Meredith walked to the opposite side of the bed and clasped Elliott’s cold hand.
“The doctor will be right in,” the nurse said and left the room.
Skip poked his head into the cubicle. “I’m going back to the farm, Ms. Montgomery. Is there anything you need?”
She handed him her cell phone. “Would you mind programming Jake’s number into my contacts? Right now, I couldn’t punch in two digits in the correct sequence.”
He took the phone and handed it back a minute later. “Look under Jake at MacKlenna Farm.”
“Where’s Kevin?”
Just as she asked, Kevin stepped into the room carrying two cups of steaming coffee. “I had to get coffee out of the machine downstairs. I don’t have privileges like other people.” He snarled at Skip, who punched Kevin on the shoulder.
“If you get a real job, you might have a few perks,” Skip said.
Kevin glanced at Meredith. “He’s jealous. His name is McIntosh. He thinks he should have gone to Scotland for Christmas instead of me.”
“I don’t want to go where it’s cold. I wanted to go to Naples,” Skip said. “I’m going back to the farm. You riding back with me, or staying here?” he asked Kevin.
“I’ll stay. Jake will send a car if I need to go back. But, hey, tell him Tabor sneaked into my room. I closed the door on the way out. No telling what that cat will do if he can’t eat breakfast,” Kevin said.
The paramedic laughed. “Hate to see the woodwork after that thirty pound cat scratches it up.”
Their jocularity was about to piss Meredith off until she looked into their eyes—dark and focused. Their joking was only a mask to cover their fear.
“Kevin, wait outside.” Elliott’s gravelly voice barely rose above a whisper. “I want to talk to Meredith.”
Kevin, looking not the least bit perturbed, left the cubicle and pulled the curtain closed.
Elliott squeezed her hand. “Don’t let them take my leg.”
She gulped, but she knew what it was like to lose a part of her body to save her life. “I won’t let you die, Elliott.”
“I have to know you’ll fight for me.”
“Kevin’s here.”
Elliott shook his head. “He prays for me to get well, no matter the cost.”
“I’ll do what I can.” But I won’t let you die.
“My phone?” he asked.
She patted her jacket pocket. “I have it. Do you want me to call someone?”
Elliott nodded. “David.”
Meredith took a breath before she asked the next question. “Should I call Louise?”
“David will.”
“Will he call Kit, too?”
Elliott grimaced. “She doesn’t have mobile service.”
“But—”
The ER doc pushed the curtain aside and entered the room, cutting Meredith off. “Dr. Fraser, I just talked to your surgeon—”
“Lyles or the surgeon in New York?” Elliott interrupted.
“Lyles. He just finished emergency surgery and is on his way down. How’s the pain?”
“Tolerable.”
“Is there anything you need?”
Elliott gave the doctor a half-grin. “Protection from Lyles.”
The ER doctor patted Elliott’s arm. “He’s very concerned about you.”
Elliott gazed at Meredith. Then he closed his eyes and seemed to fall asleep, until he said, “Tell Jake that David’s coming.”
How can he think of the farm when he’s so sick and staring down the threat of another surgery? Her mind filled with the fear she held for him. “What’s wrong with his leg?”
“The ultrasound showed a clot in the arterial graft.”
The door curtain fluttered, and a man in green scrubs entered. “Elliott, I’m not happy about this.”
“You think I am?” Elliott said.
“The doctor in New York told me the surgery exceeded expectations. Now here you are. I’m going to take you up to OR and get rid of that clot.”
“You’re not taking my leg.”
“I don’t intend to.” The doctor glanced at Meredith. “There’s a waiting room on the second floor. As soon as I finish, I’ll come out and give you a report. We’ll keep him in ICU tonight to keep an eye on him. Otherwise he’ll get up and walk around.” He squeezed Elliott’s shoulder. “I’ll see you upstairs.”
The doctor left, and Meredith followed him out into the corridor. “Doctor Lyles.”
He stopped and turned toward her, his brows furrowed.
