Classic Bestsellers from Josephine Cox: Bumper Collection

Relieved, Kathy ran back to where the man had given up trying to break the door with a crowbar, and was now running at it with the weight of his own body. Once, twice, he put his shoulder to it, before the door splintered and sprang open. ‘We’re in!’

Mabel couldn’t be woken. ‘Do you think she fell down the stairs?’ Distraught with worry, Kathy sat on the floor, not daring to lift or hold Mabel for fear of hurting her. ‘It’s all right, Mabel,’ she whispered softly. ‘I’ve got you now. You’re going to be all right.’

The man ran his concerned gaze over Mabel’s obvious injuries. He noted the gashes on her forehead and the large, torn areas of skin on her neck. ‘If you ask me, he did this!’

Kathy knew who he meant. ‘What? You think her husband pushed her down the stairs, is that what you’re saying?’

‘I heard them,’ the man revealed. ‘I work night-shift at one of the hotels in Lyme Regis. I got home about seven o’clock this morning … I heard them arguing.’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘I never thought he’d hurt her this badly. He’s a nasty bugger, though … a right bully. How she’s put up with him all these years, I don’t know.’

Suddenly the clanging bells of the ambulance could be heard. In minutes they were drawing up, and the ambulance men were gently tending Mabel. ‘Easy as you go.’ The two of them stretchered her into the ambulance.

‘I’m coming with her.’ Kathy clambered in behind the stretcher. ‘She’s got nobody else.’

‘Here, Miss … don’t forget your bag!’ The kindly neighbour handed it up to her.

The ambulance ride was a nightmare. Mabel lay apparently lifeless on the stretcher, while the ambulance man tended to her, trying to get some response. Kathy was deeply worried.

At the hospital, Kathy waited nervously while the doctors assessed Mabel.

It was over an hour later that the doctor sought Kathy out. ‘She has no broken limbs, but apparently she’s taken a bad tumble. She has some nasty wounds, which will need treatment, and she’s suffering from shock and bad concussion. But she’ll be all right.’ Curious as to how Mabel received such injuries, he asked, ‘Have you any idea how it happened?’

‘Not really. It looked as if she might have fallen down the stairs, but I can’t be sure.’ It was on the tip of her tongue to say how she suspected Mabel’s husband of hurting her, but then thought it wise to say nothing until she was able to speak with Mabel. ‘Can I see her?’

He nodded. ‘Matron will take you. But don’t stay long.’ Gesturing to the matron who had been waiting close by, he turned on his heel and went.

As she walked Kathy to the ward, Matron had a few questions of her own, such as, ‘Were you with her when it happened?’ and ‘Do you know of anyone we should contact?’

Kathy was wary. ‘I think you might ask Mabel that,’ she suggested.

‘Oh, we have, but of course she is still concussed … not quite thinking straight just yet.’

Matron threw open the door to the ward. ‘Perhaps you could have a word with her? Oh, and no more than a few minutes. She’s very weak.’

It was a small ward with only four beds in it; besides Mabel’s, only one other was occupied, by a young woman who looked very ill.

As Kathy went in, the nurse came out. ‘You mustn’t stay long,’ she warned, adding with a smile, ‘Give her a week or so, and she’ll be fine.’

Mabel appeared to be asleep, but when Kathy softly called her name she opened her eyes. Covered in bruises, they seemed swollen to twice their size. She looked at Kathy, and for a minute didn’t seem to recognise her. ‘It’s me … Kathy.’ It was painful to see her friend like this.

Slowly, agonisingly, Mabel reached out her hand. Quickly, Kathy took it in her own. ‘They tell me you’ve got no broken bones or anything like that,’ she imparted fondly, ‘but you’ll need to be here about a week.’

Mabel continued to look at her through those sorry eyes. Suddenly, the eyes moistened and the tears ran away down to the pillow. ‘Don’t … don’t …’

Her voice was so small, Kathy had to bend close. ‘What is it you’re trying to say?’

