Dangerous Love

by Ashby, Teresa

  “Oh, Bonnie,” she whispered and touched the bed beside her where Bonnie slept during the day when Regan was on night shifts and Georgie was at school. At night she slept on Georgie’s bed, but she always liked to be close to one of them.

  It was just typical of her to have tried to get to Georgie, not realising she’d already been rescued. Of course she’d have been frightened off by all the rescue vehicles as well as the storm and the lights. Regan imagined her creeping back when she was sure everyone had gone.

  At least she knew she’d be in safe hands with Bram. He was completely soppy when it came to animals.

  When Bram emerged from his surgery, the grey-haired woman sitting in his waiting room got straight to her feet.

  “I’m here for Bonnie,” she blurted.

  “I know,” he said. “She’s asleep in the staff room.”

  He hadn’t wanted to put her in a cage when he brought her back downstairs from his flat. He didn’t really know why except she’d curled up on the small sofa and had looked so peaceful and settled, he hadn’t the heart to disturb her when he had to start seeing patients.

  “Sue, would you fetch Bonnie, please?” he said, then he turned back to the woman. “She’s in good shape, considering. She was cold and wet when we found her and she has a cut on her paw which was pretty clean and should heal nicely with proper care. I’ve put a dressing on, but I want to see her tomorrow to check it out.”

  “Thank you,” the woman said as she opened her bag and pulled out her purse. “How much is it?”

  “Sorry?” Bram frowned.

  “Your bill, for the dressing and everything.”

  “There is no charge,” he said crisply. This had to be Georgie’s grandmother. She was too old surely to be her mother. Perhaps there was no mother. He had to stop judging people he knew nothing about and this poor woman looked as if she’d had hardly any sleep.

  He smiled. “How’s Georgie, Mrs..?”

  “Shires,” she said. “Lally Shires. Everyone calls me Lally. But you must have incurred expenses and she was quite adamant that I should pay the bill.”

  “She?” Bram’s eyebrows rose.

  “Bonnie’s owner,” Lally said and she looked the other way, unable to meet his eyes. Now what was all that about? It was almost as if she was hiding something. “I look after Georgie and Bonnie while she’s at work.”

  “I see,” Bram felt his lips tighten and had to make a conscious effort to untighten them. Perhaps it was him! Regan always used to say he was like a bull at a gate sometimes, scaring people with what she called his self-righteous pomposity. She always made it sound like a joke, but maybe there was some truth in it. He softened his features into a smile and Lally seemed to relax.

  “She’s in bed now, catching up on her sleep, poor love,” Lally went on.

  “Poor love,” he repeated incredulously. Oh there he went again, judging and deciding what was going on without having the full facts. He packed away his indignation, put the lid down firmly on top of it and smiled again.

  The door from the back opened and Bonnie bounded through, ecstatic to see a familiar face. She bounced up and down, barking happily and Lally made a huge fuss of her. She was near to tears.

  “She looks great,” she said. “Did you bath her?”

  “I gave her a bit of a rinse,” he said. “She’d got seaweed and all sorts stuck in her fur.”

  “She loves the water if she’s swimming in it, but not so keen on baths, are you, girl?”

  Sue handed the lead to Lally and she thanked Bram again before hurrying towards the door.

  “Mrs Shires…”

  “Lally.”

  “Lally,” he smiled. “When Georgie is better, bring her down to the RNLI station. We’ll show her round.”

  “Oh, she’d love that,” Lally said. “She’s always been a bit of a tomboy, you know, loves her fire engines and trucks and so on. Actually she’s a bit of a daredevil. It’s a worry, but hopefully this will have dampened her enthusiasm for adventure a little.”

  “Sometimes it is better to use that sense of adventure rather than try to suppress it,” Bram said. “Her parents should look into some sort of after school club she can join.”

  “Parent,” Lally said and again her eyes slid away as if she couldn’t look him in the eye. “There’s just her mum. Thank you again, Mr Fletcher.”

  “Bram,” he said.

