by Joanna Neil
Soft colour flushed her cheeks. ‘I doubt that will be necessary,’ she said. Her grey gaze slanted over him. Didn’t anything ever faze him? Here they were in a terrible situation, but it seemed as though he was taking it all in his stride.
She started to open the package that Tom had retrieved from the helicopter, taking out one of the insulated sheets and wrapping it around Connor, ensuring that he was warm, at least.
Craig was shaking out the rest of the sheets, wrapping one first of all around Harry then making sure that Tom was adequately covered with another.
Moving away from the two injured men, he went over to Rebecca and held out a silver foil sheet. ‘Your turn,’ he said.
He started to fold it around her, and she said lightly, ‘I can manage, thanks.’
‘OK.’ He looked at her oddly, and she wondered if he was taken aback by her need to do this for herself.
She said in a strained tone, ‘Do you think we could use the waterproof cover as a windshield?’
‘Yes, I imagine so, if I can find a way to rig it up. I’ll see what I can do.’
In the end, he bound a corner of the waterproof sheeting around one of the overhanging branches, stringing it up in front of the small group of people until the other end met up with a protruding piece of rock where he could fasten it in place. ‘That should hold for a while,’ he said.
Rebecca went to seat herself beside Connor. The child was asleep, and she was thankful for that. Harry and Tom looked as though they were shattered by the experience they had been through, and neither of them was speaking. Harry was leaning his head back as though it was all too much for him, and Tom had closed his eyes, trying to grab some rest while he could.
Rebecca shivered, but whether it was from thoughts of what had happened in the last hour or so or from the chill of waiting through the storm she couldn’t tell. Her fingers were cold and aching, and her lips were stiff with tension.
The events of the day were beginning to crowd in on her. Most of all she was fearful for Connor’s well-being, and she wasn’t sure how much longer he could go on without having access to the facilities of a well-equipped, modern hospital.
Craig came and sat beside her. ‘Actually, I do think it would be a good idea to huddle together for the sake of keeping warm. Tom and Harry are close enough together to keep the cold from one another, at least. We’ve no idea how long we are going to have to wait and the last thing we need is for any of us to suffer from hypothermia.’
He slid an arm around her. ‘Let me try to warm you.’ He smiled at her. ‘I’m being serious now. I just want to keep you from freezing to death.’
She nodded. ‘All right.’ She cautiously leaned into him, and he folded her against the wall of his chest. She said in a low voice, ‘Do you think the rescue services will find us tucked away back here?’
‘They will, I’m sure of it.’ He held her close, and she snuggled into him, thankful for the shelter he offered her in spite of her niggling doubts about cosying up to someone she had only met a couple of days ago. They had been through so much together already, so perhaps none of that mattered any more.
At least they were both shielding Connor from the wind that blew around the waterproof sheet, and Craig appeared to have enough warmth and strength for both of them. He wrapped both of his arms around her, keeping her tightly pressed against the bulwark of his body.
Slowly, the feeling started to creep back into her limbs, and she began to sense that things might after all turn out all right. Craig’s cheek was resting against her forehead, and that simple touch of human warmth spread inside her like a flame, heating her through and through until she began to feel that she was whole once more.
She almost didn’t want this closeness to come to an end. She was secure in his arms, safe from the clamour and heartbreak of the world outside, and for these few peaceful moments in time that was all she craved.
CHAPTER FIVE
THAT wonderful feeling of warmth and blissful closeness had somehow disappeared. Rebecca opened her eyes and blinked for a second or two, giving herself time to work out exactly what it was that had changed.
Gazing around her, she saw that she was still sitting in the shelter of the promontory. Tom and Harry were sleeping, or at least their eyes were closed. Connor was coughing, and that alarmed her until she realised that Craig was by the boy’s side. He had the medical kit open on the floor, and she noticed that he had laid out various pieces of medical equipment on a sterile sheet.
‘What are you doing?’ she said. Her voice came out in a husky mumble, and when she tried to move, her limbs were stiff from the cold.
