Page 52 of Welcome to the Cornish Country Hospital

‘It’s nothing. Esther’s not talking to me, that’s all.’ Her attempt at easy breezy had failed miserably when her voice cracked on the last two words.

‘You’re joking.’ It had clearly sounded as unthinkable to Joe as it was to Danni.

‘I wish I was.’

‘Lucas, right?’ Joe had hit the nail on the head straight away. ‘I always knew he’d find a way to come between you two.’

There’d been no point in her lying to her brother, because he’d always been able to see right through her. It wasn’t a surprise that Joe had honed in on Lucas being the cause of the breakdown in her friendship either, given how he felt about the man. ‘You know I was in love with him, don’t you?’

‘Love? No you weren’t.’ Joe’s tone had been emphatic. ‘Whenever I saw you together I could see what he was doing, and I worked out his game plan a long time ago from the things you told me. He manipulated you to believe you were the only people who understood each other. But you and I know how different what we went through was. We had a mother who didn’t want us. He had devoted parents who would never have abandoned him if death hadn’t forced them to. That’s not something you can compare, but he knew you desperately needed someone to love and be loved by; he just wanted someone to stroke his ego and tell him how great he was. So, yeah, you might have thought you were in love and I suppose that was obvious, but only because you were so guarded around him. I’ve seen you with your other friends and even some of mine, and you’re a hugger. Showing affection is what you do, maybe because we never got any off Mum, after Dad died. But around Lucas, you were always like some sort of staid Victorian maiden, whose reputation and virtue might be sullied by the slightest touch. That’s how I knew you liked him, because you were terrified that if he touched you, it might lead to something and you’d never do that to Esther. So I know this isn’t because you’ve done that.’

Joe’s complete faith in Danni had made her cry for about the seven hundredth time since the argument with Esther, and when she’d spilt out the whole story to him, he’d listened without interrupting. Afterwards, he’d echoed Gwen, telling her that she’d done the right thing, and that he was certain Esther would come to see that eventually. When he’d admitted it might take years, Danni had broken down again. And, after that, Joe had made the offer she was now seriously considering.

‘Why don’t you come over here for a bit? You could make it a holiday at first, but they’re always looking for doctors and, if you did decide to stay, I’m certain you’d get a visa. I suppose I could put up with having my kid sister around all the time again.’ Joe had laughed then, and there’d been such a warmth in the sound that, if Danni had been able to jump on a plane at that moment, she’d almost certainly have done it. After all, she’d already got as far as applying for a job in Sydney. But then she’d looked down at Brenda, sitting by her feet, and even the option of running to Joe had seemed impossible. He’d said the offer to move into his new place was always on the table and she’d thanked him, telling him how much she loved him and how grateful she was that she’d been able to tell him everything. As much of a relief as that had been, it didn’t change anything and, even now, a few days later, she had no idea where she went from here.

‘You can’t go near the edge, girl.’ Danni bent down and clipped Brenda’s lead on as they walked into the blanket of fog. The dog was usually very cautious, staying well back from the cliff edge, but Danni couldn’t risk anything happening to her. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing Brenda too.

‘I’m not the only mad fool out in this, then?’ The sounds of Charlie’s voice, as he emerged out of the fog in front of her, made her scream. ‘Oh God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.’

He put a steadying hand on her arm, but took it off again almost straight away, making her realise how much she missed the sensation of his touch, even if it had only been an instinctive reaction on Charlie’s part. ‘It’s okay – I’m sorry for screaming in your face like that. It’s just the fog. It makes everything look spooky.’

‘I love this kind of weather; something about it really helps me to think.’ Charlie smiled in that familiar way she’d so quickly come to love. She was really going to miss not seeing that any more.

‘I know what you mean.’ Danni had wished more than once over the past week that she had the ability to stop herself from thinking altogether, but all that had done was make her brain go into overdrive even more. ‘How’s Richard?’

‘Good, now that he’s taking his medication. He asked me to go to his GP appointment with him and she gave him advice on some lifestyle changes he can make that will help too.’ Charlie’s face clouded for a moment. ‘I tried to suggest that letting go of his resentment towards Connie might help with his stress levels, but he still won’t even mention her name. He just says he doesn’t want to talk about it and the subject is closed for good as far as he’s concerned.’