Meredith cleared away the lump in her throat. “You wouldn’t take his leg without talking to him beforehand, would you?”
“Rest assured, Ms.—”
“Montgomery.”
“He lives in fear of that, but I hope that’s not something to worry about tonight.”
She let out a tight breath of relief and reentered the room. The orderly had unhooked Elliott from the monitors and re-hooked him to mobile units. She clasped his hand. “I’ll be in to see you as soon as they let me.” She kissed him lightly on the mouth.
“If a decision has to be made, make sure I’m awake,” Elliott said.
Relieved that she had Dr. Lyles’ word, she said, “I will.”
The orderly rolled him out of the cubical and down the corridor. She plodded behind them until they reached the patient elevators. “The public elevators are around the corner, or you can take the steps,” the orderly said. “We’re going to the second floor.”
Elliott had a wide-eyed fix on her that she understood. When she went into surgery, though, she knew the surgeon would leave part of her in the operating room. The only thing about Elliott that would change if he lost his leg would be his perception of himself. No one else would perceive him differently. He would be no less a man, certainly not in her eyes.
After Elliott and the orderly disappeared inside the elevator, Meredith wound her way through the hospital until she found the second floor waiting room. She plopped into a hard-cushioned chair. The time was one-thirty, which made it six-thirty in the UK.
Where’s Kevin?
The resourceful man could be anywhere. If she had to bet, she’d wager he was wherever the nurses were. In his late twenties, about six-feet tall with chiseled good looks and a body built to compete in triathlons, he’d have no trouble attracting beautiful women. Elliott had an eclectic group of caring friends, which reminded her that she needed to call David. She dialed his number.
“Werner,” he said.
“David, this is Meredith Montgomery. Elliott’s in surgery. He needs you.”
“Ms. Montgomery, I don’t make assumptions, especially where Dr. Fraser is concerned, but I put him on a plane heading to Kentucky. You were still in Scotland. Did he turn the damn plane around?”
“No, I arrived in Lexington a few hours ago,” she said, shivering from the late night hour.
“Are they taking his leg?”
Tears slid down her cheeks. Stress, lack of sleep, and fear usurped her physical and emotional coping skills.
“Ms. Montgomery, can ye’ hear me? Are they taking his leg?”
She couldn’t speak. Sentences tumbled from her brain but froze on her tongue, growing thicker with the accumulation of unspoken thoughts.
“Meredith.” His tone was deadly sharp now and couldn’t be ignored.
“No.”
“If it’s his life or his leg, he has to let it go.”
She stared ahead at the gray cinderblock wall—drab, boring. The complete opposite to what was happening in her life. Weren’t her problems enough? Now, to compound the severity of her own situation, she was enmeshed in Elliott’s possible life-or-limb predicament. She shook her head, partly because she didn’t know what was happening and partly to shake some sense back into her brain.
“Meredith, are ye’ still there?”
The words thawed and rolled off her swollen tongue. “They think he has a blood clot in the arterial graft. I don’t know what that
means, but it seems serious.”
In her fog and darkness, she sensed more than heard his heightened alarm. “I’ll catch the first flight out. Dr. Fraser and I both have satellite phones, and you can reach us anytime, anywhere in the world.”
She grabbed a small package of tissues from her purse and wiped her nose. “Elliott’s battery is low. I’m going to call you from my phone so we’ll have each other’s number, but it’s not a sat phone, so occasionally I’m out of reach. Will you call Louise?” Meredith functioned only by rote now, speaking in a monotone.
“She’ll want to come with me. Is that a problem for ye’?”
Meredith juxtaposed two images of Louise in her mind. The woman she first met in the library and the woman she left in the library. “She doesn’t care for me, but she loves Elliott. She needs to be here.”
“Ye’re a gracious lass. Stand yer ground. I’ll send ye’ a text with my arrival time.”
She leaned her head against the wall. If she hadn’t been with Elliott, what would have happened to him? He could have suffered for hours like Jonathan, all alone with no one aware he was in danger. Kevin would have checked on him. But would he have been too late? Exhausted, she closed her eyes and nodded off.
