‘Which company?’ Rina asked, eyes wide.
I glanced at the ShayKi changing bag she’d been showing off at the coffee morning a while ago, now sitting beside a recliner.
‘ShayKi!’ Rosie gasped, because at this point half the room was listening in.
‘My friends are Shay and Kieran.’
‘No wa-a-a-ay!’ There was a sudden flurry of movement as people shamelessly whipped out their phones and started searching.
‘Mary Whittington?’ someone breathed.
‘Does Beckett know?’ Sofia asked quietly.
I shook my head. ‘I was going to tell him, but then…’
‘Yeah, he’s got other things on his mind right now. Have you been to see Marvin today? Moses popped in this morning, but Marvin was asleep most of the time so he ended up taking Beckett to get some food. Are visiting hours the same over Christmas?’
‘Visiting hours? Where?’
She looked confused. ‘Isn’t he still in King’s Mill?’
‘The hospital?’
Sofia stared at me. ‘Have you not spoken to Beckett?’
I shook my head, the dread rippling over my skin standing my hairs on end.
‘Marvin wandered off in the early hours of Saturday morning. Moses and a few others helped Beckett find him. He’d fallen and knocked himself out, has a nasty broken ankle and other bumps and scrapes. After briefly coming round, he’d managed to clamber onto a bench, which helped avoid hypothermia, at least. Mary, why didn’t you know this?’
‘He phoned me, about four-thirty in the morning, and again later on but I’d left my phone in the bottom of my bag so I missed the calls.’
My synapses had shot into overdrive, propelled by the need to do something, to get to Gramps, to see Beckett, to crank back time and answer those damn calls. To ignore his stupid request for time apart and tell him that of course it wasn’t a mistake. We loved each other.
I love him.
Beckett didn’t have nobody else to help him any longer. He had Moses and Sofia, and whoever had joined in the search for Gramps. But I was more than that. I’d never met anyone who I fitted alongside so well as Beckett.
‘Mary, what’s happened? It’s been three days. Why hasn’t Beckett told you this?’
‘I… I have to go.’ I frantically looked about for Bob, grabbing his changing bag. ‘Can you explain to Li that I need to see Gramps?’
‘She’ll completely understand. I mean, apart from how come you didn’t already know, of course.’ Sofia pulled me in for a fortifying hug. ‘I’ll be praying you can both work it out, whatever it is, and you know we’re here if you need us. I’ll message you Gramps’ ward number, because I couldn’t remember that kind of information even if it weren’t the most wonderfully busy and stressful time of the year.’
‘Thank you.’
I had Bob in his car seat and was halfway to the front door before I realised I had no way to get to Mansfield. It was Christmas Eve – what were the chances of booking a taxi on the fly?
‘This is Eric,’ Li said, appearing at my shoulder. ‘He’s happy to drive you to King’s Mill.’
‘What?’ I turned to find a rotund man with a white beard who, I supposed in the spirit of the season, wore a red padded jacket and a matching woolly hat with fur trim. ‘No, I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that.’
‘You didn’t. My niece did, and I’d do anything for that lass.’
‘Rina,’ Li explained.
How could I not know about Gramps after three days, and yet everyone here knew that I didn’t know within seconds?
‘Besides, I hate parties. Only came to stop Rina and her mother whittling about me being alone on Christmas Eve. I live around the corner from the hospital. It’s the perfect excuse to skedaddle without offending Li and Angus.’
