Page 78 of The Winter Bride

Half an hour later they were summoned into a solemn-faced doctor’s office and ushered to some seats.

‘Well, I think the young lady has actually been very lucky,’ he informed them. ‘X-rays indicate that she has two cracked ribs and a concussion as well as multiple cuts and bruises, but luckily nothing else is broken so I have every hope that she will recover completely with time and bed rest.’

Annie breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Thank you, when can we take her home?’

‘I shall need to keep her under observation for a few days, but it could have been much worse. I think the police will want to interview her next.’

‘Thank you, Doctor.’ Annie rose from her seat on legs that felt as if they’d turned to jelly. ‘May we go back in to see her?’

‘Just for a few minutes,’ he responded. ‘As I said, the best cure for her now is rest. Good day.’

Annie and John made their way back down the ward and as they drew the curtain aside Nancy’s frightened eyes stared up at them.

‘Oh, my poor girl, how are you feeling?’ Annie leant over to gently kiss her forehead.

‘Like I’ve been hit by a train,’ Nancy muttered through swollen lips. She tried to sit but it was too painful, and she flopped back against the pillows.

‘Do you have any idea who did this to you, Nancy?’ John asked.

Tears filled Nancy’s eyes as she shook her head. ‘No, I was walking to meet Jamie when suddenly someone grabbed me from behind and yanked me into an alley.’ She gulped deep in her throat before going on. ‘The next thing I knew they were beating me, but it was too dark to see anything and that’s the last I remember until I woke up here.’

The curtains parted yet again and Jamie appeared looking fearful and pale. Marie had sent word to him of where Nancy might be and he’d set out immediately.

‘Oh, my lovely Nance,’ he said in a small voice. ‘You scared me nearly to death disappearing like that!’

Sensing that the young lovers needed some time alone, John gently took Annie’s elbow and led her back into the ward.

‘I’ll be back at visiting time,’ Annie promised as they left, but Nancy only had eyes for Jamie and Annie wasn’t sure she’d even heard her.

‘Why would anyone do something so brutal to Nancy?’ Annie questioned. But then a thought suddenly occurred to her, and she stopped in her tracks. Nancy had been wearing her hat and coat last night. Could it be that in the darkness someone had taken Nancy to be Annie?

Glancing at John, she told him what she was thinking and he looked shocked. ‘But why would anyone want to hurt you any more than they’d want to hurt Nancy?’ he questioned.

She thought of the shadowy figure in the empty doorway across the road from her shop and chewed on her lip. She’d seen them far too often for it to be a coincidence, but what proof did she have? There were so many homeless people sleeping rough in London that it could just have been someone who was seeking shelter there. She’d never told John of her fear of Reggie, but what if it was him? The thought made her shudder. She was a strong, independent woman, but she knew her strength couldn’t match his if he attacked her again.

‘Look, let’s get you home and get some breakfast inside you,’ John said kindly, breaking into her thoughts. ‘You look all in, and it’s been a very long night for all of us.’

‘Yes . . . yes it has. And I need to pack a bag for Nancy,’ Annie agreed as he led her from the hospital.

Marie was waiting for them when they got back. Adam was up too, tucking into a bowl of porridge.

‘Was it her and is she all right?’ Marie immediately questioned.

Annie left John to fill her in on all the details as she went into Nancy’s room to start packing a bag for her. She would need nightclothes and toiletries. Suddenly she sank down onto the side of the bed and buried her face in her hands. Things could have been so different if Nancy hadn’t been found when she had. The night before had been bitterly cold and being out in such temperatures on top of the beating she’d taken might easily have killed her. She didn’t know how she would have been able to live with herself if she’d lost Nancy.

She took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together. Nancy was alive and was going to be all right again eventually – that was the important thing.

That evening, Annie joined the queue outside the ward with the other visitors and was pleased to see that Jamie was at the front of the line holding an enormous bunch of flowers, which must have cost a fortune. He looked flushed and worried as Annie smiled at him. At last, the doors were opened and the visitors streamed inside. The curtains were no longer drawn around Nancy’s bed but as Annie and Jamie approached, they saw that she looked even worse than she had that morning. Her face was even more swollen and the bruises were darkening to a vivid blue and purple. Jamie’s eyes filled with tears at the sight of her.

‘If I could get me hands on whoever did this to you I’d kill ’em,’ he said vehemently.

‘It’s all right, it’s not as bad as it looks,’ Nancy said bravely through cracked lips. Only an hour before the poor girl had spat a tooth out. Luckily it was one of her back ones so at least the gap wouldn’t show when she smiled.

Annie didn’t know what to say. Whoever had done this had thrashed her to within an inch of her life before leaving her for dead in the freezing cold.

‘I’ve brought your things in,’ she said, trying to remain calm as she loaded them into the locker at the side of her bed. It was breaking her heart to see Nancy like this and she couldn’t shift the thought that this beating had been meant for her. Once again John had run her to the hospital while Marie stayed behind to watch Adam, and she wondered what she would have done without them.

‘Have the doctors been to see you again yet?’ she asked.