Evan had quickly checked him over and sent him back to the camp. There was still no further information from headquarters.
“You know we should wait, don’t you?” he said to Luke as they walked alone the edge of the dusty road.
Luke raised his eyebrow. “Are you going to wait?”
Evan couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Then neither am I. But you do exactly as I say. I don’t have a gun, we don’t have any kind of weapon. We’re going to skirt around the outside of the village and see if we can work out if the kidnappers are still there.”
Evan glanced at his watch. It was nearing seven o’clock and the light was beginning to fade. The village was nearly ninety minutes away from camp, but the journey had seemed much longer.
His brain had computed a million possibilities in that time, most of which he didn’t want to consider. He hated the way he kept falling on the worst-case scenario. He hated the way the rational part of his brain had ceased to function.
As their truck had sped along the dusty road he had kept praying someone from the village would make contact via the satellite phone but no one had heard a word. And they had no other form of communication.
In the shadows the outline of the village houses started to appear. Luke signaled him to get behind him as they crept slowly around the edge of the first house. Everything was silent. A quick glance told them no one was inside.
They worked their way systematically toward the center of the village. From the deathly silence on the outskirts they started to hear the gentle hum of voices. As they moved closer the noise level increased.
Evan tilted his head to one side as they strained to hear. “It sounds like panic,” he whispered. “A lot of shouting, mainly in Hausa, with a little English.”
Luke gave him a nod. “I’m going to get a little closer.” He put his hand up as Evan tried to move behind him. “You’re the doctor. Stay here. It will only take me a few seconds. Once I know for sure there’s no one with guns, I’ll signal you.” His dark eyes flashed. “I mean it, Doc, don’t move. There might be people in the village who need your help. I don’t want you to get injured.”
He moved away silently around the edge of one of the houses, virtually invisible in the fading light.
Evan strained to hear. The voices just sounded like a rabble to him. But there was no gunfire. No shooting. He hated having to stay here. His legs were itching to run—to run and find Violet. To make sure she was safe.
But if the kidnappers were still in the village, they would be only too happy to find another American doctor, and he knew that. Luke was right. He had to wait a few minutes and then see if any of the villagers needed attention. He knew all about his duty as a doctor. But what about his duty to Violet?
“Evan! Come out, you’re needed!” Luke’s deep voice cut through the dying light. Evan’s blood started to pump and he ran toward the voice.
The noise around him increased rapidly. It seemed as if every resident of the village had made their way into the village center. That’s why all the houses were empty and silent. There were several people on the ground. He recognized one of them immediately. Urbi. The village midwife.
He was at her side in seconds. Luke appeared at his shoulder. “The men left the village little over an hour ago. They couldn’t find Violet. They searched everywhere.”
One of the community workers touched Evan’s elbow. Her dark face was filled with anxiety. “We had to hide Dr. Hunter. When the men appeared, we had no choice but to hide among the villagers.”
Evan was examining the deep wound on Urbi’s head. “What happened?”
“Urbi was knocked unconscious. She delayed the men from reaching Violet. She told them Violet had already left the village. They hit her with a rifle butt.”
His stomach was clenching. Violet. This woman had been injured trying to save Violet.
He couldn’t stop himself. His head flicked frantically around. “Where is she? Where is Violet?”
He took a pack of swabs from his bag and held them to Urbi’s forehead. Her small hand reached up over his. “We don’t know, Dr. Hunter. She must have heard me shouting. When they got to the birthing room she was gone. She was helping me with a patient.” She winced as he tried to stem the flow of blood. “They discovered some of her things in the birthing room. She must have dropped them. That’s when they hit me.”
Evan’s stomach flipped over again. “But they didn’t find her?”
One of the other villagers was shaking his head. “No.”
Luke was kneeling next to another man. His shoulder had been grazed by a bullet. Another seemed to have been punched and one of the village elders had a similar wound to Urbi’s.
Evan looked around at these people—most that he didn’t know—who had hidden his staff and saved their lives. “Thank you,” he said. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you for looking after the health workers.”
A hand appeared on his shoulder and a variety of items were deposited on the ground next to him. Violet’s bag. Her smashed satellite phone. Some of the polio supplies.
The sight of her battered belongings in front of him tore at his soul. It was obvious why no one had been able to contact them. The men had obviously destroyed the satellite phone once they’d found it.
He cast his eyes over the patients. Luke was a physician’s assistant in the U.S. There was nothing here he couldn’t deal with. He stood up. “Luke, can you deal with these people, please? I need to look for Violet.”
Luke nodded briefly. The danger was past. There was no reason for him to stop Evan.
“Urbi, do you have any idea where Violet could be?”
“She was with a patient. A villager who was in labor. They must have gone somewhere to hide.”
