Matt could feel that black cloud hovering over him again all afternoon long. It was partly the fact that it felt as though everything was falling apart around him, but mainly because Rachel had been so distant towards him recently. Even that afternoon, when he would have expected her to help him thrash out this problem, she had made an excuse and left. She was determined to put their night of passion behind her and he wished he could do the same. Oh, he had tried all right, but he knew to his cost how spectacularly unsuccessful he had been. He merely had to be near her and his body was instantly on the alert, as it had been that day!
Matt cursed under his breath as he checked that all the lights were off and locked up. He got into his car and headed for home, taking his time as the roads were extremely busy. With less than a week to go before Christmas, the shops were staying open late and that explained all the extra traffic. He reached the centre of town at last and joined the queue at the intersection to wait for the lights to change, inching his way forward until there was just one car in front of him.
The lights changed again and the car ahead of him moved forward. It was halfway across the junction when a van came hurtling out of one of the side roads, ignoring the fact that the traffic lights were against it. It rammed into the car and sent it spinning across the road where it came to rest wedged up against a lamppost. The van didn’t stop but sped on, clipping the sides of several other vehicles that were waiting to enter the multi-storey car park as it hurtled off down the road.
Unsurprisingly, there was chaos after that. People were leaping out of their cars to see what damage had been done, bringing the traffic to a standstill. Matt ignored what was going on around him as he leapt out of his car and ran across the road to where the first car had ended up. There were two girls in it and he could tell at once that both were injured. A middle-aged man suddenly pushed past him and wrenched open the passenger side door, obviously intending to lift the nearest girl out, and Matt hurriedly intervened.
‘Don’t move her!’ he ordered, elbowing the man aside. Crouching down, he checked the girl’s pulse and was relieved when he found it to be rather rapid but reassuringly strong. She had a nasty cut on the side of her head just above her left ear which he guessed had happened when the side window had shattered. She was obviously shocked and disorientated, but apart from that she didn’t appear to be too badly injured. However, one thing he had learned over the years was never to take anything at face value. He turned to the other man.
‘I’m a doctor and although I don’t think she’s too badly injured, I don’t want her moved until I’m sure it’s safe to do so. Can you stand here while I check the driver and stop anyone else from moving her?’
The man looked doubtful. He was obviously loath to follow Matt’s instructions until a woman in the crowd suddenly piped up. ‘You do what Dr Thompson tells you, Alf. He’s the expert so don’t you go moving her until he says so.’
Matt silently blessed her as he hurried round the car to check on the driver, a girl in her teens who looked scarcely old enough to hold a licence. The driver’s door was crumpled in and it was impossible to open it, but with the help of a bystander, he managed to force open the hatchback and climbed into the car that way. There wasn’t much room to manoeuvre as the driver’s seat had broken in two and the top half was resting on the rear seat.
Matt inched himself forward as far as he could go and placed his fingers on the carotid artery in the girl’s neck. His heart sank because he couldn’t detect a pulse at first. He tried again and finally felt the tiniest flutter beneath his fingertips. She was alive but only just from the look of it.
‘Matt?’
He looked round when he heard a familiar voice calling him and felt his heart lift when he saw Rachel peering through the open hatchback. ‘Good timing! I could do with some help,’ he said, trying not to let her know how pleased he was to see her. Rachel had made no bones about the fact that she wasn’t looking for commitment and that night they had spent together had proved it beyond any doubt. She couldn’t have dismissed what had happened so easily if it had meant anything to her.
He forced the thought to the back of his mind because it was neither the time nor the place to dwell on it. Leaning forward, he tried to assess the girl’s injuries, but it was impossible to see very much. It appeared that her legs had been trapped when the car’s bonnet had been crushed and he simply couldn’t tell how serious her injuries were.
‘Damn!’ he cursed, carefully easing his way back out of the vehicle. It was an old car and it hadn’t stood much of a chance when the van had hit it. There were chunks of metal protruding into the interior and they proved a major hazard when getting in and out. He finally made it unscathed and turned to Rachel, trying not to notice how pretty she looked in the glow from the streetlamps.
‘She’s alive but that’s about all I can tell you. I can’t assess how badly injured she is because I can’t get to her. However, her pulse is very faint. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say she’s bleeding internally.’
‘Maybe I can get a better look,’ Rachel suggested. ‘I’m smaller than you and I should be able to wriggle further into the car.’
‘It’s worth a try,’ he agreed. ‘But be careful. There’s chunks of metal sticking out all over the place—you don’t want to cut yourself.’
‘I certainly don’t.’ Rachel shrugged off her coat and handed it to him. ‘It will be easier without this and we can use it to cover her up with once I’ve examined her. It’s freezing tonight and she needs to be kept warm.’
She climbed into the car and Matt found himself holding his breath as he watched her lean through the gap between the front seats. Part of the front axle had broken through the floor and there were a lot of sharp pieces of metal about.
‘Careful!’ he warned. ‘Mind where you put your hands.’
Rachel nodded, preferring to save her breath for the difficult task of inching herself far enough forward to reach the lower half of the girl’s body. Matt caught a tantalising glimpse of her shapely bottom before he averted his eyes. He made his way round to the passenger side to check on the other casualty. She seemed a little less shocked, he noted in relief, although he put out a restraining hand when she tried to unbuckle her seat belt.
‘Just give me a moment to check you over before you try to move. We don’t want you doing yourself any more damage, do we?’
