A Breath of Fresh Air (Escape to the Lakes) by Jessica Redland

Author:Jessica Redland [Redland, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2024-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

26

TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO

I’d never felt so alone or afraid in my whole life. I’d thought I might feel better at home than at the hospital, staring through a window at Mam all bandaged up and connected to a stack of machines, not permitted to see her in case of infection, but now I wasn’t so sure. I’d been in the cottage on my own on countless occasions, but this evening it didn’t feel right.

The last time I’d spoken to Oliver Cranleigh – that Monday afternoon in Stumpy Clearing a few days after Kathryn’s funeral – he’d said he expected to see his mam each time he walked into the kitchen. I felt the same about mine. The only difference was that my mam was still alive. Critical but stable, they’d said at the hospital. I’d been scared to ask what that meant but I’d looked it up and wished I hadn’t. The stable part sounded promising – vital signs were normal – but the critical part included the terrifying phrase, the patient’s condition is life threatening.

A kind nurse had suggested I go home. Mam was unconscious and unlikely to wake up any time soon. I should eat, shower, get some sleep. She’d asked if there was anybody I could stay with. I don’t know where it came from, but I told her my parents were divorced and my dad would pick me up and stay at Horseshoe Cottage with me until Mam was better. Which was why I was now all alone, staring at a cold portion of beans on toast, struggling to get my head around what had happened on Saturday night.

What sort of a monster drove into a person and left them for dead? She’d been on her way to Lakeside Inn where Elaine, one of the riding mams, was celebrating her thirtieth birthday in the private function room there. Mam had been hesitant about going as she’d never socialised with any of the riding mams before, but I’d talked her into it. She’d worked so hard that she deserved to let her hair down and maybe make a few friends. Maybe even meet someone!

A couple of hours later, the police turned up with the news that Mam had been hit by a vehicle and was in hospital. Since that moment, none of it had felt real until now, sitting on my own, engulfed by the silence.

The smell of the baked beans was turning my stomach so I scraped them into the bin and slumped back down at the table. A knock on the door startled me. Heart thumping, I rushed to it, praying it wasn’t the police with more bad news.

It was Oliver.

‘I heard what happened,’ he said, his expression full of sympathy.

I wanted to slam the door in his face or yell at him for dangling our friendship in front of me a year and a half ago then snatching it back again, but I couldn’t. I had no energy left and my anger was directed towards whoever had been behind the wheel of the vehicle that had ploughed into my mam.

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