Page 117 of Salvation

“Are you looking forward to seeing your nanny?” I asked Axel, holding his hand down the hallway as we made our way to Kitty’s bedroom.

“Brum.”

“Soon, darling. We’ll go for a drive in the car soon.” I grinned, knocking on the door to Kitty’s bedroom and pushing it open before she could decline the visit.

“Look who’s come to see you,” I told her when she turned her head to look in our direction. “Axel has missed you, haven’t you, baby?”

“Can you come back later, Rachel? I’m not in the mood for visitors.”

“No,” I said simply.

“I said—”

“I heard what you said, but I’m not leaving. In fact, Iwillbe leaving, but you’ll be coming with me.”

“I—”

“I know. You’re not in the mood,” I mimicked, rolling my eyes. “But unfortunately for you, I’ve gone past caring. Bee will be back here in minutes. You can get yourself dressed, and you can come and spend time with your family.”

“Another day.”

“And when I come back another day, you’ll say the same thing. And the cycle will continue, over and over again, until one of us dies. I’m breaking that cycle before the cycle breaks you. It’s not healthy to be cooped up in here day in, day out.”

“I’m fine,” she tutted and then sighed as though she was utterly exasperated.

Oh, how dare people care! Can you imagine being so inconsiderate as tocareabout someone? Won’t someone please call the church elders!

I wisely did not give voice to my sarcastic thoughts.

“And that’s how you want to live your life, is it? ‘Fine’? Because there’s a whole range of emotions out there that absolutely destroyfine. You’re going to start experiencing them all again, Kitty. Ahh look,” I grinned at her. “There’s a new one already. Anger. What a brilliant start. Capitalise on that feeling and use it as motivation to get the fuck out of that bed. I’m not above dragging you out of it myself.”

“I need a shower.”

“I’m not above assisting with that, either. You and I both know how deeply uncomfortable that will be, so do us both a favour and get up, pronto.”

She didn’t move, so I pushed open the door to her en suite, turned on the shower and then stood in the doorway, rolling up my sleeves. “Make your mind up, Kitty. Because I can’t promise I won’t waterboard you whilst we’re in there. You’ve got five seconds.”

She locked eyes with me and then sighed heavily once more. “You’re a pain in my fucking ass,” she snapped, swinging her legs off the bed. She stormed past me, shoulder barging me as she did so, and then slammed the door behind her.

Axel looked up at the noise, and I gave him a mischievous grin.

“Nanny is being grumpy today. I know what would cheer her up. Let’s get her some cookies. You can even eat them in her bed. How does that sound?”

He shot me a gummy smile.

“I’ll take that as a yes. And I bet Nanny would really love it if you left cookies on her pillow, crumbs and all. Come on,” I said, holding my hand out to him. “Let’s hurry before she’s finished.”

Half an hour later, Kitty was sat in the front room, watching as Bee spun around in circles and then tried to catch Axel as he ran across the room. Every so often, Kitty would throw me a nasty look, and I bit down on my inner cheek to suppress my grins. She had caught me and Axel red handed with the cookies.

It wasn’t so much that she minded Axel eating cookies in her bed. She had definitely minded me stood on the bed crumbling the cookies between my fingers and sprinkling the dust all over her sheets. In my defence, I thought her shower would last longer.

Kitty said that was a pathetic excuse, but that was the only one she was getting, so I guess it sucked to be her.

“Steady, Bee!” I laughed as she spun faster, almost falling over in the process.

She had written down on her tablet that she was making it fair. Axel couldn’t walk properly, so she was evening things out. She was talking more and more, but she still relied on her tablet a lot of the time.

She bumped into the door, causing Axel to break out into fits of laughter, and a huge grin split across her face.

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