by Kim Lawrence
His jaw tightened. ‘No.’
‘Ah, well,’ she sighed. ‘It’s over now.’
Maybe it was a blessing that she actually believed that; he doubted she could cope with the truth. The question was, could he? ‘Come on,’ he heard himself say.
She blinked. ‘Where?’
‘Where did you plan to run away to with Chloe?’
‘The beach...the one past the Roman dig. We were going swimming.’
‘OK.’
She blinked. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean,’ he said, ‘that I will take you to join Chloe.’ He spread his hands wide as she continued to look at him with suspicion. ‘No catch.’ Without waiting to see if she followed him, he headed for the row of garages where his brother kept his cars. The doors were open and he approached the first one.
He pulled the dust cover off a sporty two-seater. ‘It’s Luis’s,’ he said without turning. He had heard the sound of her heels on the cobbles behind him. ‘He never locks it.’ Sebastian had no compunction about taking it. Luis had gifted him his life and his bride, not that she realised it yet, so he supposed the car was his too.
As she followed Sebastian the irresponsibility of this course of action was beginning to hit home. Running away achieved nothing.
He turned and arched a brow. ‘You coming?’
She rocked back a little on her spiky heels as they sank into the gravel. ‘I should really go back.’
He didn’t proffer an opinion, just stood there looking at her. She took a deep breath and made a choice of the middle ground. ‘All right, we’ll go and find Chloe and then come back.’
The engine purred into life while she was still manoeuvring herself into the low seat and she released a small squeal as it sped off as she closed the door.
Avoiding the chaos that it seemed safe to assume surrounded the main entrances to the palace, Sebastian drove through the unguarded stable entrance, past the neatly fenced paddocks, empty today while the staff were attending the celebrations.
Sabrina stayed silent until they reached the hairpin bends that surrounded this part of the island’s coast. ‘Luis said something in his letter.’
His blue eyes flickered briefly her way.
‘Is it true? The King isn’t his father?’
‘Does it matter now?’ He dismissed the question with a curt flick of his head. ‘And Luis was an idiot for telling you and...telling anyone,’ he condemned.
She was bemused by his attitude. She had seen with her own eyes how his father behaved towards him and she could imagine what effect the headlines about his mother’s affair and the rumours of his birth had had on the life of a boy at public school.
‘But people said things about you, wrote things. You could have told them the truth.’
‘I have a thick skin and I totally believe the old adage what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It doesn’t bother me what people say, or think. They will always find something to write. It would have been harder for Luis.’
She shook her head and wondered if he had told himself that so many times he actually believed it.
‘What’s happening?’ she asked, sliding down in her seat, feeling conspicuous in her white wedding dress as the car slowed to a crawl. Before Sebastian responded to the question they came to a complete standstill.
‘I’m not sure,’ Sebastian admitted, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel before he opened the window and leaned out. That was when he smelt the smoke...acrid and unmistakable.
‘Wait there.’
She craned her neck as Sebastian, with long-legged ease, exited the car and approached one of the several people who had already left their cars. Some were pointing, and then she saw the plumes of smoke rising from behind the hill ahead. Sabrina’s stomach muscles quivered as she clambered out and, skirt in hand, ran towards Sebastian, oblivious to the stares her outfit was attracting.
Sebastian stopped, suggesting to drivers they pull their cars as far to the side of the road as possible to give access to rescue vehicles, and turned to her. ‘I said to wait inside the car.’
She ignored the statement. ‘What’s happening? Do you think Chloe...?’
He laid both hands on her shoulders; the heavy contact was somehow comforting. ‘There is nothing to be gained from jumping to conclusions. I’m just going to go find out what’s happening. You wait here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
Several other drivers were already jogging down the road but Sebastian hit the ground running, passing them all in moments.
It didn’t cross her mind to obey his instructions, but by the time she had rounded the bend ahead and the scene of devastation several hundred yards on was revealed there was no sign of him among the wreckage.
Was Chloe in that?
Battered by fear, her heart thudding, the sound of distant sirens in her ears, Sabrina ran on past a large tanker that was slewed across the road, totally blocking it both ways. She stopped and looked around. It was like some sort of war scene you saw on the TV. Some of the people from the concertina of cars either side of the tanker that were lining the road were standing in the road looking dazed and some were stretched out on the floor. Underfoot was the crunch of broken glass, everything grey in the pall of smoke that made her throat ache and eyes sting.
One distant car was already on fire, sending plumes of orange into the air, increasing the stench of smoke and fuel. If the fire reached the tanker... She pushed away the tendrils of panic and tried to think as, icy cold inside, she ran on past the groaning, blood-spattered victims.
The air left her lungs in one long hissing sigh of relief when she spotted Sebastian; even at fifty feet his tall, commanding figure was easy to spot. It was a couple of seconds later before she saw that he was carrying a figure. She had barely registered the green dress when there was a loud explosion, strong enough to knock one of the men standing close to Sebastian off his feet.
