Page 106 of The Bookshop By the Loch

Maeve dived one hand inside her bag to collect her phone. She frowned down at the glowing screen. “It’s the residential home.” She shot me a concerned look as she answered. “Hello?”

The tinges of summer colour in Maeve’s cheeks ebbed away. “What? When? Oh God. What happened? When did she do that?” Maeve’s face was a mask of worry. “And she won’t go to hospital?”

She paced up and down. “Right. I’m on my way now.”

She finished the call and clutched at her bag.

“Maeve?”

“It’s Mum,” she struggled, preparing to head for the bookshop door. Worry clouded in her eyes. “She’s collapsed.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Joy led Maeve, me and Tobias down the hallway and past the summer room, where a few of the residents were admiring the shadows playing on the lawns. Fresh gerbera and roses were thrusting out of vases on the windowsills.

Tobias had heard Maeve’s panic and insisted he drive us here.

Celeste’s door was open.

Joy encouraged Maeve in.

Maeve took one look at her mother and gave a disbelieving shake of her head.

“All I need is a stiff drink,” carried Celeste’s frustrated voice.

“You do not need a drink, Mum. Only water or juice.”

Maeve turned and looked out of the room at Tobias and me hovering there. Relief swamped her features that we stayed and were there to support her. There was no way either Tobias or me would be anywhere else right now. She beckoned us both. “Please come in and see your ladyship.”

Celeste was sitting up in bed, propped against a few pillows. She made me think of a diva movie star in her petrol-blue silk dressing gown and matching nightdress. She was also adorned in what looked like the whole contents of her jewellery box.

A coquettish smile played on her lips when Tobias and I entered. “Good grief. What is this? The cavalry?”

The young male doctor, who introduced himself as Dr Jenkins, rose up from where he’d been sitting on the corner of Celeste’s bed.

“You had these two ladies very worried,” explained Tobias. “I was too, when Maeve told me what had happened.”

Celeste’s expression was one of impatience. “It was nothing! Joy over-reacted. It was just a little stumble.”

“It was not a little stumble at all, Mrs Matthews,” piped up the doctor. “You collapsed.”

Celeste was incandescent. “How do you know? You weren’t here.”

“Mum,” growled Maeve. She shook her head with exasperation. “I see her tongue hasn’t been affected.”

I laughed and Dr Jenkins’s brows rose at Celeste. “I was reliably informed.” He pushed a lock of mid-brown hair out of his eyes. “Your blood pressure was rather low, but it’s stabilised now. Do you know what might have caused it?”

Maeve’s attention flitted over to Corinne’s letter, which was lying on the bedside table.

Celeste gave the young doctor a look. “I thought you were supposed to know things like that.”

Maeve delivered a sharp stare at her mother.

The doctor, however, just laughed. “You remind me of my own mother. An answer for everything.” He pinned Celeste with his astute, sharp blue eyes. “I’d like to admit you to hospital as a precaution, Mrs Matthews.”

“Absolutely not, young man! If I’m going to peg it, I want to do it here in my own bed, not surrounded by crusty old farts.”

Tobias, standing beside me, choked back a bark of laughter.