Daisy: Not Your Average Super-sleuth! Book Seventeen: A Child is Born: Daisy Morrow, #17

By R T Green

Bringing a new life into the world is a beautiful experience. Unless it's in the middle of the worst storm to hit Norfolk for decades, and you're trapped in a remote, rundown cottage hospital, where the matron believes it's still the nineteen-fifties!

 

A pre-Christmas get-together at Fern Cottage turns into a panic-filled dash to the hospital at Kings Lynn for Celia, Jack, Daisy and Aidan.

They don't make it.

As the crazy storm brings down trees all around them, forced to make a last-gasp detour along a tiny wooded lane, their prayers are answered. Or so they think.

Through the lashing rain they spot a tiny, private cottage hospital. With Celia in acute pain, there's no choice.

That's when the problems really begin…

 

Meanwhile, back in Great Wiltingham…

With all four members of the HDA otherwise occupied, Doris and Maisie take it upon themselves to keep the detective agency running. By an unfortunate quirk of fate they accept a case, and there's no one else to handle it except the Terrible Twosome!

It's just a simple job. The kind that can be wrapped up in a few hours.

Or maybe it's not…

 

Enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wise Owl
• Release date: Dec 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223963264

R T Green

The RTG mission in life is simple... to not be like everyone else! ‘Going Green’ has taken on a new meaning, in the book world at least. Whilst we applaud the original meaning (ebooks are a perfect way to promote that) we also try to present a different angle to it. The tendency these days is that if you don’t look and read like everyone else, you don’t sell books. Maybe there’s some truth in that, but we simply don’t do it. The RTG books have been described as a ‘breath of fresh literary air’, and, by those discovering us for the first time, ‘unexpectedly good’. We know many readers prefer the same-old same old, and that’s fine. It’s just not what you get from the RTG stable. Those who know about such things said it would take five years to become a proficient author... I scoffed at that. They were wise. It took six. It’s one reason why even today we remodel existing books, and will always do so. Right from the early years the stories were always good, but were put into words less well than they could have been! These days we have several series and a few standalones, the hit Daisy series most popular amongst them. In everything we do, the same provisos apply – Never the same book twice. If we can’t think up a good story, it doesn’t get written. The RTG brand is about exciting and twisty plots, a fast pace which doesn’t waste words, and endearing (sometimes slightly crazy) characters. We can never please everyone, but it works for us, and, it seems, for those who appreciate our work. Enjoy! Richard, Ann and the RTG crew

Book preview

Introduction

THE DAISY SERIES DOCUMENTS the slightly-crazy adventures of our R.E.D. (Retired Extremely Daisy) heroine... she’s fun, feisty, kind of wicked, and rather like the other RTG books, she will take you to places you never really expected to go!

Bringing a new life into the world is a beautiful experience. Unless it’s in the middle of the worst storm to hit Norfolk for decades, and you’re trapped in a remote, rundown cottage hospital, where the matron believes it’s still the nineteen-fifties!

A pre-Christmas get-together at Fern Cottage turns into a panic-filled dash to the hospital at Kings Lynn for Celia, Jack, Daisy and Aidan.

They don’t make it.

As the crazy storm brings down trees all around them, forced to make a last-gasp detour along a tiny wooded lane, their prayers are answered. Or so they think.

Through the lashing rain they spot a tiny, private cottage hospital. With Celia in acute pain, there’s no choice.

That’s when the problems really begin...

Meanwhile, back in Great Wiltingham...

With all four members of the HDA otherwise occupied, Doris and Maisie take it upon themselves to keep the detective agency running. By an unfortunate quirk of fate they accept a case, and there’s no one else to handle it except the Terrible Twosome!

It’s just a simple job. The kind that can be wrapped up in a few hours.

Or maybe it’s not...

Enjoy!

Richard, Ann, and the crew

Chapter 1

A Christmas Carol

"ONCE UPON A TIME — of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve — old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them.

The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already — it had not been light all day — and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.

The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn’t replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part.

Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed..."

‘Why are you reading A Christmas Carol out loud, dear?’ said Aidan, as they sat up side by side in bed.

‘Well, it is almost Christmas, Dip.’

‘That wasn’t the question.’

Daisy lowered the leather-bound edition to her lap, and sank the last dregs of her hot chocolate. ‘Maybe I’m just grateful you aren’t Scrooge, dear, and we don’t have to huddle around one piece of burning coal.’

He chuckled. ‘If these energy costs increase again, we might have to.’

‘That could be a bit difficult without a working open fireplace.’

‘So are you expecting Marley’s ghost to come floating through the window?’

‘Don’t be silly, dear. It’s not Christmas Eve yet.’

‘Says you, who doesn’t believe in ghosts,’ Aidan chuckled.

Daisy’s head lowered to the duvet. ‘Maybe I’ve kind of progressed to thinking that all things can’t be explained logically.’

Aidan nodded knowingly, but decided not to pursue the subject. ‘At least, unlike Victorian London, there isn’t going to be any snow this year. Although Storm Elin looks to be building into something ferocious by the time it hits Norfolk late tomorrow. You think we should postpone our pre-Christmas Eve get-together?’