‘I’m going to insert a thoracotomy tube into the pleural space so that we can drain away the fluid from his chest. The infection seems to be taking over, and I’m afraid that his lung will be affected if it gets any worse. I want to infiltrate the area with antibiotic solution and afterwards we can carry on with intravenous medication.’
He glanced at her, and she guessed he was trying to assess the state she was in. ‘I didn’t want to wake you up because you seemed so peaceful when you were asleep.’
‘I wasn’t really sleeping, was I? I wanted to stay alert for Connor.’ Dismayed, Rebecca looked over at the boy. The child’s face was flushed with fever and he looked very ill.
‘His coughing must have disturbed you, the same way that it did me. I doubt that you would have left him for long without going to check up on him.’
That was something, at least. She looked at the equipment he had laid out. ‘Are you quite sure that this is the place to be doing that? Shouldn’t we wait until we can get him to hospital?’
‘I don’t think we have any choice,’ Craig said, his tone blunt. ‘If I can get the tube in place, at least it will relieve the pressure and help him to breathe more easily. I’m aiming to keep conditions as sterile as I possibly can.’
‘I’ll help you,’ she said.
‘That’s not necessary.’
Rebecca frowned. She kneaded her fingers together to try to instill some warmth into them. ‘I’ll put on some surgical gloves. I’m not sure I could do the procedure myself with my hands being so cold. Are you absolutely sure that you can manage?’
His mouth made a crooked shape. ‘Don’t worry. I won’t do him any harm. I’ve done this procedure lots of times before, and I’ve anaesthetised the area, so he shouldn’t suffer in any way.’
‘I didn’t mean that. It’s just that I don’t know how it is that you’re able to rise above the conditions this way, when the rest of us are clearly feeling the effects of cold and shock.’
Was she weak, as he had implied earlier? She had always tried to be independent, and do her best to deal with everything that came across her path, but these last few hours had challenged her more than anything that had come before, and she was having to dig deep into her reserves of strength.
He, on the other hand, had been completely in control of the situation from the start, and nothing had daunted him. She couldn’t make him out. Was he really as tough as he appeared to be? Did nothing stop him in his tracks?
Craig was already making the incision between Connor’s ribs. She watched him insert the Kelly clamp and then feel for the pleural cavity. He pushed in the chest tube and then removed the clamp, advancing the tube a little further. Once he was satisfied that the tube had entered the cavity, he removed the trocar and clamped the outer end of the tube with the Kelly.
After a minute or so, when he had done everything that was necessary and had sutured and taped the tube in place, Rebecca handed him the suction unit so that he could allow drainage of the infected fluid.
‘I gave him an antibiotic injection some time ago. I don’t have my watch or my phone to rely on any more, so I’m guessing about the amount of time that has passed,’ she said. ‘I don’t know whether it would be too soon to give him another dose.’
‘I don’t suppose it has been all that long,’ Craig murmured. ‘It just feels like it
.’ He made a wry smile. ‘I know what you mean about the watch and the phone—I guess they were ruined when the plane ditched.’
‘Even yours?’ she asked. When she had looked at his wrist earlier that day, she had noted that he was wearing what had looked like a very expensive, designer watch, but now it appeared to be missing.
‘Even mine. It was smashed when we landed, and my phone ended up underwater.’
‘I’m sorry. Does that mean you were hurt? Shall I take a look at your wrist?’ She started to move closer to him.
He shook his head. ‘No, it’s fine.’ He sent her a glance as though to curb any attempt that she might make to help him, and she cautiously backed off. He obviously didn’t want her checking him out. Perhaps he had some misguided idea that any kind of injury would make him less of a man.
‘Listen. I can hear something,’ Tom said, coming out of his drowsy state. ‘Is that a rescue boat? Is it coming our way?’
Craig got to his feet and went to push back the waterproof sheet. He looked out over the horizon. ‘I think it probably is. It’s some distance away, but it seems to be heading in our direction. I’ll go and signal to them, just in case.’
