As her colour rose in a warm tide Hannah was glad of the darkness. She couldn’t deny what he’d said. The second they touched the magic was there. What a pity it wasn’t the same when it came to words.
‘If you think so,’ she said casually, and without a backward glance went into the house.
If there had been stresses the night before they weren’t in evidence the next morning when Hannah went downstairs to find Grace at the stove, her husband engrossed in the Sunday papers and Kyle supervising Ben’s breakfast. It was a tranquil domestic scene and she felt like an intruder.
‘Hi, there,’ Kyle said easily as she stood framed in the doorway.
Ben waved a milky spoon in her direction.
‘We’re going to take you out to lunch, Hannah,’ the little boy said as the last of his cereal disappeared.
Kyle laughed as he ruffled his son’s fair crop. ‘You’re a bit ahead of us, young man. Hannah hasn’t had her breakfast yet.’
Pushing away her moment of depression, she smiled back. ‘That will be lovely, Ben.’
‘I thought that it would give you the opportunity to see something of the countryside,’ Kyle explained, ‘or the town if you prefer it, leaving Mum and Dad to have a quiet day.’
She nodded, remembering his concerned expression of the night before.
‘I’d like to explore Cheltenham if that’s all right with you,’ she told him. ‘I’ve heard that it’s a beautiful town.’
‘It is indeed,’ his mother agreed. ‘A tasteful mingling of the old and the new.’
‘Then the shops and the Promenade it is. Ben and I will take you on a guided tour,’ Kyle promised, ‘but first you must eat.’
The Promenade was one of the most beautiful parts of the famous spa town, with the Queens Hotel, fronted by flower-filled public gardens, at the one end and the city centre at the other. An imposing thoroughfare, it was made up of smart shops on the one side and imposing terraces of Regency houses and offices on the other.
They’d strolled through Montpelier, another elegant area with artistic overtones, and now, with Ben trotting along between them, they were on the Promenade.
An elderly lady passed them, serenely riding a bicycle that would have graced a museum, and Hannah and Kyle exchanged amused glances.
There was a graciousness about the place that spoke of past wealth, beautiful buildings built in the days when the rich had come to take the waters, and everywhere there were flowers.
‘So, which would you prefer?’ he asked. ‘An elegant Regency town house, or somewhere like Mum and Dad’s place?’
Was he putting out feelers again? she wondered. Kyle knew perfectly well that the grand terraces all around them weren’t the right sort of place to bring up a child. Ben was in the best possible place where he was, in a quiet Cotswold village.
‘Why do you keep asking me what kind of house I would like?’ she asked casually. ‘The decision isn’t likely to arise. I’ve always travelled light. I don’t put down roots.’
Their eyes met above Ben’s head.
‘Am I to blame for that?’ he asked.
‘Partly, but we’ve gone over all that, Kyle. I thought we’d agreed that we were both at fault.’
He nodded. ‘Yes. I suppose so. But we do have to talk, Hannah.’
‘We can do that on the train this evening,’ she suggested, still with the reluctance to discuss anything other than generalities.
She had an awful feeling that the sheer force of her love for him might make her agree to his proposal and if she did that she would be a crazy woman.
Kyle might be even more keen for her to marry him, having heard what his father had said the night before. So if he brought it up again she could be sure that he felt he had another reason to push the suggestion. Any reason but the right one.
‘Would you like to have lunch at the Queens Hotel?’ he asked with a change of subject.
She smiled. ‘Yes and no.’
‘Meaning?’
‘That where you and I might find it to be the right place for us, I’m sure that it isn’t suitable for a lively seven-year-old. I suggest we let Ben decide.’
He groaned dramatically, ‘And we both know where that will be, don’t we?’
‘I want my lunch at—’ Ben began.
‘McDonald’s!’ they chorused laughingly.
And when he asked, ‘How did you guess?’ they laughed even more.
They hadn’t been back at Kyle’s parents’ house long when the doorbell rang. When Howard came back after answering it he said in a surprised tone, ‘It’s someone for you, Hannah.’