‘What, for a little rain and wind?’

‘Well, maybe the fact the weather warnings are turning into red ones?’

‘Come on, Dip. You know the weather forecasters are scare-mongers these days, covering their own backs. Here in Norfolk, is it ever as bad as they predict?’

‘I seem to remember a little thing called the Beast from the East.’

‘Dip, it has to be tomorrow. Celia and Jack are going to his parents on Christmas Eve, so if we don’t make merry the day before we’ll not see them over Christmas. They’re only down the road from us, so the weather won’t be an issue for them.’

‘You might have to eat your words if that storm is as bad as they think. There’s a chance it’ll be too risky for them to travel to Aldeburgh.’

‘Scare-monger.’

‘Shall we catch some sleep, Flower? There’s lots of preparation to do tomorrow.’

The next morning, the two chefs were already scurrying around the kitchen preparing food when the door knocked. They knew who it was before they even set eyes on their visitors. Apart from Celia and Jack, only three other people never bothered waiting for it to be opened before they bustled in.

Daisy tried to stifle a giggle, but didn’t quite manage it. ‘Maisie? Do my eyes deceive me, or is Brutus actually wearing holly-patterned booties?’

Maisie shook a disgruntled head. ‘I can see you not trying very hard to hide your amusement, Daisy. I’ll have you know they’re all the rage at Feline Fantasy.’

Doris’s head was shaking too, for an entirely different reason. ‘I’ve tried to tell my sister ‘til I’m blue in the face, but will she listen?’

‘His little paws get cold at this time of the year,’ said Maisie defensively. ‘And I got the last pair too.’

‘Maybe I should get you a thick woolly hat, and then maybe the cold won’t affect your brain so badly,’ Doris retorted.

‘And you wonder why I never listen to you.’

Brutus ambled up to Aidan, and gave him the look. He reached down and fussed his long-haired head. ‘Semi-skimmed coming up, my friend.’

Maisie and Doris planted themselves on the island unit stools. ‘I guess coffees are in order?’ said Daisy, knowing she didn’t need to ask.

Maisie glanced around the hive of activity that was the kitchen area. ‘Daisy dear... you’re cooking,’ she said, looking more than a little shocked.

‘Is it that unusual?’

‘Well, frankly yes.’

‘I guess I can always rely on you for brutal honesty,’ said Daisy. ‘Okay, today we’re a team, Aidan and I.’

‘Why break the habits of a lifetime this day?’

Daisy ignored the sarcasm. ‘We’re having a few people over this evening, a kind of pre-Christmas get-together. Celia and Jack, Sarah and Rob.’

Doris’s eyes lit up. ‘Oh, I say. That sounds like fun.’

‘Well yes, I suppose so.’

‘What time should we arrive?’ said an equally-excited Maisie.

‘Well, actually, we, um... weren’t going to...’

Aidan, realising not even the ghost of Christmas present was going to keep the terrible twosome away, butted in. ‘Everyone’s arriving at six-thirty.’

Daisy threw him a glare, but then relented. It was almost Christmas after all. ‘Don’t be late, ladies.’

‘Oh we won’t,’ said Doris. ‘Come along Maisie dear, we need to go get ready. Those idiotic booties will need a wash too.’

They bustled back out through the kitchen door, not even waiting for their coffees to be brewed. Then Maisie’s head reappeared. ‘We’ll bring the chocolate log!’

Daisy threw her hands in the air, and then gave Aidan a rueful smile. ‘Oh well, you know what the reborn Scrooge said.’

He chuckled. ‘Wasn’t it something like, the more the merrier, Flower?’

‘Grab another pack of king prawns out of the freezer, dear.’

Chapter 2

JUST AS CELIA AND JACK walked through the door, a huge gust of wind made Fern Cottage shudder. Daisy shook her head. ‘Guess you two got virtually blown here, hey?’

Jack grinned cheekily. ‘I was almost blown over, but Celia didn’t have a problem.’

She punched him playfully. ‘I hope that’s not a veiled reference to my size, Jack darling.’

‘Would I do such a thing?’

‘Yes, you would, as it happens. And I would remind you I’m due in three weeks, but I suppose that’s pretty obvious.’

‘It is rather.’

She lifted a hand to let him know what she thought again, but then caught sight of his face. ‘Okay, I know you love me really.’ She handed her mother the bottle of Baileys she was carrying. ‘For everyone else except me, sadly. Alcohol-free Christmas, I’m afraid.’

Daisy gave her a hug. ‘It will all be worth it, dear. Oh my, you are rather large, aren’t you.’

‘Can we stop the winding-up now, please? My hormones are all over the place, after all.’

Aidan handed her a glass of non-alcoholic wine. ‘Don’t worry Celia, I won’t say anything about how huge you are.’

‘I said...’ Celia didn’t get any further. The door opened again, and Sarah and Rob blew in. ‘Are we mad?’ she laughed. ‘The way this storm is brewing we won’t have a roof over our heads for much longer.’