David called and woke her a few minutes later. “We leave for London in an hour. From there we’ve got a flight to Atlanta. We should be in Lexington around suppertime.”
“I’ll let Jake know.”
“Are ye’ by yerself? Where’s Kevin?”
“He’s here somewhere.”
“I know exactly where he is.” David’s tone was part father intending to reprimand his child and part employer intent on firing him.
“He doesn’t need to sit with me.”
David hissed between his teeth. “The lad needs to do exactly what Dr. Fraser would want him to do, and if he doesn’t know what that is, I’ll tell him.”
Meredith straightened in her chair.
“I’ll send a message from Atlanta. And, Ms. Montgomery, don’t worry about Louise. Whatever bee was stuck in her wee bonnet, it’s gone now.”
Meredith was sure David had something to do with arranging for a beekeeper, but she wasn’t about to question it. “See you soon.” Her voice barely rose above a squeak.
Meredith’s next call was to Jake to let him know that Elliott was in surgery and that Louise and David would be arriving in the late afternoon. He assured her he would see to transportation, and he would let Mrs. Collins know of their arrival. Before he hung up, he asked Meredith if there was anything he could do for her, and she told him no.
Why is everyone bending over backwards for me?
She closed her eyes and rolled her tight shoulders. There wasn’t anything anyone could do for her. Four days earlier, she’d left San Francisco with a lump in her breast and a handful of projects to complete. The projects had been bumped way down her to-do list where the writing was too small to read.
Is there anything we can do for you, Ms. Montgomery?
“Yes, heal Elliott so I can have more time with him before I’m cut apart again.”
Chapter Thirty-One
University of Kentucky Medical Center – December 27
THE HOSPITAL PAGING system startled Meredith awake. She glanced at the clock on the wall—four o’clock. Adrenalin pumped panic into her veins, and she jumped out of the chair. Why hadn’t the doctor come out and given her a report? Did he forget? She rushed out into the white hallway, bright as daylight in the dead of night. No professional staff. No maintenance crew. No one to ask for help. Where were the cheery-faced pink ladies? Did she dare leave to check in with ICU? What choice did she have? She couldn’t stay there and do nothing. Convinced she’d been forgotten, she followed the signs to the bank of elevators. When she arrived at the secure door to ICU, she pushed up her sweater sleeves and pressed the intercom button.
“May I help you?”
“Dr. Lyles took Elliott Fraser to surgery at one o’clock, and said he would go to ICU afterwards. I’d like to see the patient.”
“What’s your relationship?”
“I’m his wife.” God, that sounded odd, but she wasn’t in a mood to deal with HIPAA compliance.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have him on our floor yet, Mrs. Fraser.”
Don’t have him. That meant he was still in surgery or in the recovery room. She went back down the hall, burst through the exit door, took the stairs two at a time, and returned to the waiting room. The jaunt to ICU and back had taken five minutes. Why hadn’t she asked Lyles how long he anticipated surgery would take? What should she do next? Sitting and waiting calmly didn’t seem feasible. There was a text message on her phone from Louise letting her know she and David were onboard and set to depart. Good. Meredith collapsed in a chair, shivering.
Panic—relief. Panic—relief. Panic—relief. The rollercoaster ride from hell.
For a few moments, she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw Dr. Lyles standing in the doorway, obviously unsure whether to wake her or not. “I’m glad to see you.” She stood and held out her hand. “We weren’t introduced earlier. I’m Meredith Montgomery—wife, sister, aunt, mother. Whoever I need to be to visit Elliott.”
He pointed to the chairs. “Let’s sit.” He sat back and crossed his ankles. “Elliott and I have known each other for years. If you’d been in his life very long, I’d have known about it.” He scratched the side of his face. “On second thought, he’d probably keep you a secret, Ms. Montgomery—”
“Meredith . . .”
