Page 121 of Best Summer Ever

‘Oh god, no,’ he gasped, scaring me witless. ‘We’re almost there.’

‘Two minutes,’ said Dad, who put his foot down a little, even though he didn’t know what Nick had said.

‘We’ll be two minutes,’ Josh relayed to Nick. ‘Okay, we’ll meet you there.’

He passed the phone back between the seats.

‘What is it?’ I swallowed, taking it from his shaking hand. ‘What’s happened?’

‘Penny has just arrived at Nick’s place and said there’s an ambulance parked up outside the manor.’ Dad’s foot pressed even harder on the accelerator. ‘I think something must have happened to Algy.’

‘Oh no,’ I sobbed. ‘Please no.’

‘It’s not even half an hour since you talked to your mum, Josh,’ Dad tried to reassuringly say. ‘I’m sure nothing serious could have happened in that time.’

‘Well,’ said Josh, ‘we’ll soon find out, won’t we?’

Dad’s gaze flicked to mine in the rear-view mirror and I bit my lip. I hoped he was right and nothing, serious or otherwise, had happened.

As we rounded the final bend to reach the turning for Wynbrook, it became apparent, however, that quite a lot could have happened because an ambulance turned right out of the end of the drive and shot off with its siren blaring and lights flashing just as we went to pull in from the left.

‘What do you want me to do?’ Dad asked Josh, as he stamped heavily on the brake, making my seatbelt lock up. ‘Drive to the manor or follow the ambulance?’

‘Drive to the manor, Dad,’ I urged, when Josh looked torn and didn’t answer. ‘We don’t know who’s in the ambulance yet, so there’s no point chasing after it.’

‘Daisy’s right,’ Josh said. ‘Let’s get to the manor and find out what’s happened.’

My phone began to ring again, just as the manor came into sight, but the panic and dread coursing through me quickly abated because Algy was standing on the drive, waving his stick to let us know that whoever had been carried off, it wasn’t him.

‘Oh, thank god,’ said Josh, sounding shaken but relieved.

‘We’re here,’ I said to Nick on the phone, even though he was standing there too and could see the car.

‘What’s happened?’ Josh demanded, jumping out as soon as Dad stopped. ‘Are you all right, Grandad?’

It wasn’t the moment to flag that he had called Algy ‘Grandad’ for the first time, but my goodness, there was a huge lump in my throat and Dad looked misty-eyed too, as he opened the back door and helped me out.

‘I’m fine,’ said Algy, as his grandson towered protectively over him. ‘I’m fine, but I’m sorry to say, your father isn’t.’

‘It was Dad in the ambulance?’ Josh gasped, looking back along the drive.

‘Afraid so,’ said Algy. ‘He turned up almost the second you and Robin had gone. He immediately started ranting and then keeled over. I called for an ambulance and thankfully one had been stood down after a hoax call nearby. Not that I’m pleased about the hoax, obviously, but your father was very lucky by all accounts.’

‘He’s had a heart condition for years,’ Josh told us. ‘But he’s never been hospitalised as an emergency before, as far as I know. He’s had enough warnings though…’

‘He said he’d come to warn me about you,’ Algy started tosay as Mum came dashing along the path, with a duster in her hand. ‘He tried to tell me that he’d sent you here to do his dirty work for him and butter me up so I’d put the place on the market.’

‘You didn’t believe him, did you?’ asked Josh.

‘Of course, I didn’t,’ Algy said.

‘What an idiot,’ said Dad.

‘Me or Dad?’ Josh sniffed.

‘Both of you,’ Dad tutted, which made Josh smile. ‘We all know you’re here for the right reasons, my boy.’

‘That we do,’ Mum agreed, as she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She was clearly relieved to see me, but subsequent events had now overtaken what I’d just been through. ‘I hope you gave him what for, Algernon,’ she added as she flicked the duster about agitatedly. ‘I hope you gave back as good as you got.’

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