The Roman and the Runaway

by A. J. Braithwaite

  "Good girl," said the doctor. "I'm going to go and ring your mother and let her know you're here. Now I know it's not very comfortable for either of you but try to get some sleep. You should be feeling better in the morning. We'll be monitoring you closely over the next few days to make sure the poison has gone and that you're on the mend. Goodnight." She left.

  Pagan and Luke stared at each other through the tubes and machinery.

  "I've been nothing but trouble to you," she said. "But I want you to know the last few days have been some of the best I've ever had."

  Although her face was taut with pain and paler than he'd ever seen it, the smile Pagan gave him then was the most beautiful that Luke had seen in his life. A big lump seemed to be forming in his throat. "So far," he added.

  "Yeah. So far," she agreed.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Once the ambulance had gone, Ned went back into the school and telephoned Luke's parents.

  "Hello?" Suzanne's sleepy voice came onto the other end of the line.

  "Suzanne, it's Ned. I've got some bad news for you."

  "What? What's happened?"

  Ned explained the situation.

  "We'll leave right away," said Suzanne.

  Ned suggested that she come straight to the school, where she, Andrew and the twins could stay in one of the guest rooms. They exchanged mobile phone numbers and then rang off. Ned drove to the hospital and was soon sucked into the paperwork involved in admitting people to medical establishments. Once he was satisfied that Luke and Pagan had been stabilised, he drove back to the school to snatch some sleep before the Brownlows arrived.

  At two o'clock in the morning, Ned was woken by the ringing of his mobile phone.

  "We're nearly at the school," said Suzanne.

  Ned dressed and met the Brownlows at the front of the school. They brought the sleeping twins inside and he them helped carry their bags to their room. Andrew speedily erected a travel cot and transferred the girls into it. Neither of them stirred.

  "I'll stay here with them," Andrew told his wife. He looked at Ned. "Could you take Suzanne to the hospital now? I'll come over in the morning with the girls."

  Ned nodded in agreement and told Andrew where to get breakfast for himself, Elsie and Molly once they were awake.

  He drove Suzanne to the hospital and took her to the intensive care unit where Luke and Pagan were being treated. Both children were asleep when they arrived. Suzanne's face went almost as white as Luke's when she saw the measures being taken to rid their bodies of the poison. She took a seat at Luke's side and directed a grateful smile at Ned.

  "Thanks Ned," said Suzanne. "You go back to the school. I'll be fine."

  Ned gave her a brief one-armed hug and left.

  *

  In Manchester, Julia Randall was woken by a telephone call in the early hours of Sunday morning. She rolled over to grab the receiver, gripped with fear at what news might be waiting for her. "Hello?"

  "Is that Julia Randall?"

  "Yes, who is this?"

  "My name is Kate Ellerson. I'm a doctor at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital. I'm phoning to tell you we admitted your daughter here tonight."

  A stab of pure fear pierced Julia's heart. "What's happened to her?"

  "She's ill with mushroom poisoning but there's a good chance she will make a complete recovery. Pagan gave us your number and I wanted to let you know she is here and safe."

  "I'll be there as soon as I can," promised Julia, tears of relief dropping down her face.

  *

  Luke and Pagan's sleep was fitful and regularly disturbed by hospital staff coming to check on their conditions. In the early morning, Luke woke to see his mother sitting next to him.

  "Mum!" he said, and was surprised to find his voice thin and croaky.

  She took hold of his hand and squeezed it hard, apparently unable to speak herself.

  "When did you get here?" Luke asked.

  "Ned phoned us last night when you'd left in the ambulance," his mother managed to say. "We drove up with the girls straight away. Dad's going to be bringing them over later. How are you feeling?"

  Luke thought about this. "A lot better than I did last night," he decided. "It was really horrible, Mum."

  "You poor thing. What on earth possessed you to eat wild mushrooms? I thought you hated mushrooms."

  Luke looked over at Pagan, who was still sleeping in the next bed. "I was trying to be polite," he said.

  His mum shook her head, a sad smile on her face, then turned her own head towards Pagan. "Who is she, Luke?"

