Runaway Bride: A laugh out loud funny and feel good rom com. Mary Baker Jayne
it tetanus?’
‘No, just a nasty dose of the flu. Not surprised, after what you’d been through. Your poor body must’ve been weakened past the point it could fight any more.’
I tried to sit up, but my head throbbed so hard I sank back down with a groan.
I put a palm to my forehead. It felt all fuzzy. When I glanced at my hand, I saw it was wrapped in a thick bandage.
‘That can come off soon,’ Jack said. ‘Your hands should be healed enough by now.’
‘You’ve been looking after me?’ I mumbled.
‘I have, yeah.’ He shook his head. ‘Good thing I found you. If you’d really tried sleeping rough in that flimsy dress, you could’ve killed yourself.’
Sandy was sleeping in her bed on the floor nearby. I leaned over to tickle her ears, reflecting woozily on the surreal fact I seemed to share the same backstory as my rescuer’s pet dog.
‘Do you feel like you could eat?’ Jack said, standing up.
The world was spinning so much, I knew I’d struggle to keep anything down. But my throat felt like it’d been sandblasted.
‘Drink,’ I managed. ‘Some water. Please.’
While Jack filled a glass for me, I ran my hands over my body.
‘What am I wearing?’ I asked when he came to sit on the bed by me.
‘Here.’ He put his hand behind my back and supported me while I drank. I gulped the water down greedily. ‘No, not too fast. It’ll only come back up.’
‘My dress. Where…’
‘With my laundry. I thought you’d be more comfortable in pyjamas.’
I squinted at him. ‘Did you see me with no clothes on?’
‘Yep. Very nice.’
‘Naughty,’ I said weakly, but I managed to smile. ‘Where’d you get ladies’ pyjamas?’
‘Just something I had lying around. Lucky they were your size.’
My brain was spinning, but I still remembered Rule One. The first rule of campervan is you do not talk about campervan.
‘’K,’ I mumbled. ‘What happens now?’
‘You get well again. It’ll take at least a few days till you’re back to full strength, I’d guess.’
‘You mean I can stay here?’
‘Unless you’d rather go home? Your family must be worried about you by now.’
I shuddered. The days of fever and delirium hadn’t weakened the image that’d been seared onto my brain the day of my wedding. That was as vivid as ever.
‘No. I want to stay with you. I don’t trust anyone else.’
He reached out to squeeze my hand. ‘Then you’ll stay. And when you’re feeling better, we’ll work out what comes next.’
***
It was nearly a week before I was feeling completely myself again. My body and my immune system really had taken quite a battering, and it took longer than it should have done to fight the infection.
Jack was great: cooking for me, sitting by me with his sketchbook while I dozed, reading to me, playing card games and chatting. It was just what I needed to stop me dwelling on Ethan and the wedding. I still couldn’t fathom why exactly Jack had taken me under his wing, except that I was another stray who needed his help and he was following a natural instinct to protect.
But I was grateful: so, so grateful. The more time I spent in his company, the more I thanked whatever guardian pixie looked out for Kitty Clayton and had made sure she’d fallen in the way of someone kind.
It was all so different from my old life, with Ethan. Jack was so different. Every ten minutes he’d ask if I needed anything, or offer to walk into Keswick for some little bit of food I’d expressed a taste for. When I’d been ill at home, Ethan had always made it quite clear he saw the whole thing as something I was putting on deliberately to inconvenience him, grudgingly making me the odd Lemsip until I was desperate to go back to work, just to escape the heavy air of resentment.
Because Ethan never got ill himself. That was why he had no patience with it in others, I’d told myself. And I’d excused him as best I could. Just like I always did.
A week after I’d come to, the throbbing in my temples had subsided to a dull ache and I was eating again, although I was still weak. One afternoon, I decided I was ready.
Jack was at the hob, cooking us pasta for lunch. He’d got me on meals heavy in carbs till my strength was up again. I could just imagine my mum’s expression if she could see my calorific staple diet right now. The thought of it created a half-guilty, half-exciting fizz of rebellion.
‘Jack, can I borrow your phone?’ I asked.
‘Why, who do you need to ring?’
‘Couple of people at home.’ I flinched. ‘I mean, where I used to live.’
‘Oh. Okay. Yeah, it’s somewhere here…’
He started rooting through the overhead compartments, pulling out bits and pieces and throwing them down on the passenger seat as he hunted out his mobile.
I smiled. ‘I’m thinking you don’t make too many calls?’
‘No, I keep it switched off mostly. The only people I ever need to ring are my agent, my parents and the odd friend. There’s no one else I want to talk to.’
‘Thanks.’ I caught the little old-fashioned Nokia he chucked me with one hand. ‘Um, could you… you know?’
‘You want some privacy?’
‘If that’s okay.’
‘No problem.’ He turned off his pasta and whistled to Sandy. ‘Come on, girl. Let’s take you for a waddle and a widdle while Aunty Kitty makes her calls.’
When they’d gone, I tapped in the number for directory enquiries. I could just about remember Nan’s landline, but without my own mobile, I had no access to anyone else’s contact details.
‘Hello?’ Laurel said when she answered. ‘If this is another sales call, then no, I haven’t had an accident at work and you can sod off.’
‘Hiya.’
‘Jesus, Kitty, is it you?’ she gasped. ‘Oh my God, oh my… where the hell are you? I’ve been scared out of my wits about you!’
I trusted Laurel – she was the closest friend I had – but she was still family. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I didn’t dare confide where I was to her. No matter how much she tried to keep it secret, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t get back to my mum. Or to Ethan via her husband Andy, who was a mate of his.
‘I can’t say,’ I told her. ‘I’m safe though, promise.’
‘But where have you been? Your mum and Ethan have been scouring the globe! Everyone’s been worried sick you’d turn up on the news dead in a ditch or something.’
‘Sorry, Laur. I would’ve rung sooner but I’ve been ill. I was barely conscious for a couple of days.’
‘Shit! Have you been in hospital?’
‘Briefly. I’m staying with someone now, a friend. He’s looking after me.’
‘He?’ She sounded suspicious. ‘Who is he? Someone I know?’
I