Read Online The Lover's Knot by Clare O'Donohue - Free Book Online

think she has that covered,” I said. I wanted to add, you insane woman. Screw the store. You could be dead at the bottom of these stairs.
    The paramedics slowly moved up the steps, one at a time. Each step they pulled her up and the stretcher seemed to sway slightly. Don’t drop her, I nearly said out loud, but I didn’t.
    “Need help, guys?” Marc was suddenly behind me.
    “Yeah,” said George, straining.
    My grandmother wasn’t a big woman, but the stairs were steep and Barney was nipping at everyone’s heels. Marc walked down and grabbed part of the stretcher.
    “Bad day, Eleanor?” he asked with a smile.
    “I’ve had worse.”
    “That’s the spirit, Mrs. Cassidy,” George said, smiling.
    “Concentrate on getting me up these stairs,” she scolded.
    In a few minutes they were upstairs and headed out of the shop. Nancy, Maggie and I followed as they put her in the ambulance, while she complained about the fuss. Barney tried to climb in after her, but Marc stopped him.
    “Barney, come here,” I called out. He couldn’t hear me, but when the ambulance pulled away, he came walking over anyway, distraught and confused. I leaned down and wrapped my arms around him.
    “She’ll be okay,” I whispered in his deaf ear.

CHAPTER 11
    Marc drove me to the hospital. Nancy and Maggie brought Barney home and then came to join us. Within twenty minutes the other members of the Friday Night Quilt Club had assembled. Susanne and Natalie brought Bernie. Carrie arrived alone but with a thermos of coffee.
    “Better than hospital stuff,” she said.
    Bernie brought cookies, and Susanne had egg salad sandwiches. It was exactly what my grandmother would have done in their shoes—circle the wagons around whoever was in need, and provide whatever comfort could be provided. I wanted to cry at the kindness of it, but instead I ate a sandwich and three cookies.
    For the next hour we all waited, with most of the quilt club talking about how annoyed Eleanor must be and how she would be furious to know that there were so many people waiting in the lobby. Marc, though, was silent. He couldn’t have been that upset about Grandma. He was only her handyman. I thought about telling him he didn’t have to wait, but when I looked toward him, I realized he wasn’t waiting for news. He was slouched in his chair staring angrily at Natalie, Maggie, and Susanne, who sat across from him.
    A nurse, who had ignored every question I’d asked when we first arrived, finally came over to me. “Your grandmother would like to see you.”
    “Don’t tell her we’re here,” advised Bernie. “She’ll have a fit.”
    My grandmother was in a nice private room, but she wasn’t enjoying it. “Tell him I can go home,” she ordered me.
    A tall, thin doctor looked toward me with an exasperated smile. “I’d love nothing more, Mrs. Cassidy. But I’m keeping you here for a couple of days.”
    She had broken her leg near her ankle and done some damage to her kneecap, but her hip was merely bruised, and after six to eight weeks of recuperation she would be just fine. I was relieved. She was furious.
    “I can’t sit around doing nothing for six weeks. I have a business to run. Doesn’t he understand that?”
    “Grandma, the doctor didn’t push you down the stairs, so stop being mad at him.”
    “Thank you.” The doctor smiled, then caught an angry look from my grandmother and fled the room.
    “I can’t believe I was so stupid.” She was straining to get comfortable, and frustrated by the large cast that made that impossible.
    “How did it happen? I cleared the stairs.”
    “You did? I don’t know. I think I may have missed a step.” She was shaking her head in disbelief, as if she were discovering for the first time that she wasn’t infallible.
    “I’ll call Mom and Uncle Henry and let them know . . .”
    “Don’t you dare. I’m fine.”
    “I’ll let them know you’re fine.”
    “Nell. I know you’re trying to do the right