  Luke found himself unable to answer his mother's question. "She was in trouble, Mum. She'd run away from home and I was trying to help her."

  Mum pushed Luke's hair across his forehead, out of his eyes. At that moment, another woman entered the room. She was tall and thin, with hair that had once been dyed brown but which now had a growth of grey at the roots. Her eyes were fixed on Pagan's face and she went straight to her side.

  Luke and his mother stared at her with undisguised interest. Pagan remained asleep and the woman turned to them with an air of desperation. "Is she alright?"

  Luke nodded. "They're doing all they can," he said.

  The woman bit her lip. "I haven't known where she's been for a week," she said. She met Luke's mother's eyes. "Can you imagine what that's like?"

  Luke's mum shook her head again, her face expressing sympathy.

  Pagan opened her eyes, then, and looked up at her mother. At first she was confused and sleepy and greeted her with a smile but then she recalled everything that had happened since the last time they had met and the smile faded from her face.

  "Oh, sweetheart," the woman's voice cracked with emotion. "I'm so sorry."

  Suddenly Pagan's face was shiny with tears which were mirrored on her mother's cheeks.

  Luke's mother tactfully got up to pull a hospital screen between the two beds. Luke took the opportunity offered by this rare privacy to quietly explain the background to his relationship with Pagan.

  "But Luke, you must have known her mother would have been worried sick," objected Mum.

  "Yeah, Mum but this boyfriend of hers sounded well dodgy. I hope she's kicked him out."

  A nurse arrived at the bedside then and the next few minutes were taken up with blood tests, measurements and readings of the various instruments.

  Half an hour later, Pagan's mother drew back the screen between the two beds.

  "I think I need to meet my daughter's friend properly," she said, smiling at Luke.

  Luke checked Pagan's face and saw that she was looking happy. Happier than anyone with that many tubes and wires coming out of them could be expected to look, anyway. Luke presumed this meant that the creepy boyfriend had been shown the door.

  Luke let his mother make the introductions. While she was doing so, his dad arrived in the room.

  "The girls are down the corridor in the family room, exploring a toy box," he said. "I'll go back to them in a minute but just wanted to see how you're doing."

  "Better, thanks," croaked Luke.

  His dad left and was almost immediately succeeded by Ned.

  "Mum, this is the man who found me last night," Pagan said, smiling up at Ned. Pagan's mother grasped Ned's hand.

  "Thank you so much for getting her to hospital. I'm Julia, Pagan's mother."

  "I'm glad to see you reunited with Pagan," replied Ned. "My name's Graham Kelly but most people call me Ned. It's Luke you need to thank for saving Pagan. He pinpointed her location precisely and we found her straight away."

  Ned crossed to Luke's bedside. "How are you feeling?"

  "Better, thanks," said Luke again.

  A senior-looking doctor came into the room and spoke to Luke's mother and Ned. "Are you Luke's parents?"

  "Er, I'm his mother," explained Luke's mum, looking slightly flustered. "His dad is looking after our other children."

  "Well, I need to speak to you both," said the man.

>   "I'll keep an eye on the twins, if you like," offered Ned.

  Luke's mum beamed up at him. "Thank you."

  *

  Suzanne and Andrew sat in a sparsely-furnished, windowless consultation room with the doctor, who explained there was still a chance that Luke's liver might fail.

  "We need to talk about transplant options in case that situation arises," he said. "One of the most effective procedures in such cases is to take part of the liver of a compatible family member. I need to talk to you both about whether this is going to be something either of you would consider."

  "Of course!" Suzanne assured him.

  "In that case, our policies require me to warn you that the testing process is very similar to having a paternity test. This test will show whether you are, in fact, Luke's biological parents. If you are unwilling to undergo a paternity test, then you should not proceed."

  Andrew and Suzanne both stared at the doctor without speaking. They did not turn to look at each other at all and the silence in the room stretched into an embarrassingly long period of time, with neither of them making any effort to break it. The doctor cleared his throat and glanced at his watch, seeming to feel it was up to him to resolve the situation.

  "I'll go and check on Luke," he said, "while you discuss this. I'll come back in ten minutes or so."

