by Joanna Neil
‘I’ve heard all that before,’ Rebecca muttered. ‘Besides, you sound like an advertisement for the helicopter company. I’ll have you know that the last time I flew in one of those contraptions the machine developed a tail rotor failure and the pilot had to make a difficult landing. It was scary, to say the least. Believe me, it isn’t something I’d like to go through again.’
Even now, some years later, she could recall the way the passengers had been thrown about from side to side as the pilot had tried to keep control of the machine. They had been strapped securely in their seats, but she’d borne the bruises from the restraints across her chest for some time afterwards. That was the least of her worries, though. It was the thought of what might have been that bothered her most.
Craig put on a serious expression. ‘I can see how you wouldn’t want to do that, but nothing bad is going to happen, is it? Lightning doesn’t strike twice, and anyway, when all’s said and done, the pilot landed you safely last time, didn’t he? They’re trained to cope in all sorts of circumstances. Believe me, you have nothing to worry about.’
Her gaze narrowed on him. He would say that, wouldn’t he? He was as exuberant and fired up as though there was nothing more to it than climbing on a bus. Nothing seemed to jar his confidence, whereas she was still fighting with herself, trying to come to terms with this new shock to her system.
‘You can’t possibly understand,’ she said. ‘You have absolutely no idea how I feel about this.’
He shrugged. ‘Maybe not,’ he said, ‘but I do know that life is for living and sometimes you have to take chances, otherwise you would do nothing but sit and quiver in a corner and wonder about what might have been.’
Rebecca scowled. He probably thought she was a complete wimp, but what did he know of how she had struggled to come to terms with what had happened before?
In the end, though, what choice did she have in this situation? Connor was relying on her to stay with him throughout this journey, and she couldn’t let him down, could she? He was just a young boy who was sick and dependent on her. He had already been through more in his young life than any child should suffer. How would she live with herself if she went back on her word?
With that solely in mind, she straightened her shoulders and began to walk towards the helicopter, well aware that Craig was staying close by her side the whole time. Perhaps he was afraid that she would change her mind and decide to turn back.
Once inside the helicopter, Rebecca tried to put aside her fears and busied herself by going to check on Connor. She took no notice at all of what Craig might be doing.
‘How are you bearing up?’ she asked the child as she made sure that his safety harness was fixed securely in position.
‘I’m OK.’ The boy mumbled, already half-asleep, and for a few moments afterwards his breathing appeared to be slightly laboured. He looked as though he was exhausted.
She checked the portable monitors. His heart rate had increased and there was a slight flush to his cheeks, but perhaps both of those things were only to be expected, given the nature of the journey ahead. His temperature was slightly raised, but there was nothing that she could see that would give her cause for concern.
‘You should make sure that you’re strapped in,’ the copilot advised her, ‘and then we can be on our way.’
She nodded, acknowledging him and the pilot, a man in his late thirties, who gave a brief wave of his hand before turning back to check his instrument panel. Rebecca looked around at the seating area and then chose a position where she would easily be able to attend to Connor throughout the flight.
In the meantime, Craig slipped a headset in place over the boy’s ears and then went to find his own seat nearby. He fastened his safety harness and checked that she had done the same.
‘Put on your headset,’ he told her. ‘It will be easier for us to talk to one another that way.’ He indicated a switch that enabled two-way communication, and she nodded to show that she understood.
‘He seems to be coping fairly well so far,’ he said, giving a slight nod towards Connor. ‘With any luck we’ll have him settled in the hospital back home before too long. I gather his parents are on the mend and waiting to see him?’
‘That’s right. They’ve been keeping in touch, of course, by phone. I rang the hospital this morning, and the staff nurse said that both of them were doing reasonably well. His father’s had an operation to fix his damaged knee, and Connor’s mother is up and about now, although she’s having to rely on crutches.’
‘That’s good. I expect it will have cheered Connor up to know that his parents are doing all right.’
