THE HUSBAND HUNTERS (34 page)

‘Hazel, it’s different this time. You were the one who left Rob, and moved in with your gym instructor, in case you had forgotten.’

‘That’s over now,’ Hazel screeched, ‘and I want him back.’

‘I’m afraid that's up to Rob to decide,’ said Tash. ‘It’s not my decision to make. If he wants to go back to you, then I won’t be stopping him.’

‘You little tart,’ shouted Hazel. Her fists were bunching up at her sides. ‘It wasn’t the same between me and Rob after you bewitched him all those years ago. He never quite got over you. No wonder I had to look elsewhere. Well, now I want him back, and he’s the father of my children. Don’t you dare try and take him away from them.’

‘This isn’t getting us anywhere Hazel, shouting like this,’ said Tash. ‘If Rob wants to go back to you and the children, then I will let him go.’

‘He will never be free of you, you little whore,’ said Hazel, rushing at Tash. It took her by surprise and knocked her off balance. I stood rooted to the spot in shock. Tash tried to struggle to her feet, but Hazel was too quick for her. She grabbed a nearby pitchfork and in her rage, swung it at Tash.

‘Stop it, Hazel,’ I shouted, lunging for her arm, but it was too late. The metal handle of the pitchfork caught Tash on the side of the head. She crumpled to the floor again, and this time she didn’t make a sound.

‘You mad bitch, what have you done?’ I shouted at Hazel. She was walking backwards now, a look of terror on her face. Tash still wasn’t moving. A trickle of blood had already started to seep through her hair and run on to the concrete floor.

‘Tash?’ I shook her gently – but she didn’t make her sound. Her eyes were shut and her face was a deathly white. I heard a car roar into action and saw Hazel driving off down the stable drive. With shaking hands I got my mobile out of my pocket and dialed 999.

‘Come quickly,’ I shouted down the phone. ‘My friend’s had an accident, and I don’t know whether she’s alive.’

It seemed like an eternity before I heard the sirens screeching up the drive. I was cradling Tash’s head on my lap, with her blood soaking through my jodhpurs. She still wasn’t conscious.

‘C’mon, Tash, wake up,’ I urged her. ‘You’re going to be all right. Hold on.’

The ambulance had screeched to a halt and the two crew men were running over with a stretcher. They surrounded us both and took Tash’s pulse.

‘What happened?’ asked one of the men.

‘She was having an argument with a woman, who came at her with a pitchfork,’ I sobbed. ‘She hit her on the side of the head, and Tash fell on the floor.’

‘Get her on a stretcher,’ shouted the nearest man. Gently four of the crew lifted Tash on to the stretcher and into the ambulance.

‘What hospital are you going to?’ I shouted.

‘Manchester Infirmary,’ one of the men shouted back to me as he ran to the passenger door and jumped in. The sirens started blazing and the ambulance drove off.

I jumped into my mini and followed the ambulance. It shot through red lights and I quickly got left behind. I could hardly see to drive, with tears streaming down my cheeks. How could this have happened to Tash? – Tash who was so full of life – fierce and proud. I didn’t know what we would do without her. I kept rubbing the tears away from my eyes and drove as fast as I could. I pulled up in the hospital car park and rushed into the Casualty Department.

‘My friend’s been brought in here with a head injury,’ I sobbed to the receptionist. ‘I need to find out what’s happening to her.’

‘Take a seat please, and I’ll do my best to find out,’ replied the woman. I felt like shaking her. Tash could be dead by now – as if I could sit down at a time like this.

‘Bee, is that you?’ asked a voice behind me. I swung round, and could hardly see who it was through my tears. It was Nick.

‘What are you doing here?’ I sobbed.

‘My friend’s had a rugby injury. Popped his thumb out of the socket, so I’ve brought him in,’ said Nick, cheerfully. ‘Why are you here? Has something happened?’

He put his hands on both my shoulders and looked at me, his eyes full of concern. He was wearing a horrible, grey, patterned jumper, but I didn’t care. I flung myself into his arms and buried my head in his chest.

‘It’s Tash,’ I mumbled into his jumper. ‘I think she’s dead.’

