No Child of Mine (47 page)

‘She has an extremely bad cold,’ Brian Wade replied stiffly, ‘which she almost certainly picked up when you got caught in the rain on Friday.’

Thinking of how long ago Friday seemed now, while having to concede that might well be true, Alex said, ‘OK, I’ll pop in to see her, and try to cheer her up.’

‘Thank you, but as you’ve apparently escaped it yourself, I wouldn’t want you to catch it.’

‘I’m not worried about that. Has she seen a doctor if it’s as serious as you say?’

‘As a matter of fact, Dr Aiden was passing on Saturday so he dropped in to see us. He was of the opinion that she shouldn’t go out until tomorrow at the earliest. Hopefully, by then the worst of it will have passed.’

Having no reasonable grounds to push her protest any further, Alex said, ‘OK, well thanks for letting me know. I’ll be on this number if there’s anything I can do.’

After ringing off she was about to fork off towards the office when she decided to keep going and drop in on the Wades anyway. From the number that had come up on her mobile, she knew that Mr Wade was at work, so there shouldn’t be any risk of bumping into him. And since Mrs Wade might well not answer the door she needn’t be too worried about upsetting her, either. On the other hand, if the highly unpredictable Mrs Wade did let her in, she’d be able to see Ottilie and satisfy herself that Brian Wade was telling the truth.

Funny how she never believed a word that man said.

In the event, she didn’t even have to press the bell before Erica Wade was pulling open the door and asking her what she wanted. ‘Didn’t my husband tell you Ottilie’s ill?’ she demanded.

‘Yes, he did, but I thought I’d call in and see how she is.’

Erica’s face twitched. She seemed stymied, then suddenly, as the idea apparently came to her, she said, ‘She’s sleeping.’

Alex’s eyebrows rose as her insides gave a flutter of unease. Not bothering to hide her disbelief, she replied, ‘Then I’ll go very quietly so’s not to wake her.’ She was determined now not to leave without at least laying eyes on Ottilie.

Unexpectedly, after a moment’s ludicrous stand-off, Erica simply shrugged and moved aside.

Going past her, Alex ran up the stairs, and gently pushing open Ottilie’s door she found, to her surprise, that Ottilie was sitting on the floor trying to fasten the Velcro on her trainers. She was wearing her coat and jeans and Boots’s head was peeking out of the top of her bag.

‘Hello,’ Alex said softly.

Ottilie started and looked up.

‘And where are you off to?’ Alex asked.

Ottilie seemed confused, then worried. ‘With you?’ she replied uncertainly.

Realising Ottilie was afraid she was mistaken, Alex went to kneel in front of her, searching for signs of this terrible cold. There didn’t appear to be any; she looked and sounded in perfect health. ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked, putting a hand on Ottilie’s forehead to check for a temperature. ‘Do you have a sore throat or a cough?’

Ottilie’s eyes were wide as she shook her head.

‘Does anything hurt?’

Ottilie dropped her eyes.

‘What hurts?’ Alex prompted.

Shaking her head, Ottilie pulled Boots out of her bag.

‘Does Boots hurt?’ Alex asked.

Again Ottilie shook her head. ‘Go now?’ she said softly.

Alex smiled past her concern. ‘Yes, of course,’ she said.
If Brian Wade didn’t like it, then Brian Wade could kindly explain why he’d said his daughter had a cold when she patently didn’t.

Holding Ottilie’s hand as they walked down the stairs, Alex swung her off the bottom step and after blowing a raspberry kiss on her cheek, she set her down on her feet and told her to wait for a moment.

‘Why were you trying to make out she’s sick?’ she demanded of Erica Wade, who, bewilderingly, was on her knees in the middle of the kitchen.

‘She’s not sick?’ Erica replied, making it a question.

Alex frowned. ‘No, she isn’t, so why did your husband call to tell me she was?’

‘You’ll have to ask him.’

‘I shall, but maybe you can tell me if there’s any reason why he wouldn’t want her to go to school today?’

Erica hardly seemed to be listening.

‘Mrs Wade, if there’s something you need to tell me ...’

‘There’s nothing,’ and getting to her feet she pulled open the back door and went outside.

‘I don’t know what the heck it was all about,’ Alex was remarking to Janet half an hour later, as they watched Ottilie tootling off with Chloe to have a go on the scooters. ‘He even said the doctor had been to see her, but unless I’m missing something, there’s nothing wrong with her.’

