Chapter 28 Fenna – Day 6
Fenna is about to call the police when Luke yells.
‘She’s fine!’
Fenna doesn’t stop running until she has her daughter in her arms and can check her over herself.
Tears streak down her cheeks. She breathes her in, pressing her face against Alba’s skin.
She will never take an inch of her for granted ever again.
It’s only when Alba complains that she’s being squished that she pulls away.
Grass stains are smeared across Alba’s summer dress. There’s a tear near the hem. One of the embroidered bunny rabbits has been decapitated by a rip in the fabric.
Theo has his arm around Rosie, inspecting her right hand. A neat gash of red runs across the palm.
‘What happened?’ Fenna gasps at the sight of the blood.
‘I must have caught myself on a thorn. Alba was looking for a ball in the bushes near the outhouses, so I tried to help.’
A yellow ball that Fenna’s not seen before is resting by Theo’s feet.
‘What were you doing down there?’ Fenna asks.
‘I went for a walk and saw Alba on her own, struggling to get her ball . . .’ Rosie flicks her gaze between Theo and Marianne, her bottom lip wobbling. ‘I didn’t mean to get in trouble. I was—’
‘No one’s in trouble,’ Marianne chimes. ‘Thank goodness you were there.’ She claps her hands. ‘Time for cake. Or how about ice-cream?’
Alba shrieks with joy at this suggestion. She appears unharmed by her adventure.
‘I don’t know about you, but I could do with a vodka.’ Luke shakes his head, taking Fenna’s hand.
‘All’s well that ends well,’ Gerry keeps saying as they walk back to the house.
‘I don’t understand how Alba got down there,’ Fenna says. ‘She doesn’t know where the lower gardens are. She could have fallen in the river or . . .’
‘Don’t worry about it now,’ Luke soothes.
Fenna keeps playing it over and over again. ‘There’s a latch on the gate. She couldn’t have opened it herself.’
‘Paulo could have forgotten to close it.’ Luke shrugs. ‘It’s an innocent mistake, Fen.’
‘Why was no one watching her?’
‘You heard what Mum said about crossed wires, everyone thought someone else was with her. No one did this on purpose. I know it was scary but Alba is fine.’
‘But—’
‘She’s fine. That’s the main thing.’ His jaw clenches. There’s no point hammering the point home. He doesn’t know the nightmares that raced through her mind when her daughter was out of her sight.
‘Bye, horse,’ Alba says, waving an arm.
‘Horse?’ Fenna repeats, eyebrows raised at Luke.
‘There’s horses down by the outhouses.’ He turns to Alba. ‘Is that where you went, poppet? Did you go to see the horses?’
Alba starts making a neighing sound.
Fenna zones out as Luke tells Alba that she shouldn’t wander off and if she wants to see the animals she needs to be with a grown-up.
She takes a look back at the outhouse. An old rusting wheelbarrow sits on its side next to a stack of bricks and a few overgrown plants.
A weathered blue wooden door hangs on its hinges.
One question runs through her mind. Why the hell was Rosie down here in the first place?