  He left and Andrew slowly turned to look at Suzanne, who was now crying. She looked back at him. "How long have you known?" she whispered.

  "It became pretty obvious when we needed to get fertility treatment to have the twins," replied Andrew.

  "Yes," Suzanne agreed, "but you never said anything."

  "There didn't seem much point. Although I will admit I've had trouble relating to him ever since," Andrew added. He sighed. "Not that it was his fault, poor kid." He stood up and stared unseeingly at the notices pinned to the cork board on the wall. "Well there's no point me having this test then, is there? We'll just have to hope that you're a match or that we can find a donor, if it gets that bad."

  They fell back into silence again, until Andrew asked the question that had been tormenting him for three years. "Who is his father, Su?"

  Suzanne looked up at him and the tears were flowing faster down her face. "It's Ned."

  Andrew sat down again with a bump and stared at her with a stunned expression on his face. "Ned is Luke's father?"

  Suzanne nodded, biting her lips together and gazing down at the floor. Andrew stood up again, apparently unable to stay still, and paced around the room, looking as though he was ready to punch someone.

  "Does Ned know this?" he demanded.

  "Of course not, Andrew," Suzanne said, with a hint of impatience. "He left to go to Harvard when I left to go to York and he didn't come back to England until long after we were married. I wasn't sure myself until we had such problems having another baby…"

  "I can't believe this," Andrew threw himself back into the chair again, causing it to scrape against the linoleum floor with an ear-jarring screech. He put his head into his hands and then let out a mirthless laugh. "But when you come to think about it, there is a family resemblance there." He looked up at her. "Childhood sweethearts, were you?"

  "No. It wasn't like that at all. Ned was just the boy next door. We knew we weren't going to be seeing each other after we left for university and it was a mad, moonlit encounter after a last night out with all our friends from school." She blew her nose and wiped her eyes. "We're going to have to tell Ned, in case he might be a match for Luke."

  Andrew looked up at her. "Yes, of course. I suppose we're going to have to explain all this to that damned doctor, too."

  A few minutes later, the doctor returned. He was visibly relieved to see that the couple had been talking in his absence. Andrew explained that he was not related to Luke but that there was a chance that Luke's biological father might be willing to take the test, once he became aware of the situation. It was agreed that Suzanne would be tested for compatibility and that Suzanne and Andrew would talk to Luke's father.

  They returned to the family room, where they found Ned sitting on the floor reading a story to Elsie and Molly. The twins got up and ran to their parents as they entered the room. Suzanne lifted Molly up and gave her a hug as Ned stood up to greet them.

  "Ned, we need to talk to you about Luke," Suzanne began.

  The adults sat down and the twins went back to the toy-box on the floor. Suzanne glanced at Andrew, uncertain how to begin this difficult conversation. Andrew was tired after their long drive through the night and was in no mood to break the news gently.

  "Luke may need a liver transplant," he said, "so the doctors are going to test Suzanne to see if she's a potential donor but there's no point in them testing me because I'm not Luke's biological father."

  Ned stared at Andrew as the implications of this stark statement sank in. He said nothing but after a long moment he turned his gaze to Suzanne, almost reluctantly.

  Suzanne's face was burning red and her eyes were full of tears again. "Would you be willing to be tested, too, Ned?" she asked, her voice shaky.

  "Of course I will," replied Ned quietly.

  Suzanne broke down into sobs of relief, causing Andrew to put his arm around her. It was a gesture of comfort but there was an element of possessiveness in the action which was not lost on Ned. He got up. "Who do I need to talk to?"

  Suzanne pulled herself together and wiped her eyes.

  "I'll take you to the doctor and we'll ask him what we need to do next." She turned to Andrew. "Darling, will you be OK with the girls for a while?"

  Andrew nodded and they left to sort out the blood tests.

  As they waited together, Ned turned to Suzanne. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

  Suzanne was twisting her wedding ring around her finger and didn't meet Ned's eyes.

  "I didn't know for sure for a long time," she said. "I met Andrew as soon as we both started university and it was a while before I realised I was pregnant. I didn't know who the father was but knew I was happy with Andrew. The baby was going to have a good dad and that seemed the most important thing, at the time.