‘What on earth has happened?’ asked Nick. Gently he took my hand and led me over to a row of empty, orange, plastic seats. Still sobbing, I told him how Hazel had attacked Tash and clouted her with the pitchfork handle.

‘It was horrible,’ I wept. ‘She crumpled on the floor and her head started pouring with blood. I think Hazel may have killed her.’

I threw myself back into the comfort of his grey jumper, and he held me tightly, stroking my hair. I know I’d sent him to Coventry and it had been quite difficult ignoring him for the last couple of months, but I could make an exception in cases like this. The humiliation of a few fake emails sent by Nick had paled into insignificance, now we didn’t know if Tash was alive or dead. The receptionist came over.

‘They are carrying out tests on your friend now, so we will know some more soon,’ she said, kindly. ‘The doctor will come out and see you shortly.’

I couldn’t say anything and Nick carried on holding me tightly. It was strangely comforting having his arms around me. I’d missed him in a funny kind of way.

‘What about your friend?’ I asked him.

‘I think his thumb will manage without me for a few hours,’ said Nick.

After endless cups of watery coffee from the ancient machine in the corner of the waiting room, a doctor finally walked through the swing doors. He headed straight for us. He smiled at me.

‘Your friend is going to be okay,’ he said. ‘She has a nasty cut to the head, and we’ve had to put quite a few stitches in it, but apart from a bad headache and concussion, she will be okay. We are going to keep her in for observation tonight, to check she doesn’t take a turn for the worse.’

Thank God for that. I could have kissed him.

‘So, she’s not going to die?’ I asked in a small voice.

‘No, not this time,’ the doctor, said, with a smile.

‘Can I see her?’ I asked.

‘She’s sedated at the moment, but if you come back in the morning, then you’ll be able to see her then. ‘

‘Can I see her for one moment, before I go home,’ I begged him.

‘All right, but you will have to be quick. Follow me,’ said the doctor.

He walked through the swing doors and Nick and I followed him. He still had an arm around my shoulder, and I walked close to him, not wanting him to move it. The doctor stopped at one of the doors at the end of the corridor.

‘You can look through the window,’ he said. I peered in through the small square of glass. Tash was lying in the bed with her eyes closed. Machines were beeping by her bedside, and I could see the doctors had shaved off some of her lovely,
thick black hair. She had a huge, white bandage wrapped around her head. I could feel my eyes welling up with tears again.

‘It’s probably not as bad as it looks,’ Nick said, giving my shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

‘She’ll go mad about her hair when she sees that,’ I said as we walked back down the corridor and into the car park.

‘I imagine she will just be glad that she’s alive,’ said Nick, dryly. ‘It could have been so much worse.’

‘Do you want me to come back with you in the morning?’ he asked me, opening the driver’s door for me and helping me in.

‘It’s okay, I’ll be all right,’ I said. ‘If you could tell Maria that I’ll be late in. I probably won’t be allowed to see her for long.’

I rang the others when I got back in, and told them what had happened.

‘I always had a bad feeling about Hazel,’ said Rach. ‘She seemed like a loose cannon to me. Tash has had a lucky escape.’

I ran a hot bath and sank gratefully into it. The last few hours seemed such a blur. I hoped Tash was going to be all right. Nick had been amazing too. Whoever would have thought that he had such a soft side to him? I had been so glad he’d been there. I’d have gone to pieces without him.

Perhaps I’ll start speaking to him properly again now, I thought switching on the hot tap again and filling the bath even fuller. After all, I’d spent half the evening with my face buried in his jumper.

The next morning, I drove back to the hospital to see Tash. Rach had come with me, leaving baby Max with her mum.

It was the second time in only a few weeks that we had been through these hospital doors – first, with Rach and now Tash. My friends were dropping like flies. I hated hospitals – the thought of having any sort of operation terrified me. Going to the doctor for a check-up, was enough to send me into orbit.

‘Bee, are you okay? asked Rach. ‘You look a bit pale.’

‘I’m just hot,’ I said, fanning myself with my purse. That was another thing I hated about hospitals. They all were like tropical jungles – but without any trees – a claustrophobic, airless heat that almost left you gasping for breath.

