by Joanna Neil
‘I have to transport an eight-year-old patient back home to Scotland. He was brought down here to Northumberland for specialist treatment after he was badly injured in a road accident, but now he’s well enough to be transferred back to his local hospital. He was supposed to have gone yesterday by ambulance, but we were concerned about his condition and so we delayed things for a while.’
‘So it wasn’t necessary for you to wait to go with him? You could have left it to someone else to escort him?’
She made a face. ‘I suppose that’s true, but I’ve been looking after him for a while now, overseeing his care, and he wanted me to stay with him. It’s been a difficult time for Connor, because his parents were injured in the crash as well and they had to stay behind in Scotland. I think that’s why he took to depending on me, because he was so vulnerable. The poor child had no one and he was lost and alone.’
‘Then I expect you must feel that you made the right choice.’ He sent her an oblique glance. ‘So, what do you do at the hospital? Are you a nurse, or a doctor perhaps?’
‘A doctor. I specialised in paediatrics, and mostly I work with seriously ill children on the surgical ward.’
‘That must be rewarding.’ His blue-grey gaze moved over her fleetingly.
‘It can be. There are times when it’s difficult to handle, though, like when the child has a serious heart condition or worse. You want so much to help them, but sometimes there’s a limit to what you can do. I find that heartbreaking.’
He nodded. ‘I can see how that might affect you. For myself, I tend to think that children are resilient for the most part. They cope with problems in a way that puts adults to shame.’
Rebecca smiled. ‘Yes, they do.’ She sent him a thoughtful glance. She knew next to nothing about this man, and yet he already had the lowdown on her lifestyle, her work and her plans for the future. Well, maybe not all of them, but a good part. How had he managed to glean so much about her in such a short space of time?
‘Here we are already,’ he said as the glass doors to the main entrance of the hospital swished open before them. ‘That was quick. You certainly landed a prime position, with your flat being just a hop and a skip away from here.’
‘I suppose I did.’ Rebecca hesitated, and then started to move away from him in the direction of the stairs. ‘I have to go to the surgical ward to collect my patient,’ she told him. ‘Do you know your way about, or do you need directions?’
‘I’ll manage,’ he murmured. ‘I’ll take the lift.’
‘OK.’
He inclined his head towards her and she returned the gesture with a brief ‘Goodbye,’ before going on her way.
She didn’t turn back to watch him take the lift. She wouldn’t be seeing him again and that was perhaps just as well, because he seemed to have a very strange effect on her. In the few hours she had known him, he had managed somehow to put her on the defensive and caused her to examine her reasons for doing things, and she was tired of all that uncertainty.
What she needed now was a fresh start, a chance to go home to her island roots and find peace within herself once again.
Pushing all thoughts of him out of her mind, she tapped in the security code at the door of the children’s ward and then made her way over to the nurses’ station.
‘How’s everybody doing?’ she asked, looking at the women who had been her colleagues over the last couple of years. ‘Has everything been peaceful overnight?’
‘More peaceful than your going-away party.’ Connie laughed. ‘Have you heard any news about James?’
Rebecca nodded. ‘I checked up on him by phone before I came here. He’s doing all right…He had several deep cuts that needed stitching, but he’s recovering well, and they’re thinking of sending him home later today.’
‘That’s a relief.’ Connie smiled. ‘As to your little patient, he’s just about ready for the journey home. He’s a bit pale and anxious-looking, but his temperature is OK and his heart rate and oxygen levels are satisfactory, so he should be clear to travel.’
‘That’s good news. I’ll go and have a word with him and get him ready for the journey. Do we have any idea what time the ambulance will be arriving?’
Connie glanced at the nurse who was standing by the phone. ‘Do we?’
‘I’m not sure. I think we have to check with the transport services. There was a query over what was happening, and I was told to ring again in a few minutes to check.’
‘That’s all right. I’ll go and talk to Connor while you do that.’
Eight-year-old Connor was overjoyed to see her. ‘Becca, you came back!’ Her young patient’s face lit up. ‘I know you said you were going to stay with me, but they told me you weren’t going to work at the hospital any more. I didn’t think I would see you again.’