She was just about to shake the dice in a game she was playing with Kyle and Ben, but her hand remained suspended in mid-air as she took in what he was saying.
‘For me?’ she echoed, without moving out of her seat.
Kyle’s expression was as surprised as hers. ‘Hadn’t you better go and see who it is?’ he suggested.
Hannah jumped to her feet. ‘Yes, of course.’
She was smiling as she went into the hall. It was obviously a mistake of some kind. She didn’t know a soul in the area.
When she saw the man waiting there the smile was wiped off her face and her legs turned to jelly.
‘So it is you!’ Paul cried.
He moved across and took her into his arms and as she stood stiffly in his embrace he went on, ‘I saw you getting into a car in the town centre and thought I was seeing things. I followed it and here I am. How are you, Hannah? And what are you doing here?’
Before she could reply a movement behind them had him looking up, and with his talent for creating awkward situations he cried, ‘I thought it was Templeton you were with.’
His glance went to Ben, who was standing beside his father. ‘So you two did get married after all?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ she said limply as the past rose again like a tormenting spectre. ‘Ben is Kyle’s son…and I’m just visiting.’
She was extricating herself from Paul’s arms with her eyes on Kyle’s face, and the look on it wasn’t reassuring.
‘So you live in these parts, do you?’ he asked of Paul with cold politeness.
‘Yes. I have a house in Charlton Kings.’
Paul turned to Hannah again as if she was the only one that mattered. ‘I told you the last time we met that I’d married my secretary, didn’t I? Well, now I’ve got two daughters.’
‘That’s nice for you,’ she said flatly, resisting the urge to tell him that she might have had a family of her own by now if it hadn’t been for him.
Grace was hovering. ‘Would your friend like to join us for dinner, Hannah?’
She could feel herself cringing. If he said yes she would want to disappear. But for once the fates were kind.
‘I can’t, thanks just the same,’ he said disappointedly. ‘My wife has invited some friends round and she’ll be expecting me. But I’ll be free tomorrow. We could meet up somewhere, Hannah.’
‘I’m afraid that I’m going back to London tonight,’ she said quickly.
Paul was frowning and from past experience she knew he didn’t like to be thwarted. ‘Can’t you stay on a day?’
She almost felt like laughing. Kyle’s expression would be worth seeing if she said she would, especially to please Paul of all people!
‘I can’t. For one thing Kyle is my boss and he wouldn’t agree as we have a very demanding job, and for another it’s so long since we last met I can’t think of anything we could have to say to each other.’
Hannah opened the front door. It was an ungracious thing to do, but she couldn’t wait to see the back of him and for once he took the hint.
‘You knew he lived in Cheltenham, didn’t you?’ Kyle said darkly as they went back to join the others.
‘Of course I didn’t!’ she snapped back angrily. ‘You heard what he said. He spotted me in the town centre. If I’d wanted to see Paul again I would hardly have asked him to come here, would I?’
; ‘One would think not, but I don’t know what’s going on in your mind, do I?’ he said wearily. ‘But once a limpet always a limpet. You won’t have seen the last of him.’
‘Really? And how do you make that out? Did you hear me give Paul my address or phone number?’
The meal was on the table and it was time to eat instead of arguing. For that she was suitably grateful.
The train back to London was at seven o’clock and Ben was allowed to stay up to see them off at the station. There were no tears, and as it pulled out Kyle said sombrely, ‘The fact that Ben can say goodbye so easily is a relief to me. It shows that he’s totally happy with Mum and Dad. But from their point of view I’m not so sure that I’m being fair to them. You heard what Dad said?’
‘Yes, I did,’ she said levelly. ‘But I don’t think he meant you to take it that they couldn’t cope. It’s just the generation gap. See how things work out, but keep your eye on them nevertheless…And if I were you I would start doing some serious house hunting.’
