Restoring Grace (41 page)

It was a rhetorical question but it made Grace
hunt
around for an answer. 'Just
experimenting, I expect,' she mumbled, not feeling this was the place to go
into Demi's
parents' difficult
divorce, the fact that she wasn't welcome
at either parent's home, and
had felt obliged to live with someone she wasn't related to at all.

‘It's not as if they don't teach them about it
in school!'
went on the nurse, washing away
at Demi's cut, none too
gently. 'They know what happens, but still they
do it. I suppose they think they're immortal. Well, they aren't! You should see
the cases we get in here.'

‘Perhaps when Demi's more – together – she
should—'

‘
Listen,'
said Flynn. 'We're very sorry Demi is taking
up your valuable time. We know you have people in here
who have not made themselves ill from choice.' He
looked
through the gap in the curtain. 'Though I'm not sure I spotted
any. But could you just clean her up so we can
get her home?' His Irish accent, never very apparent, came
out stronger now, and there was just enough anger
in his
voice to make the nurse purse
her lips. She was not accus
tomed to being stood up to.

‘She's very young,' said Grace in a placatory
way. 'I'm sure she's never done anything like this before.'

‘
It's a pity
she's done it now.' Then the nurse looked
at Grace. 'You're quite young yourself. Are you her sister?
You
should keep a better eye on her.’

Grace, who inside was dying
of guilt for having
allowed this to happen, said, 'I did my best!
You can't keep them under lock and key, you know!'

‘You could have told your parents you thought
your sister was taking drugs, couldn't you?'

‘
Could we
finish with the lecture now?' said Flynn, his
anger more evident. 'This
young woman' – he indicted Grace – 'has taken this child into her home out of
the
goodness of her heart. And, as you've
noticed, she's
hardly more than a
child herself. She doesn't need lectures
from you about how
irresponsible she's been!’

The nurse couldn't actually apologise, but she
bent to her work without saying anything else.

‘
How should
I look after her when I get her home?'
said Grace.

‘We should tell her parents, Grace,' said
Flynn. 'You shouldn't have to look after Demi now.'

‘
No! I
can't betray her! Not unless it's really necessary. And if she was that ill,
she'd be admitted, wouldn't she?'
she asked the nurse.

‘
If there
was a bed available, yes. But she'll be all right
as long as she doesn't choke on her own vomit.'
The nurse
said this as if she felt
it would be a just reward for Demi's foolishness. 'Treat the hangover in the
morning. If the cut
doesn't heal take her to her own GP to see the
practice nurse. OK? God! If you knew the waste of time and
resources these cases are to the rest of us, you
would not
allow your . . . whatever she is to you to run around getting
drunk and stoned.'

‘Do you think I was aware of what she was
doing?'
demanded Grace, holding back her
anger so firmly it
made her mouth
hurt. 'Do you think, for one second, that
I would have allowed any
drinking or smoking or what
ever to go on, had
I known what was likely to happen?
I thought she was staying the night
with a friend! With
parents! Now come along,
Demi, we're going home.'
Grace was shaking, feeling that if she had to
stay in the company of the nurse a second longer, she would do something she'd
regret.

Flynn and Grace walked slowly one each side of
Demi and got her out of the hospital. Then Grace and Demi
waited in the freezing air while Flynn fetched
the car. The
cold woke Demi up a bit.

‘
Oh, Grace,
I'm so sorry! You won't tell my parents,
will you?'

‘I won't tell them yet, Dem, but I may have to
later.'
Grace frowned, wondering how she
should deal with this.

‘
They'll go ape! Mum will make me go and live with
her and
I couldn't bear it!’

Grace sighed. 'I'm really
tired, Demi. I can't make decisions like that now. Let's just get you home and
see how
you are in the morning.'

‘I think I'm going to be sick!’

Before Grace could plan how to get her back
inside to
the lavatory, Demi deposited a
large quantity of red wine
and some
unidentifiable food items on to the grass verge,
just by where they were
standing.

Grace sighed. 'I suppose that's a good thing. Better an
empty house
than a bad tenant, as my father used to say.’

‘
I think I'm
going to die,' said Demi.

‘Then I'll
definitely have to tell your parents, both of them. What sort of music do you
want at your funeral?’

‘
Don't joke, Grace! It's not funny!' Demi was near
tears.

‘
I know it's not funny! I'm not laughing! I just want to
know what to say to Edward. "So sorry, Demi's
died of
a hangover and she
wants" — well, what? "at her funeral!"‘

The corner of Demi's lips
twitched. 'I'm so sorry. I never
realised what would happen. I
thought I could take my
drink, but the time
came when suddenly I didn't care that
I was drinking too much and just
went on.'

‘And the dope? It was just dope, wasn't it?’

Demi nodded. 'It's cool, really it is. I—'

‘No, it's not cool. If it was, you wouldn't be
here now. And nor would I.' Grace shivered violently. 'I hope the
heater's efficient in Flynn's car. I think I'm
suffering from
an overdose of
coolness right now.' She glanced at Demi,
wondering if now was the time for a lecture on how much
she'd
put Flynn out as well, and decided not. Demi's
conscience was coming back with her consciousness, and
Grace
didn't want to rub her nose in it any more. She'd suffered enough.

