His Perfect Bride? (6 page)

‘Looks like it.’

‘Well! Can’t say I blame her…but I can’t imagine who it might be.’

Olly nodded, doodling with his pen absentmindedly. ‘Neither can I. But I want to help her if I can.’

‘You like her, don’t you?’

‘Dad!’ he warned. ‘Don’t start.’

‘I’m not starting,’ he replied innocently. ‘Just encouraging you.’

‘Let me get this straight. You’d
want
to see me with a woman like Lula?’ He almost couldn’t believe his ears. His father was the most strait-laced man he knew!

‘Why not?’

‘Well, because she’s…’

‘She’s what?’

Olly wasn’t sure how to answer him. ‘Out there!’

‘She’s just what you need. After all that business with Rachel.’

As if he needed reminding. That had been a really dark time. Rachel had barged into his life like a wrecking ball and left just as much devastation behind.

Would Lula do the same?

CHAPTER THREE

A
FTER WORK
, L
ULA TOOK
herself over to the village library. It wasn’t huge. In fact it was barely a library at all—just one small room, lined with books. Since the funding had been cut it was no longer staffed, and it relied on the goodwill of its customers to ensure it was looked after and that they signed out their own books.

It was a strange set-up, and for a while Lula felt odd, standing there alone, looking around the small room. One side was fiction, in alphabetical order, and the other side non-fiction, all in the Dewey decimal system. In the centre were racks of children’s books and some old DVDs. In one corner, beneath a window, sat an ancient computer and a microfiche reader, alongside a filing cabinet. She headed over.

It didn’t take her long to find the electoral roll for the area and, flicking through, she discovered that there were four families with a surname beginning with L in Atlee Wold—the Lomaxes, the Loves, the Lewises and the Louthams.

Any of those people might know something about leaving a baby on a Portsmouth beach. But they also might know nothing at all. The information
she had about EL could be completely wrong. Who knew?

I won’t find out unless I investigate.

She looked up and smiled at a little old lady who’d come in, holding her coat closed against her chest and wheeling a shopping basket behind her.

‘Hello, dear.’

‘Hi.’

‘You’re the new doctor, aren’t you?’

Lula smiled and nodded. ‘How did you know?’

The old lady let out a laboured breath, twinkled her eyes at her and smiled back. ‘Can’t be many young ladies with a rainbow in their hair. Phoebe Macabee lives next door to me and she told me about your belly-dancing class.’

‘You ought to come. It’s fun.’

‘With my hips? I don’t think so, dear.’ She rubbed her left arm, absently.

Lula noticed the movement, but said nothing. It didn’t have to mean anything, did it? She’d been wheeling her basket—perhaps it just ached? ‘It doesn’t have to be about the hips, you know. You could still come. Be with the group. Get some shimmying action with the arms?’

The old lady shook her head. ‘My shimmying days are over, dear, but thank you for inviting me. You here for a book?’

‘Research.’

She looked at the electoral roll in front of Lula. ‘You need to know about the people round here?’

Lula shrugged. ‘Maybe.’

‘Well, I’ve lived here all my life, dear. I know pretty much everyone. My name’s Yvonne, but everyone knows me as Bonnie.’

‘Bonnie. That’s a lovely name.’

‘Thank you.’ Bonnie settled into a chair next to her, her bones creaking as she did so, sighing the sigh of a woman who had finally found the time to sit down in the day. ‘Now, what do you want to know?’

Lula was unsure of what to say. She appreciated Bonnie’s offer, but did she want to tell the old lady
why
she needed knowledge?

Bonnie must have seen the look on her face because the old girl smiled and laid a hand on Lula’s knee. ‘I can keep a secret.’

‘Secrets are the problem. The person I’m looking for has kept a secret for a long time, and I’m not sure I should be allowed to tell it.’

‘Are you part of the secret?’

Lula nodded.

‘I thought so. Figured you wouldn’t be looking, otherwise. Well, my dear, to my way of thinking if you’re part of the secret then you can tell whoever you want. I’m discreet, if that helps any, but I know you don’t know me from Adam.’

‘How about you just tell me what you know about certain people?’

‘I can tell you general knowledge. But I can’t go telling private stuff. Discreet, remember?’

Lula smiled back. ‘Discreet. What do you know about Eleanor Lomax?’