He nodded. ‘Thank you for the words of wisdom. And now tell me, have you enjoyed the weekend that you were so doubtful about…with its unexpected bonus?’
‘Bonus?’
‘Yes. The visit from your brother-in-law.’
‘Now you’re being ridiculous. Do you honestly think I wanted to see Paul? I owe him nothing. If I’d known he was around I’d have been even more doubtful about coming to Cheltenham. But in the first instance you were the initial cause of my reluctance.’
Here we go! Kyle thought. Hannah was presenting him with the opportunity she’d avoided all the time they’d been away—a chance to discuss the other unsettled half of his life. Maybe for once he would say the right thing.
‘I’m sorry that I upset you by asking you to marry me,’ he told her flatly. ‘It must have been the magic of the night that made me feel that all our problems were so easily solvable. I said it on impulse and immediately regretted it.’
‘So you didn’t mean it?’ she asked incredulously as outrage rekindled.
He’d meant it all right, he thought, but not in the way it had come over. And now, if he started to explain, would she believe him?
‘Why don’t we put all our differences behind us, Hannah, and start afresh?’ he said quietly, but he saw that it wasn’t going to be that easy.
‘And just supposing I’d decided to accept your proposal. What then?’ she asked coldly. ‘I might have thought I’d take what was on offer because Ben is so lovable. I would look a fool now, wouldn’t I, seeing that you didn’t mean it? I don’t understand you, Kyle. I don’t think I ever will, but there’s one thing I do know…’
‘And what’s that?’
‘You have the power to put the blight on my life more than anyone I’ve ever met.’ She pulled a magazine out of her bag, ‘And now if you’ll excuse me…’
For the rest of the journey Hannah pretended to read, with Kyle sitting beside her in grim silence. When they arrived at the other end she would have given the earth for them to have lived at opposite ends of the city instead of on each other’s doorstep, but she needn’t have worried.
‘I’m calling in at the helipad to make sure that all is in order for tomorrow,’ he said tonelessly. ‘Krasner is on holiday for two weeks and I want to check that his replacement is geared up and ready for action. Goodnight, Hannah.’
‘Goodnight,’ she replied stiffly, and left him to watch her departure with bleak resignation.
Monday morning was chaotic and Hannah was thankful for it.
The helicopter was required the moment it arrived on site and as it was her turn to be on first call there was no time for any exchange of words with Kyle other than a brief greeting.
A call had come through from Ambulance Emergency Centre to say that there’d been a derailment and that all available vehicles and personnel were needed.
In view of the seriousness of the incident Kyle told Pete Stubbs to go with her and as the Eurocopter took off the rest of the unit were hurrying to ground level where the cars were parked.
The relief pilot was a surly individual who knew the job and that was all, whereas the absent Jack, whose skills never ceased to amaze Hannah, had the ability to make even the most dangerous mission seem fun.
As if Pete had read her mind, he said in a low voice, ‘Come back, Jacko. We need you.’
It was bad. Very bad. An empty goods train had collided with a packed commuter train between stations and the front carriages of both were telescoped grotesquely across the tracks.
A stream of ambulances was arriving and police cars were dotted about the scene. As they surveyed the carnage below Pete muttered, ‘This is not good. Not good at all. There are going to be fatalities if I’m not mistaken and probably some horrific injuries.’
‘Let’s get to them, then,’ Hannah said with her heart thumping. The moment the chopper landed she was out, with Pete right behind her.
‘Are we glad to see you,’ a police officer said as they approached.
Beside him people were lying on the embankment or staggering around in shock, with ambulance crews trying to sort out the injured from those who were just traumatised.
‘What’s the score?’ Hannah asked briefly.
‘There are folk trapped in the derailed carriage of the commuter train.’
‘And the other?’
He shook his head.
‘There was just the driver on board. When we pulled him out he was dead.’
As they ran to the mangled mess of the first carriage he called, ‘We’re waiting for the fire brigade. There’s a lot of fuel about.’