  “And you want to see Bonnie tomorrow?” Lally confirmed.

  “That’s right.”

  “Ten o’clock,” Sue put in. “I’ve made an appointment.” She handed a card to Lally. “If it’s not convenient, let us know. Oh and is Bonnie one of our patients? I’ve only worked here for a month and I don’t recognise her.”

  “Yes,” Lally said. “She…”

  The door flew open and a man rushed in carrying a cat box.

  “Please, help,” he cried.

  Bram ushered him straight into the surgery with an apologetic look at Lally.

  Phew! Lally was wondering how she was going to tell Sue the name of Bonnie’s owner without dropping Regan right in it, when Bram stuck his head out and called her.

  “Need your help here, Sue,” he said. “It’s going to be an emergency C-section. See you tomorrow, Lally.”

  Lally breathed a sigh of relief. All this subterfuge didn’t come easily to her. Not that she’d actually lied to anyone. Yet. But until Regan had had a chance to speak to Bram, she’d have to keep up the pretence and remember not to name names.

  She scribbled a note for Sue.

  “Just remembered, Bonnie not a patient here. Please put her account in my name. Mrs Shires.”

  Oh now that was a big fat lie and she’d put it in writing too. She bit her lip, considered screwing up the paper and chucking it in the bin, then left before she could change her mind. Whatever she did would be wrong, but dropping Regan in it was the lesser of two evils.

  When she got back to Regan’s, she crept upstairs and peeked round the bedroom door. Regan was sound asleep. Bonnie ran over and jumped on the bed, snuggling up beside Regan and settling down with a contented smile.

  “Don’t wake her up, Bonnie,” Lally whispered, but the dog’s eyes were already closing. Bless them, they were both totally exhausted and would sleep for hours.

  “For goodness sake,” Regan groaned and lifted her head from the pillow. “What on earth is going on? What’s all the noise about?”

  Someone was hammering on the door and shouting and Bonnie was barking like crazy. She’d been dimly aware of Bonnie jumping onto the bed at some point and had settled into a deeper sleep after that knowing that Lally had dropped her off.

  Now her mouth was dry and her head spinning. Her first confused thoughts were that Georgie had been sent home from school early, but Georgie was safe at the hospital and they’d phone if anything was wrong.

  She checked her phone. No missed calls.

  She fought back a wave of nausea and reached for her dressing gown. The hammering and shouting continued.

  She’d had all of three hours’ sleep.

  “All right,” she called as she hurried down the stairs. “I’m coming.”

  Not that her caller would be able to hear above the racket they were making as well as Bonnie’s frenzied barking. Regan shut her in the living room and she continued to bark.

  When she opened the door, she found herself face to face with one of her neighbours, Katie. She had a son in Georgie’s class and she looked absolutely furious.

  “Where is he then?” she said, pushing her way into the hall. “Little bugger, I’ll kill him when I get hold of him.”

  “Sorry, who?” Regan blinked. “What are you talking about?”

  “Jay, who else?” She looked Regan up and down. “Were you in bed?”

  She sounded faintly disgusted.

  “I’m working the night shift,” Regan said and stifled a yawn, though why she should have to explain herself to her angry neighbour she didn’t know. Katie
wasn’t the easiest person to get on with. She’d moved into Coastguard Cottages a couple of years before after splitting up with her husband and she seemed to have quite a chip on her shoulder. “Why would I know where your son is? Surely he’s at school.”

  She wondered briefly if Jay’s dad had taken him. He visited almost every weekend and seemed like a nice guy, not the sort who’d take his son without the knowledge of his mother though, surely. Regan had met him a few times, just to say hello, and he was very pleasant.

  “Well he would be at school,” Katie snapped. “If he wasn’t off somewhere with your daughter.”

  “My daughter’s in hospital,” Regan said and waited for that to sink in, then as her mind began to clear and she realised the implications of all this, added. “I think we should call the police.”

