Considering the staircase was made of stone and it was a long drop, the doctor told them they’d been “lucky”.
And Jack felt lucky.
She could have broken her neck, broken her back or her head injury could have caused brain damage.
None of this happened.
She was alive and breathing and was released from hospital within a few days.
For this, regardless of the crushing loss they’d endured, Jack felt lucky.
Belle, on the other hand, it was overwhelmingly safe to say, did not feel lucky.
During her short hospital stay, she had been far more quiet than normal, her moments of silent contemplation far more frequent and far longer and, for the first time, Jack did not enjoy them.
Indeed, these moments were so frequent and so long, if she wasn’t having one, she was sleeping.
Jack allowed this. She had told him when she did this she was trying not to think and he hoped, in this instance, she was successful.
When Jack, in his Jag, and Rachel and Lila, in Belle’s car, went to collect her when she was released, Belle’s game began.
There were no photographers mainly because the first night Jack was there, after sitting with Belle until she woke and remaining with her until her quiet tears subsided and she’d fallen asleep, he’d demanded a first thing in the morning meeting with the hospital CEO. When he had that meeting, he told the CEO if that first word was breathed about Belle being an inpatient, why she was and what she’d lost, Jack would stop at nothing until he’d closed the hospital down and the CEO, personally, would never work again.
The CEO believed him but he wasn’t hard to believe. Jack meant what he said and everything about the way he said it screamed it.
Therefore, they had thankfully not had that additional worry.
After she was released, when they were at the backdoors where the cars were parked, Belle started toward the Peugeot.
“Belle, honeypot, you’re riding with Jack,” Rachel had said gently.
Without looking at her mother or Jack or anything but the pavement, Belle replied softly, “I want to go to the cottage.”
Lila got close to her granddaughter, “Belle, my sweet –” but Jack interrupted her.
“Take her to the cottage.”
Both Lila and Rachel’s eyes flashed to him and he saw Belle’s body grow tight. He nodded to her mother and grandmother, they both gave him intense looks but they didn’t demur and helped Belle into the car.
He watched them drive away then he got into his Jag and drove to The Point.
Once there, he found his mother, told her to pack whatever Belle needed and then he went to the kitchen and told Elaine to pack what the dogs would need for an extended stay at the cottage.
Then, in his and Belle’s room, beside his mother, he packed what he would need for an extended stay.
All of this he put in the boot, he called the dogs and loaded them up and he drove into town.
He had a suitcase in each hand and a dog at each heel when he opened the door to Belle’s cottage.
Lila stood at the head of the stairs as he walked up.
He dropped the suitcases on the landing as the dogs nosed around the small house.
Without first offering her a greeting, Jack said, “I’ll need keys and someone should go to the grocery store.”
“I’ll go to the store,” Rachel, who had appeared in the back hall, offered immediately and bustled into the kitchen.
“I’ll find keys,” Lila murmured and she bustled into the kitchen too.