Her feet and legs were freezing!
Normally Lula loved snow. Loved the excitement of it and the fun of it. But having soaking wet, freezing cold feet in soggy socks and boots wasn’t much fun. She wiped the mud off her bottom and clambered up. At the top of the bank she pulled off one boot and poured out the water. Then she did the same with the other foot. It felt awful to have to slide her feet back into them when all she could think of was warm, cosy slippers, or dry feet wriggling in front of a roaring open fire.
But she did it. She had to.
She continued on, cursing every step, feeling the ache in her bottom gradually fade away.
By the time she met up with Olly again a good twenty minutes had passed and her teeth were chattering.
‘Any j-j-joy?’
Olly looked her up and down. ‘You’re soaked!’
‘N-Not really. I’m more ice now than water.’ She managed a smile.
‘You can’t go on like that. Come on—I’ll take you home.’
‘We need to look for Ruby.’
‘And have my new doctor get hypothermia? I don’t think so.’
‘But the police think we’re looking in this area. We can’t leave.’
‘I’ll let them know what’s happened and how far we searched. First rule of emergency support: make sure it’s safe for yourself. I won’t have you walking around in those boots and wet trousers.’
‘What if I refuse?’
He looked hard at her, his steely blue eyes firm and sure. But then a hint of a twinkle filled them before he scooped her up into his arms suddenly, the way a groom might carry a new bride over the threshold. ‘Then I’m forced to do this.’ He looked into her eyes with amusement, daring her to say anything.
Lula blushed, but also laughed. Olly was strong. She could feel him holding her tightly and safely in his arms. ‘Why, Dr James!’
He grinned and began walking the path back to the car. ‘Let’s just hope I don’t hit the ice or we’ll both be doomed.’
Lula didn’t think he’d continue to carry her all the way back to the car. It was so far! But somehow he did. Okay, he was huffing and puffing, and his cheeks were fiery red, and she’d sagged slightly in his arms by the time they got there, but he still held her. He only put her down when they reached the stile at the entry point to the woods.
‘Thank you. You didn’t have to carry me so far.’
‘Yes, I did. I couldn’t have your feet in the snow. Not wet like that.’
‘Well, it was very chivalrous of you.’
He accepted her thanks with a grin and a nod of his head. ‘I do try to be a gentleman.’
‘You do it very well. This maiden is thankful.’
She smiled then, and kissed his cheek, but when she pulled away her smile faltered as she saw the way he was looking at her mouth. As if he was hungry for her. As if he was going to kiss her back and it wasn’t going to be a friendly peck.
Hurriedly, suddenly afraid of what she might do if she let him, she turned away and clambered over the stile, her whistle clinking against the buttons on her coat. Lula waited on her side of the car, glad that she had the space of a car between them, but clambered in eagerly when he opened up her side and turned on the heater.
Hot air billowed into the car and gratefully she peeled off her boots and socks and perched her bare feet up on the console, near one of the heating vents.
‘Oh…bliss!’
Her toes were very pale—almost white. She wriggled her toes to try and feel them, to try and get some life back into them, whilst Olly reversed out of the car park.
They passed some other searchers on the way back, identified by the whistles on their lanyards.
When they got back to Moonrose Cottage Olly insisted on carrying her to her front door.
‘I can walk!’
‘In bare feet?’
He scooped her out of her seat and once again carried her easily up to the front door. She had her keys ready and unlocked the door. She waited for him to set her down.
‘I’ll restart the fire.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll make you a hot drink.’
She watched him disappear into the kitchen. She scooped a pair of thick boot socks off the back of a chair and was just stacking some bigger logs onto the burgeoning flames when she heard him call out.
‘Lula?’
‘Yes?’
‘Have you been in the garden shed?’
There was a garden shed?
‘No, I haven’t.’
‘The door’s hanging open. There’s tracks.’
Lula padded into the kitchen, her brow lined in question.
But Olly had already unlocked the side door and set off into the garden. From the window, she watched him traverse the long length of the garden towards a ramshackle old shed that she’d not noticed earlier. Then she saw him dash in and heard him calling her name.
Lula rushed to the back door, unable to go out since she had nothing on her feet but clutching the door frame, hoping he’d found Ruby.
He had.
Moments later Olly emerged sideways from the shed with a pale young girl in his arms, wrapped in blankets. He carried her all the way up the garden.
Two maidens in one day.
‘Be careful! It’s slippery!’ Lula warned. She didn’t need him to fall over now and drop the young teenager in the snow.
He carried her into the house and Lula rushed to the front room to pull one of the chairs in front of the now roaring fire.
‘I’ll make her a hot drink.’
Normally Lula wouldn’t give someone needing medical attention any drink or food, in case they needed an operation, but with Ruby it was essential she be warmed up slowly. As neither of them had any warm intravenous fluids handy to push into her veins, blankets, a fire and a hot drink would have to do.
When she hurried back into the front room, holding a steaming mug of sweet tea, Olly was just getting off the phone.
‘I’ve called for an ambulance.’
‘Notify the police, too. Call off the search.’
He nodded and flipped open his phone once again.
