'I'm sorry,' she said, drying her hands and trying to look busy. 'I haven't got time to talk, I'm off any minute to pick up David at the hospital!'
'No, you're not!' His peremptory voice put her back up; she threw the towel down and glared at him.
'Whatever you want to say will have to wait!' she muttered. 'They'll be ringing me any time now, and then I'll be driving to the hospital.'
'Your fiancé has already left,' Josh said, his eyes hard and watchful.
She stared at him blankly.
'What?'
'He left two hours ago.'
Prue looked at the door, as if expecting David to walk through it any moment.
'No!' Josh said in a flat voice. 'He isn't here.'
'Where is he, then? What's happened? Why did he leave the hospital without letting me know . . .' Her voice died away as she stared into Josh's furious eyes, and she became afraid.
'I don't know where he is—yet!' Josh said through his teeth. 'But I'll find him—and when I do, I'll break his neck!'
The violence in his voice made Prue flinch away from him, her green eyes huge and troubled. 'What are you talking about?'
'He's run off,' Josh said hoarsely. 'And he's taken my sister with him!'
Frozen, Prue whispered, 'Run off? David? But where has he gone? I don't understand what you're talking about! What has your sister got to do with David?'
'I told you,' Josh said, his dark eyes stabbing at her as if he blamed her for whatever had happened. 'They've gone off together . . . Lynsey and that bastard!'
'I don't believe you!' Prue said, but she began to feel cold, her skin lost all its colour and her eyes darkened with fear.
Josh gave a rough sigh of irritation, shrugging. '1 wish it wasn't true, too, God knows! But it is. Look, I only heard by accident—my shepherd cut his hand on a scythe early today, cutting back brambles, and his wife drove him to the hospital to have it stitched and to get tetanus jabs. When they got back, I went to their cottage to check that he was OK, and they mentioned seeing Lynsey driving away from the hospital. That rocked me, because she hadn't mentioned going to the hospital, so I asked if they were sure and they said yes, they'd know her car anywhere. It's an old banger of mine; I gave it to her for her last birthday, to help her pass her test. I'd had it for years, so they weren't likely to be mistaken.'
Prue tensely interrupted, 'But you said she left with David!'
'She did!' Josh irritably told her.
'But how could your shepherd know that? He doesn't know David.'
'He didn't know who the man was with her, he just knew there was a man in the passenger seat, but his wife, who had had to sit in the foyer while he was seeing the doctor, had seen Lynsey collect the man the from one of the wards.'
'But why on earth jump to the conclusion that it was David?' Prue was disturbed, but she couldn't believe that any of this was true. After all, Lynsey had only met David once, and anyway, she was just a teenager! David wouldn't run off with some eighteen-year-old! '
'I rang the hospital! They told me Henley had left with Lynsey,' Josh said harshly, and she stared at him, her stomach churning, and heard the clock ticking, heard water dripping in the kitchen sink, and outside a bird singing with melancholy persistence somewhere among the leafless wintry trees. Such small domestic sounds, yet they were like nails being driven into her flesh.
'Then she's bringing him here,' Prue said in a thin, dry voice, through lips turned white and shaky.
Josh watched her expressionlessly, shaking his head, and she picked up a flash of pity in those dark eyes, and it made her even wilder; her voice taking on an edge of desperation.
'She must be . . . they'll be here soon . . you're crazy, jumping to conclusions…'
'I know most of the staff pretty well,' Josh said flatly, interrupting.
'My family built the original hospital…'
'I know,' she said bitterly. 'I went to school here until I was thirteen, remember? I don't need a local history lesson about how the Killanes gave the money to build the cottage hospital. They told us all about it, and told us how grateful we ought to be!'
Her very obvious lack of gratitude didn't seem to bother Josh too much, although he did give her a faintly wry glance.