Page 26 of The House at Hope Corner
‘Well, I’m not.’ Hannah made a grab for the teapot and then held it in mid-air looking at it for several seconds. She returned it to the table.
‘I meant, what are we going to do?’ she repeated, more forcefully this time. ‘About the farm? The work? It’s hard enough with just the two of them, but we simply can’t afford to pay anyone else and Ned can’t do it all on his own. We’ll get even further behind… And then there’s the house, and jobs around the yard and the garden – I can’t look after Fraser and be expected to do everything else as well. He’s going to need round-the-clock nursing and—’ She broke off abruptly, staring at Flora, who took a deep breath and then let it out slowly.
She nudged the mugs closer to the teapot and carefully poured out the tea, trying to give herself a little time to think. There were lots of things to think about, that much was true, but Flora could sense that Hannah could quite easily work herself up into a real lather given half the chance and, apart from the fact that Flora wasn’t sure she could cope with that by herself, it wouldn’t help the situation at all. Better to try and stay calm and rational.
‘I think we need to wait and see how Fraser is first,’ she replied. ‘Before jumping to any conclusions. Ned and I soon realised that it was hard to decide what we should do because we haven’t got a clue what’s going to happen next. Until we do, there’s little point in speculating, so…’ Flora looked anxiously at Hannah to see if she had noticed how rehearsed how her words were, but Hannah’s face was impassive so she carried on quickly before that changed. ‘So… We thought that I could take you to the hospital today while Ned gets on with business as usual. Hopefully we’ll hear some good news. They might even be able to give us an idea of when Fraser can come home.’
Hannah looked up. ‘Do you really think so?’
‘I think what we have to remember,’ said Flora carefully, ‘is that, to us, all this is scary and completely alien, but to the hospital it’s just routine. I don’t mean that it doesn’t matter,’ she added quickly, ‘but that they deal with patients who’ve had heart attacks every day. They know what to expect and what the procedures are for every step of the way.’
‘I know you’re right…’ Hannah got to her feet. ‘I’m sorry, Flora. I just feel so…’
‘Helpless?’ suggested Flora.
‘And completely frustrated too,’ she added, nodding. ‘I don’t even know how I’m supposed to feel.’ She paced around the table. ‘One minute I think Fraser’s going to die and…’ She shuddered. ‘And the next I think it will all be something or nothing and he’ll be home in a day or two as if nothing has happened.’ She stopped by her chair. ‘I just want things to stay the same, for heaven’s sake. Is that too much to ask?’
‘No,’ said Flora gently. ‘But I think we have to understand that they probably can’t…’ There was no point trying to dress it up. ‘Look, why don’t we have a cup of tea, and a bit of something to eat, and then decide what to do next. There’s still a few hours before we can go to the hospital, and we probably ought to do something to keep ourselves busy, otherwise we’ll just go mad.’ She gave a small smile. ‘I am at your service, Hannah, and I’m even prepared to scrub the floors, or clean out cupboards. You name it, and I’ll do it.’
For the first time that morning Hannah smiled. A proper smile that lit up her eyes, bringing out the creases that gathered there. ‘I was going to make marmalade today,’ she said. ‘So we could do that if you like? It’s Fraser’s favourite and stocks are somewhat low at the moment.’
‘Marmalade it is then,’ said Flora, grinning. ‘But first, let’s have some breakfast. Toast or cereal?’
Chapter Ten
‘Oh my goodness, I came over as soon as I heard!’
The scullery door crashed open, and suddenly Caroline was in the kitchen, striding across the room and crushing Hannah in a fierce embrace.
Despite the abruptness of her arrival, there wasn’t a hair out of place and Flora wondered what it would take to make her look even a tiny bit flustered.
Caroline pulled away from Hannah to look at her, still clutching both her arms. ‘Oh, poor you. How dreadful. You must be feeling absolutely awful.’ She stopped then as she suddenly realised what was going on around her. ‘Whatever are youdoing?’
‘Making marmalade,’ replied Flora. ‘Morning, Caroline.’
‘But I thought…’ She trailed off, looking around her. ‘I thought Fraser had had a heart attack?’
‘Yes, dear.’ Hannah’s eyes narrowed. ‘And which little bird told you, I wonder. Aren’t you here a little early for breakfast?’
Caroline glanced at her watch. ‘Oh, I just popped round to ask Ned something. I wasn’t necessarily planning on having breakfast, but naturally he told me…’
‘Was it the same question as yesterday?’ asked Flora. ‘Only we haven’t had a chance to discuss that yet… obviously.’ For some reason she felt intensely irritated by Caroline’s presence.
‘No, quite…’ Caroline looked a little disconcerted for a moment. ‘Oh, but that doesn’t matter now anyway… What on earth has happened? Is Fraser all right?’
Hannah wiped her hands on a tea towel. She had just removed the softened oranges from the enormous preserving pan full of simmering water and they were sticky with juice. She looked at Flora. ‘Did you put those plates to cool in the freezer, dear?’ she asked.
Flora nodded.
‘Thank you.’ She nodded at the oranges lined up on a chopping board. ‘Now we need to leave these to cool and then we’ll halve them, scoop out all the flesh, pips and pith to leave just the peel, which we’ll shred.’ She smiled. ‘Fraser likes it nice and fine.’ Then she turned to Caroline. ‘Fraser is as well as can be expected; I think that’s the expression, isn’t it? He has had a heart attack, but we don’t know any more than that at the moment. I expect we’ll find out more once we get to the hospital.’
It had been a good plan, putting Hannah in charge of something, particularly something where she had to show Flora the ropes. It had allowed her to recover her composure.
‘Oh, but then I’ll take you…’
Hannah shook her head briefly. ‘No need, thank you, Caroline. Flora has already offered.’
‘But I really don’t mind,’ she replied. ‘You must have things you need to do, Flora.’