Rebecca nodded, but her concentration began to waver as the pilot put the helicopter in motion, and she felt the pull of being lifted up into the air. A huge knot started to form in her stomach. For a moment or two she felt nauseous, and after a while she realised that she was gripping the arm of her seat so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.
She tried breathing in deeply for a while, but it didn’t seem to be having much of an effect. Pulling a tissue from her pocket, she dabbed at the clammy beads of perspiration that had started to form on her brow.
‘We’ll be going over Kielder Water very soon,’ Craig said. ‘You can already see the moorland and the pine forests coming into view. Keep watching and you’ll see that there’s a lovely hotel just beyond the lake. It’ll come into view any minute now. It’s a great starting point from there to explore the Chevin Hills and the woodland all around.’
Rebecca was trying to listen to what he was saying, but her heart was thumping in an erratic fashion, and she was finding it difficult to stay in control of herself. She had to get a grip on her emotions, because she was there first and foremost to watch over her patient, and what use would she be to him if she let her nerves get the better of her?
‘Take a look out of the window,’ Craig urged. He leaned across her, his chest brushing her arm as he moved to show her the view. ‘See, over there,’ he murmured. ‘There’s a beautiful log cabin, nestled among the silver birch trees. I’ve stayed there, it’s fabulous. There’s a veranda, where you can sit on a hammock and watch the sun sink below the horizon.’
He glanced down at her, a glimmer of teasing invitation in his eyes. ‘You should try it some time. There can’t be anything more satisfying than to simply laze away a summer’s evening with nothing more to do than snack on good food and sip cocktails.’
It might well be a pleasant prospect, but Rebecca was in no state to take in his advice. In fact, she was doing her utmost to try to ignore the way his arm almost wrapped itself around her as he pointed out the distant hills. It set off alarm bells in her head, and her heart, still pounding from the anxiety of take-off, increased its beat to a staccato, heavy thud.
Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to think about that log cabin for a while. At the least it might help to calm her down. The very image of a log cabin conjured up woodland scenes, fishing by the lake and long walks in the countryside.
Who had joined him on those walks? Of course, she didn’t imagine for a moment that he would have been there alone. Her brow furrowed. And why should that thought bother her, anyway? She hardly knew the man, and yet even now when she was at her most vulnerable state he had managed to permeate her consciousness and stir her curiosity.
Her mouth made a wry twist. ‘Chance would be a fine thing,’ she said, ‘but I imagine you must have an affinity for that kind of leisure activity.’
Keyed up as she was, she regretted the words almost as soon as she had said them. After all, he might have come across as a kind of happy-go-lucky vagrant initially, but in reality he was nothing of the sort. It was only her heightened sense of apprehension that was making her so crabby and ill mannered.
He laughed. ‘Don’t we all?’ He sent her a fleeting glance. ‘Be honest, would you still be doing this job if you could swap places with a millionaire playboy?’
‘Probably,’ she said, her to
ne short. ‘There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that you’re saving lives and helping people to recover from unfortunate events, don’t you think?’
He gave a noncommittal shrug, as though he might be sceptical about that, and she frowned. Was he really as indifferent as he appeared? All her life she had wanted to be a doctor, to be able to take care of people in their hour of need. No matter what setbacks and dilemmas she had come up against in her career, none of that had ever changed.
She looked over to where Connor lay, casting a sweeping glance over the monitors. The child’s breathing was becoming more laboured and his oxygen level was gradually falling.
She unhooked the oxygen equipment from its mounting and, raising him lightly, showed Connor the breathing mask. ‘This will help to ease your chest,’ she told the boy. ‘I’m just going to place it over your nose. Try breathing in as deeply as you can.’
Connor did as she suggested, and after a while Rebecca began to relax a little as his oxygen level began to rise slightly.
Satisfied that she had done everything she could for the moment, she settled back in her seat. Or rather she tried to settle. There was no escaping the fact that they were still hurtling through the air, the rotors whirring above them, and far below her the landscape stretched out for miles around in all directions.
