Page 77 of The Key to the Last House Before the Sea

NESSA

Nessa cursed when a fox ran across the dark lane ahead of her, its eyes glittering in the car lights. She eased her foot off the accelerator. The storm had brought down branches and made the lanes slick with mud. And however desperate she was to reach Lily, ending up in a ditch wouldn’t help.

It was only a few miles to Valerie’s house on the edge of Heaven’s Cove but the route seemed endless as worst-case scenarios played through her mind.

She wasn’t normally one to panic. She’d dealt with lots over the years and had learned to cope with fear of the unknown. But the thought of anything happening to Lily made her throat tighten and a dark desperation wash through her. Valerie had sounded so worried.

Please come now, Nessa. I’m so concerned about Lily’s breathing. She needs you.

Of course she needed her mother. Nessa berated herself for farming her daughter out to Valerie for thirty nights. Did she really think she could do up a derelict cottage and turn their lives around in just one month?

It had been a stupid dream, and one, she knew full well, that was now over. She’d left the cottage in the middle of the night so the lease was null and void.

Though maybe Gabriel’s father would never find out. Not if his son never told him.

Nessa’s mind flitted back to the kiss she and Gabriel had shared only a few hours earlier. She could still feel his hands on her and she felt herself blush as she crunched down through the gears and took a corner on two wheels.

It had been wonderful, until his father rang and reality came crashing in. But while she was kissing Gabriel, her daughter was lying ill a few miles away. Seriously ill, if Valerie was right. Maybe Valerie was also right that Lily would be better off living with her forever.

‘Stop thinking!’ said Nessa out loud, slowing when she reached the outskirts of Heaven’s Cove. She’d cause an accident if she raced through the narrow streets of the village.

Street lights were off and there were no lamps lit in the windows of the ancient cottages as Nessa drove, as quickly as she dared, to Valerie’s house.She screeched to a halt outside, leaped out of the car and ran up the garden path.

She rang the doorbell once, twice, three times before Valerie opened the door, looking pale as a ghost without her make-up.

‘You came, then,’ she said, an emotion flitting across her face that Nessa didn’t recognise.

‘Of course I came.’ Nessa stepped into the hall and closed the door behind her. ‘Where is she? Is Lily all right?’

‘She’s in bed, and she seems a little better than when I rang you. I hope you didn’t mind me calling but I was worried.’

‘No, I’m glad you rang. I’ll go up and see her.’

Nessa took the stairs two at a time and rushed into the spare room. Her precious daughter was asleep with the duvet pulled up to her chin.

Nessa knelt by the bed, tears in her eyes, and pressed the back of her hand to Lily’s forehead. She was warm but didn’t seem overly hot. Nessa leaned forward and put her ear close to Lily’s mouth. She was snuffling in her sleep and there was a wheeze every time she breathed out. Nessa’s body slumped with relief. The wheeze was almost inaudible and nothing that a puff or two of inhaler wouldn’t ease.

Lily stirred when Nessa’s hair brushed her face, and her eyes flickered open.

‘Mummy,’ she murmured sleepily, raising her hand to touch Nessa’s cheek.

‘Mummy’s here, sweetheart.’ Nessa kissed Lily’s head. ‘Are you feeling poorly?’

‘Got a cold,’ said Lily, giving a huge yawn. ‘Granny gave memedicine. Why are you here?’

‘I wanted to make sure you’re all right.’

‘I’m OK, Mummy.’

When she snuggled back under the duvet, after having a little more of her inhaler, Nessa sat back and tried to calm down. Lily didn’t seem too bad, and she was always picking up colds. Her school was a germ factory.

Nessa sat with Lily for a while, inhaling her sweet, sleepy smell and stroking her soft hair until she was sure her daughter was asleep.

Valerie was peering out of the landing window when Nessa came out of the bedroom.

‘Is everything all right?’ she asked, twitching back the curtain.

‘I think so,’ answered Nessa quietly, making sure Lily’s door was closed. ‘She’s not particularly hot and she seemed OK when she woke up briefly. She’s a little wheezy. Did she have her brown inhaler before she went to bed?’

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