Page 33 of The House at Hope Corner
It seemed an age before Hannah answered. ‘No, dear… you can speak to him. If you don’t mind I think I might go and have a lie-down. I’m suddenly feeling incredibly tired.’
She looked exhausted. As if the strain of keeping everything under control had suddenly collapsed and she could no longer even control the way her face looked. Flora smiled warmly.
‘No, you go, it will do you the power of good.’
Suddenly the long afternoon stretched ahead of her. She paused for a moment, wondering how best to phrase what she wanted to say next.
‘Before you go though, Hannah, when we were talking before, about the wedding, it made me wonder about other arrangements as well… Have you thought about what you’re going to do when Fraser comes home?’
There was a sideways glance. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, practical stuff, I guess. Where you’ll sleep, for one.’
Hannah was concentrating on the table in front of her. There was a pause and then she looked up, a surprised expression on her face.
‘Do I need to think about that? I haven’t really…’ She trailed off.
‘Hannah,’ said Flora gently. ‘Did you read any of the leaflets that the hospital gave you?’
There was a slight shake of the head. ‘No, I couldn’t. I don’t want to know. I just want him home.’
Flora feared as much. ‘Okay,’ she said lightly. ‘Well, we can talk about it as and when we need to, it’s no big deal. Fraser won’t be out of hospital for a week or so anyway, so we have a little time, but the one thing I think we do need to sort out is sleeping arrangements. I don’t think he’ll be able to manage the stairs for a few days, and he may well need help with certain… personal things…’ She stopped when she realised that Hannah clearly hadn’t thought about any of this. She gave a small smile. ‘Fraser’s a big man and you might not be able to manage on your own…’ She cleared her throat. ‘Ned and I were talking about it last night and we wondered if it might be better if we made up a bedroom for Fraser downstairs?’
There was silence for a few moments as Hannah stared at her hands.
‘We just thought that might be easier for you,’ added Flora. ‘And we could make the room really nice.’ She smiled again. ‘Anyway, we don’t need to think about that now this minute, but if you like I can make a start this afternoon. The dining room is never used. It’s a huge room, quite airy when the curtains are open, and… it has a fire. I expect Fraser will feel pretty fragile and the last thing he’ll need is to feel cold…’
Hannah got slowly to her feet. ‘I’m really not sure that’s necessary,’ she said. ‘And I certainly can’t think about it now, dear.’ She gave a weak smile and, crossing to trail a hand across Brodie’s head, left the room.
Flora stared at the doorway, and the sudden huge empty space of the kitchen. Now what was she going to do? She needed to contact Ned first of course, but after that… The prospect of a free afternoon held little appeal – there were far too many things to think about and nothing she wanted to dwell on. She stared at the kettle. She must be practical and keep busy. There were any number of things to attend to, and the dining room would need a lot of sorting if it was to become what she had in mind. She walked out of the kitchen, Brodie trailing behind her.
It only took a few moments standing in the quiet space to realise that this was the last place she wanted to be. She had a desperate need to get out of the house again and, as she looked down at Brodie’s upturned face beside her, she knew what she would do. Brodie was sure to want a walk, the surplus eggs needed a new home but, more importantly, she needed a friendly face and she knew just where to find one of those.
It took several goes before Ned finally answered his phone. That wasn’t unusual – he often didn’t hear it or wasn’t in a position to answer straight away – but when he did answer Flora could tell she’d called at a bad time. He was clearly talking to someone else as he connected the call, his voice loud and strident, but then he paused for moment and she had a sudden mental image of him checking the caller display before he softened his voice to greet her.
‘I’m sorry, Flora, I’m with the vet.’
‘Oh… problems?’
There was an audible sigh. ‘Always. Listen, never mind, have you heard?’
‘Ned, he’s okay. I’ve spoken with the hospital and the operation went well. We can’t see him until tomorrow, but he’s in recovery at the moment and then he’ll be moved to intensive care. The nurse said they’d take good care of him… Ned?’ She had lost him for a moment.
When his voice came back on the line it was choked with emotion. ‘Sorry, Flora… that’s good, isn’t it?’
‘It’s all we can hope for at the moment. But there’s no reason to think that things won’t go well from here. Your dad’s a strong man.’
‘Aye…’
She hated hearing him so upset and would have given anything to be able to wrap her arms around him. ‘Listen, isn’t there any way you can come to the house, just for a little bit?’
There was a long pause. ‘Oh, Flora, you don’t know what you’re saying. I wish I could, but it just isn’t possible.’
She could hear him pulling himself together, and that made her feel even worse. She wished that he didn’t have to, that he could just let all his emotion go.
‘Is Mum okay?’
Flora smiled down the phone. ‘Relieved. A bit stunned actually. She’s gone to have a lie-down.’
