The Price of Love Read Online Free Page A

week,’ Sam mumbled. ‘Mind you, they also said that it might be a bit longer before the new skin is strong enough to stand up to oil and grease. I hate having to be the errand boy around the place. I only hope that I’ll be able to catch up with the other apprentices after all this time.’
    ‘Of course you will, it’s only a matter of a few weeks,’ Lucy assured him. ‘All you need to do is ask Robert and he will tell you about anything you’ve missed.’
    ‘I was wondering if I ought to go and see Percy,’ Sam commented thoughtfully.
    ‘Whatever for?’ Lucy asked in surprise.
    ‘To see how he is and to thank him for owning up that the accident was his own fault. I did ask Patsy to tell him but she said she forgot to do so.’
    ‘How could Patsy tell him? Percy hasn’t been into the office since the accident.’
    ‘She’s been visiting him in hospital. I would have thought you knew.’
    ‘No.’ Lucy frowned. ‘Patsy’s never said a word to me about it. How strange.’
    ‘I think she said that Mr Carter asked her to do so to try and cheer Percy up because he is so depressed about everything.’
    ‘Well, she’s kept very quiet about it and that’s not like Patsy. Usually she would be boasting about it,’ Lucy observed dryly.

Chapter Three
    A week later when Mr Carter summoned her to his office, Lucy wondered what was wrong and whether it had anything to do with the fact that Sam was still not able to resume his full duties as an apprentice mechanic.
    It can’t be that, she told herself as she took off her head phones and checked in the little mirror in her handbag to make sure that her hair was tidy. He wouldn’t talk to me about it, he’d see Sam himself.
    ‘It will be at least another two weeks before Percy is allowed out of hospital,’ Mr Carter told Lucy when she reported to his office a few minutes later. ‘He has asked if you will go and visit him, so you can leave an hour earlier this afternoon in order to do so.’
    Lucy stared at him in surprise, wondering why she was being asked to do so. Knowing how Percy felt about her she wondered if she dared refuse.
    As if reading her mind, Mr Carter said, ‘Percy has requested it. He seems to need to see someone his own age to cheer him up and he said there was something he wanted to talk to you about. I can’t allow both you and Patsy Warren to have time off, of course; she will have to take over the switchboard this afternoon so that you can leave early. She’ll probably welcome the break; she’s been in to see him every day since his accident.’
    After she’d promised Mr Carter that she would go and see Percy that afternoon Lucy went back to her switchboard feeling very uneasy. She didn’t really want to go and see him because she knew he had a crush on her and she didn’t want to do anything that might encourage him in any way.
    Since Mr Carter was telling her he wanted her to go and was giving her time off, she had no alternative but she didn’t think that Robert would be too happy when he heard about it and there was no way she could keep it from him.
    She was also concerned about being late home because her mother would be wondering where she was. Without asking Miss Yorke for permission she put a call through to the showroom and asked Mr Fitzpatrick if she could speak to Sam so that she could tell him where she was going and her mother wouldn’t be worried when she didn’t arrive home at the usual time.
    Lucy was shocked at how ill Percy looked. Without his glasses he looked quite different; not nearly so studious or owlish. His face was bandaged and there was a metal cage over the bed to support the bedclothes and keep them from touching his body.
    He seemed to be very anxious to know how Sam was; in fact, it was the very first question he asked.
    ‘Well, his hands are recovering but he still can’t do his normal job,’ she told him. ‘At the moment he’s helping out in the showroom. I’m not sure how long it will be