The Woman He's Been Waiting For

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The Woman He's Been Waiting For Page 6

by Jennifer Taylor


  Grace tried to work it out but, as usually happened whenever she thought about Harry, her mind seized up. Perhaps she should accept that there was nothing rational about her feelings where Harry was concerned and leave it at that.

  ‘How much further is it?’

  Harry leant forward and peered through the wind-screen. The weather had been getting steadily worse since Grace had met him on the bypass. The promised snowstorm had now arrived and the countryside was fast turning white. They had decided to travel to Hilltop Farm in Grace’s car because it had four-wheel-drive and would be safer on the steep, winding roads than his own vehicle. However, he had to admit that he didn’t enjoy being in the passenger seat when he was more used to taking charge.

  ‘Just a couple more miles now. The farm’s just over the next hill. You should be able to see it once we reach the top.’

  She changed gear, easing the vehicle along the treacherous road surface. Harry shook his head in dismay. ‘It’s a hell of a place to get to.’

  ‘It is. I only hope the ambulance makes it,’ she said worriedly, glancing out of the window.

  ‘Me, too,’ he agreed, trying not to think about the problems it would cause if the ambulance didn’t show up.

  ‘Did you get any details at all about what had happened?’

  ‘No. It was a child who phoned. He just said that there’d been an accident and they needed a doctor. He hung up before we could ask him any questions. Janet thought it was probably one of the farmer’s grandsons.’

  Grace nodded. ‘Ben Arnold’s son and his wife live on the farm as well. Ian and Jill have two boys so Janet was probably right. I wonder why one of the adults didn’t phone the surgery, though.’

  ‘I’ve no idea. Janet tried to phone him back but there was no reply.’

  ‘I don’t like the sound of this,’ Grace said anxiously. ‘Someone should have been there to answer the phone.’

  They reached the top of the hill at last and she stopped the car and pointed through the side window. ‘That’s the farm over there. You can just make it out.’

  Harry leant over so he could see out of the window. He felt a little flurry ripple along his veins when he suddenly inhaled the scent of her shampoo, something clean and fruity like the smell of crisp, green apples.

  ‘There don’t appear to be any lights on,’ he said gruffly, because he didn’t appreciate having something like that happen to him, right out of the blue. He’d already established that he wasn’t attracted to Grace, so why did he feel so aroused whenever he was near her? It didn’t make sense.

  ‘No, there aren’t. The whole place is in darkness. I don’t like the look of this at all.’

  Grace gunned the engine and set off down the other side of the hill. She seemed oblivious to his predicament, much to Harry’s relief. It was bad enough to know that he was acting like a complete idiot but it would be ten times worse if Grace ever found out. He could just imagine what she would say if she discovered he was having all these lustful thoughts about her.

  Grace turned the car onto a narrow track that led to the farm. She switched the headlights to main beam as she drew up in front of the farmhouse. ‘Everywhere looks deserted. There’s no sign of any lights in the house or in the yard.’

  ‘No, there isn’t,’ Harry agreed grimly, pushing open the car door. He turned as Grace came to join him. ‘I’m going to check out the barn. Can you have a look in the house and see if you can find anyone? There must be somebody around the place.’

  ‘Will do. Here. You’d better take this.’ She thrust a powerful torch into his hand then hurried towards the farmhouse, her feet slipping and sliding in the snow.

  Harry waited until she was safely inside then made his way to the barn. He could hear cattle lowing but there was no other sound apart from the wind roaring down from the hills. Pushing open the door, he panned the beam of the torch around and jumped when several dozen pairs of eyes suddenly turned towards him. Obviously the cattle were expecting to be fed—they started kicking and stamping their feet, setting up a tremendous racket when they saw him. He hurriedly shut the door as Grace reappeared.

  ‘Any sign of life in the house?’

  ‘No. There’s no one there and the electricity isn’t working either. Do you think they’ve had a power cut?’

