‘You’re beeping,’ he said.
‘Who’s beeping?’ Margot asked him.
‘Your phone’s beeping.’ Will took the phone out of Margot’s hot, sweaty grip. ‘You’ve got a missed call and a voice message. How did you miss a call?’
‘Because my phone is shit and I’m still three months away from my upgrade,’ Margot said, snatching the phone back. She didn’t recognise the number, but whoever it was had left a message.
Please, please, please let it be someone who’s found Blossom and she’s all right. Even if they want a ransom, we’ll pay it, Margot promised as she accessed the message.
‘Hi, this is Sue from The Hat and Fan in Crouch End. Got your number off the tag of a little Staffy that we found. I think you ought to come down here as soon as you can.’
42
Will
Margot was crying again as they ran hand in hand down Shepherds Hill, but Will suspected it was more from relief than anything else.
‘I hate running,’ she hiccupped. ‘And running downhill in Birkenstocks is like some horrible form of torture that I didn’t even know existed.’
‘We’ll slow down,’ Will decided, because while he didn’t hate running, it had been a long time, but Margot shook her head and managed to keep going until she came to an abrupt stop.
‘Now I’ve got a stitch,’ she panted, clutching onto someone’s gatepost. ‘And all I want to do is get to the pub and see Blossom. But what if —’
‘Stop talking and just breathe,’ Will told her sharply, although he was the one who felt as if he’d forgotten how to breathe. He took Margot’s hands in his and squeezed them in time with her shaky breaths, which calmed them both. ‘You OK now?’
‘I’m OK,’ Margot confirmed, and he let go of her hands, because the hand-holding was all wrong, even in these extenuating circumstances.
‘How about we don’t run, we just walk very fast?’ Will suggested.
Margot nodded. ‘You know, to get to Crouch End, she had to cross at least two roads and that’s supposing she went a direct route and didn’t zigzag. I have this horrible vision of her trying to cross Archway Road when the lights were against her.’ Margot came to a halt and shut her eyes. ‘What if she’s horribly wounded?’
‘I’m sure she’s fine. They’d have said if she wasn’t,’ Will insisted, but what if it was bad news that you could only tell someone in person? What if she had been hit by a car and though she looked fine, she actually had severe internal injuries? Or what if someone had tried to dognap Blossom and she’d somehow managed to escape but would now be traumatised? ‘She’s come through so much already.’
‘I’ll never forgive myself if anything has happened to her,’ Margot vowed, as they finally reached the bottom of the hill and crossed over the road to the pub where Blossom, bleeding, injured, maybe even dying, had managed to find sanctuary.
Will followed Margot through the open door, his heart juddering, with fear and anticipation, only to see Blossom instantly.
Hard not to, when she was perched on an armchair and surrounded by a group of cheering and clapping drinkers.
‘She is a bad, bad dog,’ Will said in disbelief, because Blossom was very far from traumatised or dying. Instead, she was performing her entire repertoire of tricks in return for pieces of sausage, which had been cut into handy bite-sized chunks and put on a plate held by one of the bar staff.
‘She is the baddest dog,’ Margot confirmed.
‘High five!’ someone called out, and Blossom instantly obliged. Will noticed that several people were filming Blossom’s hijinks so she was probably going to appear on LadBible before the week was out. ‘Such a good girl!’
‘That’s our dog,’ Margot said in a loud and terrible voice. ‘Excuse me! Our dog!’
The crowd around Blossom parted, all eyes on them, apart from Blossom who turned her head like she didn’t know either Will or Margot.
‘Just wait until Nanna hears about this,’ Will said, and it suddenly dawned on Blossom that she was in a world of trouble because she shot them both a panicked look then assumed the position: on her back with her paws in the air, tail wagging frantically.
‘No belly rubs for you,’ Margot promised sternly, but then her face crumpled. ‘Oh, Blossom . . . you frightened the living daylights out of us.’
When Margot sounded like that, tearful and tender, it was obvious that she was going to let Blossom have everything that she wanted. Blossom scrambled upright so that she could launch herself at Margot, who staggered under her weight until Will came up behind her and put one hand on Margot’s shoulder, another around her waist. ‘I’ve got you,’ he said, and Blossom paused from the tongue bath she was giving Margot to anoint Will’s face with saliva too.
The crowd ‘aah’ed and ‘aww’ed, then melted away. Will was still standing behind Margot to support the weight of Blossom in her arms. ‘Christ, she’s heavy,’ Margot muttered, which somewhat killed the mood of the touching reunion scene. ‘I think I’ve sprained something.’
‘Let me take her,’ Will said, lifting Blossom out of Margot’s arms. ‘Sit down and I’ll put her on your lap.’
Margot sank into the armchair with a grateful sigh then gave another sigh of resigned anticipation as Blossom plonked onto her thighs. ‘She manages to skewer me with a pointy elbow every time,’ she complained.
‘Amazing that such a chunk can have any sharp bits,’ Will said, because he knew everything about Blossom, had put her needs before anyone else’s, even, especially his own. But the reason they were here, the reason why they’d been distracted enough that Blossom could run away, was because Margot wanted to take Blossom away from him. Because she wanted nothing to do with Will. Never wanted to see him again.
Will waited for the white heat of anger to overtake him again, but now all he felt was a bone-weary kind of sadness. He was shattered. It had been one hell of an evening. ‘Do you want a drink?’ he asked Margot, who had her forehead pressed against Blossom’s forehead, her eyes closed.
‘Yeah, I’d love one. I’ll have a soft drink though. Whatever you’re having,’ she said, not even opening her eyes.
Though Margot hated him, wanted to take Blossom away, she was still attuned to Will’s feelings, sensitive to what might be difficult for him. It would be so much easier if she were still hurling insults at him. ‘You can have a drink drink. Honestly, it’s fine.’
Margot opened her eyes. ‘Really? In that case, I’d love a gin and tonic. A gigantic one, please.’
Will went to the bar where he was greeted by Sue, who accepted his profuse thanks with a gracious smile. ‘Officially we don’t allow dogs in the pub, but Blossom has a lifetime exemption. She’s not shy, is she?’
‘Doesn’t know the meaning of the word.’ Will glanced over to where Margot had her arms tight around Blossom, her face buried in Blossom’s neck. Blossom had flopped her front paws over Margot’s shoulder, so it looked like she was hugging Margot too.
Will didn’t know why he’d always been so fixated on the supposed fact that he was incapable of feeling anything too deeply, because now he was pretty sure that his heart was shattered.