“Meredith . . . The fact that you’re here tells me you’re special to him, plus he told me I could discuss his medical condition with you.” Dr. Lyles leaned forward in the chair and propped his elbows on his thighs. Then he held his clasped hands down between his knees. “Elliott is a challenging patient. His initial injury was devastating. Most people would have lost their leg at the knee. He insisted we try to save it.”
“He’s still adamant about that,” Meredith said.
Lyles nodded. “I did an arterial graft to keep blood flowing to his foot, but he lost most of his calf muscle in the knife attack.”
Meredith shivered. “From a comment Louise made, I thought something like that had happened. But why has it taken so long to heal?”
“He’s had several problems over the last five years. The blood flow to the leg remains a challenge. The injury is cosmetically disfiguring, which is an emotional challenge for him, and with most of the calf muscle gone, it’s difficult to walk.”
Tears rushed to her eyes. “I had no idea.”
“His busy lifestyle makes rehab and recovery difficult. His trainer works with him daily, but Elliott never stops, and I’m not sure he sleeps more than a couple of hours.”
“He just got out of the hospital,” Meredith said. “He probably shouldn’t have gone on a sleigh ride.”
Lyles sighed. “Typical.”
“He’s mentioned an implant. What does that do?”
“For a man who wears a kilt, we felt it was important to try to give him a normal looking leg. We put in an implant and grafted over it. Complications set in almost immediately, and we had to go back in and repair the arterial graft, which is what we had to do again.”
“Will what’s left of the calf muscle increase in size if it’s exercised?”
“Yes, and his trainer has done a good job with that, too. That was the reason for the surgery he just had in New York. The surgeon reduced the size of the implant, and a plastic surgeon smoothed out the scars.”
“What’s made him so sick?”
“He developed a clot in the arterial graft. That’s why he was in so much pain.”
Meredith sat back in her chair and considered all that Lyles had said. “If Elliott will heal if he slows down, why doesn’t he?”
Lyles shrugged. “That’s the million dollar question. Some patients refuse to listen to medical advice. They refuse to make lifestyle changes that will improve their health. Some c
ontinue to smoke through cancer and heart disease. Elliott refuses to follow a treatment regimen that will result in healing his leg. It’s dangerous for him and frustrating for his medical team. I think he avoids rehab as a way of ignoring what happened and how much it took from him.”
This whole concept was foreign to her. Caring for her body was paramount to her emotional well-being. For a man who used to be a runner, how could he treat his leg with such indifference? Meredith wiped the tears from her eyes. “I just feel so sorry for him.”
“Don’t let him know that,” Lyles said. “The last thing Elliott needs is pity, especially from a beautiful woman.”
“If his problems are psychological, why doesn’t he get counseling?”
“That’s the rub of the green, as Elliott’s father would say.” Dr. Lyles’ phone beeped. He checked the message. “Elliott trusts you. Maybe you can get him to go.”
“Don’t put that on me. I’ve only known him for four days.”
The doctor stood. “If there’s anything else—”
“How big is the wound?”
“About golf ball size now. I heard he left New York Presbyterian and flew to Edinburgh. Is that true?”
“That’s where I met him.”
Lyles shook his head. “I’ll keep him for a few days. Then we’ll try again. Do you know if David’s coming?”
“He and Louise just boarded their flight.”
“If Elliott will commit to doing what he’s told, David will be the enforcer. He’s the only one who can keep Elliott in line.”
“I thought that role went to Louise,” Meredith said.
“I’ve never seen anybody as over-protective as Louise. She can be worse than a mother bear. I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.”
Meredith rolled her eyes. “I’m afraid I did.”
“I can see that happening. You’d be a threat to her,” Lyles said.
“How does Evelyn fit into the mix?”
“She plays the role of mediator.”
Meredith grinned. “You know them well.”
“I spend a week every year at Fraser House. The girls make a point of coming up for a few days.” He checked his pager again. “I have patients to check on before I go home. I’ve enjoyed meeting you.”
The Last MacKlenna Page 18