Kelly managed a weak smile and Daniel sat next to her and soothed her gently while Ally gave a brief but thorough description of what had happened and the treatment they’d given.
Daniel stood up as his partner came in with a chair covered in red blankets. ‘One of you coming in the ambulance?’
Sean frowned. ‘I’m still on call…’
‘I’ll go,’ Ally said promptly, and then bit her lip. Charlie.
Sean scanned her face and held out his hand. ‘Give me your keys and I’ll be in when Charlie comes home. If I get a call, Charlie can come with me.’
Ally hesitated. ‘My mum can probably stay with her…’ But, then again, maybe not. She’d told her mother that she’d be home so she might have made plans. The farm kept her whole family busy. She didn’t have a choice. Delving into her bag, she handed Sean the keys and then followed Daniel out to the ambulance, helping to settle Kelly comfortably while Mrs Watson locked the house.
As the ambulance pulled away Ally gave the woman a comforting smile. ‘She’ll be just fine now, Mrs Watson.’
‘Until the next time.’
Ally nodded slowly. ‘Yes, well, we need to get to the bottom of this. I’ll talk to the hospital when they’ve had a chance to assess her. It is unusual that she wasn’t better controlled on that dose of steroids she’s been taking.’
Was it her imagination or was Mrs Watson avoiding looking at her? Her instincts told her that something wasn’t quite right…
‘How long will she have to stay in?’ Mrs Watson rummaged in her bag for a tissue and blew her nose hard.
‘She’ll probably be allowed home tomorrow,’ Ally told her, steadying herself as the ambulance went round a corner. ‘Do you have any idea what triggered this attack, Mrs Watson? Has she been in contact with animals or anything different that might have caused it?’
Was there the briefest hesitation?
‘I don’t know.’ Mrs Watson shook her head firmly.
‘Right.’ Ally watched her carefully. ‘Well, we’ll have to think about it.’
Lucy’s words about Kelly’s mother not being keen on drugs came back to her, and she frowned briefly. Was that what was happening? Was she withholding the drugs? She made a mental note to follow it up as soon as Kelly was out of hospital.
* * *
Ally heard the laughter as soon as she pushed open the door of the barn.
Charlie was lying on her stomach on the big rug in front of the fire, her legs swinging from left to right, and Sean was sprawled across from her in the process of loading small white balls into a tunnel.
‘Hi, Mum!’ Charlie grinned delightedly. ‘We’re playing Hungry Hippos. I’ve won twice.’
‘She’s violent,’ Sean murmured wryly, smacking Charlie’s hand gently as she leaned across to steal a ball. ‘That’s mine, you cheat!’
Charlie giggled furiously and then pounded the plastic hippo with her hand until it swallowed the ball.
‘I’ve won another one!’ she whooped, and wriggled into a sitting position, her blonde hair awry as she beamed at Sean.
Ally dropped her bag and sank onto one of the squishy white sofas which had been her biggest indulgence. ‘So, how was the party, tuppence?’
‘Oh, great! There were some brilliant costumes but mine was the brilliantest.’
‘The most brilliant,’ Ally corrected automatically.
‘My mask was scary, wasn’t it, Sean?’
‘Terrifying.’ Sean’s eyes gleamed and swivelled to Ally who was feeling thoroughly agitated. Whatever she’d been expecting, it certainly hadn’t been a cosy domestic scene, with Sean playing with her daughter. Somehow she’d thought he’d be reading quietly on one of her sofas while Charlie played in her bedroom—instead of which he was lying on his side on her rug, his jeans clinging to the hard muscle of his thighs, a glimpse of dark hair showing on his chest as his shirt buttons gaped slightly. He looked devastatingly male and thoroughly at home.
Surely he’d said he didn’t like children…
She bit her lip and dragged her gaze away from the question she saw in his.