Free The Price of Love by Rosie Harris Page A

well.’ Patsy gave a toss of her head and bumped the chair down the curb, causing Sam to yelp with pain as the rough movement jarred his leg.
    ‘Go easy,’ he muttered holding on to the side of the wheelchair.
    When she reached the other side of the road Patsy hesitated for a moment then tipped the wheelchair backwards so violently in order to get the wheels on to the curb that it tilted sideways. The next minute, before Robert could reach them, Sam had been thrown out on to the roadway.
    Patsy was most contrite. Her big blue eyes filled with tears as she looked helplessly at Robert and protested that it wasn’t her fault and that she’d already told them that she couldn’t manage on her own.
    ‘You could be a bit more careful, Patsy.’
    Lucy tried to hide her anger as Robert righted the wheelchair and she tried to help Sam up from the ground, but she knew her voice was strident.
    ‘I didn’t do it on purpose,’ Patsy snuffled. ‘I told you the wheelchair was too heavy for me to manage.’
    ‘Well, come on, give me a hand to get Sam up off the ground and back into it,’ Lucy urged.
    ‘I think he’s too heavy for me to help lift him and I’m shaking like a leaf, it was such a shock.’
    ‘You move out the way, Patsy, and I’ll help Lucy,’ Robert told her.
    To Lucy’s immense relief it appeared that although Sam was rather shaken he wasn’t hurt apart from some gravel cuts on his right hand which he had instinctively put out to try and save himself. He tried to make light of the matter the moment he saw how upset Patsy appeared to be.
    ‘It looks as though we’d better go to the park with them after all,’ Robert murmured apologetically in Lucy’s ear.
    She nodded although she felt near to tears because her carefully made plans were all going so wrong. She knew she was being childish but she had so looked forward to spending some time alone with Robert that she couldn’t help feeling very frustrated. What was more, she was quite convinced in her own mind that Patsy had deliberately tipped the wheelchair over.
    Once again she found herself trailing behind as Patsy pushed the chair along the paths and Robert kept a restraining hand on it.
    Patsy was so busy chattering and looking up into Robert’s face and laughing at what she’d said that several times she almost crashed into posts and seats. In the end Robert suggested that she should walk alongside the chair and hold Sam’s hand and he and Lucy would push the chair.
    His arm went round Lucy’s waist and he gave her a companionable squeeze as if to indicate that he knew how she was feeling and was as fed up with the arrangement as she was.
    When they reached the park Patsy looked at her watch and gave a gasp of fake horror.
    ‘Is that the time already?’ she gasped. ‘I really will have to fly. You’ll be safe enough with Lucy and Robert looking after you won’t you?’ she said airily.
    ‘Do you really have to go so soon?’ Sam protested. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this outing so much.’
    ‘I’m afraid so. Perhaps we can all go out again sometime soon and you can teach me how to handle Sam’s wheelchair,’ she added smiling coquettishly at Robert.
    With a wave of her hand and an airborne kiss, Patsy hurried off.
    ‘I’ve messed your afternoon up completely, haven’t I?’ Sam said bitterly.
    ‘Of course you haven’t, we always enjoy coming to the park, but we thought you’d like Patsy to take you for a change,’ Robert told him blithely.
    ‘Come on; let’s speed things up instead of dawdling along as we’ve been doing ever since we left home,’ Lucy said as she began pushing the wheelchair.
    ‘Right; we’ll take a brisk walk around the park and then let’s see if we can find a café open and have a cup of tea and some fancy cakes,’ Robert suggested.
    ‘Or we could go back home and then you two could go over to New Brighton like I know you wanted to do,’ Sam told them. ‘I don’t mind; I’m getting used to