Rebecca stayed with Connor, making sure that he wasn’t showing any ill-effects after the procedure. He seemed to be calm enough, and the chest drain was working, so that even without X-rays it looked as though Craig had placed the tube in the correct position.
She got to her feet. ‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ she told the boy, laying a hand lightly on his shoulder.
She went to join Craig, looking out across the water to where a vessel was making swift progress. ‘It’s the lifeboat, then?’ she said.
‘It looks that way.’
A quick tide of relief ran through her. ‘I’d almost expected an ambulance to arrive here first, but I suppose we’re a bit far off the beaten track. There isn’t a road nearby, as far as I can see.’
‘I expect that’s why Harry aimed for this part of the shore as best he could. He would have wanted to minimise any casualties.’
‘So what will happen now?’
‘They’ll probably take us to the nearest port, and there should be an ambulance waiting for us to transport us from there to the hospital.’ He sent her an oblique glance, his gaze running over her pale features. ‘You don’t look too happy about that. I would have thought you’d be ecstatic.’
‘I am—at least, I am for all of you.’
‘But? There is a but, isn’t there?’
Rebecca shifted in discomfort. ‘Like I said, I have this horrible feeling that wherever I go, disaster follows. You said lightning didn’t strike twice but obviously it did, and all I can think is that I was the one common factor.’
His eyes glimmered with amusement. ‘You’re not serious? You can’t possibly believe that, can you?’
She clamped her lips together, not answering, and he put his arm around her, holding her tightly against him. ‘The cold has obviously addled your brain,’ he said, giving her a squeeze. ‘Don’t you realise that you’re actually our guardian angel in the flesh? Think what might have happened if you hadn’t been there to save us.’
She looked at him, her mouth turning down a little at the corners. He was making fun of her, and she couldn’t really blame him, could she? He was right, it must be that the chill air was getting to her.
‘Perhaps you’ve stumbled across your role in life,’ he murmured. ‘You’re here to keep us all from harm.’ He looked her over as though he was impressed by what he saw. ‘A guardian angel…you know, that is really something special. I can’t believe my luck in finding you. I always imagined that my saviour would be an ethereal figure dressed in a white gossamer dress, and here you are with flyaway, windswept hair, all done up in a silver foil blanket. Is that what all the best-dressed angels are wearing these days?’
Rebecca couldn’t suppress a chuckle. ‘Stop teasing me,’ she said. ‘It isn’t fair.’ Besides, she couldn’t think straight while he had his arm around her. Her nervous system was already in chaos, and his nearness and his overriding masculinity was playing havoc with her senses.
She looked out over the water once more. ‘Perhaps we ought to start getting the equipment together. The sooner we get loaded up, the quicker Connor will be able to receive the treatment he needs in hospital…Tom and Harry, too.’
The lifeboat came to a halt further along the riverbank, and she guessed that the water was deeper back there. Two men disembarked and started towards them, and she saw that they were loaded down with medical bags and equipment.
The first one to reach them checked that everyone was accounted for. ‘Is there anyone still in the water?’ he asked.
‘No, we’re all here,’ Craig told him, ‘but we have some casualties.’
‘What exactly are we dealing with?’ The second man stepped forward, and Rebecca saw that he was wearing a paramedic’s jacket.
‘The boy is in a bad way, and the copilot has a few fractured ribs. The pilot has a head injury that needs to be checked out as soon as we get to hospital.’ Craig frowned. ‘He’s not looking too good just now.’
‘That’s OK. We’ll take it from here. Let’s get you all safely on board.’ The chief lifeboat man started to direct operations, and within minutes Connor was being transported aboard the vessel.
As Craig had pointed out, Harry appeared to be disorientated, and Rebecca winced. That was not a good sign.
‘He’ll need to have a CT scan as soon as we get to the hospital,’ she told the paramedic once they were all on board the lifeboat and on their way. They were seated inside the cabin of the vessel, protected from the harsh wind outside, and the lifeboat was skimming through the water, heading for the mainland. ‘And Connor will have to be watched closely for signs of increasing infection.’