‘Here we are,’ I said, swallowing down the anxious feeling that was beginning to stir in my stomach. I pushed open the door. Tash was sitting up in bed now, and she did look a bit better. Her face wasn’t the ghostly, white colour that it had been last night. She still had the huge bandage wrapped around her head, which had a rather gruesome-looking, blood stain on the front.

‘How are you feeling?’ I asked her, pulling up two plastic chairs for me and Rach to sit on.

‘Like crap,’ said Tash, giving us a small smile. ‘I’ve got a banging headache.’

‘I told you that woman was bad news, and I’ve been proved right,’ fretted Rach. ‘Thank God it was only a pitchfork that she bashed you with. You could have been stabbed, if she’d had a knife.’

‘It doesn’t feel like just a pitchfork,’ said Tash, wincing as she touched her bandage gingerly. ‘More like I’ve been hit over the head with a sledge hammer. She took me completely by surprise.’

‘You did go down like a bunch of skittles,’ I agreed. ‘Are you going to press charges against her?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Tash. ‘I want to get better and get out of here before I think about anything like that.’

‘Have you heard anything from Rob?’ I asked.

‘I texted him this morning, but I haven’t heard anything back from him,’ said Tash. ‘I think it will have ended up serving her purpose. If he sees how desperate she is to get back with him and be a family again, that's probably what he’s doing right now.’

‘Surely he couldn’t do that?’ said Rach, shocked.

‘That’s what I’m expecting to happen,’ said Tash, reaching up and taking a sip of water from the glass by her bed. ‘If he knows what lengths she will go to get him back, I think that...’

The door opened and Tash was stopped in her tracks. Rob stood in the doorway. His face was anguished.

‘
My poor Tash,’ he said, coming straight over to the bed. ‘I can’t believe that she did this to you.’

He sat on the edge of the bed and took Tash in his arms, cradling her bandaged head against his chest. She winced, and he let go.

‘I’m so sorry,’ he said. ‘Did I hurt you?’

‘Well, I have had a pitchfork slammed against my head, ‘said Tash, ruefully. ‘So it’s probably best left well alone.’

‘I’ve rung Hazel and demanded to know what happened,’ said Rob. ‘She is sorry for what she did. She said that she saw red and couldn’t control herself – but that doesn’t excuse her terrible behaviour.’

‘
I’m not going to press charges – I don’t want your daughters to be without their mum,’ said Tash, making a sudden decision, ‘and if you want to go back to her, then you must. I don’t want to be responsible for breaking up a family.’

‘Tash, there is no way I’m going back with her,’ he said, quietly. ‘I let you go once and I’m never going to let you go again. My life is with you now, and Hazel has got to accept that.’

He took hold of her hands. She was smiling at him now. I was beginning to feel like a gooseberry, but there was no way I was moving now and missing any of this. It was like watching the end of a really good film.

‘In fact,’ Rob was saying. ‘I want to ask you something very important.’ I nearly stopped breathing at this point. ‘Will you marry me?’

Tash stared at him for a few seconds – then she laughed. ‘You’ll have to get divorced first, or else we will be committing bigamy – and I’ll have to get an injunction taken out on Hazel to stop her coming anywhere near me – I don’t want to end up in the morgue next time – but yes, yes, I will marry you.’

It was one of the most romantic things I’d ever seen – and it was the closest I’d ever been to a real live proposal. I jumped up and hugged Tash.

‘Congratulations,’ I said, and I could feel the tears starting to well up. Rach was already dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, and Rob and Tash were grinning at each other like a pair of Cheshire cats.

‘Do you think we’d better go now?’ Rach whispered, digging me in the ribs. ‘They might want to be left alone, now he’s just asked her to marry him.’

‘Okay,’ I reluctantly agreed. I wanted to stay and watch more as it was so exciting, but I had to agree with Rach. It was time for us to make an exit. We hugged Tash, and said we’d see her tomorrow. The hospital was going to let her out that night, but Rob was going to pick her up and drive her home from the hospital.