“But where could they have gone?” His eyes took in the surrounding area. The uneven rows of houses around them. The backdrop of the forest.
The forest. The ideal place to hide a conspicuous white face.
Urbi’s hand reached out to his. “Dr. Hunter—the patient...”
He knelt back down. “What is it? Was something wrong with the patient? Was that why Violet didn’t leave her?”
Urbi’s expression was guarded. She gestured for him to move closer so she could whisper in his ear. “The baby. It was too late for the baby. There was no heartbeat. But the mother still had to deliver it.”
Evan nodded. Violet must have been worried about complications of delivery for the mother. That’s why she’d stayed by her side. That’s why she’d taken her with her.
But there was something else. Urbi pulled him a little closer. “Dr. Violet. She understood. Once she realized the baby was dead. She said she wanted to stay. She wanted to help.”
Evan pulled back a little. Violet was a compassionate person. He didn’t think she had much experience in obstetrics, and he knew there was a high stillbirth rate in Nigeria so she must have wanted to help.
“Please find them.” She squeezed his hand.
Finding Violet was all he could think about right now—all he could focus on. Someone pressed a torch into his hand. “You might need this.”
He stared down at the torch. The confusion in his brain didn’t matter. The way that things were circling in his head didn’t matter. There was movement beside him and he looked. A number of the villagers had formed a group around him.
His understanding was instant. In the poor light it would be difficult to find anyone in the forest. He had no idea how far Violet and the woman in labor might have traveled. It could be anything from a few hundred yards to as far as they had been physically able to.
Again, the people in this village were prepared to help. He was touched.
He drew his shoulders back. “Okay, Luke?”
Luke nodded. “No problem. I’ll be waitin
g for you when you get back.” The unspoken words were there. When you get back with Violet.
Evan nodded at the people around him. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” They walked swiftly through the houses to the edge of the forest. There, the villagers started to talk among themselves and split into groups.
He pulled out the laptop he’d been given and reloaded the GPS software. The little red blip on the aerial view was still evident. He held up the laptop so the people around him could see, showing the view of the forest and where the red blip lay. “That should be Violet,” he said out loud. He tried to picture where they were on the map. “We need to head in that direction.” It seemed as though Violet had veered off to the left and headed into the forest for about half a mile. A hard trek in these conditions—let alone with a pregnant woman in labor.
There were no obvious paths into the forest, no tracks leading in different directions. Several of the stronger men had brought stiff canes with them, obviously to beat back some of the thicker leaves and jagged bushes.
Evan took one that was being held out toward him. He watched as several others starting beating at the bushes in front of them, clearing a path into the forest.
He started doing the same. Several of the men followed him, their torches helping to light up the dark forest. Shadows and outlines seemed to loom everywhere. The noise of the insects around them increased with every step they took further into the forest. He started slapping at his skin. Mosquitoes. He hadn’t even thought about insect repellent. By the time they finished they would be eaten alive.
The deeper they went, the denser the forest became. The ground around his feet seemed alive. Every step crunched on something underfoot. The trees were closer together now, their trunks thicker and leaves slapping around him. The distance between the groups was increasing as they spread out to cover more ground between them.
Evan wasn’t really sure which direction they were heading in any more. The forest could be disorientating. Especially at night. How would Violet be feeling? Would she be scared? Would the patient be in trouble?
He stopped for a second, looking around, sweeping his torch through the leaves and bushes.
There was no point in pulling out the GPS software now. It was only useful if you knew where you were in relation to the signal. He could hear shouts around him. The other searchers were obviously getting disorientated. Was it safe to continue?
There was no way Evan was going back to the village without Violet. No way at all. “Violet! Violet!” He started shouting like the others, stopping every few seconds to listen for any response.
Nothing. Were they heading in the right direction? He started to move a little more left, his torch trying to find an easier path for their feet.
His shoulders and arms were aching relentlessly as he tried to beat the bushes and leaves back. At least Violet would have been able to see these in the daylight and duck out of their way. He could hear some muttering behind him. How long had they been out here? Were the villagers starting to lose heart?
His torch caught a glimpse of something unusual. A color he didn’t expect to see. He dropped to the forest floor and scrabbled about. A notebook. Violet’s notebook with the distinctive purple flowers. His heart leaped. They were heading in the right direction.
“Look! It’s Violet’s!” He showed it to the men behind him, who instantly shouted to the other groups.
His adrenaline surged. The pain in his arms was forgotten. She must be close. She must be nearby. “Violet! Violet!”
Every step had renewed vigor. His calls were louder than before. His shouts echoed through the forest. All the men were repeating them over and over.
Then he heard something. Something different.
“Quiet!”
He stopped moving and held his breath.
