Love Changes Everything (22 page)

Having visitors was wonderful but Trixie also found that, in spite of the pain and discomfort, when she moved her head she was enjoying the luxury of lying there between the crisp white sheets simply listening and watching everything that went on around her in the ward. She experienced a wonderful feeling of peace knowing that she had to do nothing but lie there and relax.

She also had plenty of time to think and there were moments when she wasn't sure whether lying there in a hospital bed was a dream or not.

The police had asked her so many questions that by the time they'd left she was in a state of utter confusion herself about what had actually taken place. She'd assured them, though, that no one had deliberately tried to hurt her, nor had she attempted to commit suicide as the sergeant suggested. She'd insisted, though, that she'd been kept a prisoner at Cavendish Road by Fred Linacre and begged them to make sure that she didn't have to go back there.

They'd assured her that they would have to look further into it when she told them that she'd been taken there by her father. However, when they told her that they'd be interviewing both Fred Linacre and her father she felt rather scared because she didn't want any more trouble.

‘We have to interview them before we can complete our investigations,' the sergeant explained. ‘Don't you worry about it, we'll get it all sorted out before you leave hospital.'

When she'd asked, ‘Does that mean I can go home soon?' they'd not given her a definite answer and now the fear that perhaps she would have to go back to Cavendish Road and she'd injured herself for nothing kept floating in and out of her mind.

The other thing that concerned her was not being allowed to see Cilla. If only she could see her, then she could reassure her and tell her that she'd be home again soon so as to stop her fretting.

The nurse said they didn't allow children into the ward and even when she'd tried to explain that Cilla wasn't like other children and why she really did need to see her, even if it was only for a few minutes so that she could reassure her, the nurse still refused.

‘You'll be home again by the end of the week,' she told her briskly, ‘you can see her all you want to then.'

Maggie tried her very best to comfort Cilla but it was impossible to calm her down. Cilla wanted Trixie and nothing Maggie said or did made any difference. Maggie had begged them at the hospital to be allowed to bring Cilla in but they were adamant. Rules were rules, or so it seemed, and couldn't be bent for anyone.

Sam was feeling equally hard done by. He was shocked that Trixie had done such a stupid thing just to draw attention to herself. Although the police had let him come home after he'd made a statement he suspected that they were still on his case. He knew that both Maggie and Fred Linacre had blown the gaffe about him taking money from Fred in return for sending Trixie to live with him.

He couldn't see what was wrong with what he'd done. As he told the police, she was there as a housekeeper, doing the cleaning and cooking, so naturally he expected Fred to pay her some wages. He was only looking after it for her, making sure she didn't squander it.

As for her being kept a prisoner and not being allowed out of the place, Sam steadfastedly lied, insisting that he knew nothing at all about that, so they'd have to ask her or Fred about it.

He was trying to convince them that he was being a good father but even so he'd jibbed at the idea of going round to Cavendish Road and collecting Trixie's things. Maggie had stood up to him, though, and insisted that he should do it. ‘She'll never be going back there again and we can't afford to lose all her clothes,' she'd argued.

Much as he'd have liked to give Maggie a bloody good hiding for answering him back as well as for jabbering to the police about him, he thought it was better to wait till it all blew over. Once Trixie was out of hospital he'd sort the pair of them out.

Trying to control his temper wasn't easy. At the boozer he discovered that Fred had put himself in the clear by spinning a yarn about what had happened that made it look as if he was the one who'd been misled. As a result, Sam found he was regarded as the villain and everyone was giving him the cold shoulder.

He didn't like drinking on his own at home. Anyway, there was no peace to be found there. Cilla was forever hollering and her crying and high-pitched screaming made his head ache. Maggie said there was precious little she could do to stop her because she was missing Trixie so much.

She'd even had the nerve to ask him if he would look after Cilla the day she went to bring Trixie home.

‘Take her along with you. If
you
can't shut her up, then how the hell do you think I'm going to be able to?'

‘They won't let kids into the ward, as you know,' Maggie told him.

‘Then leave her with someone the same as you've been doing when you go to visit at the hospital.'

‘That means the O'Malleys, since they're the only ones she'll go to and you keep telling us not to have anything to do with them because they're Catholics.'

‘You have, though; neither of you take a damn bit of notice of what I say.' Sam scowled.

‘I don't like to be bothering Ella and Ivy all the time.' Maggie frowned. ‘They've been very good but I know it puts them out and since it's a Saturday afternoon they'll have Jake home from work. It will only be for about an hour so surely you can manage to take care of her for that length of time.'

Maggie had nagged away so much that in the end he agreed that he would look after Cilla.

‘Stick her in her cot, then, and I'll sit in the other room and read the paper till you come home,' he promised. ‘With any luck she'll go to sleep, but leave a biscuit or something that I can give her to shut her up if she starts yelling.'

As luck would have it, Cilla was sound asleep by the time Maggie was ready to leave. Sam made himself comfortable stretched out in his armchair with a bottle of his favourite beer and the newspaper. Before he knew it, he was also asleep.

When he woke up Maggie and Trixie were home. Trixie looked washed out and as thin as a rake and her throat was still bandaged. Maggie helped her in and made her sit down. Then she began fussing round her like an old hen, telling Sam to get off his backside and put the kettle on because Trixie was still so weak that she needed a cup of tea to get over the journey home from the hospital.

‘Now you sit down here in your dad's chair and take it easy,' she told Trixie, ‘and I'll go and see if Cilla is awake, although I think she must be still asleep she's so quiet.' She smiled. ‘Wait till she sees you're home! She's missed you so much, she's never stopped asking for you.'

The next minute it was as if all hell had been let loose. Maggie was screaming her head off at him ‘Where's Cilla?'