  ‘It could explain the lack of lights.’ He frowned. ‘Maybe they’re round the back of the barn, trying to rig up some sort of emergency lighting system. A lot of farmers have their own generators, don’t they?’

  ‘Yes, they do. But surely they would have heard us driving up the lane and come to investigate. And it still doesn’t explain that phone call, does it?’

  ‘No, although it could have been a hoax call. We haven’t considered that possibility yet.’ He shrugged when she looked at him in dismay. ‘You know what kids are like, Grace. They think it’s fun to have everyone racing around.’

  ‘It would explain why there was no answer when Janet tried to phone back.’ Grace sighed. ‘Now I’m in a real dilemma. I don’t know whether I’m annoyed at the thought or actually hoping it was just a stupid prank because it means that nothing awful has happened.’

  Harry chuckled. ‘The lesser of two evils, eh?’

  ‘Something like that.’

  She grinned up at him and once again he found himself reacting in a way he had never expected to do. This was Grace, he reminded himself as they set off round the barn. Grace whose sole aim in life since they’d been students together had been to prick and prod at him at every opportunity, to point out his flaws and poke holes in his achievements. She had been the bane of his life for more years than he could count, but for some reason that no longer seemed to matter. When he was with Grace now it was hard to think of her as anything other than a beautiful and very desirable woman.

  CHAPTER SIX

  GRACE could feel her anxiety mounting as she followed Harry along the rutted path past the barn. Maybe it had been a hoax call but she would feel happier once she knew what had happened to Ben Arnold and his family. They turned the corner and she gasped when a gust of wind almost blew her off her feet.

  ‘Steady.’

  Harry took a firm hold of her arm and held onto it as they made their way to the first of the outbuildings. Grace could feel the steady pressure of his fingers on her forearm and had to make a conscious effort not to pull away. He was just being polite, she told herself firmly, doing the gentlemanly thing by saving her from getting blown over. However, she was incredibly conscious of the solid bulk of his body as they made their way to the sheds.

  ‘Nobody in here.’ Harry shone the torch around the inside of the first shed. Grace frowned as she studied the rows of farming implements lined up around the walls.

  ‘Ben would never go out and leave the place unlocked. Those tools cost a lot of money and he would make sure they were safely locked away.’

  ‘It does seem odd,’ Harry agreed. He moved away from the shed and headed towards the next one then paused. ‘Did you hear something?’

  ‘Like what?’ Grace demanded, stopping as well.

  ‘I’m not sure. I thought I heard someone shouting…Yes, there it is again.’

  He turned and ran towards the end of the path. Grace raced after him, her feet sliding on the slippery surface. They rounded the end of the row of outbuildings and she gasped at the sight that met them. There was a tractor lying on its side. When Harry shone the torch towards it she could see three bodies lying on the ground nearby. One of them was Ben Arnold and another was his son, Ian. The third person was a woman, although she couldn’t tell if it was Sally Arnold, Ben’s wife, or Jill, his daughter-in-law. There was also a young boy huddled against the back of the sheds; he looked up with tears streaming down his face.

  ‘I can’t wake them up. I’ve tried and tried but they won’t talk to me.’

  Grace ran forward and put her arms around him. ‘It’s all right now, darling, we’ll look after them. Can you tell us what happened?’

&
nbsp; ‘Dad and Granddad were outside, fixing the tractor, when there was this big bang and all the lights went out. Mum went out to see what had happened but she got hurt, too.’ The child scrubbed his hands across his face. ‘I tried to wake them up but they couldn’t hear me. Gran took my brother Simon into town this afternoon so i was on my own. I didn’t know what to do so I phoned the doctor.’

  ‘You did exactly the right thing,’ Grace assured him, as she gave him a hug. She glanced at Harry. ‘What do you think has happened?’

  ‘Possible electric shock, from the sound of it. It would certainly explain why the lights are out.’ He studied the area around the tractor. ‘Can you see a power cable anywhere about?’

