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father said, giving her a rather wintry smile. ‘We’ll ring when we get home.’
    How, Lorna tried to fathom, could he always make her feel guilty? He could make her feel like a troublesome child with one look, even at thirty-two years of age. She could feel the tension start to seep out of theroom as the door closed. Despite drifting in and out of consciousness, she had seen more of her parents these past few days that she had in ages, just concentrated time, with no nieces or nephews to distract, no parishioners dropping in. Just the three of them stuck in this blessed room and James Morrell, as she had found out, on the loose in the building!
    ‘Hello, there!’ A kind, lined face, speaking in a thick Dublin accent, walked towards her and with a small smile Lorna held out her arm for her blood pressure to be taken. ‘Lorna McClelland, and I’m in North London Regional Hospital.’
    ‘So you are.’ The nurse smiled. ‘Only I’m not here to do your obs. I’m May Donnelly. I was working in Emergency when you were brought in. I’ve just come to see how you’re getting on.’
    ‘I’m sorry!’ Embarrassed, Lorna winced. ‘Believe it or not, I was making a joke. I couldn’t remember my own name for the first couple of days, let alone tell them where I was.’
    ‘I’m not surprised!’ May perched on the edge of the bed and Lorna moved her knees. ‘You gave us quite a fright.’
    ‘I’ve given everyone a fright!’ Lorna sighed. ‘My parents just went home.’
    ‘Good or bad?’ May asked, and there was something about her eyes, something so knowing in that question, that Lorna felt relief. Tears welled in her eyes for the first time since the accident.
    ‘I’ve just caused so much trouble…’
    ‘Accidents do that.’ May patted her arm. ‘But it’s not you causing the trouble.’
    ‘You don’t know them.’
    ‘No,’ May said gently. ‘But I did meet them on the night of your accident.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘I was with James when he came up to Intensive Care to see you.’
    She couldn’t even manage an ‘oh’.
    So he had been to see her. Her parents hadn’t told her that. Her father had said he’d had a brief discussion with James, who of course had wanted to check that she was recovering, but that James had felt it better if he didn’t come to see her.
    ‘He was the doctor in charge when you were brought in.’ May let the words sink in and it took a while. Lorna closed her eyes as she tried, and failed, to comprehend how it must have been for him. They may only have been married a short while, but she couldn’t fathom her own response if she’d been on duty and it had been James who’d been brought in critically ill.
    ‘Did he tell you?’ Lorna asked. ‘Do you know that we…?’ Her voice trailed off, but May nodded.
    ‘I only found out that he’d been married that evening.’
    ‘How was he? How was he when he realised it was me?’
    ‘That would be telling tales out of school,’ May said, ‘but naturally he was upset. He’s asked me to come up and see you.’ Those tears were welling but Lorna sniffed them back. It hurt that he was still so bitter or, worse, blasé, that he couldn’t even come and check on her himself, hurt more than it rightly should. Only May hadn’t finished. ‘He was hoping to come up and see youhimself, but he didn’t want to, if it might upset you further.’
    ‘No.’ Lorna shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I thought he might have come up already.’
    ‘He would have, except…’ May gave her arm a little squeeze ‘…it might have been hard on you, with your parents here and everything.’
    ‘Did Dad tell him not to?’ May didn’t answer. ‘Ask him since when he listened to my father?’ And they came then, the tears she’d been holding back since her eyes had opened in ICU. It was the sheer horror of waking up sore and bruised and not knowing where she was and finding out her parents were here and that James was too. It wasn’t just a