‘Yes, he’s in an incubator for a day or two but he should be all right,’ Tubb replied. ‘Sorry to call on you when I know from the others why you left Switzerland early but I need to know whether you’re able to return to work on schedule.’

Isaac blew out his cheeks. ‘Sorry. I should have been in touch with you already but I’m trying to see my way forward. I do have a lot to work around and I might not be able to do all my hours, but I’ve got half an idea. I need to talk to Hayley first, and probably her breast cancer nurse so can I call you back tomorrow? I’m not due back at work until the day after anyway.’

‘OK. Ring me tomorrow.’ Tubb hesitated. ‘Have you heard anything from Lily? She and the others have set off a day early.’ He sounded guarded, as if he wanted more information without giving his feelings away.

Slowly, Isaac sank down on the bed, thinking back to his earlier conversation with Lily. He’d assumed she’d been in Schützenberg. ‘I didn’t know that. Is she driving?’

‘I assume so as she’d certainly intended to drive on Monday but things got a bit … it was down to me to get Ona to the hospital. We didn’t want to wait for Max to get there.’ He paused but Isaac didn’t fill in any blanks. He was pretty sure he wasn’t meant to disclose that he’d known for a while about Lily being Tubb’s sister or about Tubb’s furious reaction to Lily telling Garrick the truth. If there were sides to be taken here, he was on Lily’s. ‘Lily’s not answering her phone,’ Tubb added.

Isaac made a non-committal noise. ‘It’s nearly ten in your time zone, isn’t it? Maybe she’s asleep.’ He said goodbye, upset and worried at the memory of how empty Lily had sounded. He tried to call her back, ostensibly about Tubb’s call but actually to be there for her. Or just to hear her voice.

There was no reply.

He wondered if the Middletones had stopped at the same hotel in Chalons en Champagne as on the way there. He envisaged his room there and Lily in it, the feel of her wet soapy hair slipping through his fingers and her sensitive scalp beneath his fingertips.

He was suddenly swamped with worry for her. Was she able to wash her own hair now?

How was her hand?

Had she coped with the driving on the way home?

Lily had helped him get back to England, which suggested that she thought him helping a post-operative woman was more important than helping one with a badly bruised hand … but now, reflecting on her battling valiantly across the continent, possibly in pain, he felt as if he’d let her down.

Chapter Twenty-One