‘Maybe staying the night wasn’t a good idea then,’ Daisy smiled. ‘Lying in bed getting pelted by massive raindrops isn’t what I had in mind.’

Aidan handed them glasses. ‘It’s a fact though, thatched roofs are much less likely to get blown off than tiled ones. I think we’ll stay dry.’

Rob cast his eyes over the rather full table. ‘Oh wow, this is a feast for sure. Go you guys.’

‘We’re just missing the chocolate log,’ said Daisy pointedly.

‘Not anymore!’ The kitchen door flew open, and almost off its hinges, as their final guests blasted in, looking more than a little windswept. Doris handed them the log. ‘So much for doing my hair. I used a two-tone red and green rinse too!’

‘You look very fetching, Doris,’ Daisy chuckled. ‘The wild look kind of suits you.’

‘And I had to carry Brutus,’ Maisie chipped in. ‘God knows where he would have ended up if I hadn’t.’

As huge raindrops began to lash the windows, the carefully-prepared food slowly disappeared. So did the Baileys, and a fair portion of several other alcoholic drinks. Aidan turned up the music, doing his best to drown out the thunderous noise of the wind and the rain.

It didn’t seem to affect the merrymaking, everyone enjoying the evening, and entering into the spirit despite the craziness outside. Doris sliced the chocolate log, and made sure they all had no choice but to find a little more room in their bellies to enjoy the best Marks and Spencer had to offer.

Just after eight, a massive gust of wind rocked the house, and from somewhere not so far away there was a huge crash. Jack ran to the front window. ‘Hell... one of the big trees next to the pond has gone. Fallen into the water.’

‘This is really bad,’ said Aidan. ‘Let’s see what the TV has to say.’

The TV said nothing. Except for an ominously silent message on the screen. No signal.

‘Damn it. Aerial must be gone.’

‘Or a transmission mast,’ said Rob. ‘I guarantee there’s only one serving this area.’

Celia joined the conversation. ‘Guys, I don’t feel right...’

‘Maybe overindulging in your condition wasn’t the best idea?’ said Sarah. ‘What can I do?’

‘I... I think I need the bathroom...’

Sarah wrapped a hand around her friend’s shoulders as they disappeared into the passageway. Daisy narrowed her eyes, but said nothing to the others. She’d noticed that as Celia had stood up, she’s clutched the bottom of her bulge.

Five minutes went by, and still neither of them had returned. Daisy was just about to go see what was happening when Sarah reappeared. Her face kind of said it all.

‘Folks, Celia really isn’t well.’

‘We should maybe get her to bed, so hopefully she can sleep it off,’ said Jack.

‘No Jack, you don’t understand. She’s really not well.’

His face changed. ‘What’s wrong?’ he said quietly.

‘Surely not..?’ said Daisy, already realising it surely was.

Sarah nodded. ‘It looks that way, but... well, there seems to be complications. Not really an expert here...’

Jack flew to his feet, but Daisy pulled him back. ‘Stay here, Jack. I think this is girl’s stuff.’

Another few minutes passed, punctuated just the once by the sound of Celia crying out in pain. Then Daisy hurried back into the living area. ‘Aidan, we need an ambulance.’

‘Seriously? Tonight of all nights?’

‘Are you arguing? Just get one here, somehow. And quick.’

‘What’s happening?’ cried a distraught Jack.

Daisy took his hand. ‘It looks like Celia is about to make you a father. But... but all is not exactly... perfect. Which is why she needs to be in hospital, now.’

‘Oh god...’

‘I’ll try using my police priority,’ said Rob, pulling out his phone. ‘Bloody hell... no signal.’

‘Maybe the landline is working,’ said Aidan, lifting the handset. ‘Oh, thank god...’

He dialled 999. After a few seconds the operator asked him which service he required. He gave her a nutshell version of their situation. In return she gave him the bad news.

‘Right now getting an ambulance ten miles to Great Wiltingham might be difficult, sir. Apart from being extremely busy due to the inclement weather, there are reports of fallen trees all over the place in the countryside. I’ll let you know when we’re on our way, but please anticipate it may be some time. The alternative would be if you can get the patient to Kings Lynn yourselves, although I wouldn’t normally advise travel in these conditions.’

Daisy threw Aidan an urgent stare. He’d put the phone on speaker, they’d all heard every word. ‘So what are you waiting for?’ she growled.

‘But, you heard her... in these conditions?’

Daisy shook her head as she headed back into the passageway. ‘Just get the reindeer shackled. I’ll get Celia wrapped up.’

Chapter 3

AS SOON AS HE RAN OUTSIDE to the car, Aidan realised the one disadvantage of double glazing was that, no matter how horrible the weather might be, from inside the house it never seemed as bad as it actually was.

Even before he reached the car he was soaked. The wind blew him in a snaky line to the driver’s door, the crazy rain smacked into his face and forced him to narrow his eyes to tiny slits of vision. With a huge sigh of relief he slammed the door to shut out the insanity, and backed the car as close as he could