A small radiator affixed to the wall beneath a cork board of notices ensured that the cold outside didn’t permeate the small library and Lula and Bonnie sat pleasantly warm, discussing stories and people.

‘Eleanor Lomax has had a hard time of it lately,’ Bonnie began.

‘I know about her health problems.’

Bonnie reached into her wheeled basket for a pile of heavy books and laid them on her lap with a sigh. ‘Well, you would, being a doctor. The breast cancer? Yes, terrible it was. I went with her once to the hospital, to sit with her whilst she got her chemotherapy. I tried to stay bright for her, but it’s an odd place, the cancer ward. All those people on hiatus, waiting for treatments, waiting for news, waiting to get back to their own lives.’

‘It can be difficult.’ Lula didn’t need telling about that. She’d been there.

‘Yes, it can. But she was strong—she fought it and she won. Physically, anyways.’

‘What do you know about her before?’

Bonnie tilted her head to one side as she considered
her answer. ‘She’s always lived alone. Never had a man about the place as far as I know.’

‘Family?’ So far Bonnie hadn’t told her anything helpful.

‘I think she mentioned a sister once, but there was a bit of a scandal so they don’t talk to each other much.’

Lula perked up. A scandal? Like an unplanned pregnancy? That sort of thing could stop family members from getting along. Had Eleanor been forced to give up a baby? Or had she done it willingly and her family hated her for it? Or was it something else entirely and Eleanor Lomax was a woman who had nothing whatsoever to do with Lula at all?

‘Does the sister live close by?’

‘Over in the next village. She’s much older than Eleanor, I think, and not well, last I heard.’

Lula nodded her head. Could be anything. But, as a doctor, she wondered whether she could somehow create a reason for visiting this sister. ‘Do you know her name? Where she lives?’

Bonnie looked oddly at her. ‘Something important is driving you, isn’t it, Doctor? All these questions…’

‘Something. Maybe. Do you know?’

Bonnie shook her head. ‘No, sorry. But I think her name was Brenda, if that’s any help?’

Brenda Lomax. Okay. I can check on that.

Bonnie rubbed at her chest.

‘You okay?’ There was a slight sheen of sweat on Bonnie’s face.

‘Touch of indigestion. Now…who else can I help you with?’

‘This family…’ Lula pointed at the electoral roll. ‘The Love family. What do you know about them?’

‘There’s no “them”. There’s just Elizabeth.’

Elizabeth. Elizabeth Love. Another EL.

‘Yes?’

‘Keeps herself to herself. You don’t see her much—though she takes in all manner of waifs and strays.’

‘People?’

‘Animals! Cats, dogs, mice, wildlife… She’s got a real animal rescue thing going on up there.’

‘Up where?’

‘Burner’s Road. It’s on the very outer edge of Atlee Wold—leads to Burner’s Farm. It’s quite isolated, but she seems to like that. The vets round here bring her animals to care for and she takes them all in. Prefers them to people.’

Lula listened, thinking about how she’d driven to Burner’s Farm just last night. Had she driven past her own mother’s house and not known it? How likely a candidate might Elizabeth Love be? Apart from the initials, there weren’t any clues.

‘What about the Lewis family?’

‘Big family. Lots of relatives. Well known around these parts…well liked. Phoebe Macabee used to be a Lewis, until she married her Ron.’

‘Any of them have a name beginning with E?’

Bonnie pursed her lips, thinking. ‘Let me see… Ron, Davey, Shaun, Marion, the kids… No, I don’t think so. Who are you after?’

Lula smiled. ‘And the Louthams?’ She pointed at their name on the electoral roll. ‘Any of
them
have the initial E?’

‘Well, there’s Edward Loutham…’

She rubbed at her chest again, and now Lula could see that Bonnie was looking a bit pale and clammy. But if she was ill surely she’d say something?

Since when has someone of Bonnie’s generation ever been honest about the extent of their health? She said ‘indigestion’, but…

Bonnie tried to stand and lift her books to put them on the counter, but she gasped and leant against the unit.

‘Bonnie?’

But Bonnie didn’t answer. She groaned, clutching her arm, and then she slipped forward.

Lula tried to catch her, to break the old lady’s fall, but Bonnie was heavier than she looked and she tumbled to the floor with a thud.

Lula rolled her over. ‘Bonnie! Bonnie, can you hear me? Open your eyes!’

No response.

