Chapter Forty-Six
‘Thank goodness, you’re back with us.’
The voice seemed to come from a long way away as Annie blearily blinked, wincing with pain. Panic set in and she tried to lift herself up onto her elbow but gentle hands pressed her back into the pillows.
‘Wh-where am I?’ She was confused and frightened and as everything rushed back, she began to cry. ‘Where’s Adam? . . . And Alfred? . . . Poor Alfred!’
‘Please be calm.’
It was Marie’s gentle face looking down on her and she began to cry harder.
‘Do not be afraid. It is all over now,’ Marie soothed. ‘You are in the ’ospital. Adam is safe at my ’ome with my ’ousekeeper and Alfred is at the veterinary clinic, but they say he will get well. He ’as the cracked ribs but ’e will recover.’
‘And Mrs Taylor-Lloyd?’
Marie hesitated before telling her quietly, ‘She broke her neck when she fell on the sink. She will trouble you no more. The police wish to speak to you to find out exactly what ’appened, although we already ’ave a very good idea.
Luckily, Ruth found you when she arrived to open the shop this morning, but there was nothing to be done for Mrs Taylor-Lloyd. ’
Annie gulped. So, the woman who had always detested her was dead.
‘Did she break in?’ Marie asked.
Annie shook her head. ‘She told me she stole Ruth’s keys when she visited the shop the other day.’
Marie nodded. ‘Ah, Ruth said she recognised her. But do not be upset. Everything will be fine now. You must rest. Can I get you a drink or anything?’
Annie shook her head again and made to rise, only to find that one of her arms and one of her legs was heavily bandaged. Her face hurt too and when she raised her good arm to her cheek, her fingers encountered a large pad.
‘I am afraid that you sprained your ankle badly when you fell,’ Marie informed her. ‘And Mrs Taylor-Lloyd slashed your face and your arm. They ’ave been stitched and at least you are alive.’
‘Alfred saved me,’ Annie told her in a croaky voice. ‘If he hadn’t come in and attacked her when he did, I’m sure she would have killed me.’
A nurse approached the bed and seeing that Annie was awake she smiled.
‘Would you mind leaving me with the patient?’ she said to Marie.
‘I need to take her temperature and blood pressure, then there’s a police officer outside who would like to speak to her.
They need to take a statement. You can wait in the corridor, if you wish. ’
Marie shook her head. ‘Thank you, but I must go now.’ She bent to kiss Annie’s forehead. ‘I will get back to Adam but I’ll come tomorrow with anything you might need.’
An hour later, after Annie had made her statement to the police, she lay reliving what had happened the night before and shuddered.
The policeman had informed her that her ex-mother-in-law’s body was now in the police morgue.
He didn’t foresee it being an ongoing case as it was clear what had happened.
‘But what will happen to her body?’ Annie had queried. ‘There’s no one left to arrange a burial for her.’
‘She’ll no doubt be buried in a pauper’s grave,’ the officer answered solemnly.
Annie shook her head. ‘No, I’d like her body taken back to Nuneaton and for her to be buried with her husband,’ she told him firmly. ‘I shall pay for any expenses.’
‘That’s very good of you under the circumstances,’ he said.
Annie shrugged. ‘I was married to her son, so I’m doing it more for him than her,’ she answered honestly.
She lay staring at the ceiling feeling as if she had been run over by a tram.
She was supposed to have been going home tomorrow but that wouldn’t be happening now, and she wondered where she, Adam and Alfred could stay until she was well enough to travel.
If Alfred survived that was. She owed her life to him and prayed that he would.
The question of where she would stay was answered by Marie when she visited with a basket of fruit almost as large as she was, a huge bunch of flowers, and Annie’s nightgown and toiletries.
‘When you are discharged, you will be coming to stay with me and John until you are well enough to go ’ome,’ Marie told her in a brook-no-argument kind of voice. ‘And I just called into the veterinary clinic and they told me that Alfred is doing very well.’
Annie breathed a sigh of relief. ‘And Adam?’
Marie chuckled as she handed the flowers to a nurse to put in a vase. ‘’E is being spoilt rotten by my ’ousekeeper and the cook. He ’as them eating out of his ’and. ’Ow did your interview with the police go?’
Annie told her what she had asked them to do for Mrs Taylor-Lloyd.
‘I would ’ave expected no less of you,’ Marie said.
‘Although she certainly doesn’t deserve such kindness.
She came to kill you. But now let us speak of ’appier things.
I ’ave just spoken to the doctor and ’e thinks you might be well enough to be discharged in a day or two, although you won’t be able to do much until your ankle is better.
You will need to keep off it and rest. I ’ave already had a room prepared for you and Adam.
Oh, and I phoned Peggy to tell ’er what ’appened. I hope I did the right thing?’
Annie nodded. ‘Yes, thank you. She and Levi would have worried when I didn’t arrive.’
‘They wanted to come.’ Marie straightened a crease in the bedspread. ‘But I told Peggy there was nothing she could do for now. She said she would inform your parents for you. They would wish to know what ’as ’appened too.’
