Girl in Red Velvet by Margaret James

Author:Margaret James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, contemporary, romance, historical, Charton Minster
Publisher: Choc Lit
Published: 2018-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

The following afternoon, while Sarah was at Rising Fives, Lily got a phone call at the workshop. Sarah had tumbled off a climbing frame. She wasn’t hurt, said Mrs Harley. She’d fallen on the play-mat, then rolled over, then got up again. But she was a little tearful now. So she’d probably like her mum to come and take her home.

Lily felt the panic rising in her throat like vomit and rushed over straight away, slewing awkwardly into a parking slot that was too tight, then racing for the hall.

‘We’re sure she’s going to be fine,’ said Mrs Harley cheerfully. ‘We know she didn’t bump her head. But she’s a little shaken and she’s clearly feeling rather sorry for herself.’

Lily took one look at Sarah’s tear-streaked face, realised she must be in pain and drove her to the hospital, where she called Harry from a pay phone in the waiting room. Harry left his boss Sir Nicholas to his own devices and got on the next train back to Oxford.

‘How long have you been waiting?’ he demanded when he came running breathless into A & E.

‘Two hours at least,’ said Lily, looking round the crowded waiting room at various drunks who’d fallen over in the street, at workmen who had cut themselves on chainsaws, at people who had burned themselves in accidents at home. ‘I asked a nurse again about ten minutes before you came. She said another hour at least. Sarah needs to go to X-ray and it seems there’s quite a queue. Then, if she’s broken anything, she might need a general anaesthetic.’

‘It’s a disgrace,’ fumed Harry. ‘I’ll speak to Nick about it. I’ll make sure he takes it up to ministerial level, asks questions in the House. Come to Daddy, poppet?’

Sarah squirmed off Lily’s lap and went to sit on Harry’s.

As another hour went by, she whimpered once or twice, but mostly she was silent. ‘Where does it hurt?’ asked Lily.

‘All over, Mummy – my whole arm is sore. It feels like someone stamped on it.’

‘My poor baby.’ Lily would have given anything to take the pain away, to choke it down herself. ‘Let’s hope it won’t be long before you’re seen.’

‘I’m hungry, Dad,’ said Sarah.

‘You can’t have anything to eat until you’ve seen the doctor, love,’ said Lily.

‘I don’t want to see the doctor. I want to go back to Rising Fives.’

‘You’re never going back to Rising Fives,’ said Harry, who sat stroking Sarah’s soft, black curls as yet another hour ticked by.

‘Sarah Gale?’ A tired-looking doctor, radiographer – somebody in white, in any case – materialised in front of them. He had a set of notes. ‘Sarah’s for an X-ray, is that right?’

Two or three hours later, they’d been given the all-clear. Sarah was very bruised and shaken up, but it appeared no bones were broken. So she would soon be fine again.

‘We’ll need to find a different playgroup, crèche, whatever you want to call it,’ Harry said as they were driving home. ‘One where they watch the children all the time.

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