‘It’ll all be taken care of,’ the paramedic told her. ‘You shouldn’t be worrying about any of this, you know. You’re a patient yourself until we’ve had you checked over at the hospital and you get the all-clear.’
‘But I’m OK. There’s nothing wrong with me.’
‘Apart from a mild case of hypothermia and post-traumatic shock,’ Craig interjected with a wry smile. ‘Do as you’re told and sit back and relax for a while. You’ve had enough excitement for one day.’
She narrowed her gaze on him. ‘And I suppose you haven’t been through the same ordeal? I don’t know how you manage to stay so calm. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who had such a jaunty attitude to life. We’ve just been through a terrible experience, and you look as though none of it has touched you. How is it that you’ve come to be that way?’
‘Of course it has touched me.’ Craig stretched his long legs out in front of him. ‘I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t feel that we’ve had a narrow escape, but I have to look at it from another angle. Bad things happen, but we came through this one and so long as I’m here and I’m fit and healthy, I’ll accept that and move on.’
The main paramedic who had introduced himself as Josh handed out cups of hot coffee to Rebecca and Craig. ‘Drink these,’ he said. ‘It’ll help to warm you up.’
‘Thanks.’ Rebecca accepted the drink and sipped cautiously at the hot liquid. ‘This is so good.’
Josh smiled. ‘We’ll soon have you feeling on top form once more.’
She looked up at him. ‘Do you know whether Connor’s parents have any idea what happened to him? I don’t know whether news of the accident has filtered back to anyone except the rescue services.’
‘I believe the chief radioed back to Base as soon as we found that you were safe, so if they were worrying, at least they will know that he’s unharmed. News of the accident was passed on to the rescue services as soon as the Mayday call came in, and shortly after that it would have gone out on the regional news bulletin. If anyone knew who was on the flight, it’s possible that they will be calling in for information.’
‘Thanks for that, Josh. At least it’s good to know that hi
s parents won’t be worrying for too long.’
Josh acknowledged that with a nod, and said, ‘I’m going to check up on the others. I take it that you’ll both be all right for a while?’
‘Yes, we’ll be fine. Will you let me know if there are any problems?’
‘Of course.’
Tom, Harry and Connor were at the far end of the cabin, being attended to by a nurse, with one of the lifeboat crew acting as an assistant. They were ensuring that the child’s condition was being monitored, while Tom and Harry were being given top-up painkilling medication.
Rebecca sent a glance in Craig’s direction. ‘Is there someone who might be worried about you?’ she asked as Josh left them. ‘Your parents maybe, or a girlfriend? It can’t be good to hear about a helicopter crash through a news bulletin.’
He gave a negligent shrug. ‘I doubt that my parents will have any idea that I was on a helicopter coming from Northumberland. Mostly I keep to the Argyll area of Scotland, but this last trip was an out-of-the-ordinary mission to bring a patient in for specialist treatment. My brother is probably too busy working his farm to take much note of what I’m doing in between family visits.’
He swallowed his coffee and then studied her momentarily. ‘Would your aunt have been expecting you to arrive home before this?’
Rebecca was thoughtful. ‘I don’t think so. She knows that I was making arrangements to come and see her, and I tried to phone earlier to say that I was on my way, but I couldn’t reach her. I left a message on the answering machine, but she might have gone out for the day. I know her neighbour takes her out and about sometimes.’
It didn’t escape her that he hadn’t said anything about a girlfriend waiting for him, but that might be because she was out at work and wouldn’t be unduly worried about his whereabouts. There had to be a woman in his life, didn’t there? No one could be that masculine and full of energy and be celibate, could they?
‘And your parents?’
The question startled her, bringing her back to the present moment. She had been deep in thought just then, and heat filled her at the notion that he might have been able to tell what she had been thinking about. Heaven forbid that he should do that.