Page 2 of Finding Love at Roseford Blooms
Lizzie nodded, then winced as the movement sent a bolt of pain through her shoulders. The headache was getting worse, too, and she hoped the emergency services wouldn’t be long.
‘Can you unclip your seat belt?’
‘I think so.’
‘Brace your good arm on the roof so you don’t fall when you do,’ the man said.
Doing as she was told, Lizzie carefully undid the belt, and felt her body slacken towards the roof of the car as she did so. Biting back a moan of pain as she changed position, she took several deep breaths.
‘Now, can you get out of your side of the car?’ the man asked.
‘I don’t know.’ Lizzie’s voice trembled. ‘I don’t think there’s enough room between the car and the bank to open the door.’
‘All right,’ he replied. Then he paused as the distant wail of sirens reached them. ‘I think you’re about to get some real help, anyway.’
‘Don’t go!’ Lizzie called out as the man began to move away from the window.
‘I’ll just let them know you’re awake, and what you’ve told me about your injuries,’ he replied. His face appeared briefly at the window once more. ‘Sit tight. Help’s nearly here.’
‘Thank you,’ Lizzie called out faintly. She was still upside down, and stars were filling her vision again. As she closed her eyes, she relaxed in relief as she heard the sirens stop and the crunch of large tyres on asphalt.
The next thing Lizzie saw was a pair of green-trousered legs at the upside-down window, shortly followed by another calm face.
‘Hi.’ The paramedic peered in. ‘Let’s see if we can get you out of here, shall we?’
After confirming the engine was off, and a couple of details about her suspected injuries, the paramedics helped Lizzie through the window of the car, and then put her carefully on a stretcher to the back of the ambulance. The situation now had a distinct sense of unreality to it, but as she glanced back, the sight of her beloved Kuga, looking as battered as she was and still on its roof, made her burst into tears.
‘Don’t worry, we’ll have you sorted out soon,’ the paramedic who was travelling in the back of the ambulance soothed. The rumble of the engine made the ambulance shudder as they set off.
Lizzie tried to relax as the ambulance made its way to the Royal Surrey County Hospital. The painkillers she’d been given for her injuries were taking effect, and she was feeling quite woozy anyway. She was grateful to the old man for speaking to her in such a reassuring way, and for calling the emergency services. At the memory of his kindness to her, the tears started again.
The paramedic reached out and gave her good hand a squeeze. ‘Is there anyone you’d like us to call?’ she said gently.
Lizzie shook her head. ‘Not at the moment.’ After all, she’d told Paul to get lost, and the last people she wanted to see were her parents. They’d only, after their initial shock, settle into the head-shaking routine they’d been employing ever since she and Paul had split, and the company had been sold and she really couldn’t handle that right now. She needed time for everything to sink in. Then she thought about her sister, Georgina. Should she ask the paramedic to call her? But she dismissed that thought, too. Georgina hadn’t ever been there for her: why should crashing a car change that?
3
In the end, Lizzie’s face had taken the brunt of the collision with the airbag, and her collarbone would mend over time, but she’d have to keep it immobilised by wearing a sling for a couple of weeks. Under gentle pressure from the hospital to provide some details, she’d given her parents’ names as next of kin, and so she was unsurprised, when she came to after long sleep induced by painkillers, to see her mother hovering, a look of concerned disappointment on her face.
‘You’re awake,’ Cordelia Warner said. Then, after a pause, ‘How are you feeling?’
Lizzie leaned deeper into the pillows, wishing she could just close her eyes and go back to sleep. ‘OK, I suppose.’
‘Well, the car’s a total write-off,’ Cordelia said briskly. ‘It’s in the hands of the claims investigators now, but they were pretty clear when they phoned Paul that it was unsalvageable.’
The waves of disapprobation seemed to be coming off her mother, and Lizzie could feel them washing over her. Her mother had never been one for pleasantries, or unnecessary affection, and even now she was lying in a hospital bed, Lizzie clearly hadn’t cut herself any slack in that department.
‘Why you had to arrange that meeting, I don’t know. A phone call would have been just as good.’
‘I wanted to see Emma and Seb one more time,’ Lizzie muttered. ‘I felt I owed it to them. That Warner-Basset owed it to them.’
‘They’re going to be far better off with the resources the new company has,’ Cordelia replied. ‘You didn’t owe them anything.’
Lizzie let a sigh escape her lips. ‘Well, thanks for hammering it home, Mum. Was there anything else you’d like to have a go at me for while I’m lying here unable to escape?’
Cordelia’s face softened a fraction, as far as the Botox would allow. ‘I was going to suggest that you came home with me, as soon as you’re discharged. Under the circumstances, and with Paul moving out, it might be easier for you if you had someone to keep an eye on you.’
Lizzie’s heart sank. She hadn’t lived with her parents for fifteen years, and the last thing she wanted to do was move back in with them now, however temporarily. The thought of being under their roof filled her with a kind of anxious despair.
