Page 36 of Mending Hearts at the Cornish Country Hospital (The Cornish Country Hospital #6)

‘We’ll find him, I promise, but you’ve got to slow down and breathe so we can do what we need to do.

’ Squeezing her hand again for the briefest of moments, Drew turned his back on her and moved quickly in the direction he said he’d look.

When she turned to move off too, her mother was standing in front of her, her chin trembling with emotion.

‘Eden, I’m so sorry, I?—’

‘Just get the announcement done. Now!’ Eden shouted the words and broke into a run, nausea still lurching in her stomach as she fought to do what Drew had told her to do and keep her breathing steady.

Teddie was nowhere to be seen and a series of unbearable scenarios were already racing through her head.

All she could do was repeatedly call out his name as she ran in the direction of the tombola stall, tears streaming down her face and the worst sense of dread she’d ever felt in her life making it almost impossible to keep going.

If Teddie really was gone, she didn’t even want to try to carry on.

* * *

Drew had told Eden that she needed to stay calm, but the truth was he was struggling not to lose himself to panic too and the thought of Teddie being somewhere on his own made bile rise in his throat.

Even worse was the thought that someone might have taken him.

The only comfort was that Teddie hadn’t cried out.

Drew had seen how the little boy reacted to strangers.

He was a beautiful child, with cherubic blond curls and big, blue eyes.

People often seemed to think it was okay to reach out to him and touch his hair, just because they wanted to.

He’d seen Teddie cry on several occasions, when an over enthusiastic stranger got too close to him.

It was almost impossible to believe that someone he didn’t know would have been able to lure him away, much less snatch him, without anyone hearing Teddie offer up a cacophony of protests.

Almost impossible wasn’t enough though. Drew had to know for certain that he was safe, and it felt as if his heart was beating out of his chest as he ran between the stalls, desperately hoping to catch sight of the little boy who had come to mean more to him in such a short time than he’d ever dreamt possible.

‘He’s got to be here somewhere.’ Drew whispered the words under his breath, as his eyes darted from side to side, desperately hoping for a glimpse of that golden blond hair.

He ran along all the stalls on the far side of the land where the fundraiser was taking place, but there was no sign of Teddie.

Looking across to where Eden had gone, on the other side of the field, he could see her gesticulating wildly, as Meg and Eve attempted to comfort her.

It was clear she hadn’t been able to find Teddie either.

Doubling back on himself, Drew scanned the stalls again.

Trying not to let the worst-case scenario overwhelm him.

What if Teddie had somehow got out of the gate and onto the road?

There was a volunteer collecting donations on the gate, so it didn’t seem likely, but what if they’d turned their back for a few seconds, just like Karen had?

Maybe Teddie had tried to follow his grandfather.

If he’d got out on to the road… Drew shook his head, trying to dislodge the terrifying image that was threatening to take up space there.

‘Come on, Teddie, show me where you are.’ Drew tried to think about where he could possibly be and then it came to him.

Benji had insisted on walking behind the stalls when he’d asked Drew to take him around the fair, so that he could see ‘everything’ as he’d put it.

One of the stalls had a carnival-style game, where you could throw balls at a target to win, or attempt to loop a small hoop over other prizes.

Behind the stall, there’d been two plastic boxes, one with some extra balls in it, and one with some colourful bean bags, which clearly weren’t being used for any of the games on offer.

Drew’s fingers had given an involuntary twitch at the sight of the bean bags.

He’d imagined the feel of them in his hands, their weightiness and the sensation of the beans moving beneath the material.

He’d been given a juggling game as a child, which had consisted of three bean bags and he’d loved the way it had felt to hold them in his hands.

If Teddie had seen the brightly coloured balls, or had picked up one of the bean bags, maybe he’d had the same reaction, that same desire to hold them in his hands.

As Drew darted between the stalls again, he prayed he was right, because with every second that Teddie was missing, the chances of something bad happening was increasing.

As he reached the back of the carnival stall, his heart sank.

There was no sign of Teddie and Drew was finding it hard to swallow.

He was so tiny and so vulnerable, and Eden loved him with a force that was impossible to convey.

This was killing her, and it felt as if it was killing Drew too.

This couldn’t be happening, Teddie needed his mum, and she needed Teddie even more, but it was as if he’d disappeared off the face of the earth.

Drew blinked, unable to hold back the tears that had been filling his eyes, his throat burning at the thought of how scared the little boy must be.

Then he saw it – a flash of colour in the corner of his eye.

He turned his head sharply and Teddie crawled out from the back of the stall, a yellow ball in one hand and a red bean bag in the other.

‘Oh my God, Teddie, you’re okay.’ Drew wasn’t sure how the little boy would react to him scooping him up, but he couldn’t stop himself.

It didn’t matter if he screamed at the top of his lungs, because he’d be safe in Drew’s arms. Holding Teddie tightly, as if his whole life depended on it, Drew breathed out, and the little boy hugged him back, burrowing his face into Drew’s shoulder.

‘You’re okay, darling, you’re okay.’ Drew was crying hard now, from sheer relief and the realisation of just how much Teddie meant to him.

He wasn’t sure he’d ever called anyone darling, but it was the term of endearment his mother had used with him when he was small, before Flora died and everything changed.

The swell of love he felt as he held the little boy in his arms made it feel like the only thing he could say.

Still holding Teddie tightly, Drew turned and ran back between the gap in the stalls, just as an announcement came over the sound system about Teddie being lost, audible gasps sounding from the people around him, at the prospect of a lost child.

Drew couldn’t stop, he couldn’t explain to the worried people in the crowd that it was all going to be okay, because he had to get to Eden.

‘I’ve got him! Teddie’s okay, he’s here and he’s okay.’ He ran towards her, calling out, and then she looked up and started running too, tears streaming down her face.

‘Oh Teddie, oh thank God, Teddie! Teddie.’ She took him out of Drew’s arms, kissing his head repeatedly and saying his name over and over again. Finally she looked up at Drew. ‘I don’t know how to thank you, he’s everything to me and I don’t know what I would have done if?—’

A sob choked her words, and Drew broke the habit of a lifetime and didn’t stop to second-guess whether what he was about to do was the right thing or not.

Wrapping his arms around them both, as Eden continued to sob, he held them tight, whispering assurances that it was going to be okay now.

He was vaguely aware of people watching them and of other people clamouring to comfort Eden, including her mother, but she didn’t move away from him.

Instead she leant in closer, as if she didn’t want him to let her go.

So he didn’t. He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to let her go, and the thought should have terrified him, because he’d never wanted to care this much about someone again.

Not after what had happened to his mother and Flora.

But if his work had taught him anything, it was that there were things in life that no one could control and, much to his surprise, this time he didn’t even want to try.