‘I’ve got to go,’ she said unsteadily. ‘Nicky needs me,’ and to her horror tears filled her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. The receiver was emitting anxious noises and Kieron spoke into it, frowning heavily.
‘Blake here,’ he said tersely. ‘What.…Paolo?’ He stared at Briony, obviously listening intently. ‘Okay, leave everything to me,’ he said coolly. ‘Which hospital?’
‘So Nicky’s your son?’ he said grimly when he had replaced the receiver. ‘God, no wonder you didn’t want Matt to go back to his wife! Why the hell doesn’t he stop shilly-shallying and make up his mind which one of you he wants?’
Briony barely heard him. Since Paolo had told her that Nicky was in hospital there hadn’t been room for anything but her son in her mind. She had always known something like this would happen, she thought in anguish, unable to bear the thought of Nicky, ill and in pain and crying for her.
‘I must go,’ she muttered, pushing past Kieron.
‘Just like that?’
She stared at him, his features slowly coming into focus. Like someone in a dream she said slowly, ‘I’ve done your letters.’
‘To hell with the letters!’ Kieron swore viciously. ‘Have you rung for a taxi?’
She shook her head and he swore again, picking up the phone and dialling a number forcefully. He said something into the receiver and then hung up, grasping Briony’s arm.
‘My car’s outside. Come on.’
‘I don’t want you.’
She spoke the words from a mind cloudy with pain, pulling back as he ushered her through the door.
‘Don’t be so damned stupid,’ Kieron said curtly. ‘Your child’s in hospital. All that matters is that you get to him as quickly as possible—or would you prefer me to send for Matt?’
When she said nothing he bundled her out of the room impatiently, stopping at the reception desk to say that he was going out.
In the shock of hearing that Nicky had had an accident, Briony hadn’t even asked Paolo which hospital he was in, and in some distant way she felt grateful for the speed with which Kieron negotiated the traffic, without bothering her with questions.
It was only when they pulled up outside the hospital that he spoke, his voice terse and clipped.
‘I take it no one at the paper knows about this child? God, you must think a hell of a lot about Matt to keep something like this secret! You can’t believe he really cares about you? He’s given you a child and still he doesn’t divorce his wife. What are you hoping for?’
Tears welled and trickled down her cheeks. Like a child she allowed Kieron to help her out of the car, her eyes wide and blank as she followed him into Casualty.
Gina was waiting for her, her face pale and shocked.
‘It was the apple tree,’ she explained in anguish. ‘I only left him for a moment to pay the milkman and when I got back he was lying on the ground. He’s broken his arm, they think.’
It was Kieron who reassured her that the accident could have happened to the most conscientious parent.
‘You can’t watch them every moment of the time.’
Gina had left Caterina with a neighbour, and glanced uncertainly at Briony as though uncertain who needed her most. Kieron set her mind at rest.
‘I’ll stay with Briony,’ he told her. ‘You get back to your baby.’
The waiting room was empty and Briony stared at the painted walls, trying to subdue her rising hysteria. Somewhere out there was Nicky. She looked wildly at the door, half rising to go to it when it opened and a round-faced nurse appeared.
‘Mrs Winters?’ she said with a smile. ‘Your little boy’s fine. It’s a simple, clean break and the doctor has set it for him. We’re giving him a tetanus injection, just to be on the safe side. If you and your husband would like to follow me.’
Her words jolted Briony out of her nightmare. She opened her mouth to correct the girl, but she was already hurrying away. She paused once, waiting for them to catch up with her, her eyes appreciative as she looked at Kieron.
‘My, your son is like you, isn’t he?’ she commented. ‘And such a brave little scrap. He never cried once.’
Briony stopped dead, the breath leaving her lungs on a wave of panic, but a grim hand in the small of her back forced her forwards, her face pale beneath the corridor lights.
Nicky was in the children’s ward, sitting on a small bed, and his face lit up the moment he saw Briony.