Then he heard it. A hoarse reply. “Evan?”
He’d never heard anything sweeter.
He flung his stick aside, crashing through the forest toward the voice. He burst through into a little clearing. Dark moss, set among some trees. Violet huddled on a fallen tree trunk, her arm around another figure and a little wrapped bundle in her arms.
“Evan.” The relief in her voice washed over him. Her pale face could be picked out easily in the dark night. He crossed the clearing in a couple of strides and pulled her into his arms.
“Are you all right? I’ve been so worried. No one knew where you’d gone.” His eyes caught the woman to her right. “Did the delivery go okay? Is there something we can do for your patient?”
Violet shook her head silently. The men from the village had heard the shouts and crowded into the clearing. One of them rushed forward and took Hasana in his arms, shouting with relief.
Violet felt the tears on her face instantly. She laid a gentle kiss on the baby in her arms. She whispered to him, stroking the skin on his face as she talked to him a little longer.
And in that instant, Evan knew.
It felt as if a hand was squeezing his heart inside his chest. It was the tenderness, the look on her face. Pieces of the puzzle started dropping into place.
Violet was a good doctor—she’d always been a good doctor. But she’d risked her life to stay with this woman. She’d trekked through a forest to keep her, and a baby that she already knew was lost, safe.
Evan’s skin prickled.
No. Not Violet. That couldn’t have happened to Violet.
Things started to jumble around in his brain. The look on Violet’s face when he’d told her she would be working with the midwives.
He hadn’t been able to place it at the time. Had it been fear?
Violet had seemed so at ease with the young children and the babies. Surely she wouldn’t feel like that if she’d experienced a stillbirth? Surely she would want to run in the other direction?
He racked his brain. He tried to remember all the types of work Violet had covered in the past few years at the DPA.
None had been with children and families. None at all. Had she been avoiding that kind of work?
Other things started to come back. The few things that she’d said in the quiet moments they’d had together.
The fact she hadn’t been ready to have a relationship six months ago. Why hadn’t she been ready? He’d wanted to press her, had wanted to ask, but it hadn’t seemed appropriate.
The fleeting look in her eyes when he’d told her about his friend who worked at Atlanta Memorial. It had the biggest maternity unit in Atlanta.
Was it because she’d had a stillbirth? Was it because she’d had a stillbirth there?
But why would no one know about it? The thought of Violet going through something so heartbreaking made him feel sick.
Was this why he’d never heard of Violet having a relationship in the past three years?
Had she been getting over a stillbirth?
His throat was instantly dry. He couldn’t swallow. He’d been in bed with this woman. He’d spent hours in her company.
Why hadn’t she told him about this?
He hadn’t been able to be around her when he’d thought he was keeping secrets from her. That’s what had made him blurt out something he’d kept deep inside for six years.
He’d had to share with her. He’d had to get it off his chest. Because his relationship with Violet hadn’t stood a chance without him being honest with her.
So why hadn’t she told him anything?
He felt a little fire build inside him. There was more than the personal side here. There was the professional side. He was her team leader.
If a personal event could have affected her ability to do her job out here, he should have known about it.
She should have told him. It should have on her personnel file. Someone should have told him.
Nothing made sense to him
.
* * *
Hasana was talking to her husband. She was sobbing and obviously tired and distressed.
Her husband looked over toward Violet and didn’t hesitate for a second, he held out his hands for his son.
Violet held him out with trembling hands and he took him, putting his arm around his wife and the two of them sat together, crying quietly. He cradled his son, stroking his face then looked at his wife. “Bem.” She nodded and put her head on his shoulder as the two of them sat, looking at their child.
Not for Bem the traditional village naming ceremony in seven days’ time. His mother and father wouldn’t have the usual cause for celebration. But naming their baby was still precious to them, and Violet understood that.
Violet could hear the murmurs of the men around her. She heard one of them speak to Evan. “His name—it means peace.”
Violet stood up moved to the edge of the clearing. She wanted to give them space to grieve together as a family, but she also felt as if she was suffocating.
The darkness and heavy air was closing in around her. She was struggling to breathe and she clawed at the loose buba shirt at her neck.
“Violet, what’s wrong?” Evan stood in front of her, his wide chest blocking her line of vision. White. He was wearing white. And it cut through the blackness.
His hand touched her cheek, catching a tear with his finger. He pulled her back toward him and cradled her head against his chest, letting her feel the rise and fall of his chest. Her breathing slowed and her panic ebbed. His other reached up and stroked her hair. “You’re safe now.”
And she did feel safe. It was a relief to finally have some other people around her, to share the burden of being alone in the dark forest with a traumatized patient.
THE MAVERICK DOCTOR AND MISS PRIM/ABOUT THAT NIGHT... Page 30