She grabbed Bonnie’s shoulders and gave her a small shake. ‘Bonnie!’ Then she knelt over her, tilting Bonnie’s head back and listening and watching for breaths.

She’d stopped breathing.

A million thoughts raced through Lula’s head. She needed to start CPR, and she also needed help. She ran to the door of the library and yanked it open. Seeing an old man strolling along opposite, his rolled-up newspaper in his hands, she called out, ‘I need help in here!’ before dashing back to Bonnie to begin chest compressions.

She pressed down hard, keeping a continuous rhythm, trying to count the beats. She had done the first thirty compressions and was blowing air into Bonnie’s lungs by the time the library door opened and the man she’d seen in the street appeared.

‘Oh, my goodness!’

‘I need you to call an ambulance! And fetch Dr James—see if he’s got a defibrillator.’

She had no idea if they did or not. But some remote areas had them and she could only hope that Atlee Wold was one of them.

After breathing twice for Bonnie, Lula carried on with the compressions. ‘Come on, Bonnie.’ She pushed and pushed. Up. Down. Up. Down. A continuous rhythm she dared not break.

The library door closed behind her and time went slowly, yet also too fast. To Lula, it seemed as if she was doing compressions and CPR for ages, waiting for Dr James or an ambulance to turn up, when in reality only a few minutes had passed before Olly came rushing in. Thank goodness—he was carrying a small bag.

‘Defibrillator?’

He nodded, unzipping the pack and grabbing the scissors to cut open Bonnie’s clothes. ‘I’ve called the ambulance.’

She heard him, but couldn’t answer. Exhausted, she continued with compressions, her own breath labouring.

Olly looked at her. ‘Let me take over.’

They switched places and Lula ripped open the packs that would allow her to attach pads to Bonnie’s chest—one on the right side, up near her shoulder, and the second below her left breast. She switched on the machine and heard it give instructions to apply the pads, which she’d already done. She plugged in the cable for the pads and the machine began to assess Bonnie’s heart rhythm.

If she was in asystole—essentially a flatline—then they wouldn’t be able to shock her. Asystole was a rhythm that couldn’t be changed through shocks, and the only thing they’d be able to do would be to continue with CPR until the ambulance
arrived. But if she was in ventricular fibrillation—VF—they would be able to shock her and hopefully restart her heart in a normal rhythm.

‘Stay clear of patient,’ intoned the machine.

Olly stopped compressions and glanced up at Lula, who looked back at him uncertainly, sweating, her hair stuck to her forehead. She noticed tiny things then. Odd things. The snow stuck to Olly’s shoes. A small butterfly pin stuck to Bonnie’s shopping bag. The way one page of a book near to her, loose and unattached to the spine, stood out over and above all the others.

‘Shocking.’

She’s in VF!

‘Stand clear,’ Lula said, checking to make sure neither she nor Olly was touching Bonnie. It would be dangerous for them if they were in contact as she pressed the orange button with the picture of lightning on it.

She shocked Bonnie and waited for the machine’s next instruction.

‘Continue CPR.’

Olly began again and kept going.

It was hard to think that just moments ago she and Bonnie had been chatting with each other in this little library. Everything had been normal, day-to-day, and suddenly this…
She said she’d had indigestion. I should have paid more attention!

But her focus had been on getting information about her mother.

Guilt filled her and she bit her lip hard as she watched Olly try to save Bonnie’s life.

He stopped to listen for breaths. ‘She’s breathing!’

Lula let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding.
‘Yes!’

‘There’s oxygen in my car outside. I’ll get it.’

Lula put Bonnie into the recovery position whilst she waited for the oxygen and then, when Olly returned, turned on the tank and attached the mask to Bonnie’s face. She was breathing well, her breaths steaming up the small mask. They checked her pulse and respirations as they waited for the ambulance, which they could hear in the distance.

‘That was quick. I thought they’d be a while.’

‘There’s a station in South Wold, and a small cottage hospital.’

‘That’s good.’

‘What happened?’

She shrugged. ‘We were just talking and she collapsed.’

He looked carefully at her. ‘Are you okay?’

She nodded. ‘I’m fine.’

The paramedics got Bonnie into the ambulance quickly, attaching her to their ECG machine and establishing a good trace. Lula jumped into the
ambulance to go with her to the hospital and Olly said he’d follow later, once he’d finished clinic, to see how everything was and bring Lula home.