‘Well, there you are, you see,’ she said on a cheerful note. ‘I’m here, and I’m going with you all the way back to Scotland. I shan’t leave you until I hand you over, safe and sound, to your mum and dad.’
He gave her a blissful smile. ‘I can’t wait to see them again.’ He sank back against his pillows as though the effort of talking had taken a lot out of him. Even so, he shot her a troubled glance. ‘Do you think they’re all right? Are they still in hospital?’
She nodded. ‘They’re both still in hospital, but they’re getting better every day.’ His mother had leg and arm injuries, and his father was suffering from whiplash and a dislocated knee, but Connor was the one who had come close to death because of internal injuries.
She looked at him now, noting the dark shadows beneath his eyes, made all the more noticeable by his pale features and the contrasting colour of his brown hair. He had lost a lot of blood in the car accident, and had almost died from injuries to his chest and abdomen. It was only because of the skill of the surgeons who had operated on him within the golden hour, from the time of the accident to admission to hospital, that he stood a good chance of recovery without suffering too many after-effects. In fact, all going well, he would probably be released from hospital in a few days.
‘We need to concentrate on you right now,’ she murmured. ‘We have to make sure that you’re well enough to manage the journey, and that you stay on good form. That means you need to get some rest and allow your body to heal. We still need to keep an eye on you to make sure that everything gets back to normal.’
‘I’m better than I was yesterday.’ Connor gave her a wide-eyed glance. ‘And I ate all my breakfast, even the yucky porridge the nurse gave me.’
Rebecca laughed. ‘That’s good. It’s a start, at any rate.’ She surreptitiously checked the readings on the monitors by his bedside. ‘I’ll have a quick listen to your chest, and then perhaps we can get ready to go on our way.’
She gently laid her stethoscope over his rib cage and listened to the sounds coming from his lungs. There was a slight wheeziness, but all in all things appeared to be good. Since the drainage tubes had been removed from his chest a couple of days ago with no ill-effects, it looked as though she could give the all-clear for the transport to go ahead.
‘You’re doing all right,’ she told him with a smile, ‘so I’ll go and have a word with the nurse and see if we can be on our way.’
‘Yeah!’ Connor whooped, and then coughed, clutching his chest as his body responded to the exertion. ‘Ouch!’ he said. ‘That hurt.’
Rebecca made a wry face. ‘I guess we’d better top up your painkillers before we go.’ She reached into her pocket and pulled out an electronic computer game. ‘Here, you can amuse yourself with this for a while, if you think you’re up to it.’
‘Oh, wow.’ His eyes shone as he looked up at her. ‘Where did you get this from?’
‘I borrowed it from the play leader. She didn’t want you to be bored on the journey.’
He was already thumbing the buttons on the device, absorbed in checking out the game she had slotted in place. ‘This is great.’
Rebecca grinned, and went off
to talk to the nurse. ‘How are things coming along with the transport?’ she asked.
‘You’re all set to go,’ the nurse told her. ‘Only there won’t be a paramedic travelling along with you this time. There will be another doctor on board.’
‘That’s unusual, isn’t it?’ Rebecca murmured. ‘How did that come about?’
‘I think it was because—Oh, hang on, here he is now…’ The nurse broke off and looked towards the door. ‘He’ll be able to fill you in on the details himself.’ She shielded her face with her hand in a covert fashion as she turned back to Rebecca. ‘Lucky you! I wish I were the one who was going along with him. He’s gorgeous.’
Rebecca’s stare flicked across the room and she gazed in open-mouthed wonder at the man who was walking towards them. She blinked in disbelief. Surely there was some mistake? What was Craig doing there? How was it possible that the nurse was pointing him out as though he was the doctor who was to accompany her on the journey?
Craig’s dark brows lifted. ‘Are you all right?’ He came to join them at the nurses’ station, sending Rebecca a swift, assessing glance. ‘You look as though you’re in shock.’