Sebastian swayed but managed to keep on his feet, not really registering the pain of the metal shard that sliced through his cheek. It wasn’t until he pushed himself forward that he saw the spark. Before he could brush it away it ignited Chloe’s dress.
He dropped her down on the ground and tore off his jacket, smothering the flames before they took hold. Another man joined him until the fire was extinguished.
Chloe opened her eyes and looked up. ‘Wow, you look awful...is that smell me? Mum is going to be furious about the dress.’
‘It’s OK. You’re OK,’ he said, hoping that it was the truth but in reality he didn’t have a clue.
‘Sebastian!’
The sound was almost drowned out by the whirr of helicopter blades above their heads.
Sebastian turned his head towards the cry and saw her running, stumbling, dodging the obstacles in her path. Sabrina was yelling something but he couldn’t make out the words above the helicopter and roar in his ears.
He got to his feet and swayed; he could make out Sabrina’s face now. See her mouth move, but the words and sounds of sobs and everything else were drowned out by the shrill whine of sirens as a fleet of ambulances and fire engines arrived on the scene en masse.
That was the last thing he heard before the ground came up quite quickly to meet him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LATER THE SEQUENCE remained blurred in her mind. She remembered seeing Sebastian, then the blood that covered half his face, and she watched him fall, and then in her head it happened again and again until finally she got his name out.
‘Sebastian!’ Her cry sounded that way in her head but came out as a croak as she began to stumble past the debris that littered the area, her progress frustratingly slow across to where he lay—where he lay very still.
Heart drumming, dread like an icy hand around her heart, she knelt down to where he was lying face
down, his head turned away from her. One arm was curved above his head, the other trapped under him.
He groaned and she felt a rush of relief that made her sob. ‘You’re alive. Oh, God, don’t die, don’t die...please, Sebastian! Help, someone, please, he’s...’
A wave of horror rolled over her; the extent of the destruction was too much for her to take in...too much... It was like the set of a disaster movie’s big scene only it wasn’t a movie—it was real.
On her knees she moved towards where her sister lay a few feet away, her eyes closed. Nobody had heard her cry for help, they were busy crying, wailing, bleeding or dying, but she tried again.
‘Help!’
Her throat was raw by the time someone heeded her cry.
A man with a torn shirt, his face smoke-blackened, appeared.
He dropped down beside Sabrina and felt her pulse. She shook away his hand—couldn’t he see she was fine?
‘You’re going to be OK.’
‘My sister... Sebastian...’ She touched her sister’s hair and nodded to where Sebastian lay close by.
She watched, her fingers on Chloe’s comfortingly strong pulse, as the Good Samaritan began to turn Sebastian over. He was halfway through the procedure before she realised what even someone with a scrap of first aid knew—and she was a doctor.
She was a doctor!
She left Chloe and grabbed the man’s arm. ‘No, don’t! He might have a spinal injury. He needs to be—’
The man stopped, not in response to Sabrina’s urgent plea but at the terrible groan that issued from Sebastian.
The sound cut through Sabrina like glass. ‘You’re hurting him!’ she wailed.
His hand fell away. ‘Sorry. I was only trying to help.’
They both turned as Sebastian completed the manoeuvre himself before sliding back into unconsciousness.
The man beside her swore as he stared at Sebastian’s face. ‘That’s a mess.’
Sabrina clenched her fists and hissed a fiercely protective denial. ‘He’s fine...oh, your poor face.’ She lifted a shaking hand and, on her knees in the dirt, touched the side of his face that wasn’t shredded and bleeding and stroked the dark hair back from his brow.
The man moved away.
‘Hey, he’s the guy who got the girl from the cliff.’
Two men walking past supporting a staggering woman between them stopped and looked down at Sabrina and Sebastian.
‘Hold on, they’ll be with you soon...’
‘I’m fine, but they—’ She stopped, her voice cracking with fear.
The man nearest nodded and raised his voice and yelled, ‘One over here, one for triage, severe facial lacs, blood loss, head injury!’
‘Brina!’
‘Chloe.’ Before Sabrina could react to her sister’s hoarse whisper two jumpsuit-clad figures reached them. She shuffled out of the way, watching as they examined her sister, inserted a venous line before lifting her onto a stretcher.
When Chloe saw Sabrina she struggled to pull the oxygen mask off her face.
Sabrina covered her sister’s hand with her own. ‘No, leave it.’ Chloe’s eyes closed. ‘She’s my sister,’ she explained to the two paramedics as she ran along beside them.
‘We’ll look after her,’ one said. ‘She’s being airlifted.’
She walked back to where Sebastian lay and stood there watching as her sister was stretchered away to the waiting helicopter. The explosion was deafening.
Sabrina reacted on instinct, throwing herself over Sebastian. She had no idea how long she lay there; her ears were still ringing when two paramedics pulled her off.
One began to examine Sebastian, the other shone a torch in Sabrina’s eyes. She pushed his hand away. ‘Can you walk?’ She nodded.
‘Great.’ He draped a foil blanket over her shoulders and shouted out, ‘A walking wounded over here, guys.’