  ‘No, I can’t,’ Grace replied, although it was difficult to see anything with only the light from the torch to go by.

  The boy stood up and pointed to a building close to the tractor. ‘There should be an electricity cable attached to the top of the garage but I can’t see it now. Maybe it’s come loose.’

  ‘I’m sure you’re right,’ Harry replied evenly although his expression was grim when he turned to Grace. ‘We’re going to have to be very careful in case the power is still switched on. The metal bodywork of that tractor will act as a conductor for the electricity so we can’t afford to get too close in case the current arcs.’

  ‘But we need to get those people away from there as quickly as possible,’ she protested.

  ‘I know that, but it doesn’t mean we should go rushing in, unprepared.’ He turned to the boy. ‘What’s your name, son?’

  ‘Steven,’ the boy told him, shivering from a combination of cold and shock.

  ‘Right, Steven, my name is Harry and I’m a doctor just like Dr Kennedy. We want to help your mum and dad, and your granddad, too, but to do that we’re going to have to move them to somewhere safe. What we really need is something we can use to drag them away from that tractor, but it mustn’t be anything that’s made of metal. Do you know if there’s any long pieces of wood around here we could use?’

  Steven nodded eagerly. ‘There’s some old fence posts in one of the sheds.’

  ‘Great, that’s just what we need. Can you show me where they are?’ He turned to Grace. ‘Don’t go any closer. Just stay here until I get back with that wood.’

  ‘Be as quick as you can,’ she said, glancing worriedly at the people lying on the ground.

  ‘I will.’

  Harry squeezed her shoulder then hurried after the child. Grace huddled into the shelter of the outbuildings as they disappeared. The wind was bitterly cold as it blew along the gap between the buildings; she could feel her hands and feet going numb. She couldn’t bear to imagine how Ben and his family must be suffering, lying on the snow-covered ground, so it was a relief when Harry returned a few minutes later, carrying several sturdy lengths of wood.

  ‘I’m going to try to drag then away from that tractor. I can’t see any sparks coming from where that power cable must have fallen so the electricity might have been switched off, but there’s no point taking any chances.’

  He started towards the tractor but Grace grabbed hold of his arm. ‘Wait—aren’t you supposed to insulate yourself so you don’t come into contact with the ground?’

  ‘Yes. Fortunately, I’m wearing rubber-soled shoes so they should minimise the risk.’

  ‘Oh, right. I see.’ Grace bit her lip. They had to move the family so they could help them but she couldn’t pretend that she wasn’t worried about Harry putting himself at risk this way.

  ‘I’ll be fine, Grace. Stop fussing.’

  His tone was brisk and had the immediate effect of making her feel rather foolish. Harry was a grown man, for heaven’s sake. He didn’t need her mothering him.

  She didn’t say anything else as he carefully made his way across to where the first casualty, a woman, was lying. Using the piece of wood, he managed to drag her away from the tractor. Grace hurried forward as soon as he signalled it was safe to do so and knelt beside her. It was Jill Arnold, and she was unconscious but breathing and her pulse was strong. The only visible sign of injury was a lump on the back of her head. Grace took off her coat and covered her with it then turned to Steven who was standing nearby.

  ‘Can you run back to the house and find some blankets? Your mum is very cold from lying on the ground and we need to warm her up.’

  She got up as the child hurried away and turned to see what Harry was doing. He had succeeded in moving Ian away from the tractor but the young man was a lot heavier than his wife and Harry was having problems moving him a safe distance from the vehicle with only the aid of a piece of wood.

  Grace picked up a second piece of wood and went to help, shaking her head when he looked as though he was going to protest. ‘Before you say anything, I’m also wearing rubber-soled shoes so I’m as safe as you are.’

  He didn’t say anything to that. However, his expression was grim as she helped him manoeuvre the young man closer to the outbuildings. As soon as they were far enough away from the tractor, he dropped the wood and dragged Ian the rest of the way and laid him down beside his wife.

