The French Chateau Escape by Gillian Harvey

Author:Gillian Harvey [Harvey, Gillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

19

‘Hello,’ she said into the phone as Mark’s name flashed up on her screen. She was just finishing her toast, and preparing to set off for a morning visit – via the pharmacy – before an afternoon of – potentially – trying out the sander for the first time. She’d wanted to slap paint on the walls of the bridal suite first; after all, that was closer to her comfort zone than grinding flooring. But she’d been advised by Chris when she’d texted him last night to start with the messy jobs first.

He'd offered, too, to come and help her set everything up, but to her own surprise, she’d found herself refusing his offer. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she’d told him, even as her inner voice yelled at her to take him up on it. Something in her – perhaps misguided pride, perhaps some sort of new determination – made her want to try to do it herself, at least at first. With the help of YouTube, obviously.

‘Hi,’ Mark replied. His voice sounded different from usual. Quieter and somehow down. It was amazing what you could decipher from a simple ‘hi’ when you knew someone inside out, she thought.

‘What’s the matter?’ she said. ‘Is everything OK?’

He sighed deeply. ‘Not really.’

Her heart turned over. ‘What do you mean? What’s happened?’ She wondered for a moment whether Éliott had decided to tell him about her indecent proposal, then pushed it out of her mind. It wouldn’t be the end of the world anyway; she’d wanted to tell him herself, when he was home and they could laugh about it.

‘The leg?’ she asked, tentatively, not wanting anything to be wrong with Mark’s health, but hoping too he wasn’t going to come back with a response about her attempt at infidelity or mention the words ‘booty call’.

He sighed again. ‘Kind of,’ he said. ‘They took my temperature today and it’s up a bit… they reckon I’ve developed an infection.’

‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘I mean, are you OK? Is it serious?’

‘It’s not serious,’ he said. ‘I mean, it could have been, if I’d been at home and not here to spot the signs. You know? But they’ve hooked me up to yet another IV and they’re pumping antibiotics into me at the rate of knots so…’

‘Well, that’s good,’ she said. ‘I mean, not good good. But you know what I mean.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ he said. ‘I know it could be a lot worse.’

‘But…?’

‘But it means I’m going to be here for longer than we thought. They’ll have to make sure I’m better before they’ll even consider when I might get out of here.’

‘Oh Mark,’ she said. Then realised that in some ways, while she’d never wish him ill, this could work out in her favour. It would give her time to find out whether she actually could make a difference; it would give her the chance to properly surprise him when he came home. ‘But you know, it’s for the best,’ she added, her tone a little brighter than she’d intended.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.