Chapter 74

“Dr James?” she asked when she finally got through. “Can you come to our company at once?” She was amazed at the calmness of her voice while her heart thumped so hard in the stillness. “There’s been an accident. It’s Mr Harris. He seems to have fallen down the stairs and can’t move his leg.”

Her voice trailed off and no further words of explanation would come. She heard the doctor’s answer as if it came from some immeasurable distance, but she knew that he had assured her that he would be there as soon as he could with the ambulance.

She did not think that Gale was going to die, nor did she tell herself that he might be seriously injured, crippled perhaps for life. She felt numbed, but conscious, too, of having achieved something, a kind of victory which love could accept. If it was even the victory over her old bitterness, she believed that it would be enough.

When the doctor arrived she was waiting beside the curiously wrapped figure on the ground, and the doctor and his help gave