‘We’re heading towards the southern uplands,’ Craig said. ‘If you look closely, you might be able to see eagles nesting on the high crags.’ He pointed over to her left. ‘Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of one of them soaring through the sky.’
Rebecca gave a small shudder. ‘I think I prefer not to do that,’ she said. It would mean she had to look out over that broad sweep of land so far below. ‘I don’t believe my stomach could take it.’
Despite her words, though, she couldn’t help but let her gaze follow where he pointed, and what she saw was stunning. There were rolling hills and deep valleys, broken by occasional outcrops of rock, and as the helicopter began to veer to the left, heading in a north-westerly direction, the sight of the shimmering lochs took her breath away. It was beautiful, but when she looked more carefully, she could see that the water glistened and churned restlessly, whipped up by blustery air currents that eddied all around.
Rebecca frowned. When had the wind suddenly started up? When they had started out the sky had been relatively clear, helping to ease away some of the doubts she had about taking this flight. Now, though, things weren’t looking quite so calm. There were clouds up ahead, and the sky was turning grey.
‘Are those stormclouds gathering?’ she asked in a low voice. She was almost thinking aloud, but Craig had picked up her words through his headset.
‘It’s just a bit of bad weather coming our way.’ He confirmed her uneasy thoughts, but didn’t seem at all bothered by the change in the weather. ‘I expect the pilot will try to go around it. That’s probably why we’re heading toward the coast.’
He hadn’t eased back from her at all, and for the most part he appeared to be intent on watching the landscape beneath them. Rebecca tried to focus her attention on the unfolding scene. It was either that or take note of the way his body was leaning against hers, and that would have been far too distracting for her peace of mind. He was so close to her that she felt the warmth emanating from his skin, and she could almost imagine how it might be if he was to lay his cheek against hers. Just the thought of that happening was enough to send her body into sizzling reaction.
‘Perhaps you should give me a little space,’ she murmured after a while. ‘I need to take a look at Connor. I’ve a feeling his chest is giving him trouble.’
Craig moved back in an instant, and suddenly Rebecca found herself missing that close contact. She sent him a surreptitious glance, and found that he was watching her closely, a quizzical expression playing about his lips.
That expression made her pause and question what was going on. Had all his actions been quite deliberate from the outset? The thought struck her as she turned to survey the monitors. Every moment that she had battled with the feeling his nearness stirred up in her had been one less moment in time when she might have worried about the hazards of the flight.
Connor stirred, drawing her attention to him. ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked softly.
The boy didn’t answer. His eyes were open but his breathing was shallow and fast and she realised that his condition was beginning to deteriorate. ‘Is it your chest that’s bothering you?’ she asked.
He nodded, and tried to say something, but she forestalled him. ‘It’s all right. I understand. I think you may have some fluid on your lungs that is causing you to have some problems with your breathing. I’m going to give you some medicine that should help to clear up any infection that might be starting up. It’ll take just a little while to work, but you should start to feel more comfortable before too long.’
There was too much turbulence for her to safely prepare an injection, so she relied on giving him the antibiotic, together with a painkiller and sedative, by mouth. Just as she was getting him to sip it down, she heard the pilot say, ‘We’ve run into squally conditions, so you all need to prepare yourselves for a bit of a bumpy ride.’
Connor looked alarmed, and despite her own inner qualms she patted his hand and said, ‘It’s all right, sweetheart. There’s nothing to worry about. It’ll be a bit like a fairground ride. I don’t suppose it will last for all that long, though, because we can’t be too far away from home now. I expect your mum and dad are waiting impatiently. They must be looking forward to seeing you again.’
A faint smile crossed his mouth. ‘Yes,’ he managed on a breathy sigh.
Rebecca watched him close his eyes, and then she sent a swift glance in Craig’s direction. He had gathered up a kit box, placing it in close proximity to his seat, and he was checking out the positioning of the medical equipment about the cabin.
