‘Did your parents come to see you?’
‘My father did. Mother obviously decided that it was safe to allow us in the same room unsupervised.’
‘And was it?’
‘We disagreed on a few things. Patched it up again. We’re good.’ Better than they had been for a very long time. Hugo wondered whether Nell knew that it was her influence that had made that possible.
‘Are you getting out this afternoon?’
‘Yes. I’ve been pronounced none the worse for wear and I can go as soon as you can collect me.’
Nell laughed, the sound of pure happiness reaching him despite the less-than-perfect phone connection.
‘That’s great. We’re on our way now.’
She almost danced into his room a little later. Nell was wearing a red summer jacket over a red-and-white printed dress, and Hugo began to wish that he’d been with her at the luncheon. But then she would have sat quietly beside him, supporting him but hardly speaking up for herself. She could do so much more than that.
‘Are you ready? Before we go, I have someone who’d like to see you.’
Hugo just wanted to go down to the car and get home. But then Nell ducked outside the doorway, appearing again with a wheelchair.
‘Uncle Hugo!’ Nadine beamed at him.
‘Nadine. What are you doing here?’
‘I came to see you, silly.’ Nadine wrinkled her nose at him and he laughed.
‘That’s very kind of you. Who told you that I was here?’
‘Dr Nell. She said you were ill but you’re better now.’
‘Yes, that’s right.’ Nell pulled up a chair and Hugo sat down, facing the wheelchair and leaning forward towards Nadine.
‘Are you all better?’
‘Yes, every bit of me. And what about you? You look much better than when I saw you last.’
Nadine nodded. ‘Mama and Papa are taking me home soon.’
‘That’s good news.’ Hugo flipped his gaze up towards Nell, and she nodded, smiling. Clearly she’d taken a moment to find out how Nadine was, and the little girl was recovering well.
‘Were you lonely?’ Nadine looked around the room that Hugo had occupied. He supposed that the exaggerated quiet of the private wing of the hospital must seem a little lonely to her.
‘Yes, I was a bit lonely. But I was only here for one day.’
Nadine nodded, tugging at the teddy bear that was squashed down beside her in the wheelchair. A little tattered now, Claude had accompanied Nadine through most of her stays at the hospital. When she stretched out her hands, offering him to Hugo, he felt his eyes fill with tears.
‘Are we going to see how Claude is?’ How many times had he pressed his stethoscope to Claude’s chest to dispel a little girl’s fears? He knew something about those fears now, the unspoken shadows that defied everything he’d learned as a doctor.
‘How you are.’ Nadine was growing up. She knew that Claude was just a way of talking about her own difficulties, and she was offering him to Hugo in the hope that he might speak for him, too. Hugo’s hand automatically reached for the stethoscope that wasn’t in his pocket, and decided instead to just press his ear to Claude’s chest.
‘I hear it...’ He nodded, hearing only the pounding of his own heart. ‘That’s very good...’
‘Perfect.’ Nadine echoed the word he usually said when he listened to Claude’s heart. It had been on the tip of Hugo’s tongue but somehow he’d been unable to say it in connection with himself. Hugo nodded, giving Claude a hug and then passing him back to Nadine.
‘It’s time to go back now, Nadine.’ Nell spoke in her careful, studied French, but the warmth of her smile was unmistakable. ‘Your mother will be here to see you.’
Hugo couldn’t let her go yet. This little girl who had been through so much but had still found it in her to offer him the comfort of a teddy bear. ‘Would you like me to come with you?’