Page 38 of The Midnight Bakery
‘We have another wheelchair,’ she said. ‘I’ll go and fetch it.’ Whether Jack’s electric chair was just jammed with mud and gunk or was actually broken she had no idea, but it was prettymuch useless the way it was. As would Jack be. The other chair was manual, and he struggled to use it without her. What on earth were they going to do?
‘Right, we need to get you out of your pyjamas first,’ she said, returning with the chair. ‘You must be frozen. How long were you even out there?’
But Jack ignored her, his mouth still set in a hard line.
She put the brake on the other wheelchair, drawing it up alongside him so that she could try to move him from one to the other. It wasn’t going to be pretty. She was about to ask Tam to put the kettle on, as much to get him out of the way as anything else, when he dropped to his haunches again – positioning himself so that he was eye level with Jack. ‘I can get you sorted out, if you like?’
The response was scant, but it was there, the merest nod of his head.
‘Okay then.’ Tam smiled and lifted Jack out of the chair as if he weighed no more than a bag of flour. ‘Where are we headed, mate?’
Beth stared after them as they left the room. The bloody cheek of it – who did Tam think he was? She was about to march furiously after him when she stopped, heart still thudding. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, conscious of the angry rushing sound in her ears. Tam was right to intervene. She was infuriated with Jack and he with her. Some space would be a good idea if they wanted to avoid the situation deteriorating any further. She felt her shoulders beginning to relax and collapsed into a chair, breathing deeply.
The fight had completely gone out of Jack when he and Tam returned. And Beth’s heart squeezed as she saw the expression on Jack’s face. He was a small child again, lost and hurt and lonely in a world which no one else could truly share with him. Tam stepped away from the chair, turning his back to give thema little privacy, and Beth hurried across the floor to kneel in front of Jack. She wrapped her arms around his torso.
‘You scared me,’ she whispered. ‘I thought you’d gone. I thought…’ She couldn’t say how scared she’d been that he’d left her, might leave her still.
‘Where would I go?’ Jack replied, his voice cracking with emotion. ‘Why would I want to?’ He heaved a sigh. ‘I’m sorry, Beth, I just needed to try…I thought I could…’ He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
She pulled back, cupping his face in her hands, every line of it so familiar to her. So familiar and so dear. ‘Itdoesmatter,’ she replied. ‘It matters more than anything. And we’re going to sort this, I promise. I don’t know how, but we will.’ She gently kissed his mouth and then his nose and his forehead, searching his face as she did so. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked. ‘Do you need anything?’
‘Maybe some painkillers.’ His voice was quiet and small. ‘I’m bloody freezing.’ Beth knew that whatever pain he was feeling now would be nothing compared with what was to come. His muscles simply couldn’t stand such punishment.
By the time she returned with some tablets and a fleece blanket, Tam had placed three mugs on the table. The scent of toast filled the air and Beth’s mouth began to water. She was starving, and thirsty too, now that her initial shock had left her. As she settled the blanket around Jack, she suddenly realised that she hadn’t even checked to see how Tam was doing.
‘Do you have any jam?’ he asked, smiling. ‘I couldn’t find any in the fridge.’
‘I’ll get some,’ she replied. ‘It’s in the pantry, but you should get changed, you’re soaked. I can probably find some clothes of Jack’s that would fit you.’
He pulled a face, bending his knees slightly. ‘I feel a bit like I’ve wet myself,’ he said. ‘But I’ve got clothes in the car, I’ll go and fetch them.’
‘No, you won’t,’ she replied. ‘It’s pouring out there and you’re wet enough as it is.’ She laid a hand on his arm. ‘Come with me.’
Back in the bedroom, she began to rummage through the drawers of an old tallboy which stood in one corner. Her face was bright red, she could tell. She’d invited Tam over for some breakfast and a more civilised start to his morning, and look what had happened. She felt awful.
‘There’s no need to be embarrassed,’ said Tam from behind her. ‘I can tell what you’re thinking, but there’s no need. It would seem I arrived just at the right moment, so if you’re feeling bad about me being here, don’t. Someone, somewhere, obviously thought it a good idea, and I agree with them. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?’
She turned around. ‘I don’t know what to say. I’m so grateful to you.’
‘Of course you are. You’d be a horrible person if you weren’t, and you’re really not, so you can stop thinking that as well.’
He held her look for a moment and Beth blushed again, found out. She smiled. ‘I don’t know what to say to Jack either,’ she whispered. ‘He hasn’t been this down since…’
‘Something you warned me would happen on the very first occasion we met, I believe. You were right, and if I’ve had anything to do with what happened today then I must accept responsibility for it. And apologise.’
‘I don’t think any of this is down to you at all,’ replied Beth. ‘It might look that way, but this has been coming for a while, Tam, I just hadn’t seen it.’
He nodded. ‘Then in that case, I have some thoughts, if you’re happy for me to share them?’
She gave him a quizzical look.
‘Let me get changed first. How about you go and butter the toast and I’ll meet you back in the kitchen?’
Tam had judged things perfectly; the toast and jam were exactly what they needed. And by the time he returned, she and Jack were already several slices down. She got up to add more bread to the toaster and refill the kettle.
‘Come and sit down,’ she said to Tam. ‘And get stuck in.’
Tam took a seat, looking around at the kitchen as if he’d never seen it before. ‘So how long have you had this place?’ he asked.