It seemed as though Mabel had exhausted what little strength she had, because now she closed her eyes and fell silent. Close to tears herself, Kathy spoke to her, and in a minute Mabel was looking up again. ‘Don’t …’

‘What is it, Mabel?’ Leaning forward, Kathy asked in a whisper, ‘Don’t tell them it was your husband? Is that what you’re trying to say?’

When Mabel gave a feeble squeeze of the hand, and what appeared to be a nod, Kathy knew she had guessed right. ‘Did he do this to you, Mabel?’ she asked. ‘Was it him that threw you down the stairs?’

Again that slight nod.

‘And you don’t want me to say anything … to anyone? Not even the doctors?’

Again, the nod.

Kathy’s voice dropped a tone. ‘Not even to him?’ He was the lowest of the low, to hurt his wife like this.

Now, at her suggestion, Mabel’s eyes flickered with fear. ‘It’s all right!’ Kathy promised. ‘I won’t say a word to anyone … not even to him.’ She smiled. ‘But I’d really like to throw him down the stairs, if only you’d let me.’

At Kathy’s vehemence, Mabel’s eyes crinkled into a twisted smile. Her hand squeezed Kathy’s; it was a sign that, despite her injuries, the old spirit was still there. Kathy almost read her mind. ‘I know,’ she chuckled, ‘you want to throw him down the stairs yourself, is that it?’

Mabel’s eyes sparkled and her mouth opened, as if trying to smile. Then the eyes closed and she appeared to have fallen asleep.

Just then the matron returned. ‘I want you to leave now,’ she told Kathy. ‘The doctors need to tend her.’

Kathy voiced her concern at Mabel falling asleep like that. ‘Is she all right?’

Checking her patient, the matron put Kathy’s mind at rest. ‘Your friend was concussed in the fall,’ she explained, then, with a hint of suspicion, she asked, ‘She did fall, didn’t she?’

‘Down the stairs as far as I can make out.’ Kathy had answered the question wisely, without giving anything away.

‘Mmm.’ Matron explained how Mabel had muttered something about falling down. ‘And of course the injuries are consistent with that. Poor thing.’ She had another question. ‘Are there any relatives that you know of?’

Kathy merely shook her head. ‘I haven’t known her all that long.’ Again, she had answered the question without actually lying. ‘I’d best go now … let her rest.’

She gave Mabel a kiss, and promised she would be back to see her in the morning.

On the way back to West Bay, she said a little prayer of thanks for the promise of Mabel’s quick recovery. ‘And maybe you could give that big bully what he deserves!’

By the time Tom arrived to collect her, Kathy was ready. It had been a terrible rush, but she made a special effort, and now, as she glanced in the hallway mirror before going out to him, she mimicked Maggie to a tee. ‘For Gawd’s sake, stop fretting! You’ll pass, gal.’ The thought of Maggie made her smile.

When she opened the door, Tom thought she looked especially lovely. She had on a smart little brown two-piece, and the cream-coloured blouse wonderfully complemented her light-brown shining hair, which tonight was brushed into an attractive bounce. ‘My! There won’t be a man in the room able to keep his eyes off you.’ Flinging his arms about her waist, he swung her round. ‘Your chariot awaits.’

Now, as he gestured to the kerb-edge, Kathy was surprised to see a taxi. ‘Such extravagance!’ she chided light-heartedly. ‘I suppose now I shall have to pay for your dinner as well as my own?’

‘Hmh! You’d best mind I don’t take you up on that, my girl!’

Laughing, they got into the taxi and set off for Dorchester.

On the way, Tom noticed her quiet mood. ‘Penny for them?’ Sliding his arm round her shoulders, he drew her face round so that he could see her eyes. ‘You’ve gone quiet all of a sudden. What’s wrong?’

‘It’s Mabel.’

‘What … the old lady who works in the Bridport café?’ He smiled. ‘The one you’ve adopted as your own?’ She had spoken often about Mabel, and he had come to know all about her. ‘Don’t tell me she’s been rowing with her husband again?’

Not wanting to spoil their evening, Kathy tried to close the subject. ‘I’ll tell you later. Not now, eh? You’ll be leaving on Tuesday, so let’s not spoil tonight.’