Tears filled Annie’s eyes. She felt as if she hadn’t stopped crying since she’d woken up.
Marie patted her hand affectionately. ‘That’s it, let it all out. You ’ave ’ad a terrible shock.’
‘And all that time I thought it was Reggie stalking me.’ Annie shook her head; she still couldn’t quite believe it. ‘And it was his mother all along!’
‘You must try to put it all behind you,’ Marie soothed as a doctor appeared at the end of the bed.
‘Mrs Taylor Lloyd, I’ve come to check your arm and leg,’ he told her as a nurse pulled the curtains around the bed again.
Marie tactfully left to wait in the corridor as the doctor gently began to remove the bandages from her arm.
‘That’s healing nicely and there’s no sign of infection,’ he said with satisfaction.
‘I think we might be able to leave the bandage off in a few more days and let the air get to it. Now let’s have a look at your cheek.
It was me who stitched you up and I promise I did it as neatly as I could, although I’m afraid you will have a scar.
Hopefully it will fade with time. Would you like to see it? ’
Annie nodded. She’d have to face it eventually, so there was no sense in putting it off.
Luckily, she had never been particularly vain, but even so when she first saw her face her breath caught in her throat.
The stitches ran from just beneath her eye all down one cheek almost to her chin and her face looked angry and swollen.
‘Well, I certainly won’t win any beauty contests looking like this, will I?’ she said in a shaky voice as the doctor gently cleaned the wound.
‘It will look much better when the swelling’s gone down and the stiches are out,’ he promised. Then after carefully redressing it he and the nurse left, taking the dirty dressings with them.
Marie returned to stand beside her. ‘Not a very pretty sight, am I?’ Annie said.
Marie smiled. ‘As I said before, you are still ’ere and that is the main thing.
That madwoman was out to kill you. You will be able to cover that with a little make up once it ’as started to ’eal, so count your blessings it wasn’t worse.
And now for the good news: the doctor ’as told me that all being well, they will discharge you tomorrow.
I shall arrange for John to come and fetch you in the car. ’
Annie breathed a sigh of relief. She’d always had a fear of hospitals and she would feel much better once she was out.
‘Thank you, this has all been like a nightmare and I really don’t know what I’d have done without you.’ And once again she was sobbing as Marie gave her a hug.
John arrived to collect her the next day and pushed her in a wheelchair to his waiting car.
‘We’ll soon have you home. Adam can hardly wait to see you,’ he told her cheerfully.
‘Marie has arranged for a nurse to come in to change your dressings. Oh, and Nancy and Jamie are back and said they’ll be round tonight.
Nancy was devastated when she heard what had happened. Still, it’s all over now.’
Once back at Marie’s house Annie received a rapturous welcome from Adam and some good news from Marie.
‘I ’ave just spoken to the vet and he says that Alfred should be able to come ’ome tomorrow,’ she told her happily. ‘He is still bandaged up and will ’ave to take ’is time till ’is ribs are ’ealed but other than that he’s all right.’
‘Oh, thank goodness,’ Annie said and she was off again, crying her eyes out.
She cried again that evening when Nancy and Jamie came bearing flowers, and again the following morning when Marie appeared in the doorway to tell her, ‘You ’ave some surprise visitors.’ She was smiling from ear to ear.
‘Oh yes, who would that be?’ Annie thought it might be Ruth and Simon, although they had sent word they would be there that evening.
And then Marie stepped aside and there were her parents.
‘Oh, my poor girl!’ Charity was across the room in seconds and cuddling her so tightly that Annie could hardly breathe. ‘I can’t believe what’s ’appened,’ she said in a wobbly voice. ‘To think that madwoman might have killed you. I don’t know ’ow I could ’ave borne it!’
Then Luca stepped forward, his eyes full of tears as he tenderly stroked her hair.
‘Peggy came to tell us what ’appened an’ we just ’ad to come. I ’ope you don’t mind?’ Charity said, addressing Marie.
‘I am delighted you are ’ere,’ Marie told her. ‘And you must stay for lunch, or for the night, if you wish?’
Charity shook her head. ‘Thank you, but we’ve booked to go back on the train this evenin’.’
‘Then lunch it is,’ Marie said happily, pottering away to tell the cook and fetch Adam, who was in the kitchen with her, no doubt eating yet more jam tarts.
Charity solemnly stared at the scar on Annie’s face. ‘As soon as yer get home an’ them stitches are out I shall start treatin’ that for you. Your gran’ma were a great healer an’ swore by rosehips an’ frankincense fer scars.’
They spent the most wonderful afternoon together and once again Annie realised how fortunate she was to have found them. At last, she was part of a family and she loved it.
They had only been gone for a matter of minutes that evening when Ruth and Simon appeared bearing yet more flowers.
Marie chuckled. ‘This place is beginning to look like a florist’s shop,’ she joked as she bore them away to put them in water.
By the time Annie was tucked into bed she was tired but happy and she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow. For the first time since the attack, she had a peaceful night.