Page 93 of The Winter Bride

‘Thank goodness, you’re back with us.’

The voice seemed to come from a long way away as Annie blearily blinked, wincing with pain. Panic set in and she tried to lift herself up onto her elbow but gentle hands pressed her back into the pillows.

‘Wh-where am I?’ She was confused and frightened and as everything rushed back, she began to cry. ‘Where’s Adam? . . . And Alfred? . . . Poor Alfred!’

‘Please be calm.’

It was Marie’s gentle face looking down on her and she began to cry harder.

‘Do not be afraid. It is all over now,’ Marie soothed. ‘You are in the ’ospital. Adam is safe at my ’ome with my ’ousekeeper and Alfred is at the veterinary clinic, but they say he will get well. He ’as the cracked ribs but ’e will recover.’

‘And Mrs Taylor-Lloyd?’

Marie hesitated before telling her quietly, ‘She broke her neck when she fell on the sink. She will trouble you no more. The police wish to speak to you to find out exactly what ’appened, although we already ’ave a very good idea. Luckily, Ruth found you when she arrived to open the shop this morning, but there was nothing to be done for Mrs Taylor-Lloyd.’

Annie gulped. So, the woman who had always detested her was dead.

‘Did she break in?’ Marie asked.

Annie shook her head. ‘She told me she stole Ruth’s keys when she visited the shop the other day.’

Marie nodded. ‘Ah, Ruth said she recognised her. But do not be upset. Everything will be fine now. You must rest. Can I get you a drink or anything?’

Annie shook her head again and made to rise, only to find that one of her arms and one of her legs was heavily bandaged. Her face hurt too and when she raised her good arm to her cheek, her fingers encountered a large pad.

‘I am afraid that you sprained your ankle badly when you fell,’ Marie informed her. ‘And Mrs Taylor-Lloyd slashed your face and your arm. They ’ave been stitched and at least you are alive.’

‘Alfred saved me,’ Annie told her in a croaky voice. ‘If he hadn’t come in and attacked her when he did, I’m sure she would have killed me.’

A nurse approached the bed and seeing that Annie was awake she smiled. ‘Would you mind leaving me with the patient?’ she said to Marie. ‘I need to take her temperature and blood pressure, then there’s a police officer outside who would like to speak to her. They need to take a statement. You can wait in the corridor, if you wish.’

Marie shook her head. ‘Thank you, but I must go now.’ She bent to kiss Annie’s forehead. ‘I will get back to Adam but I’ll come tomorrow with anything you might need.’

An hour later, after Annie had made her statement to the police, she lay reliving what had happened the night before and shuddered. The policeman had informed her that her ex-mother-in-law’s body was now in the police morgue. He didn’t foresee it being an ongoing case as it was clear what had happened.

‘But what will happen to her body?’ Annie had queried. ‘There’s no one left to arrange a burial for her.’

‘She’ll no doubt be buried in a pauper’s grave,’ the officer answered solemnly.

Annie shook her head. ‘No, I’d like her body taken back to Nuneaton and for her to be buried with her husband,’ she told him firmly. ‘I shall pay for any expenses.’

‘That’s very good of you under the circumstances,’ he said.

Annie shrugged. ‘I was married to her son, so I’m doing it more for him than her,’ she answered honestly.

She lay staring at the ceiling feeling as if she had been run over by a tram. She was supposed to have been going home tomorrow but that wouldn’t be happening now, and she wondered where she, Adam and Alfred could stay until she was well enough to travel. If Alfred survived that was. She owed her life to him and prayed that he would.

The question of where she would stay was answered by Marie when she visited with a basket of fruit almost as large as she was, a huge bunch of flowers, and Annie’s nightgown and toiletries.

‘When you are discharged, you will be coming to stay with me and John until you are well enough to go ’ome,’ Marie told her in a brook-no-argument kind of voice. ‘And I just called into the veterinary clinic and they told me that Alfred is doing very well.’

Annie breathed a sigh of relief. ‘And Adam?’

Marie chuckled as she handed the flowers to a nurse to put in a vase. ‘’E is being spoilt rotten by my ’ousekeeper and the cook. He ’as them eating out of his ’and. ’Ow did your interview with the police go?’

Annie told her what she had asked them to do for Mrs Taylor-Lloyd.

‘I would ’ave expected no less of you,’ Marie said. ‘Although she certainly doesn’t deserve such kindness. She came to kill you. But now let us speak of ’appier things. I ’ave just spoken to the doctor and ’e thinks you might be well enough to be discharged in a day or two, although you won’t be able to do much until your ankle is better. You will need to keep off it and rest. I ’ave already had a room prepared for you and Adam. Oh, and I phoned Peggy to tell ’er what ’appened. I hope I did the right thing?’