  "It wasn't until later, when we had trouble having another baby, that I began to be more sure Luke was yours and not Andrew's. I was so pleased when you came back and got to know him last summer, even though I couldn't tell either of you about your real relationship."

  "But Andrew suspected something?"

  "Yes, he has known for a few years but never talked about it to me. That's why they've been getting on so badly lately: he's been taking it out on Luke." Suzanne looked up at Ned. "How do you feel about it?"

  Ned let out a short laugh, as if he didn't consider that his feelings were that important. "Guilty, mostly," he admitted. Then he took Suzanne's hand in his, stopping her compulsive twisting of her ring. "But also a little bit proud," he said. "He's a good kid, Suzanne, and you and Andrew have done a great job."

  Chapter Fourteen

  At Hawley Lodge the remaining Romans in Luke's dormitory were speculating about where he had got to. Sundays were more relaxed than most other days at the school but the boys were expected to be up and dressed, with their beds made, by nine o'clock. It was quite common for Mr Wilmot to come and check that this rule had been complied with and, sure enough, a sharp rap at the door announced his arrival. The housemaster's eyes went straight to Luke's bed, which was in a considerable state of disarray.

  Taj, Jay and Fred braced themselves for an interrogation about their room-mate and the condition of his bed but the expected blast of anger did not come.

  "Brownlow's been taken seriously ill," Mr Wilmot told them. "He's in hospital and likely to be there for some days."

  "What's wrong with him, sir?" asked Jay.

  "He's been poisoned by eating mushrooms," came the reply. The sight of Luke's unmade bed seemed to bother Mr Wilmot and he walked over to it to pull the duvet straight. The boys stared at each other in confusion, wondering how on earth Luke had managed to consum
e anything as dangerous as poisonous mushrooms. "I'm sure you'll get the full story from him in due course," Mr Wilmot said, sensing their next question. With that, he left the room.

  The news about Luke spread around the school rapidly. The Roman year nines also shared the story about him being caught with cigarettes in his possession on the previous Wednesday, which added a further dimension of interest to the story. By the time the day ended it was assumed by most of the students that Luke had moved on in the course of a week from smoking cigarettes to eating hallucinogenic mushrooms. In his absence and without his knowledge or any real justification, Luke's reputation as a bit of a troublemaker had become significantly amplified. The general opinion was that if he survived his hospital stay, he would be likely to be expelled from Hawley Lodge.

  *

  Once the tests were completed at the hospital, Suzanne and Ned returned to Andrew.

  "I need to go back to Luke," stated Suzanne. She looked from Andrew to Ned. "Do you think we should explain this to him now?"

  Andrew said, "It's not fair for us to know and him not to." He and Suzanne turned to Ned for his opinion.

  "He will find out anyway if he needs a transplant and I'm a match," he pointed out.

  Suzanne sighed. "Let's get it over with, then. Shall I tell him on my own?"

  The others agreed this was probably for the best and she went back to Luke.

  *

  Luke and Pagan were both chatting with Julia when Luke's mother came back into the room. She smiled at them and told them she needed to have a private talk with Luke. The screen was pulled in between the two beds again and she sat down, taking Luke's hand in hers again and smiling at her son.

  "What is it, Mum?"

  "Luke, this is going to be a bit of a shock for you but I need to tell you that your dad isn't really your dad."

  "What?"

  She flushed and continued.

  "I was already pregnant, without knowing it, when I met your dad at university. Andrew is not your father."

  Luke stared at her, amazed at what he was hearing. "But then…?"

  "Your real father is Ned Kelly."

  Luke clutched at the metal bars at the sides of his bed, as though they would help to anchor him while his world shifted into a new reality.

  "I've known this for a few years, now," his mother continued, her nervousness causing her to fill Luke's silence with more words. "But it was only today that it all came out in the open, as we might need to get a liver transplant for you and there was no point in testing Andrew. He realised that he wasn't your father a while ago but he hasn't ever talked to me about it and he didn't know who your real father was until now. Poor Ned had no idea about any of this until today but he's agreed to be tested to see if his liver might be a match for you."