‘I think that’s because I am.’ Rebecca floundered. ‘I mean, I had no idea that you were anything other than a stranger passing through. How was I to know that you were a doctor? You didn’t tell me.’
His gaze was steady. ‘You didn’t ask.’
‘Yes, but even so…’ Rebecca shook her head. All her preconceived ideas about him had dissolved in an instant. To think that she had even been feeling some degree of sympathy towards him…and now it turned out that she had everything wrong and she felt utterly foolish.
‘I had no idea that you would be going back with me to Scotland,’ she said. ‘You must have known all along, but you said nothing at all.’
‘That’s because I didn’t know for certain,’ he murmured. ‘I had a shrewd idea, I’ll grant you, but I knew nothing for sure until I checked with the transport services a few minutes ago.’
He looked across at the nurse. ‘So we’re cleared to go, I take it? Where is the little fellow?’
‘Bay three.’ The nurse pointed in the direction of the side ward, an amused smile playing around her lips. ‘I have his paperwork here, all ready for Dr McIntyre. I hope you both have a good journey.’
Rebecca drew in a swift breath and put out a hand for the paperwork. She would at least put up a semblance of normality and pretend that none of this was happening. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I’ll make sure it’s handed over to the receiving hospital. It’s been good working with you, Libby.’
‘And you.’
Rebecca started towards the bay where Connor was waiting. ‘I’ll show you to our patient,’ she told Craig. Perhaps the best thing she could do was to relate to him in a purely professional capacity. That way, she would be able to stay calm and do her job. ‘He’s doing all right,’ she said. ‘It’s just a question of waiting for him to heal and for him to build up his strength once more. All this has taken a lot out of him.’
‘I can imagine.’
He was still carrying the overnight bag with him, and she said briskly as they approached Connor’s trolley bed, ‘Perhaps you should slide that onto the rack underneath. It’ll be out of the way as we wheel him out to the ambulance bay.’
‘Sure thing.’ He deposited the bag and sent a cheery smile towards Connor, who was looking at him with a guarded expression. ‘Hello, young man,’ Craig said. ‘I’m Dr Braemar. I’ll be going along with you on the journey home.’
Connor sent him a suspicious look. ‘I want Becca to go with me.’
‘Yes, she’ll be coming along, too.’
‘Really?’ Connor lay back and tried to absorb that. ‘So I get to have two doctors? Why?’
‘That’s a good question,’ Craig said. ‘The reason is, I came down here with a patient, but there were problems with the transport, and I had to stay over until they were fixed. So now I get to travel home with you and your delicious Dr McIntyre.’ He leaned forward and gave the boy a clandestine, questioning look. ‘You weren’t hoping to keep her all to yourself, were you? ’Cos if you were, that means I’m stranded here, and I won’t get back to Scotland in time to walk my dog.’
‘You have a dog?’
Craig made a face. ‘Actually, no. You found me out. I made it up, because I just wanted to make sure I get to go with you.’
Connor chuckled. ‘You’re crackers.’
Craig grinned. ‘Yeah. So they keep telling me.’
Rebecca could think of a few more adjectives to describe him. Words like underhand, annoying and in your face all sprang to mind.
‘Are you all set to go?’ she asked Connor, and the boy nodded. ‘Good. Then we’ll move you out to the lift and take you down to the ambulance bay.’
‘Um…’ Craig looked as though he was about to say something, but Rebecca was already releasing the brake on the bed and he nimbly stepped to one side as she set the bed in motion. ‘Was there something you wanted to say?’ she queried, shooting him a quick glance.
‘It’ll wait,’ he said, grimacing as she set off towards the exit door. ‘Far be it from me to disturb a woman while she’s driving.’
Connor giggled, and Rebecca sent Craig a warning glare. Was he looking for trouble?
She waved goodbye to her friends as she left, and then, when she was outside in the main corridor, she headed for the lifts. She steered the boy through the open lift doors and put a hand out to press the button to send them on their way. ‘Going down,’ she told Connor, but just as she was about to choose the ground-floor switch, Craig intervened.