  ‘You stay here and look after them while I fetch the other guy,’ he instructed in a tone that brooked no argument.

  ‘Just be careful.’ Even though Grace had sworn she wouldn’t make a fuss, she couldn’t help worrying about him. ‘You’ll be closer to the power cable this time so mind what you’re doing.’

  Harry cocked a mocking brow. ‘Carry on like that, Grace, and I’ll start to think that you care about me.’

  Grace flushed hotly. Nobody had ever managed to get under her skin the way Harry could. ‘Dream on. If I appear concerned, it’s because I don’t want to have another casualty on my hands.’

  ‘And here was I thinking that you cared.’

  He treated her to one of his most infuriating smiles then made his way over to where Ben was lying. Grace turned away, busying herself with tending to Ian. The devil looked after his own, or so the saying went, and no doubt Harry would be perfectly safe.

  She stole a glance over her shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he had managed to move the older man away from the source of danger without any mishap. She turned her attention back to the young farmer, checking his airway, breathing and circulation—the ABC of first aid. She would do the job she was trained to do and leave the heroics to Harry. No doubt he would enjoy the opportunity to cover himself in yet more glory.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘HERE’S the exit wound. The current must have entered his body through his right hand and exited via his left foot.’

  Harry frowned as he examined Ben Arnold’s foot. The flesh was charred and blackened, and it looked as though at least two of his toes had been damaged beyond repair. It was going to take some very skilled surgery to sort out the mess, although it was unlikely to be the only injury the farmer had suffered.

  ‘It’s the worst type of electrical injury. When the current travels diagonally through the torso, it can pass through the heart. I think that must have happened in this case because Ben’s exhibiting definite signs of cardiac arrhythmia.’ Grace looked equally concerned as she glanced up. ‘The really worrying thing is that there’s no way of assessing the full extent of any internal damage. There could be widespread destruction of tissues and major organs for all we know.’

  ‘There could also be bone fractures.’ Harry grimaced. ‘Remember that case we saw when we were students—the fifteen-year-old who’d been messing about on the railway track and touched the live cable. I couldn’t believe it when we were shown his X-rays. He’d broken so many bones it was like looking at a jigsaw puzzle.’

  ‘The senior registrar told us it was because he couldn’t let go of the cable. As the current passed through his body it caused spasmodic contractions of his muscles, making it impossible for him to release the cable. The severity of the shocks caused joint dislocations as well as fractures, and it didn’t help that he’d been thrashing abo
ut on the ground as well.’ She shuddered. ‘It was a really horrible case. It’s no wonder you remember it.’

  ‘It’s not something you could forget in a hurry,’ Harry agreed. ‘He also had a severe case of concussion, as I recall. The registrar reckoned the convulsions had been so strong that his brain had been rattling about inside his skull—like the damage you see in shaken-baby syndrome. It means we can’t rule out a head injury in this instance either.’

  ‘No, we can’t.’ Grace sat back on her heels. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt so helpless in my entire life. Ben could have suffered any number of injuries and it’s hard to know where to start for the best.’

  ‘Let’s take it one step at a time and deal with the problems we know about,’ he advised, trying to hide his surprise. It simply wasn’t like Grace to admit to feeling unsure of herself when he was around. She always made a point of being very much in control of the situation—rather like he did, in fact.

  Harry frowned. It was almost as big a surprise to realise that he, too, made a point of putting on a good show whenever they were together. He wasn’t sure why he felt it necessary to prove himself when he was with her. It certainly wasn’t something he did as a matter of course. Although he wasn’t arrogant enough to think that he knew everything there was to know about medicine, he was confident of his own abilities and knew that the people he worked with had confidence in him, too. However, when Grace was around, he felt that he had to make a special effort to impress her. How strange.

  It was all very puzzling and he was glad to put it out of his mind when Steven arrived with a pile of blankets. ‘Well done—that’s just what we need. Here, help me cover up your mum then you can sit with her while we look after your dad and your granddad.’

 

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