  “No need to get them involved,” Katie said, suddenly on the defensive. “It’s just a prank. I’ve only just noticed he’s missing. He wouldn’t get up for school this morning and I left him until half an hour ago, then what happens when I go in his room? He’s put stuff in his bed to make it look like he’s in it, so I’d been telling a pile of clothes to shift themselves, not Jay at all. I thought he was feeling ill or something.”

  Her anger was rapidly vanishing, anxiety in its place.

  “I’ll get dressed,” Regan said. “There’s my phone. Call the police and tell them your son is missing and to start searching the cliffs.”

  “The cliffs? Why? He wouldn’t go up there. And what if the police find out I was letting him get a day of school when he didn’t need it? I could lose him you know! What if they decide he should live with his dad instead of me? I just couldn’t face the hassle today of getting him up, that’s not a crime is it?”

  “Just do it, please, Katie.”

  “Why?” she said. “What’s going on? What do you think’s happened to him? Why’s Georgie in hospital?”

  She began to look really frightened now.

  “Just make the call, Katie,” Regan said. “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

  Regan threw on the nearest thing to hand, her uniform. She didn’t even stop to brush her hair or put on tights. Things like that had no importance when a child’s life was at stake.

  When she came back downstairs, Katie was still standing in the hall. She hadn’t made the call.

  “I’ll get in trouble,” she said. “He’s done that before. Pretended he was ill and refused to get up until it was too late to take him to school. I’ve already been in it up to my neck for his absences and he’s only six. It’s not my fault. And if his dad gets wind of it, he’ll take him off me. You’ve seen how often he’s here visiting.”

  She rubbed her hands nervously up and down her arms and shivered.

  “I’m sure he wouldn’t do that,” Regan said gently.

  “You don’t know him. He’s always coming to visit. I don’t really mind because Jay loves him to bits, but maybe that’s his plan. Maybe he’s going to take Jay away. He said he wanted us to get back together, but I said no.”

  “What made you think Jay was here?” Regan asked.

  “Because he’s always going on about Georgie and you know what they’re like. As thick as thieves those two.”

  Regan automatically reached for her car keys, but there was no car outside. She’d left it in the hospital car park. She grabbed her phone and ushered Katie out of the door.

  If only she could think straight.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Katie demanded. The poor woman was terrified now.

  “I don’t know,” Regan said. “I need to think. You don’t drive do you? I’ll call a taxi.”

  She was getting her keys out, about to go back into her house when a big 4x4 turned the corner and pulled up outside. The back of it was full of empty cages and sitting behind the wheel, checking out the houses, was Bram.

  Regan began to wonder if this was another nightmare. Maybe she was still asleep and none of this was real. Nightmares were an all too real part of her life and had been for six years. Now she seemed to be living right in the middle of one.

  The car pulling up outside started Bonnie off again. Of all people it had to be him, but under the circumstances, she was mightily relieved that it was.

  “What are you doing here?” Bram said as he got out of the car.

  “No time to explain,” Regan replied. “Why are you here?”

  “I just came to check on Bonnie and bring some antibiotics in case that paw gets infected,” Bram explained. “But from the barking it sounds as if no one’s home. She’s been left on her own already.”

  He said that last with a heaviness in his voice.

  “No, it’s… I’m… I’ve got to get back to the hospital. This is Katie. Could you give us a lift, Bram?”

  He looked her up and down, no doubt taking in her crumpled uniform and messy hair and a frown creased his forehead.

  “Sure,” he said and he raised an eyebrow, but Regan knew he wouldn’t ask questions. He could see plainly enough that something was very wrong. He cast a suspicious look at Katie who was still wearing slippers and told them to get in the car.

  “Haven’t you been to bed yet?” he asked as he closed her door. “You look…”

  “Yes, I’m well aware of how I look, thank you,” she snapped. “Bram, we have to contact emergency services? Katie’s little boy is missing. She thinks he was with Georgie.”

  He was getting into the car as she spoke and she saw his shoulders stiffen.

  “You think he was up at the cliffs too?”

  “Almost certain,” Regan replied.

