Stay by Jane Bailey

Author:Jane Bailey [Bailey, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, psychological thriller, Suspense
ISBN: 9781398705012
Published: 2023-08-16T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Four

Some days later, something in the kitchen stops me in my tracks. The floor is covered in bright splashes of blood. I follow the red trail out into the utility room. There are patches of it everywhere here, and what look like partial footprints. They go to the side door and porch. A man’s voice is making angry sounds, so I follow the blood marks on tiptoe.

Outside, Cliff is leaning against the wall, propped on one leg and inspecting the upturned foot of the other one. He has cut himself badly by the look of it.

‘Let me see.’ I go towards him and he flinches.

‘I stood on a broken bottle. Thought I’d find a bandage or something.’ He has a wodge of kitchen towel in his hand, but it looks serious.

I go and fetch him a kitchen chair to sit on, and place it on the grass by the outside tap. ‘You need to wash the wound – get any bits of glass out – before you cover it.’

He hops over to the chair and sits down heavily.

I hold his gnarled foot under the tap for a minute and then place it on his other knee. ‘Wait here a second – I’ll get something to dress it.’

I did first aid at school once, but I can’t remember anything, and I don’t even know where the sticking plasters are. I call out to Mimi, but she doesn’t come, so I open and close cupboards in the utility room. There are no end of boxes of rice and jars and bottles and small packets of things that look like they could be lint but aren’t. At last, I find a box with ‘First Aid’ on it, and inside are a few plasters, so old they feel like dead leaves, and an ancient roll of yellowed bandage. I grab them, together with some kitchen roll and a bottle of lavender oil from Mimi’s essential oil shelf, and I go back out to him. He’s sitting in the hot sun, looking exhausted and forlorn. Ever since his little outburst on my first weekend here, I’ve been anxious to avoid Cliff, so now I’m going to make as good an impression as possible.

On my knees before him, I take his great old foot, wet the kitchen towel, and swab the wound, which is still bleeding profusely. I pick out the glass, then I wipe it with lavender oil. ‘This’ll help to prevent infection. Tea tree oil might be better, but I’m afraid it would sting. I think this’ll promote healing.’

‘Good.’

The wound is about two inches long and quite deep. I patch it together with the brittle plasters, but it looks like it could do with some stitches in it. I start to wrap the bandage round his foot. ‘You should probably go to A&E with this.’

‘No fear! Not with this virus around. You’re doing a grand job.’

I try not to glow too much, but I’m pleased. ‘If Mimi was here, at least you’d have a proper doctor to look at it, but I can’t find her.

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