For a minute he hadn't known what she was on about. ‘In her cot where you put her before you went off out, of course. Where else would she be?'

‘She's not in her cot; so what have you done with her, Sam?' Maggie advanced menacingly towards him, her eyes wide, her face contorted with fear and rage.

‘I haven't touched her,' Sam said, backing away from her as far as he could in the cramped kitchen.

‘You wicked old devil, you've never cared about her, never even liked her. If you've done her any kind of harm . . .' she gulped as he pushed passed her and went into the bedroom to see for himself.

He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Cilla's cot was empty. ‘How the hell did she manage to get out of there?' he asked, passing his hand over his head in a gesture of bewilderment.

‘You tell me; you were the one supposed to be looking after her,' Maggie retorted accusingly, remembering all his threats about putting her away in some sort of mental home.

He raised his hand to slap her one for answering him back, and then he let it drop to his side. He knew that at the moment he was the one who was in the wrong and it was best not to antagonise Maggie any more.

‘She can't have got far,' he muttered. ‘She must be here somewhere, hiding under the bed or in one of the cupboards.'

‘Why on earth would she do a thing like that?' Maggie questioned. ‘Not unless you've been threatening her while I've been out,' she added suspiciously.

‘I never set eyes on her. I was in the other room reading my paper the whole time you were out.'

‘You mean you didn't look in on her even once to see if she was all right,' Maggie said accusingly.

‘What an earth for? She was quiet, for a change, so I stayed where I was.'

‘Drinking beer, studying the horses and snoring your head off like you were when we came in.'

As they continued to bandy words, levelling accusations at each other, Trixie began looking in the kitchen and then the bedroom to see if she could find Cilla.

‘You come and sit down before you collapse,' Maggie scolded. ‘We'll find her; she must be here somewhere because I wouldn't have thought she could open the door. She never goes outside on her own so she'd be too frightened to try and do that but, if she has, then she can't have gone very far.'

Their search was fruitless; she was nowhere to be found. Maggie went and knocked on the doors of the other people living in the house but none of them had seen her.

‘It's no good, we must go to the police,' Maggie said in alarm as she pulled her coat back on.

‘Hold your horses, we don't want the scuffers sniffing round here again,' Sam protested.

‘It looks as though we've no alternative. We've no idea where she is or where to start looking.'

‘The speed she walks at she won't be far away,' Sam argued stubbornly. ‘Ask around. People will be bound to have noticed her if she's out in the street on her own.'

They searched for half an hour but without any success. Maggie wasted no more time. ‘Are you going to go along to Hope Street and tell them that she's been missing, possibly for the past couple of hours, or shall I?' she demanded.

Sam hesitated, trying to think of a way out of it. He'd had more than enough of being interrogated by the police. ‘Are you sure we've looked everywhere?' he prevaricated.

‘We've even looked inside the wardrobe and under the beds,' she reminded him, ‘so where else is there to look?'

‘What about round at the O'Malleys? Do you think she might have gone there?' Trixie suggested.

‘Don't talk so silly, luv,' Maggie said in an exasperated tone, shaking her head. You know she could never find her way from here to Horatio Street on her own.'

‘Why not? She's a lot brighter than you think. When she woke up and you weren't here and she found herself all alone she might have thought that was where you were and decided to look for you.'

‘She wasn't left here on her own, your dad was here,' Maggie said sharply.

‘Yes, I know that, but if he was fast asleep and snoring his head off and not taking any notice of her when she called out then . . .' Trixie's voice trailed off as there was a knock on the door.

‘Who the hell is that?' Sam growled. ‘It doesn't sound like the police.' He pushed past them and opened the door and the next moment they heard a man's voice, one that set Trixie's pulse racing.

‘Who the devil are you and what do you want?' she heard her father demand.

‘It's all right, Sam; he's a friend of Trixie's, so ask him to come in,' Maggie called out, rushing over to the door. ‘Come on in, Andrew.'

‘This is my friend, Andrew,' Trixie told her father who was still regarding the stranger hostilely.

‘Friend? How long has this chap been your friend?' Sam asked suspiciously.

‘I helped Trixie when she was put in charge of the Christmas money,' Andrew explained.

‘Oh, you're the one who did that, are you!' Sam scowled angrily remembering the frustration he'd felt because he couldn't get his own hands on it.

Realising that his reaction to Andrew was far from friendly and how annoyed he'd been because she had refused to let him look after the money, Trixie tried to change the subject before he said anything to upset Andrew.

‘It's good to be home. I'm still feeling a bit weak, but I'll be fine in a couple of days,' she said quickly.

‘Whatever happened to you? The police wouldn't tell me any of the details when I asked them. There wasn't time to ask you when I came to see you in hospital and neither Jake nor Ivy seemed to be very sure.'

‘'Course they wouldn't bloody tell you, you're not family,' Sam interposed quickly. ‘Anyway, I think you'd better go, whacker; we've other things on our mind at the moment,' he muttered.

‘Dad!' Trixie frowned in annoyance at his rudeness. ‘I'm sorry, Andrew, but we are all rather upset at the moment because Cilla is missing. She's wandered off and we've no idea where she may have gone,' she explained.

Andrew looked bemused. ‘Is she safe out on her own?' he asked frowning.

‘Of course she sodding well isn't, she's bloody barmy,' Sam bellowed. ‘Why the hell do you think we're all so worried?'

‘Mum left her in her cot while she came to bring me home from hospital,' Trixie said with an awkward little smile. ‘Mum thought she was still asleep but we've just this minute looked and she's not there, and we can't think where she might be.'

‘She must have gone outside so I'm off to see if I can find her,' Maggie said. ‘You can help look as well, Sam. You stay here, Trixie, in case someone brings her back home.'