For a moment she wondered if he might be planning ahead in case some kind of emergency developed with their small patient.
Then the helicopter made a sideways dive and the pilot had to manhandle the controls to bring it back on a level. The copilot was focusing his gaze on the instrument panel, and when she looked back at Craig she saw that he was turning his attention to the doors.
The pilot had called Flight Control. His voice was calm. ‘I’m attempting to fly around the storm,’ he said. ‘The wind is increasing, and there are thunderclouds up ahead. I’m having trouble maintaining height and speed.’
The helicopter lurched once again, throwing them to one side, and Rebecca pulled in a quick breath. Craig’s glance meshed with hers. ‘How is the boy doing?’ he asked.
‘He’s not too good right now. I think there must be some kind of infection building up in the pleural cavity,’ she said. ‘It’s making it painful for him to breathe, so I’ve giving him a painkiller along with a strong antibiotic. I added a small dose of sedative, too, so I’m hoping he’ll fall asleep again.’
Craig looked at Connor and nodded. ‘It looks as though he might do that fairly soon.’
Rebecca lifted her medical bag and began to cram into it all the extra supplies she could reach from the helicopter’s storage bay without having to leave her seat. Her heart was thudding with apprehension from the wild, bucking movements that the helicopter was making when all of a sudden the machine appeared to go into a dive and then recovered as the pilot battled to keep them on course. ‘Is there any way we can safeguard the stretcher?’ she asked.
‘How do you mean?’ Craig studied her thoughtfully, and she responded with a tight stare.
‘I mean, is there any sort of flotation device that we can use to protect him in case we have to make an unscheduled landing?’ she said. ‘I can see perfectly well what’s happening. I’m not a fool, and I’ve been here before, remember? Not in this place, but in this sort of situation.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I know why we’re heading towards the coast. I knew all along that it was a mistake to believe
you when you said that lightning doesn’t strike twice.’
‘There’s a good chance that we’ll be able to get around this,’ he murmured, ‘but you’re right, it would be a good idea to get into lifejackets. Just as a precaution, you understand?’
Rebecca gritted her teeth. ‘Like I said, I understand the situation precisely.’ She should never have allowed him to override her better judgement, should she? Right from the start she ought to have found some way of ensuring that Connor was transferred to the hospital by road as had originally been planned.
The copilot was obviously thinking along the same lines as them, because he turned and signalled that they should retrieve the lifejackets from the storage compartment.
‘What about the stretcher? Is there something we can do to make it safe?’
‘I’ll have a look.’ The copilot was out of his seat by now, wrestling with the latch of a locked compartment built into the wall of the cabin while he braved the erratic movements of the helicopter.
Craig unclipped his seat belt. ‘I’ll give you a hand, Tom.’ The man nodded, and together the two men struggled to slide a protective covering around the child’s stretcher. ‘I think that’s about the best we can do for now,’ Tom murmured.
‘You should get yourselves strapped in,’ the pilot called out in an urgent tone. ‘The storm is getting worse and I’m having trouble with the controls. They’re not responding. Tom, I need you to come and give me a hand.’
‘Will do.’ Tom battled against the heaving motion of the helicopter, gaining handholds where he could as he made his way back to the controls. Rebecca watched anxiously as Craig stumbled towards his seat.
‘Hurry,’ she said. ‘Fasten your safety belt.’
He slid into position beside her and she managed a small sigh of relief as he clamped the belt in place.
‘There’s no way I’m going to be able to keep this machine in the air,’ the pilot said. ‘We’re coming up to the mouth of the river, and I’m going to have to try to ditch the plane. Get ready to assume crash positions—we’ll be making a nosedive, but I’ll do my best to pull us up. The procedure is similar to how you would react in a fixed-wing aircraft—put your feet firmly on the floor, either directly in line with your knees or slightly forward. Bend forward at the waist and brace yourselves for impact.’