We went inside to find Sam slumped flat on the floor, white as a sheet, looking like he might throw up again any second.
‘What the –’ Dad gulped as he took in the sight, his rage gone in an instant.
‘I just found him,’ I said, fighting back tears. ‘Dad, I think he might have been like this all day. You have to help him.’
Dad carefully stepped over the bits of broken wood. ‘OK, Sam … stay absolutely still … don’t try to move …’
I sighed with relief, even though I hadn’t really doubted Dad would change his tune when he saw Sam like this.
I stood back and watched while Dad crouched down, talking to Sam calmly the whole time, using the same voice he uses when he’s giving Grace instructions whenever she’s hurt or really scared. ‘Come on, son … deep breaths … I know it must hurt like hell but I’m going to call an ambulance and you’ll soon get something for the pain. Everything will be fine.’
He laid a hand on Sam’s forehead as if he was checking his temperature, then he asked him if he’d bumped his head and had a quick check for any injury there. He looked at Sam’s leg but he didn’t touch it.
Tears were running down Sam’s face but he wasn’t making a sound as he lay there as tensed up and scared as I’d ever seen him.
‘It’s a good job we found you,’ Dad grunted.
‘Before the rats did!’ I quipped, trying to get Sam to relax as Dad continued to check him over. ‘Don’t worry, Sam, you’re not hallucinating. Dad really is being nice to you.’
Dad swore, and for a moment I thought he was reacting to my bad joke. Then I saw that he was swearing at his phone. ‘No reception,’ he muttered crossly. ‘I can’t risk moving him into the car with that leg. He needs an ambulance. Stay here with him, Libby, while I go outside and try to get a signal. I might have to drive down the road.’
I nodded and Sam and I silently watched him go. I briefly wondered if I should hold his hand or offer to mop his brow but decided against it. After all, I wasn’t Bella.
As if he could mind-read Sam asked hoarsely, ‘Where’s Bella?’
‘She wanted to come and find you but she’s grounded. She’s been trying to phone you. She thought you were ignoring her calls.’
‘I was … yesterday … wanted her to worry … but today …’ He started to cough.
‘It’s OK, Sam. I get it. She’ll understand.’
I went to stand at the front door where I could watch for Dad. I also badly needed some fresh air. The smell of stale vomit was getting to me a bit. Sam had his eyes closed. He looked exhausted.
‘I can’t believe you ran away from home to be with Bella,’ I said, thinking I should probably keep him talking rather than let him go to sleep. ‘It’s pretty romantic actually.’
He opened his eyes slightly. ‘She offered to come away with me instead,’ he muttered.
‘She did?’ I was astonished.
‘Yeah … can’t say my Bella doesn’t have guts …’
‘She’s not just your Bella,’ I grunted. ‘And Mum and Dad would never have stopped looking for her if she’d run away.’
He nodded. ‘I know. That’s why I thought it was better if we did it this way round. Cos I don’t have that problem.’
An hour later Dad and I were following the ambulance to the hospital in Castle Westbury. The paramedics had given Sam an injection to ease the pain but it had clearly hurt a lot when they’d splinted his leg to move him. It was only as he was being lifted into the back of the ambulance that he said drowsily, ‘What about my bike?’
‘What bike?’ Dad asked.
‘His motorbike. It’s hidden in the woods,’ I said quickly.
Dad’s eyes narrowed but he kept his voice calm as he said, ‘Well, it can stay where it is for now. We’ll meet you at the hospital, Sam.’
In the car Dad asked, ‘Has Bella been riding that bike?’
I didn’t reply, which pretty much told him the answer. He shot me a glare, then set about extracting every shred of information from me that he could, including the length of time Sam had been in the cottage and whose idea that had been. When I asked if Sam would get in trouble for squatting, he said that if Mrs Fuller tried to kick up too much of a fuss then he would threaten to kick up a fuss about how she’d rented it to us in such a dangerous state in the first place.
At the hospital we waited while a still drowsy Sam was seen by the triage nurse and then a doctor, who sent him for an X-ray and said that his leg was broken and that they would be putting it in plaster and admitting him for the night. Everyone kept assuming Sam was Dad’s son, and after a while Dad stopped bothering to correct them.
‘I’m going outside to phone your mum and Sam’s mother to let them know what’s happened,’ Dad told me as we waited for Sam to be brought back.
While he was gone I really wished I could phone Bella myself. But of course Bella didn’t have her phone and Mum would be on the landline with Dad.
‘So did you speak to Sam’s mum?’ I asked Dad when he reappeared ten minutes later.
‘Yes.’ He sounded exasperated. ‘She says being in hospital is the perfect chance for Sam to apply to social services for emergency housing. Apparently that’s what she did herself when she was his age.’
‘So she’s not coming to see him?’
‘Doesn’t sound like it.’
‘You could try his uncle.’
‘I just did. He seemed more interested in the motorbike. Apparently Sam hadn’t finished paying him for it when he ran off and he wants it back.’
Just then a nurse came to let us know that Sam was ready to go up to the ward. ‘But I still need an address for the admission form,’ she said.
I looked at Dad as he jotted down our address in the space Sam had left blank. ‘Shouldn’t you put “no fixed abode” or something if he wants to apply for emergency housing?’ I whispered.
‘He isn’t fit to be on his own with that leg. He can sleep on the sofa bed in the living room until he’s better.’
I was pretty amazed at his change of heart. I mean, I know Dad’s a good guy underneath all his huffing and puffing but still …
Then he added, ‘And this way I can keep an eye on him – and Bella.’ He sighed. ‘You know … Thecla warned me a while back that I was underestimating how strongly they felt about each other … clearly I should have listened.’
I felt like saying that of course he should have listened. Because weirdly enough Aunt Thecla has more experience than any of us when it comes to teenage romance.