Lula knelt in front of the young girl, noting her pale features, the way she clutched the blankets. She was still shivering—which was good. It meant true hypothermia hadn’t set in.
‘Sip this. Slowly.’ She held the mug to Ruby’s lips and waited for her to take a sip. The solitary action seemed to exhaust the young girl. ‘Oh, Ruby! Everyone’s been looking for you. Your mother’s been frantic.’
‘E-E-Everyone?’ she stammered.
Lula nodded slowly. ‘A lot of the village came out in an organised search. And the police…Dr James and I.’
‘I d-didn’t know where else to go.’
Lula offered the tea again and Olly returned to kneel by her side. ‘The police are on their way.’
Ruby looked frightened.
‘It’s okay, Ruby. They just want to make sure you’re all right.’
‘Am I in t-trouble?’
They both shook their heads, though truthfully neither of them knew exactly how Ruby’s mother might react. Would she be angry that her daughter had disappeared and had a baby in secret? Or would she cry? Ask questions? Be sympathetic? Understanding?
‘You had a baby, didn’t you?’ Lula asked.
Ruby met her gaze and tears welled up in her eyes. ‘It hurt.’
Lula and Olly smiled. ‘Of course it did. You were so brave to go through it on your own. Where did it happen?’
‘In my bedroom. Mum was at work, so no one heard.’
‘We searched the house. Didn’t find any sign of the afterbirth or anything.’
‘I used a plastic sheet. Mum p-painted the hall a few weeks ago, in time for Christmas, and bought plastic sheets to protect the carpet. I used one of those.’
‘Where did you dispose of it?’
‘The public litter bin by the church.’ She sipped at the tea a bit more. ‘That’s good.’ She paused briefly,
her eyes welling once again, before she asked, ‘How’s my baby?’
Lula patted her knee. ‘Good. Safe and warm in hospital. You did a good job, wrapping her up warm and placing that hot water bottle under her. It kept her safe. Though you were lucky I found her. I’d only just moved in. Did you know that?’
Ruby nodded, pulling the blankets tighter around her. ‘When I was smaller I used to play here in Mrs James’s garden all the time. She used to let me play in the orchard at the bottom, and the shed was my Wendy house of sorts. She put an old chair in there, an oil heater, and some blankets for when the weather was cold and I didn’t want to go home.’
‘Why didn’t you want to go home?’
‘My mum and I didn’t get along and Mrs James was always kind. Like a grandmother to me.’
‘You knew my grandmother?’ Olly asked.
‘Very well.’ Ruby smiled. ‘She was lovely. When I’d left the baby on the doorstep I was so tired, and it hurt to walk, I knew I had to rest and I remembered the shed. I hoped the heater still had oil in it and it did.’
Lula looked incredulous. ‘You were in there all that time?’
Ruby nodded.
‘I never noticed. How did I not notice?’
‘There weren’t any lights. How would you know?’
She looked at the young girl. ‘You could have frozen to death.’
‘I was too tired to care.’
Lula glanced at Olly, trying her best not to cry at the young girl’s revelation. He reached out and rubbed her shoulder in support.
She blinked away the tears. ‘We were worried that you might have a retained placenta.’
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s where not all of the afterbirth comes away.’
‘It seemed okay.’
‘Are you in pain now?’
‘A bit. But isn’t that normal after giving birth?’
They all heard a siren in the distance, getting closer.
‘I’m in so much trouble!’ She began to cry.
Lula knelt forward and wrapped her arms around the young girl. She still felt so cold! And she was shuddering and shaking from crying so much.
It broke her heart to think of what this young girl had gone through. Had her own mother experienced the same thing? Had she been through labour and birth alone and then left Lula on the beach because she’d been too scared to tell anyone she’d had a baby?
As the ambulance stopped in front of the property and Olly let the paramedics in Lula vowed to stay by Ruby’s side until the young girl’s mother arrived.
Why should she be alone ever again?
Why should either of them?
*
Olly followed the ambulance to the hospital. Stuck in his own vehicle, he keenly felt his separation from Lula. She’d connected to Ruby—he could see that. She was obviously viewing her own past and abandonment in light of what had occurred with the young teenager.
He felt good that they’d found Ruby and that this story might end well. He hoped so. He could only hope that Lula would find her happy ending, too.
I’m going to help her find her mother.
It was the most important thing to her. How could he not help? And if Lula found her mother within Atlee Wold then perhaps she’d stay. There’d be no reason for her to leave, would there? And if she stayed, that meant…he could have a future with Lula in it.
Parking his vehicle in the car park, he strolled into A&E, waving at one of the receptionists he knew. Sally beckoned him over.
‘Dr James! Good to see you. How long has it been?’
He was keen to get to Lula and Ruby, but he didn’t want to be rude. ‘Too long, Sally. How’s Jack?’ Jack was Sally’s husband—a stroke nurse.
‘Good, thanks. Getting all nervous about his parachute jump in May.’
Parachute jump? Was the whole world going mad and doing crazy things? ‘Parachute jump?’
‘It’s for charity. They’re raising money for brain tumour research. You could do it, too!’
Sally passed him a fundraising form and he took it, doubt in his head. But then he thought of Lula, and what she’d do and say if she knew he’d turned down an opportunity like this.