  “Okay. Make the call, Regan.”

  It was a short drive to the hospital, especially at this time of day when traffic was relatively light.

  “Thanks, Bram,” Regan said when he pulled up in the patients’ car park. “I appreciate that.”

  But he wasn’t going to be easily dismissed. He got out of the car, straightening the thick black sweater he wore.

  “You don’t have to stay,” Regan said. “I have my car here.”

  He gave Katie another curious look. He clearly had no intention of driving off anytime soon.

  “I was thinking I might pop in and see Georgie while I’m here,” he said.

  “No!” The word came out as a shout that caught Katie’s attention. “That’s not a good idea, Bram. It’s a terrible idea actually. She’ll be sleeping. You know how it is. She’ll need lots of rest.”

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “You’re right and probably the last thing she needs to see is my ugly mug.”

  “You’re not ugly, Bram, and you know it,” Regan murmured, smiling reluctantly. “Far from it.”

  “Okay,” he grinned and sent her heart spinning out of control. “See you around then, Regan. I hope. I’ll head up and join the search.”

  She nodded and watched him drive off, then gripped Katie’s arm and led her into the hospital and up to the ward to see Georgie. Why did he have to add “I hope?” It implied that he wanted to see her again, but why would he? They were finished. He’d made that perfectly plain six years ago. All this would be so much easier if he was prickly and bad tempered.

  But she had more pressing concerns now. She had to find out where Jay was.

  Georgie was awake and sitting up in bed sticking stickers into a comic with Lally.

  Lally smiled when she saw them coming, but her face paled when she saw Katie. She could see at once that something was very wrong. Georgie had gone pale too. She looked terrified.

  “Hi, darling,” Regan said, kissing Georgie’s cheek. “How are you feeling?”

  “All right,” Georgie whispered. She hadn’t taken her eyes off Katie.

  “Georgie, was Jay with you last night, love?”

  Lally let out a gasp.

  Georgie’s eyes grew big and round and she shook her head.

  “Come on, Georgie,” Katie said. “I know Jay was with you. Where is he?”

  Georgie shrank back against the pillows and
shook her head.

  “Maybe you should wait outside, Katie,” Regan said. “I’ll get her to tell me what’s been going on.”

  “Shall I go too?” Lally asked.

  Regan nodded. “Please.”

  Lally got up and put her arm round Katie who allowed herself to be led away, albeit reluctantly. “Come on, love,” she said. “Can I get you a coffee or something?”

  As soon as they were on their own, Regan asked again.

  “And this time,” she added. “I want the truth. Jay might be in danger.”

  “You mustn’t tell her,” Georgie whispered. “Jay ran away from home last night. There’s a sort of cave in the cliff and he’s going to live there. He’s going to eat seaweed and catch fish and I…”

  Her voice trembled and she bit her lip as tears splashed onto the sheets. Regan knew whatever came next was going to be bad.

  “Why? Why was he running away, Georgie?”

  “He said his dad would have to come and look for him and he’d only go home if his mum and dad got back together.”

  Regan moaned softly. Oh the sweet innocence of children.

  “I went to be his lookout and help him carry stuff,” Georgie went on, fighting hard to control her sobs. “We took Bonnie with us, but Jay said she might fall off the cliff so he tied her up with some rope. She was so scared, Mummy. It was noisy… the wind and the waves and the rain and I think there was thunder. And it was so dark.”

  She pressed her knuckle against her mouth and shuddered.

  “It’s all right, love,” Regan gathered Georgie in her arms and held her close. She was trembling all over. Poor Bonnie. It would have been torture for her being tied up in the dark with all the noise of the storm. No wonder she was so scared. “Just tell me what happened.”

  Georgie drew in her breath sharply.

  “Bonnie was howling and I went to get her, but when I untied the rope she pulled away and ran. I couldn’t catch her.”

  “Did Lally tell you Bonnie is okay?” she asked.

  Georgie nodded. Well that was something. At least Georgie wasn’t worrying herself silly over the dog.