Page 73 of The Holiday Cottage

Dorothy

“Should we call the police?” Dorothy paced across the kitchen and back again. “She’s not in the cottage, but her car is still there. Her bag is here. Where could she be?”

“She must have gone for a walk, but I drove around the local roads for a good ten minutes and there was no sign of her.” Sara closed the kitchen door. She was looking strained and exhausted.

They’d given the girls lunch and the two of them were now safely curled up in the TV room with Bailey, watching cartoons.

“A walk?” Dorothy couldn’t bear to think about it. “But it’s freezing out there and she has no coat! And she’s been gone for hours. Maybe she has had an accident. She was very upset. What if she slipped and fell?”

“I’ll take the car and drive around again. I’ll go in a different direction this time. See if I can spot her.” Sara grabbed her keys. “I’ll call Patrick and ask him to come over and look after the girls.”

“I don’t want you to drive. One person in trouble is enough. You’re upset and there is ice on the roads.” Now that she was more in control of her emotions, Dorothy was almost as worried about Sara as she was about Imogen. Sara’s coping mechanism had been different to hers. Sara chose not to think about that time, not to talk about it, and now Dorothy’s actions had forced her to confront a traumatic part of her life. “I’m so sorry, Sara.”

“There’s no need to apologize. We just need to deal with it.”

Dorothy didn’t know how to deal with it. “Should we call the police?”

“No, not yet.” Sara put her keys down. “I can’t bear the idea that all these years she thought we’d rejected her.” Sara’s voice broke. “She hates us.”

Dorothy was shaken by it too. “No. She is angry with us because of what she thinks we did. But once she knows the truth, that will change.”

“Will it? If she has grown up thinking we deserted her and Tina, it won’t be easy to persuade her otherwise. And it doesn’t seem as if she’d be keen to sit down and have a heart-to-heart over a cup of tea.” Sara rummaged in her pocket for a tissue and blew her nose hard. “Sorry. Reliving this whole thing is my nightmare.”

“I know, sweetheart. And I feel terrible about it. I should have told Imogen right away who I was, but I was so shocked to see her that first day in that meeting and I missed the moment, and after that I was just enjoying spending time with her. I didn’t want to risk it all going wrong.”

“I know. I understand.” Sara took a deep breath. “I need to keep it together. The girls are already asking difficult questions. What do I tell them?”

“The truth.” Dorothy felt bone-tired, but no matter how exhausted she felt, her concern for Imogen was greater. “Let’s find Imogen first, and then sort everything else out later. She can’t have gone far. What if she was walking along the road and was hit by a car? It’s icy out there and the roads haven’t been cleared. Call the hospital, Sara. Once you’ve done that, I’ll call the police. I think it’s time. Maybe if we do that, she’ll turn up. You know what life is like.”

This time Sara didn’t argue. She reached for her phone, found the number and dialed.

She was on hold, waiting for someone to answer when Dorothy’s phone rang.

She snatched it up with a surge of hope, and then sighed as she saw the caller ID. “It’s Miles. I don’t know why I would have thought it was Imogen given that her phone is here.”

“Answer it,” Sara said, “if Miles is out on visits you can ask him to keep an eye out for her.”

It was a vain hope, but at this stage she was willing to cling to anything no matter how fragile. She answered the call.

“Hello, Miles.”

“Dorothy? I have Imogen here.”

“Imogen?” Dorothy grabbed the nearest chair and sat down hard. She waved a hand at Sara. “Imogen is with Miles.” She turned back to the phone. “Miles? Where are you? How do you have Imogen?”

“It’s a long story. We’ll tell you when we see you, but I wanted to let you know she’s fine. I thought you would be worrying.”

He knew her so well.

“Thank you, Miles.” She could barely speak for the relief. “Is she all right?”

There was a pause. “Yes.”

She wondered about that pause. “Are you at your place? I’ll come right now and pick her up.”

“No, don’t do that. We’ll come to Holly Cottage. We’ll meet you there in twenty minutes.”

Holly Cottage. Why not the house?

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