‘In fact,’ he said, ‘we need to go up…to the top floor.’ He pressed the button for the roof area and the doors silently closed on them.
She stared at him. ‘Why on earth would we need to do that?’
‘Because that’s where the helipad is.’
‘Oh, fantastic,’ Connor said. ‘Do we really get to go in a helicopter?’
‘That’s right. It’s the only way to travel.’
‘Excuse me?’ Rebecca was still trying to absorb the shock. She half turned so that Connor would not be able to see or hear what she was about to say, and Craig must have read the warning signals in her expression because he gave her his full attention.
‘This can’t be right,’ she said in a low tone. ‘No one said anything to me about a helicopter.’ She felt the colour wash out of her face.
‘It was just how things turned out, that’s all. I have to go back up north, and so do you and Connor, so it makes sense for us all to travel together, doesn’t it?’ He stopped suddenly, taking in her pale features. ‘Why, is there a problem?’
‘No, of course not,’ she lied through her teeth. How could she possibly voice her true thoughts with Connor beside her? ‘Why would there be?’
Craig put his head to one side as though he was trying to assess what was going through her mind. ‘You’re used to flying, aren’t you? Living on Islay, I dare say you would find it the best way to travel.’
The lift came to a halt before she had time to answer, and the doors opened out on to the roof space, so that a gust of fresh air met them. Rebecca looked out to see the brightly painted helicopter, ready and waiting on the helipad, its rotors turning.
She patted the blankets in place around Connor to make him snug, but after that she stayed rooted to the spot, so Craig took over the handling of the trolley bed and someone who introduced himself as the copilot came over to greet them.
‘I’ll give you a hand getting the patient on board,’ he told Craig, stopping for a moment to greet Connor. ‘We’ll soon have you tucked up cosy as you like.’
Connor nodded, and turned his head to look at Rebecca. ‘You’re coming, aren’t you, Becca? You said you would.’ His face was pale, and she realised that even this small excitement had been enough to tire him out.
‘Yes, I did. Of course I did.’ She ventured forward a few steps to g
ive him encouragement and then stood still. ‘I’ll just wait here for a moment while they get you on board.’
Craig came to find her when the child was settled inside the cabin. ‘Are you ready?’ he asked.
‘No, I don’t think so,’ she said. She looked at him. ‘I don’t do helicopter rides. I tried one once and told myself never again. You should have warned me. Someone should have told me.’
‘There’s nothing to it,’ he said. ‘Helicopters take off day in, day out. The sky is clear, and we’re all set to go. What could go wrong?’
‘You tell me,’ she said abruptly. ‘You were the one who said you had to stay over while your transport was fixed.’ She looked him in the eye. ‘That means there was a problem, right?’
His shoulders lifted in a negligent shrug. ‘It was nothing. Just a faint judder in the engine. But they’ve checked it out and everything’s fine.’
‘No, I don’t think it is. Everything is not fine, far from it. No one told me about this and I’m finding it hard to take in.’
‘You’ll only be up there for half an hour…an hour at the most,’ he said. He moved closer to her and placed an arm around her shoulders, drawing her against his chest. ‘I’ll sit with you and hold your hand if you like.’ He pulled an exaggeratedly fiendish face, halfway between a leer and a smile, and Rebecca balled her hand into a fist and thumped him lightly in the arm.
‘This is not funny. It’s not at all funny.’ She was battling with herself, trying to shake off the nerves that threatened to overwhelm her. At the same time she was trying not to think about the way it felt to have his arm draped about her, drawing her into the warmth and shelter of his body. She would not be enticed by the comfort of that embrace.
It was a sham, a pretence set up to fool her into complying with what he wanted her to do.
Like Angie had said of her ex-boyfriend, he was a ratfink. None of them were to be trusted.
CHAPTER THREE
‘YOU’LL be fine,’ Craig told Rebecca. ‘I promise you. Anyway,’ he added, ‘it’s a twin-engined aircraft, and it’s regularly maintained so that you can rely on it to give top performance and ensure your comfort at the same time. Honestly, there’s nothing at all for you to worry about.’