‘She looks perfectly all right to me,’ Janet agreed. ‘And if you say she was already dressed when you got there, it seems no one had told her she wasn’t coming today.’

Alex’s eyes narrowed as the penny started to drop. ‘I wonder if that was what it was about,’ she said slowly. ‘He wants to break the confidence she’s building up in me by making it look as though I’m letting her down. So, he encourages her to think she’s going to nursery, then I don’t turn up and he can tell her that I’m too busy for her – or I have to put other children first, or whatever he’s planning to tell her.’

Janet clearly wasn’t liking the sound of that.

Alex’s eyes went to hers. ‘This is the trouble with people like him; they’re too damned clever by half, at least they like to think they are, but if that man thinks he’s dealing with
a fool in me then he’s about to find out that he’s very much mistaken,’ and taking out her phone she went into the office.

‘I don’t imagine Mr Wade’s free,’ she said to the secretary when she got through to the school, ‘but perhaps you can give him a message. Please tell him that Alex Lake rang with the happy news that his daughter has staged a full recovery and is now at the nursery playing with her friend. If he’d like to ring me, he has my number,’ and after making sure the secretary had all the details correct she ended the call and rang the doctor’s surgery.

‘I’ll see if he’s free,’ the receptionist told her, after she’d explained what it was about. ‘One moment.’

As Alex waited, her concern was fleetingly surpassed by a few flutters of excitement at the thought of her mother being at home, and possibly even coming to join her and Ottilie later. There was still so much for them to talk about, to find out about one another, that Alex was aware of conflicting swells of unease and elation at the mere thought of it. Maybe she’d ring after she’d spoken to the doctor, to find out if her mother was up yet, or still sleeping off the jet lag.

‘Ms Lake, I have a few minutes,’ Dr Aiden announced, coming on the line, ‘how can I help you?’

‘I’d like to know if you visited Ottilie Wade at home on Saturday,’ Alex responded, coming straight to the point. ‘Please don’t plead patient confidentiality, because she’s in my caseload and this is important.’

‘Yes, as a matter of fact I did drop by the house,’ he retorted stiffly. ‘Why, is there a problem?’

‘That’s what I’m hoping you’ll tell me. What exactly did you find to be wrong with her?’

There was a brief pause before he said, ‘She has a touch of vulvovaginitis. Not uncommon in young girls, as I’m sure you’re aware.’

Alex turned cold. Indeed she was aware, but when girls as small as Ottilie came into her world with any kind of soreness around their vaginas or bottoms, alarm bells immediately went off like sirens. ‘How would she have contracted this condition?’ she asked, trying to stay calm.

‘It’s not really possible to pin it to anything in particular,’ he replied. ‘It might be the bubble bath she’s using, or a reaction to a laundry detergent. Or it’s quite possible she still isn’t able to wipe herself adequately after going to the toilet. That would cause things to flare up.’

It was true, it would, so now the only remaining question was, ‘Did you see anything to cause you any other kind of concern?’

It took no time at all for him to register her meaning. ‘I don’t believe so,’ he replied mildly. ‘In every other way she seemed in good health.’

‘Apart from her cold?’

Another short pause. ‘I wasn’t aware she had one. It must have come on since Saturday.’

‘I guess it must have. Well, thanks for talking to me. I greatly appreciate it.’

As she rang off the door opened behind her and expecting it to be Janet she turned round saying, ‘Well that was interest—’ She broke off as she saw Chloe with an arm round Ottilie, who was sobbing. ‘Sweetheart, what is it?’ she cried, going down to Ottilie. ‘What’s happened?’

‘See, I told you she hadn’t gone,’ Chloe said to Ottilie. ‘She got scared because she thought you’d left,’ she explained to Alex.

‘Oh, Ottilie,’ Alex murmured, sweeping her up in her arms. She’d left her at nursery before without it causing any distress, so why was she upset today? ‘Has something happened?’ she asked gently. ‘Did somebody say something mean?’

Ottilie’s body was shuddering so violently that Alex tightened her arms around her.

‘She looked round and you weren’t there,’ Chloe told her. ‘I said you were probably only in the office, and Janet said you were, but she kept crying so I brought her to find you.’

Smoothing Ottilie’s hair and pressing a kiss to her flushed forehead, Alex said, ‘She’s a little bit under the weather today, aren’t you, sweetie?’

Chloe stood staring up at them, her dear angel face pale with concern. Suddenly she clapped a hand over her mouth. ‘Where’s Boots?’ she gasped.

