Free If I Should Die by Hilary Norman Page B

anything more, I’ll be glad to, but otherwise – ”
    “Do you mind hearing about it?”
    “No, of course not.”
    “Because to be candid, talking to you feels like the first sane, halfway normal thing I’ve done all day.”
    Chris told Lally that he had persuaded Andrea to admit herself to a clinic near Springfield that afternoon. He didn’t say much about what it had taken to talk her around and to get her
there, but Lally read between the lines and guessed that it had been a nightmare for them both. She thanked him for telling her, and Chris asked her if she was feeling better, and the conversation
ended warmly enough, but it seemed to Lally more than ever that she had misread the atmosphere the night before. There was nothing going on between them, nor could there be.
    “Careful, Lally,” Hugo said after she put down the phone.
    “Of what?”
    “You know what.”
    “Do I?”
    “I think so.”
    That was all Hugo said, but Lally knew that he could almost always read her mind, and she knew, too, aggravatingly enough, that Hugo’s warnings were usually valid. She often accused him of
being overly cautious, especially in human relationships, but Hugo was her best friend, more constant than anyone she knew except her brother Joe, and she generally paid more attention to his
advice than she would have him believe.
    Chris Webber, when all was said and done, was a nice man, desperate to share his problems with another adult. Lally couldn’t even kid herself that he had chosen her to confide in, because
she’d been the one who’d stumbled in on their disaster. She had achieved what she had set out to: a possible end, ultimately, to Katy’s nightmare. Andrea was going to get help now
and, with luck, before too long, she’d be home again and the Webber marriage would be back on track.
    Now, however, on this grey and snowy Sunday morning, Lally had to admit that Chris and Katy Webber were not paramount in her thoughts. She had her first dizzy spell of the day
right after rising, and then another one, less than twenty minutes later, at the foot of the staircase. Hugo, just coming out of the kitchen, almost dropped his coffee cup, and insisted on picking
her up and carrying her to the sofa in the sitting room.
    “I’m not moving an inch from here until you tell me exactly how long this has been going on,” he said, standing over her.
    “It’s nothing,” she said, too weakly to be credible.
    “Bull.”
    “That’s not very nice, especially on a Sunday.”
    Hugo was wearing a robe, and his long hair was loose, and with his hawkish nose and tall, lean body, Lally thought he looked almost biblical.
    “I don’t feel very nice,” he said. “My favourite person just passed out – ”
    “
Almost
passed out, and I’m feeling better already.”
    “ – just almost passed out, and she’s already let slip that it’s happened before, and I want to know why in hell you never said anything.”
    “Because I knew you’d make a fuss.” She started to get up.
    “Don’t you dare move. Damn right I’ll make a fuss – and if you don’t tell me everything right this minute, I’ll call Doc Sheldon.”
    “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you – and there’s no need to look so worried. It was just a little dizziness – it’s probably just some kind of virus.”
    “Have you ever passed right out?” Hugo demanded.
    “No.”
    “Sure?”
    “
No.
”
    “How many times has it happened?”
    “Hugo, will you please shut up and let me tell you.”
    Five minutes later, he was on the phone to Charlie Sheldon anyway, insisting that Lally needed to be seen right away, and though Hugo was acting calm now, what worried him more than anything
else was that Lally wasn’t really arguing.
    The nightmare began about fifteen minutes after Charlie Sheldon had started his examination. He was about sixty-three, perhaps older, wore ancient tweed suits, cut his own
wispy white hair and smelled of pipe tobacco, and he was always