemed to get more fragile by the day.
Nancy was doing her best to hold it all together, despite the spectre of loss descending upon her in the night, causing her to lie tossing and turning, her mind playing over the worst. She would wake feeling hollow and wrung out, steeling herself to act positive for Lara.
The snow had melted and Lara was full of talk about the new lambs that had appeared on the other side of the fence to the school’s playing field.
Dozens of them, by all accounts, but she had still managed to fall in love with and name them all: Lambie, Twizzles, Curls, Fluffy, Butternut Squash, Tiptoe, Munchie.
When they reached the playground, Lara ran off to chat to Mia and Nancy was left on her own. She thought she clocked one of the other mothers looking over – a glance of . . . was it chagrin? Compassion?
Imogen and Erin were standing together a short distance away.
They were with Nicole and a couple of other mums in their clique.
Nancy looked over and felt sure they knew she was there but none of them turned and looked her way.
Imogen was speaking loudly: ‘It was a misunderstanding. Unfortunate, but when you look at the facts, everything seemed to point to that logical conclusion. And you have to remember, Arthur was there, on that land.’
A hand tapped Nancy on the shoulder. She turned to see Hannah.
‘It’s the closest thing you’ll get to an apology,’ said Hannah, looking over at Imogen and her gang. ‘That and the half-arsed three lines in the paper.’
Nancy smiled. So she wasn’t the only one who thought Erin’s ‘correction’ in the Ripton Gazette was insulting and inadequate. ‘No real harm done,’ she said.
‘Really?’ asked Hannah, giving her a searching look. ‘I’ve got to say, you’re very forgiving. If it’s any consolation, at one point they insinuated it was me.’
‘What?’
‘Uh huh. Revenge for the sheep attacks up at the farm, apparently.’
‘You’ve had more?’ said Nancy, worried.
‘No. Police caught the culprit. They were tipped off about a dog that was escaping from a house a mile away.’ She looked over at Imogen and the others.
‘It’s amazing what poisonous drivel can be contrived from a combination of self-righteous folk and a group chat.
Hey, Jakob says Lara likes the lambs near the school field. ’
‘She’s mad about them.’
‘Would she like to come up and feed some orphans we have on the farm?’
Nancy smiled. ‘She’d love that.’
‘Great. Let’s do it this weekend, if that suits. I’ll message you. Better get back.’ Hannah waved goodbye to Jakob then headed off.
As the bell rang, Nancy gave Lara a hug, quickly telling her about the invitation. As she had anticipated, Lara was ecstatic.
Nancy decided to take the long route home, down towards the reservoir and along the water’s edge path.
No one else was around and she felt adrift as she walked along the water.
She thought about her trip to the hospital, later that day.
Why wasn’t Beth coming out of her coma? Please, she pleaded silently to whoever might be listening, please don’t let Beth die.
Nancy felt herself well up, had to stop and compose herself.
Then, as she was blowing her nose and trying to hold back the tears, she saw her first daffodils of the year. Bright yellow nodding bursts of cheer.
She decided to take it as a good omen.