To her enormous credit,
when Flynn appeared with the
car and opened
the back door, Demi said, 'I am so sorry,
Flynn.
I've made a complete arse—idiot of myself, and
you've had to drive all the way down here and rescue
me. Thank you
so much.’

Flynn smiled his rather lopsided smile. 'Get
in. And
don't vomit on the upholstery.
There's a rug there to cover
yourself with. Grace, you'd better have my
coat.’

It was like a warm embrace around her
shoulders. It had been a long time since Edward had made that sort of romantic
gesture, although Grace was sure it wasn't
meant
romantically at all. The coat smelt faintly of Flynn's
aftershave.

‘
Won't you be
cold?' she asked him, concerned that
he'd already put himself out so
much for her and Demi, and now he was going to freeze as well.

‘
No. There's a very good
heater. Now you get in the
back with Demi.’

Both young women slept, sharing the rug, in the
dark
warmth of the back of the car. When
Grace woke up, she
realised they were nearly back.

‘You must be shattered,' she said.

‘I expect you are, too.'

‘But I've just had a nap and I haven't driven
however many miles it is. And you were probably driving before this.'

‘I probably was.'

‘I can't thank you enough, really I can't.' Her
rush of gratitude literally did make it hard for her to speak. 'I could never
have coped with all this alone.'

‘I know. That's why I came with you.'

‘
Well, of
course, I could have coped. It would just have
been a lot harder.'

‘That's what I meant.’

Grace stopped talking.
Working out what Flynn meant
was not easy.

Demi was able to get herself into the house
under her own steam. She was still woozy, but fully conscious and hugely
embarrassed. 'Oh, Grace, please don't send me
back
to Mum's!' she pleaded as Grace unlocked the front
door. 'I mean, I
wouldn't blame you if you did, but I couldn't bear it!’

Grace wasn't quite sure
what the right thing to do was.
'I won't send
you back but your mother might insist when
she
hears what's just happened.'

‘You don't have to tell her, do you?'

‘
Oh, Demi, I don't know!
I'll have to think about it!'
She couldn't honestly promise any more than
that.
Demi sighed.

There was no sign of Ellie when they got
through the front door and into the hall. The light was on, but that was all.

‘I expect Ellie's gone to bed,' said Grace.
'You go up, too, Demi. I'll come and look at you before I go myself.’

She waited until Demi had said her goodnights,
had kissed her awkwardly, and gone up the stairs, a sadder but a wiser girl.
Then she turned to Flynn.

‘I don't know what to say,' she said.

‘How about: Would you like a cup of coffee or
tea, or something, Flynn? Or a sandwich. I'm starving.’

Grace laughed. It was kind of him to take all
the
awkwardness out of the situation for her.
'There's
bound to be some leftovers in
the kitchen. Come on.
Let's see.’

What they
saw was Ellie's note.
Didn't want to be on my
own in the house. Sorry! Pathetic, I know. But I've gone to
stay
in Ran's house.
Grace could picture her, chewing the
pen, trying to write something which wouldn't give
Grace
- or Ran - the wrong impression.
I'll be back early in the
morning. Lots
of
love, Ellie.

There were only puddings left, so Grace found
bacon, eggs and tomatoes, and made Flynn breakfast.

‘It's been ages since I've cooked for a man,'
she said,
pushing the bacon to the side to
make room for the eggs.
'It's nice.’

Then she blushed, and
stayed with her back to him so
he wouldn't see.
Did she sound possessive? Could 'a
man' be interpreted as 'my man', and
would Flynn feel pressured?

‘It's a long time since any woman has cooked
for me,' said Flynn. 'That's nice, too.'

‘Good,' she said cautiously. 'Now would you
like fried bread?'

‘Yes, please. This is dinner as well as
breakfast.'

‘
What about
baked beans? Demi has them with a
cooked
breakfast, but I'm not sure Edward would
approve.'

‘I'm not Edward. I like beans.’

Still keeping her face out of his sight, so he couldn't
see her colour,
she found a tin of beans and opened them.

Eventually, she had to sit down opposite him. 'Where's
yours?' demanded Flynn.

‘
I never have breakfast,
at least, hardly ever, and not
at four in the morning.’

Flynn didn't reply. He
loaded his fork with a sample
of everything
on his plate except the beans, then he turned
it
towards her. 'Open wide.'

‘No, honestly. I'm fine. You eat it.'

‘Pretend you're a baby bird. Open your mouth.’

Giggling, Grace obeyed
him. She didn't want to start
a quarrel. He placed the forkful
carefully in her mouth. 'There.’

She ate it, still
laughing. It was delicious. She had had
no idea
she was hungry. He loaded up another forkful
and
she ate that, too. There was something silly and sweet
and tender about sitting opposite each other, him
feeding her. She didn't feel like a baby bird, but like a female one,
being
fed, on her nest, by her mate.