Rat Race

  ‘Don’t think about it,’ Colin said. He looked at me. ‘She shouldn’t have come over…’

  ‘I had to… you were lying there,’ she protested. He went on looking at me. His expression changed. He said ‘Nancy said you were hurt. She didn’t say… how badly.’ He turned abruptly to Nancy and said ‘Fetch the doctor.’

  ‘I tried to before,’ she said. ‘But he said he was on duty and couldn’t see to Matt before the race in case he was needed…’ She tailed off and looked over at the crowd on the course. ‘He’ll be over there… seeing to those two jockeys…’ She looked back at Colin with sudden fright. ‘Midge said Matt had cut his arm… Is it worse…?’

  ‘I’ll fetch him,’ Colin said grimly, and ran back to the battlefield. Nancy looked at me with such flooding anxiety that I grinned.

  ‘Not as bad as all that,’ I said.

  ‘But you were walking… you threw that bomb with such force… I didn’t realise… You do look ill…’

  The Duke and young Matthew and Midge reappeared from somewhere. I hadn’t seen them come. Things were getting hazier.

  The Duke was upset. ‘My dear chap,’ he said over and over again. ‘My dear chap…’

  ‘How did you know it was a bomb?’ Matthew asked.

  ‘Just knew.’

  ‘That was a pretty good throw.’

  ‘Saved our lives,’ said the Duke. ‘My dear chap…’

  Colin was back.

  ‘He’s coming,’ he said. ‘Immediately.’

  ‘Saved our lives…’ said the Duke again. ‘How can we repay…’

  Colin looked at him straightly. ‘I’ll tell you how, sir. Set him up in business… or take over Derrydowns… give him an air taxi business, based near Newmarket. He’ll make you a a profit. He’ll have me for a customer, and Annie, and Kenny… and in fact the whole town, because the Fund can go on now, can’t it?’ He looked at me enquiringly, and I fractionally nodded. ‘It may cost a bit to put right,’ Colin said, ‘But your Fund can go on, sir, and do all the good it was meant to…’

  ‘An air taxi business. Take over Derrydowns,’ the Duke repeated. ‘My dear Colin, what a spendid idea. Of course. Of course.’

  I tried to say something… anything… to begin to thank him for so casually thrusting the world into my fingers… but I couldn’t say anything… couldn’t speak. I could feel my legs collapsing. Could do nothing any more to stop them. Found myself kneeling on the grass, keeping myself from falling entirely by hanging on to a door handle of the car. Didn’t want to fall. Hurt too much.

  ‘Matt!’ Nancy said. She was down on her knees beside me. Midge too. And Colin.

  ‘Don’t bloody die,’ Nancy said.

  I grinned at her. Felt light-headed. Grinned at Colin. Grinned at Midge.

  ‘Want a lodger?’ I asked.

  ‘Soon as you like,’ Colin said.

  ‘Nancy,’ I said. ‘Will you… will you…’

  ‘You nit,’ she said. ‘You great nit.’

  My hand slipped out of the door handle. Colin caught me as I fell. Everything drifted quietly away, and by the time I reached the ground I couldn’t feel anything at all.