‘That’s such a shame, but from the outside I can see both points of view. It must be much harder for Richard to do that.’

‘I still keep hoping he’ll change his mind eventually, but for now I just want to make sure they’re both okay.’ Charlie was still clearly determined not to take sides.

‘You’ve got to have hope.’ A lump lodged itself in Danni’s throat, as it seemed to all too frequently these days, as Maggie came over to Brenda and the dogs exchanged an excited greeting. ‘She’s really going to miss Maggie.’

‘She doesn’t have to.’ As Charlie spoke, something in Danni’s chest surged. ‘I’m staying on in Port Kara indefinitely. At least until I know Richard and Connie are both fully recovered. The sale on the house my parents were buying on the Isle of Wight has fallen through. Mum’s been downloading every episode ofEscape to the Countryshe can get her hands on, and they’ve realised how much more they can get for their money in certain parts of the country, so they’re looking at properties all over now. They’re viewing some up in Yorkshire this weekend, not far from where Connie lives. So there’s no rush for me to find somewhere permanent until I know where they’re going to be.’

‘It would be amazing if you ended up being close to Connie, but I guess that might be difficult for Richard.’ It would be hard for Danni to accept him being at the other end of the country too, not that it really mattered any more. He’d made it clear he didn’t want things between them to continue, and she was going to need to leave St Piran’s anyway. There was a chance she could stay in Port Kara and commute to work in Truro, if she could get a job at the hospital there, but it would still mean a risk of running into Esther and Lucas. So moving again was starting to feel like the only option.

‘Sometimes it takes a while to accept things, but space and time can do wonders in helping people to see things more clearly.’ Charlie held her gaze. ‘I’m sorry about how I reacted. I don’t know, maybe there’s some hidden, subconscious part of me that expects to be rejected after the choices Connie made. Or maybe I’m just like every other egotistical male on the planet and I couldn’t stand the thought that the person I really, really, really liked might feel that way about someone else.’

‘None of this is your fault. I spent so long trying to cover up how I felt, I think I forgot how to tell the truth, even to myself.’ Danni had to curl her fingers into a ball to stop herself from touching him. Joe had been spot-on about her doing that sort of thing to protect herself from crossing the line, but it wasn’t just the prospect of Charlie rejecting her that scared her. It was the idea that he might not. It would be so easy to fall completely in love with him, but she didn’t deserve to have that. Not after the grenade she’d let off in Esther’s relationship.

‘I know things are far too complicated for both of us to hope for any more than that, but do you think we can at least be friends again?’

She nodded, despite not knowing if that was even going to be possible, when deep down she wanted so much more. ‘Definitely. I could use as many friends as I can get right now.’

‘Sooner or later Esther is going to realise that you only told her about Lucas to protect her. It’s going to be okay.’

‘You promise?’ She wanted to believe Charlie more than anything, but he clearly didn’t want to lie to her after everything he’d said about the importance of honesty.

‘I wish I could make you that promise, but she’ll be missing you every bit as much as you’re missing her, that’s one thing I do know for certain.’

‘I hope you’re right.’ Danni made a silent vow that she’d never ask for anything again if the situation with Esther could be fixed. But, when she looked up at Charlie again, she had a horrible feeling she was already telling herself another lie.

* * *

When one of the physiotherapists in the rehabilitation centre had suggested that Connie might want to move into a nursing home to continue her recovery, she’d never felt so old. And she’d reacted with the sort of fiery outburst that her sister, Janice, had always said was the reason she’d never found someone to settle down with. But the truth was she hadn’t wanted tosettle. Connie had never met anyone she’d felt as strongly about as Richard. Now, looking through the treasure box her niece had sent to the hospital at her request, Connie suddenly didn’t feel old at all. Almost forty years had rolled back as soon as she’d held one of the envelopes with Richard’s writing on the front.

It was the same box she’d told Danni to instruct Darcy to open, if anything had happened to her after the accident. Luckily she’d been able to explain everything to her niece herself instead. But there was someone else who needed to see what was in the box.

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