She lifted her chin. ‘No, I’m not leaving him.’ She’d let them take Chloe away but enough, she decided, was enough. ‘I’m staying with him.’
The tired-looking paramedic sounded irritated by her attitude. ‘Look, there are people here who actually do need my help and—’
The young woman crouched beside Sebastian, adjusting the line she had just put in his arm, looked up. ‘Have a heart, man, can’t you see that they just got married?’ She indicated Sabrina’s torn and dirty wedding dress.
‘This is your wedding day?’
‘It was meant to be,’ she answered truthfully, thinking that it seemed like a lifetime ago since she had put on her wedding dress.
He swore in sympathy and looked down at his colleague, who was still kneeling beside Sebastian. ‘That one ready to move?’
She nodded. ‘He’s stable, and sats are up to ninety-five...tough guy.’
The man with Sabrina took her arm. ‘You can go with him.’
‘Thank you,’ Sabrina said. Her gratitude even greater when, on the way to the hospital in the back of the ambulance, Sebastian regained consciousness twice and each time it was the sound of her voice that stopped him fighting to free himself from the safety restraints before they had a chance to administer sedation.
Sabrina had not expected their anonymity to last. Admittedly her face, even without the walking-wounded look, was less well known but it seemed inevitable that someone would at some point make the connection between the anonymous injured figure who lay, his famous features swathed in bandages, on the stretcher and their Prince.
But so far no one had and, as it was hard to imagine that their treatment could have been better if the hospital staff had realised they were treating their Prince, it hadn’t seemed a priority to explain or correct the myth that they were a newly married couple, which had obviously followed them to the casualty department. While she waited to be seen herself, she was kept up to date with Sebastian’s progress. Sabrina knew she would not have been told the results of his CT or any of the other tests if they had known the truth.
As someone who was not his wife or family she would have been told nothing, so she silenced the twangs of conscience, and took comfort from the technicality that she hadn’t lied—yet. Unless staying silent could be counted as lying. Should she reveal that under the dirt, blood and injuries the man they were treating was their Prince?
People were kind even rushed off their feet. The staff she asked took time to try and find details about Chloe for her, though on each occasion they had not been able to locate her sister in the system, but then the system had to be at breaking point.
The island boasted some pretty impressive medical facilities, but a major disaster had stretched their resources to the limit.
It remained frustrating that nobody seemed to be able to tell her where her sister was, but her own injuries were minor. She hadn’t even known she had any, but the blood seeping from the head wound had caught the attention of a passing nurse. It needed stitching and they insisted on keeping her in overnight.
‘I hope you don’t mind sharing,’ the nurse said as she manoeuvred Sabrina’s bed into place beside the occupied one in the room obviously only ever intended to hold one bed.
‘Of course not.’
The nurse smiled. ‘Not really the way you intended to spend your honeymoon, but we thought...’
Sabrina’s eyes flew to the person lying in the bed next to hers.
It was Sebastian, looking much better than when she had last seen him despite the livid bruises visible around the dressing that covered the wound on his face. His hands above the sheet were swathed in bandages too.
‘Is he in pain?’ she whispered, knowing full well they would have pumped him up with painkillers but needing the reassurance of hearing someone say it.
‘No, he’s dosed up to the eyeballs so he might be a bit groggy when he wakes up,�
� the nurse warned. ‘The drip is just giving him fluids,’ she went on to explain.
Sabrina nodded, glancing at the label on the bag.
The nurse gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. ‘He was lucky really. The surgeon who repaired your husband’s face is one of the best plastic surgeons there is—not that we don’t have good doctors here, but Mr Clare is the man. And he was only on the island for the royal wedding, apparently. I wonder how that went. Anyhow, he just turned up here and offered to help out after he heard about what had happened.
‘I just thought you should know that your husband had the very best care. I’m sure a doctor will be along to fill you in later but, as you can imagine, we are a bit stretched.’
‘Thank you. His hands...?’
‘Superficial.’
Her lowering of tension was fleeting as she asked a moment later, ‘My sister, Chloe, did anyone...?’
Sabrina read bad news in the girl’s hesitation so she was prepared as much as she could be for bad news when it came.
‘That would be Lady Chloe Summerville?’
Sabrina nodded.
The girl’s eyes widened. ‘So you’re...?’
‘I’d kind of prefer to stay below the radar for now.’
The nurse responded to the appeal with a nod and a smile. ‘They airlifted your sister to a specialist burns unit on the mainland. I believe your parents went with her...’ The girl laid a buzzer on the bed beside her. ‘You just ring if you want anything, La—Sabrina.’
Sabrina looked at the buzzer. What she really wanted was to go back to that moment on the staircase when she could have gone, no, should have gone back. But that wasn’t going to happen because the world was not fair. If it were she would be the one living with the consequences of her actions, not Chloe, not Sebastian.
If she could have swopped places she would have in a heartbeat.
That’s easy to say, Brina, mocked the voice in her head, when you know you can’t.
Nurses came in and out during the night to record Sebastian’s observations and when they saw she was awake all they told her was that he was doing fine.