Ottilie’s head came up, and as panic kicked in she all but leapt out of Alex’s arms to race after Chloe into the playroom. Fortunately, they found him still hanging out with the couple of dolls and a fluffy duck they’d surrounded him with while they built him a Lego house.

Panic over.

Phew!

Troubled by how afraid Ottilie had seemed, Alex carried a chair to the corner of the room so she could continue making calls where Ottilie could see her. Though Ottilie’s level of attachment to her wasn’t exactly surprising, it was worrying nonetheless. However, now wasn’t the time to start addressing it, it was time to try Brian Wade again to find out why he had lied about the cold.

‘I gave him your last message,’ the secretary informed her, ‘but he’s with some parents at the moment, so I can’t interrupt him.’

‘OK, well when you do get to speak to him will you please let him know that I’ve contacted Dr Aiden about Ottilie and would very much appreciate it if he could ring me back before the end of the morning.’

‘It’s twelve o’clock,’ the secretary pointed out, ‘but I’m sure he’ll get a chance over the lunch break.’

As she rang off, Janet was coming to sit beside her.

‘What news?’ Janet asked, shifting a sleeping baby into her other arm.

After relating what the doctor had told her, Alex said, ‘I’m no expert, so there’s no point in me examining Ottilie myself, but look at the way she’s moving.’

Janet turned to watch Ottilie as she knelt, stretched and crawled to find the pieces to create Boots’s house. ‘She’s definitely awkward,’ she decided, ‘and vulvovaginitis would do that.’

‘Indeed, but it’s what might have caused it that’s really worrying me.’

Janet looked distinctly bleak. ‘The doctor’s seen her,’ she said, ‘so if anything like that had occurred ...’

‘Doctors have been known to miss the obvious,’ Alex reminded her. ‘An irritation that’s common, bruising that can be explained in other ways ... If they’re not actually
looking for what we’re talking about ...’ She sighed. ‘I wonder if we can bring her appointment with the paediatrician forward to this week instead of next.’

Janet’s eyebrows rose. ‘Good luck with that,’ she responded, knowing as well as anyone how difficult it was to get any time with the community paediatrician without at least a three-week wait. Unless it was an emergency, of course, when it would happen the same day.

Alex gave a sigh of impatience. Though in her mind Ottilie might require immediate attention, she knew already that without any actual evidence of abuse – and an otherwise explainable inflammation wouldn’t do it – or a situation that could be termed life-threatening in some way, she was never going to get the appointment changed. However, there was no harm in putting Ottilie down for a cancellation just in case a slot came free. So scrolling through her numbers she spoke to the bookings clerk at the clinic, and managed to get Ottilie placed ninth on the waiting list. This meant that Ottilie was almost certainly not going to be able to see anyone until her scheduled appointment the Thursday after next.

Starting as her phone rang, she looked at the screen and for a heart-stopping moment she thought it was Jason calling. Then, remembering who was at the Vicarage, she felt an eddy of nerves going through her as she clicked on to answer. ‘Hi, how are you?’ she asked. ‘You’ve managed to wake up at last?’

Anna laughed. ‘Only just, I’m afraid. Is it convenient to talk?’

‘Yes, it’s fine. Did you have a good sleep?’

‘In the end, but I have to admit I’m still feeling a bit woozy.’

‘Then go back to bed. You don’t have to come with us this afternoon ...’

‘But I want to. I never got to take you to the zoo when you were little, so this is my chance to make up for it.’

Alex laughed, and felt slightly ridiculous for liking the fact that her mother wanted to try and recapture some of what was lost. ‘There’ll be other opportunities when you’re feeling more up to it,’ she said. ‘Maybe Wednesday. If
Ottilie enjoys it today, I’m sure she’ll want to go again.’

Trying to speak through a yawn, Anna said, ‘OK, it’s a deal, but I’m definitely cooking dinner for us tonight. No arguments. I’ll find a supermarket and if I can get all the ingredients I need, I’ll rustle you up one of my specials.’

Though Alex smiled, she couldn’t help feeling the strangeness of her mother taking over Myra’s kitchen. It didn’t seem right, but she wasn’t entirely sure it felt wrong either, and since there was nothing to be gained from mentioning it she said, ‘I’ve got loads more questions for you, if you’re up to it.’

‘I will be,’ Anna assured her, ‘and I’ve got plenty for you too. Have you spoken to your team leader yet, to see if you can ease back a bit on your commitments this week?’