reception area and out into the street, praying that she would be in time.
There was more honking as she raced into the road and grabbed Joey. He tried to throw her off, but she held on and guided him firmly back to the pavement.
‘What were you thinking of?’ she demanded breathlessly. ‘You could have been run over.’
‘Yaaa—yaaa—yaaaah!’ he shrieked, glaring at her and wrenching himself free. But behind the childish fierceness Gina glimpsed bewilderment, as though her words were meaningless, and now she was certain about something that had only been a suspicion before. She knelt so that he could see her lips.
‘You’re deaf, aren’t you?’ she said slowly.
‘Aaaah!’ he yelled.
His face was filled with sullen misery. She knew a flare of anger at the man who’d deprived this vulnerable child of his mother.
‘Don’t go into the road,’ she told him, speaking slowly and clearly. ‘It’s dangerous.’ She tried to put her hand on his shoulder.
‘Aaaa!’ he screamed, thrashing about so wildly that she was almost knocked off balance.
‘Joey!’ said a voice behind him. ‘Stop that!’
Gina looked up to see Carson, frowning. She rose to face him.
‘It’s no use shouting at him,’ she said. ‘He can’t hear you.’
‘Yes,’ he said heavily. ‘I know he can’t.’
He reached for the child’s arm. Instantly Joey swung around to face him and let out another yell. He sounded shocking, like a small demented animal, but Gina, standing close to him, could feel that he was trembling violently.
She could have wept for the child. She knew that bewildered frustration that could only find release in rage. Carson’s appalled expression now brought back a host of painful memories, and instinctively she put her arms about Joey.
‘I’m his father. I’ll take him.’
Gina gasped, trying to fight down the wild anger that surged up in her. She almost never lost her temper, but now it rushed away from her, leaving her shaking.
‘If you’re his father, what were you thinking of to let him wander away like that?’ she demanded. ‘Don’t you know that deaf children are vulnerable on the roads?’
‘I don’t need to be lectured about my own son,’ he snapped.
‘I think you do. A father worth his salt would protect this child properly.’
The look he flung her was so full of rage that anyone else might have been intimidated, but Gina was too cross to care. What did this man matter beside the hurt child?
‘He’s got problems,’ she cried. ‘He can’t hear. That means he needs more love and care, not less. He needs his mother.’
‘That’s enough!’ Carson’s face was frozen. ‘You know nothing about it. Perhaps you would be good enough to bring him inside.’
Gina grasped the child by the hand and led him back into the building. To her relief, there was nobody in Philip Hale’s office.
‘I’m grateful to you for rescuing him,’ Carson said, ‘and for the trouble you’ve taken—’
‘It’s no trouble,’ Gina told him firmly. ‘I’ll get him some—’ She stopped and put herself where Joey could see her. ‘Milk and chocolate biscuits,’ she said, speaking clearly. ‘Would you like that?’
He nodded. His expression was still belligerent but, when she tried to leave the office, Joey took a firm hold of her hand. It was as though he’d discovered safety at last, and he wasn’t going to risk losing it. Gina called Dulcie on the internal line and asked her to bring the refreshments.
‘They’ll soon be here,’ she told Joey. But he frowned. He hadn’t understood.
‘They will soon be here,’ she said, slowly and with emphasis. This time he nodded, and Gina gave him her most reassuring smile. After what seemed like an age, he managed a half-smile in return, but it was gone at once.
Just like his father, she thought.
He had a round face with well-defined features that were just beginning to reflect Carson’s. There was character beyond his years in that face, and mobile eyebrows that suggested a touch of humour. Behind the barrier of deafness a strong personality was developing, Gina thought.
Dulcie entered, and Joey’s eyes lit up at the sight of a plate of chocolate biscuits. But before he touched them he looked up at his father. Gina thought she saw apprehension in that glance, and her anger grew again.
‘He’s afraid of you,’ she accused.
‘He’s afraid of everything,’ Carson said wearily.
‘Of course he is. When you’re deaf, the world is a very scary place, but he should be able to rely on you to help him through it. You’re his father; you should stand between him and the things that threaten him.’
‘I don’t know how!’ he snapped. As soon as the words were out, his face closed against her, as though he’d been betrayed into an admission of weakness, and resented her for it.
‘He could have got killed out there but you haven’t put your arms around him. All you could think of was apologising to me. As though I matter, beside him.’
She checked herself. Out of the corner of her eye she’d glimpsed Philip Hale approaching.
‘Why don’t I take Joey to my office, so that you can get on with your business?’ she said quickly.
‘Thank you.’
She faced the child. ‘Come along. And we’ll take these.’ She took the tray with the milk and biscuits, and they went out together.
Luckily Gina found her office empty, which would give her time to talk to Joey and ease his distress.
‘I’m Gina,’ she said at last, placing herself where he could see her. ‘What’s your name?’
She already knew that he was called Joey, but she wanted him to tell her himself. That would start them communicating.
He looked at her, then away. After a moment he looked back.
‘Don’t you want to tell me?’
He took a deep breath and made a noise that sounded like, ‘Oooeeey!’
‘Joey? That’s fine. My name is Gina.’ He frowned, so she said it again. He tried, not very successfully, to say the word.
‘Look,’ she said, holding up her hand.
Slowly she made the sign for G, then I. She wondered if he understood finger-spelling, but his eyes brightened, and she finished the word.
‘Gina,’
