Free The Price of Love by Rosie Harris

turn up at all or whether she had forgotten about their arrangement.
    She gave no explanation when she did arrive but said she could only manage an hour so they wouldn’t be able to spend very long at the park.
    Sam looked so disappointed that Lucy felt angry. In as calm a voice as she could manage, she told Patsy that she and Robert wanted to go to New Brighton and went on to suggest that Patsy took Sam back to her house after their walk.
    ‘I’m sorry but that’s not possible,’ Patsy told her. ‘I’ve arranged to go out later on this afternoon.’
    Lucy and Robert looked at each other in dismay, knowing that meant their own outing was impossible.
    ‘Well, in that case, you’d better get going right away,’ Robert said sharply. ‘I’ll manoeuvre the wheelchair outside on to the pavement for you.’
    ‘Why are you dressed up to the nines, Lucy? That is a new dress and jacket, isn’t it?’ Patsy went on. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wearing red before. You usually go for muddier colours and, of course, lately you’ve always been in black or some dark colour. I’m not sure red suits you; it’s far too bright for your colouring, if you know what I mean.’
    ‘There you are, then, Patsy. He’s all yours, so enjoy your walk,’ Robert said as he propelled the wheelchair over the doorstep and out on to the pavement.
    Gingerly, Patsy took hold of the handles. ‘I’ve never pushed one of these things before,’ she murmured, tossing her hair back. ‘I feel really nervous.’
    ‘You’ll find it’s not very different from pushing a pram,’ Lucy said, smiling.
    ‘I’ve never pushed one of those either; it’s terribly heavy, isn’t it?’ Patsy grimaced as, cautiously, she pushed the wheelchair a couple of yards.
    ‘It won’t be once you get used to it,’ Robert assured her.
    ‘It’s all right for you because you’re so strong.’ Patsy smiled, her big blue eyes staring at him admiringly.
    ‘Lucy manages to push me to the hospital when I have to go there,’ Sam pointed out.
    ‘She’s so much bigger than me,’ Patsy countered. ‘In fact, Lucy’s almost twice the size I am. She doesn’t wear high heels like I do,’ she added, looking pointedly at Lucy’s sensible flat-heeled shoes and then at her own pencil-thin high ones. ‘I think high heels make your legs look more attractive, don’t you, Robert?’
    Lucy bit her lip. She knew Patsy was quite capable of pushing the wheelchair and, what was more, she resented her exaggerated comments as well as the way she was flirting with Robert. It also worried her that Patsy protesting so much was making Sam very uncomfortable as well.
    ‘Come on, I’ll get you going,’ she offered. ‘Like Robert has said, once you start moving and get used to it, then you’ll find it’s not difficult at all.’
    ‘No, I’ll push it and we’ll walk with Patsy to the end of the road, then she can carry on to the park and we’ll go on down to the Pier Head,’ Robert said briskly. ‘Even if we haven’t time to go over to New Brighton this afternoon we can still go and take a look at the Mersey,’ he added.
    There wasn’t room for them all to walk abreast on the pavement so Lucy found that she was walking on her own a few paces behind the other two.
    ‘Why don’t you come to the park as well?’ Patsy suggested when they turned into Priory Road and were about to go their separate ways.
    Lucy sensed Robert looking at her and deliberately avoided his eyes because she didn’t want to have to trail along behind Patsy and Sam for the rest of the afternoon.
    ‘No, Sam’s been looking forward to having some time on his own with you,’ Robert told Patsy.
    ‘Could you take the wheelchair across the road for me, then?’ Patsy asked in a pleading voice, looking at Robert wide-eyed.
    ‘No, you do it and we’ll stand here to make sure you can manage it,’ Lucy told her, taking hold of Robert’s arm as he was about to do what Patsy asked.
    ‘Very