But did he want to throw himself out of an aeroplane to prove that he wasn’t stuck in a rut? That he did occasionally challenge himself? Heights didn’t bother him—but then he was normally inside tall buildings or planes, not about to throw himself out of one…
‘I don’t know…’
Sally smiled. ‘It’s a good cause. Think how you’ll feel when your feet touch the ground.’
His feet always touched the ground. He liked them there. It was safe.
But wasn’t that the issue?
Olly stared at the form.
Then at Sally.
He nodded.
CHAPTER SIX
IT WAS A LONG wait at the hospital. For the second time in two days, Lula sat by a patient’s bedside, watching her sleep.
Ruby’s mother had arrived—frantic, weeping, shaking with relief—and she and the young girl had had a tearful reunion. Ruby was physically all right, thankfully. No retained placenta, normal blood loss and she’d been slowly warmed up. Then the nurses had asked if Ruby had wanted to see her baby.
Ruby hadn’t known how to answer, but her mother had answered for her. Yes, they wanted to see the baby—because Ruby’s mother wanted to know if they could bring her grandchild home.
That had made Lula cry. It might have been a tragic story, Ruby and her baby. It might have had a disastrous ending. But it hadn’t. The family was being reunited. As Lula had hoped all along. It hadn’t happened in time for her. No one had found or tracked down EL from Atlee Wold for her. There’d been no desperate search in the snow for her.
Lula had remained alone. And then ill and alone. Until the Chance family had come along and offered her home comforts and love. She’d been grateful to them, but she had always known she didn’t belong. That she wasn’t one of them. That it wasn’t her real family. And that yearning for actual roots, for actual blood relations, had burned her deep inside.
Olly hadn’t had a mother, either. Was that why he was looking for perfection? Was that why he kept everything safe and normal? So that he didn’t have to feel different from everyone else?
Because that was how not having a mother had felt to Lula.
Being on the outside, always looking in, had given her a tendency to keep away from people. When had she ever got involved with anyone? Deeply enough for it to hurt when it was over?
Just once.
But there was something different about being in Atlee Wold. The people, the community feeling… It was hard to describe, but Lula felt at home here. As if she was in the right place. She knew her mother was here. Maybe even her father? Who knew? And the urge to stay was strong, even though she knew the chances that her mother wouldn’t welcome her with open arms could be strong. What if her mother wouldn’t acknowledge her? Wanted nothing to do with her?
Well, that would hurt, but I’d cope with it.
Lula knew that if she was to stay strong then no matter how the search ended she’d have to walk away. Give her mother space. Give herself space and time to reflect. She’d have to put miles between them so as not to come on too strong and demand more from her mother than her mother was able to give. To build their relationship slowly if there was a chance of one.
Perhaps her mother had yearned for her over the years? It was possible, wasn’t it?
I do hope so.
And the chance to learn about the choices her mother had made would give Lula some closure, too. Nobody wanted to feel not wanted. Not loved. Especially by their parents. It was meant to be an unbreakable bond, the bond between a mother and her child.
Just to know that she held me in her arms and loved me…
Lula wanted that feeling very much.
*
Olly drove Lula back from the hospital once again, glancing over at her, looking at her secr
etly, hoping she wasn’t noticing how much he looked at her. It wasn’t like her to be this quiet. In the short time he’d known her she’d always been so bubbly, always so full of something to say. It was strange to have her so quiet.
He knew the situation with Ruby must have hit home with her. He knew she was searching for her mother and he hoped she would find her. But he had no real idea of the anguish she was in.
He could only imagine it.
It must be terrible and he wanted to comfort her. Make her better. He decided to take the plunge and dive straight in.
‘Guess what I’m going to do?’
He felt her turn to look at him. ‘What?’
‘You won’t believe it.’
‘Try me.’
He grinned, his stomach flipping over in shock as he finally admitted to it out loud. ‘A sponsored parachute jump.’
Now she was really looking at him. ‘What?’
He could hear the delight in her voice, the surprise and the joy. It thrilled him immensely—much more than he’d expected it to. Pleasing her made him feel good. Made him acknowledge that he’d stepped out of Mediocre Land and was going to take a huge leap into Extraordinaryville.
‘Really.’
‘That’s great, Olly! And so brave. I’m not sure I could do it—I’m afraid of heights.’
‘I’m sure you’ll think of something to challenge it.’
Back at Moonrose Cottage, she invited him in and he nodded his head, wanting to make sure she was okay before he left for the night. It was late. Almost eleven.
The fire had died out and there was a slight chill to the cottage, so he reset the fire whilst Lula sat on the sofa, holding an old quilt around her.
She looked so sad. It was an emotion he didn’t associate with her and he so wanted to put it right. There was something about Lula that reached out to him and made him care. Something he’d never experienced before.
The flames took hold slowly, building into a strong red-orange heat. As the wood spat and crackled he sat back and took a seat beside her, taking her hand in his, squeezing her fingers.
‘Will you be all right?’
She smiled and nodded at him. ‘Sure. It’s just been an eventful couple of days, that’s all.’
His Perfect Bride? Page 9