Porthellis by Gloria Cook

Author:Gloria Cook
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788636490
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Ltd
Published: 2019-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

It seemed a terrible weight was crushing her. Her tongue felt stuck to the roof of her mouth. She couldn’t move, swallow or breathe without pain. Each time a glimmer of light threatened to seep into her hazy black world, Hannah allowed the sweet darkness to engulf her again. She didn’t want to see the shadowy figures that moved about her, she didn’t want to respond to their touch or gentle voices. Then something important impressed itself upon her fleeting mind, something so dreadful it demanded her immediate attention and she began to resist the darkness that beckoned her.

‘Matt… Matt!’ As her eyes slowly focused, her memory returned sharply and she pictured herself in terrible pain soon after her father had told her Matt was badly hurt and needed her.

‘Hush now, Hannah, dear. You’re going to be all right.’

It was Mrs Opie’s voice and she realised with a start that she was lying in her old room at Roscarrock. She moved her eyes from the ceiling and met the sympathetic gaze of her real mother. Wetting her dry lips, she moaned, ‘Matt… he needs me.’

‘Yes, dear, but you’re too weak to go to him now,’ Feena said soothingly, patting her hand. ‘You must get your strength back first.’

Hannah tried to sit up but pain surged through her body. ‘Why do I feel so weak? What am I doing in bed here? Matt’s hurt. I must go to him.’

‘You became ill, dear. Too ill to be taken home.’

Hannah closed her eyes in the effort to think. Had she fainted again? Instinctively her hands reached for her stomach. It was flat. She let out an anguished wail. ‘I’ve lost my baby.’

‘I’m sorry, dear.’ Feena stroked her face tenderly. ‘We called the doctor and midwife but there was nothing they could do.’

Hannah was filled with panic. She had to forget her terrible loss for the moment. ‘But Matt! I should be at the hospital. What’s happening to him? How long have I been lying here?’

‘You must be brave, dear. It took thirty-six hours for the baby to come away and since then you’ve slept deeply for two days. Mrs Penney and Patrick are staying at a hotel in Penzance and have kept vigil at Matt’s bedside. They’ve been phoning regularly with news.’

Hannah wanted to scream and protest that it wasn’t fair that she couldn’t be with Matt, that he couldn’t be with her when she needed him, that their baby had perished through the shock of the news. Choked with tears, she murmured, ‘What did those men do to him to make him stay in hospital for so long?’

Feena held her hand tightly. ‘Matt’s got a fractured skull and broken ribs. One of his lungs collapsed but the doctors have treated it successfully. He’s been sedated for most of the time so he’s not in much pain.’

‘Oh, dear God.’ She licked her dry lips. ‘Is he asking for me?’

‘Yes, dear. Mrs Penney has explained you’re poorly and that you’ll see him as soon as you can.

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