‘So?’ Pete said with a wry smile. ‘As long as nobody lights a match…’
It was dark inside and there was twisted metal everywhere, with a haze of black dust hanging over it.
Two paramedics were bending over a screaming woman who was trapped by her legs, and Hannah could see the arm of a child sticking out from beneath a pile of mangled upholstery. A dark-haired man in a suit was lying unconscious across what was left of a table. And that was just for starters. What was going on in the rest of the carriage they couldn’t stop to find out.
Pete had gone to help the paramedics free the trapped woman and Hannah was flinging the debris off the child, frantic to see if he was still alive.
She could feel tears running down her cheeks. Suppose it had been Ben, she thought illogically.
‘I’ll see to this,’ Kyle’s voice said suddenly at her side. ‘You have a look at the guy in the suit.’
Speechless with relief, she ran across to him and as she did so there were flashes of yellow in the gloom of the carriage and men’s voices calling to each other. The fire brigade had arrived.
The man lying motionless over the table had severe chest injuries. The front of his shirt had been ripped open and she could see deep lacerations as if he had been flung forward with such force that his chest had taken the brunt of the impact. His neck was at an odd angle, too, but he was alive. There was a heartbeat and a strong pulse, but against that they had to get him out without injuring him further.
The firemen were moving down the carriage, followed by reinforcements from the ambulance service, and two of them had stopped to help Kyle get to the child.
They must have managed it because she heard him cry, ‘Don’t move him until I’ve examined him. Bring a stretcher!’
‘Bring two!’ she cried. ‘This man is going to need one.’
One of the paramedics from the unit had appeared by her side and as they put a collar on the injured man he said nervously, ‘They’ve managed to get the people out from the other end of the carriage. We’re the only ones still inside and there’s a big fire risk from leaking diesel.’
‘I can’t help that,’ Hannah told him. ‘We have three patients here who can’t be left. Pete is treating the woman they’ve just freed. Kyle is with the child and he won’t let him be moved until he’s sure that it’s safe to do so.’
The paramedi
c looked around him. ‘Yes, but it’s not safe, is it? This place could go up like a tinder box any minute.’
Ignoring his panic, she went on, ‘And this poor man will be someone’s much-loved son, husband or father…and we can’t leave him.’
Eventually they were out…all of them…the injured and those treating them. Hannah breathed a sigh of relief. The paramedic’s forebodings had affected her, in spite of trying to ignore them, but the danger was over.
Fortunately, the boy who’d been trapped had been the least hurt of the three, so he had been taken away by ambulance. The man in the suit had been flown to the Royal London after she had phoned with full details of his condition, and the woman, who had serious leg injuries, was waiting for the helicopter to come back for her.
As fast as Hannah was telling herself that the danger was over it became apparent that maybe it wasn’t. At that moment a woman who’d been lying on the grass in a shocked state sat up and cried, ‘My mother! Where’s my mother?’
There was no reply and Hannah and Kyle looked at each other. If the mother wasn’t here on the embankment she must still be in the train. Unless she’d been taken to hospital.
‘Where were you sitting?’ a policeman asked.
‘At the back of the first coach,’ she screamed. ‘She’d gone to the toilet.’
There were firemen still on board, dousing the wreckage to prevent fire, but they hadn’t yet reached the part the woman had described.
When they heard that someone was missing they stopped and converged on the flattened toilet area, and to the horror of all those on the embankment came the cry, ‘She’s here! Send the doc on board.’
There were only the two of them, Kyle and herself. Graham had gone in one of the ambulances with a badly injured victim and Pete and Charles had gone with the helicopter.
Instinctively Hannah stepped forward, but a firm hand pulled her back.
‘I’m taking this one,’ Kyle said. ‘It’s too risky for you.’
As she opened her mouth to protest he went on, ‘I’m in charge, don’t forget.’ And with a dry smile he was gone.
After that each second was an eternity and when someone on the embankment cried, ‘It’s on fire!’ Hannah went cold with horror.
Emergency Reunion Page 11