Bulbury Knap Read Online Free

hospital door, knowing that Michael Carey was waiting for her because he had sent in a message as she sat by her mother’s bed. She had hardly moved in all that time except to come outside and make some phone calls. One was to leave a message on Helen’s answerphone. Another was to the police to say she had found her mother in hospital.
    â€˜Mum, Mum,’ she had whispered as her mother first stirred and opened her eyes.
    â€˜Kathryn?’ Sarah whispered.
    It seemed as if a light had suddenly been switched on. ‘It’s me,’ said Kathryn, swallowing a lump in her throat.
    Michael Carey was waiting for her in the reception area as he had promised. On seeing his familiar figure, huge in his blue sweatshirt, Kathryn ran to him. ‘Oh Michael,’ she cried.
    His arms went round her and as she collapsed against him in a huge lessening of tension. For a moment she allowed herself the luxury of letting go but then she struggled to control her tears. She pulled away, taking deep breaths. ‘She’s sleeping peacefully now,’ she said brokenly. ‘They said I should leave and get some rest and get back there in the morning.’
    They walked to the Land Rover. Kathryn leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. ‘A broken ankle, severe bruising,’ she said as Michael reversed out of the parking space in the gathering dusk. ‘A car accident. She had a lift. Someone drove straight out at a road junction at them and now the car’s a write-off.’
    Kathryn shuddered as she imagined the scene, police and ambulance summoned, sirens blaring. And poor Mum in the middle of it all, unconscious, and no-one knowing how to get hold of her. ‘There was no identification, no bag because it’s gone missing. The friend she was with, Zillah, told them about my boyfriend’s restaurant in Wimbledon and the hospital left a message. But I never got it.’
    â€˜I see,’ Michael said as they joined a stream of traffic.
    She glanced at him and saw his jaw set hard as he gazed straight ahead. He couldn’t really know how it was, no one could. When, earlier, she had dialled
The Green Walnut Tree
number to ask why the message hadn’t been passed on she hadn’t expected Nick to be available and was surprised to hear his gravelly voice.
    Taking in what he was saying about a temporary waitress messing things up and losing the paper on which she had written it down was hard. It sounded far too plausible but hardly mattered now. And neither did his request that she should move all her stuff out of the flat as he had another tenant lined up. She knew she must leave the flat but it meant she had nowhere to take Mum when she was discharged.
    â€˜To find my friend, Zillah Brown, there at the hospital too was surreal,’ she said with a catch in her breath. ‘They’d met by chance and it ended up like this,’ she told Michael.
    â€˜The name’s familiar,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t Zillah Brown hold exhibitions at her studio in Lyme? My eldest boy was doing some project on art at school and we went along. Huge affairs in acrylic, very colourful.’
    â€˜That sounds like Zillah,’ said Kathryn. ‘Always the flamboyant one. We go back a long way, Zillah and me. We did everything together until she left home for art school and I started teacher training. The other car was to blame, you know,’ she added quietly. It was hard not to think ill of Zillah but how unfair was that?
    Michael told Kathryn a little more of the set-up at the house as they drove the rest of the way to Bulbury Knap. His home was a cottage in the grounds. During the summer months he had two men working under him but there was no other help in the house than a housekeeper. The last one had let them down after only a few weeks.
    â€˜And now my mother will be doing the same,’ said Kathryn sadly.
    â€˜Through no fault of her own,’ Michael pointed out,