Page 67 of Chasing a Highland Dream

‘Aye. I’d called in to drop some things off for my mum when the ambulance turned up.’

Bella gathered herself and straightened up, doing her best to regain her strength.

Her dad shook his head. ‘She doesn’t usually go on a Saturday; how come she was there, Bella?’

‘They were having a special event. A tea dance. From what Harris said, Granny tripped over a chair and fell quite badly onto her side but hit her head and was knocked out too.’

Bella’s dad sighed. ‘That’s why they called me. We were unpacking from the holiday, and I missed a call from Sunnyside, but I presumed it was a mistake with it being Saturday, so I didn’t ring back. Poor Mum.’ He ran his hand over his face as the colour left his skin.

Callum gasped. ‘What about Beau? Where’s Beau?’

Harris held up a reassuring hand. ‘Don’t worry. He’s at the castle with Brodie, Olivia and their dogs.’

Callum breathed an audible sigh of relief. ‘Thank you.’

‘I’m so worried, Dad,’ Bella said as she chewed her thumbnail. ‘A fall at her age can be drastic. But she has to be okay.’

‘She will be, love. Like I always tell you, she’s tough. We have to be patient now. She’s in the best place.’

‘I should probably go. But I’ll be back later,’ Harris said, placing a hand on Bella’s back. ‘If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to call me, okay?’

Bella turned and grappled Harris into a hug. ‘Thank you. Thank you so much.’ He smelled so good and familiar, and his arms felt safe and right.

He hugged her back and when he pulled away, he placed a hand on either side of her face and kissed her forehead. ‘Take care, Bella.’ There was something in his eyes that drew her in. She didn’t want him to leave. She always felt so much better when he was there. Although she daren’t let herself get used to that feeling, seeing as he would be relocating to Skye soon. Over a hundred miles away. Thinking about that caused tears to threaten again but she pushed the pain down, labelling it as being caused by her heightened emotions.

30

Eventually Bella and her family moved closer to Isla’s ward and sat in a small family waiting room. Orange fabric chairs skirted the walls and a coffee table in the centre of the room was scattered with magazines and books. A faded artificial flower arrangement sat in the middle, looking about as cheery as everyone in the room was feeling. Bella’s dad paced the floor and Bella sat with her head on her mum’s shoulder, staring at the beige tiles on the floor. Callum sat, eyes closed and head leaning against the wall.

Eventually Bella stood and walked to the window. The mist had gone and now, from this high vantage point, you could see right across Inverness to the mountains where the sky was beginning to turn a dusky orange as the sun sank in the sky. Her phone beeped and she glanced down to see there were several messages that must have come through when her phone was on silent. Olivia, Skye and Harris, all checking she was okay. Nothing from Aiden. It figured and she didn’t really care anyway.

After another two hours and several cups of vending-machine coffee, the door opened. ‘Isla Douglas’s family?’ asked the doctor as she stepped inside, still in her scrubs.

Bella’s dad stood, his holiday-tanned face somehow pale with evident worry. ‘Aye, is she okay?’

The doctor smiled. ‘Surgery has gone well. We had to replace the hip due to the nature of the fracture, she’ll need extensive physio, but she should be fine. She’s tough and a real character.’ The doctor smiled. ‘She had been knocked out when she fell but was conscious when she arrived here. She was insisting she’d be fine after a couple of paracetamol and a lie-down,’ the doctor said with a light laugh.

Bella and her family were able to laugh too at this. ‘Aye, that sounds like Granny, eh, Bells?’ her brother Callum said as he put his arm around her shoulder.

Bella wiped her eyes and grinned. ‘It certainly does. But don’t be surprised if she moans about being on the gyratics ward.’

The doctor chuckled. ‘Ah, yes, we’ve already had that. She also asked if there were any handsome young male nurses to look after her.’

Bella covered her face with her hand. ‘Good grief, she’s incorrigible.’

‘Anyway, she’s back on the ward in a side room at the moment. Room two. She’s in and out of consciousness, so please don’t overcrowd her. I know you’re worried, but she needs her rest. And don’t be alarmed by the bruising on her face. She’s elderly and these things tend to appear quite horrific. Just think about her comment about paracetamol and you’ll remember she’s a tough cookie.’ And with that the doctor left.

‘Go on, Bells, you go see her first, love. Put your mind at rest,’ Bella’s dad said.

Bella hugged him immediately. ‘Thanks, Dad.’ With trepidation, she walked along a white corridor, past crammed noticeboards housing pamphlets about various illnesses, and thank you cards from former patients and their families, towards room two. She took a deep breath and gingerly opened the door, a fresh tissue clutched in her hand in readiness.

Isla was lying with her eyes closed and attached to various pieces of medical equipment that were blipping and beeping the rhythm of her heart. It was steady and strong, which was a positive sign to Bella. Numbers were flashing on a screen by the bed and a drip of clear liquid was also attached to her somewhere under a bandage around her arm. The side of Isla’s face was swollen and purple and she looked so tiny and frail. A sob escaped Bella’s mouth and she immediately covered it with her tissue. Seeing her granny like this was horrendous. Bella’s stomach ached, the pain dull and nauseating, and her chest tightened to the point she had to remind herself to breathe. She pulled up a chair and sat, tears once again streaming down her face, but she simply let them fall.

She reached out and took Isla’s hand. Her skin was mottled and wrinkly but soft to the touch. Bella had painted her nails that morning in a soft lilac to match her tea dance dress. Her hands were so familiar and held Bella’s regularly; sometimes during their movie nights and sometimes when they were out walking together. Bella had no shame about that whatsoever, regardless of her age. She adored her granny. She was her best friend, and being faced with the knowledge she could have lost her was devastating, heart-rending. Bella’s pain was a physical and emotional gut-wrenching agony that twisted her insides and almost took away her breath.

She lowered her head and rested it on her granny’s hand. ‘You have to get better, Granny. I’m not ready to let you go yet.’

After a few silent moments, punctuated only by the noises of the equipment in the room, there was movement. ‘Hello, hen, what’s the matter?’ came a weak, slurred voice that caused Bella to lift her head.