‘It was that van driver’s fault, not Katie’s,’ the girl said shakily. ‘He came racing through the lights on red…’ She gulped as she cast a look at her friend, although with Rachel in the middle of the seats she couldn’t see her clearly.
‘I know. I was in the car behind you and I saw what happened,’ Matt said soothingly, checking her pulse again. ‘I’m a doctor, by the way. My name’s Matthew Thompson and the lady in the middle is also a doctor. Her name is Rachel Mackenzie. We both work at Dalverston Surgery.’
‘Oh, you’re my mum’s doctor! She’s always singing your praises and saying how lovely you are!’ the girl exclaimed, then blushed.
‘Thank you kindly. It’s always good to know that you don’t scare your patients.’ Matt smiled at her. ‘So what’s your name? I don’t remember seeing you in the surgery.’
‘Megan Bradley, and you haven’t seen me ’cos I haven’t been ill since we moved here.’ She grimaced. ‘Not up till now, anyway.’
‘Well, if it’s any consolation, Megan, I don’t think you’re badly injured from what I can tell,’ he assured her. ‘But you’re the best person to know how you feel. Is there anywhere that hurts really badly?’
‘Just my ribs. They sort of ache but I expect it’s because of the seat belt.’ Tears welled up in her eyes all of a sudden. ‘Katie’s been hurt far more than me, hasn’t she?’
‘I’m afraid so.’ Matt ran a gentle hand down the girl’s spine to check for any signs of misalignment in the vertebrae. From what he could tell, everything was fine and he nodded. ‘Right, we’re going to get you out of there but
we’re going to do it really slowly, understand?’
‘Like they do in those TV series?’ Megan asked him.
‘Exactly like that,’ he agreed, inwardly blessing the writers of the popular dramas. The general public’s knowledge had increased tenfold thanks to a steady diet of medical soap operas and in his view that was a good thing.
‘I’ve a collar in my bag and I’m going to put it around your neck to protect the top of your spine. It will feel a little uncomfortable but it’s worth wearing it.’
‘I don’t mind,’ Megan assured him. ‘I’m hoping to train as a nurse when I leave school next year so it will be good practice for me to know how it feels.’
‘Definitely!’ Matt gave her a warm smile, thanking his lucky stars that she was obviously a practical girl and not given to hysterics. It made his job that much easier.
He stood up and hurried over to his car. He hadn’t got round to unpacking all the extra equipment he had taken with him to that incident at the canal, which was fortunate. He sighed as he found a collar plus everything he needed to set up a drip for the young driver. It felt like years had passed since that day. So much had happened since then that it felt as though he had packed in several years worth of living.
His gaze moved to Rachel as he headed back across the road and he felt an ache of such intensity start up inside him that he had to pause. He could lie to himself but what was the point? Since Claire had died he had been merely going through the motions of living. That night he and Rachel had spent together had proved that to him. It wasn’t what Claire would have wanted, either. She would have been appalled, in fact. Claire would have hated to think of him wasting his life the way he had been doing. She would have wanted him to be happy.
Matt started walking again and it felt as though he was leaving the past behind him at last. He had no regrets, strangely enough, because that had been then and this was now, although what the future held was another matter. Nobody could foretell what lay in store for them and he was glad. He didn’t want to look too far ahead in case he was disappointed. He just wanted to enjoy what he had now.
His gaze rested on Rachel as he drew closer and he felt warmth well up inside him because at this very moment he had Rachel here beside him.
CHAPTER TEN
IT WAS well over an hour before the emergency services finally managed to free the injured driver. It had been a very difficult and complicated task as the firemen had needed to remove the engine as well as the roof of the car. Matt had insisted on remaining in the car while the work had been carried out, monitoring the girl’s condition and reassuring her as she had drifted in and out of consciousness.
Once Katie had been lifted out of the vehicle, the paramedics hurriedly transferred her to an ambulance. Rachel sighed as she watched it drive away with its siren blaring and its lights flashing. The girl had a fractured pelvis, which explained the massive blood loss she’d suffered, and there was bound to be internal injuries too. Although everyone had done all they possibly could, it was touch and go whether she would pull through.
‘I think it’s a case of crossing our fingers and hoping, don’t you?’
Matt came back from giving a statement to the police. Rachel nodded when she heard what he said. It had been more or less what she had been thinking too. ‘How do you rate her chances?’
‘Not all that high, I’m afraid.’ He shrugged, his handsome face looking very grim. ‘If the fire brigade had been able to get her out sooner, she would have stood a much better chance.’
‘They did their best,’ Rachel replied, watching a couple of the crew from the local fire station gathering together the equipment they had used.
‘They did, and it wasn’t meant as a criticism. Nobody could have got her out of that car any faster. It was in such a bad state. However, it doesn’t alter the fact that the delay is bound to have affected her chances of survival.’
His voice sounded flat but Rachel understood why. To see a young life possibly cut short this way was always distressing. Without pausing to think, she laid her hand on his arm. ‘She still has a chance, Matt. The fact that you were here when the accident happened and were able to give her immediate assistance is bound to have worked in her favour.’
‘Thank you. That makes me feel a lot better, although I can’t take all the credit. You did more than your share, Rachel. I would never have been able to set up that drip without your help.’ He smiled at her, his eyes filling with a warmth that immediately made her feel warm too. ‘It was a real team effort.’
‘I suppose so.’ Rachel hurriedly removed her hand. She couldn’t afford to start hoping that his smile might mean anything. She grimaced as she looked around at the scene of chaos that surrounded them. There were vehicles scattered all over the place and people standing in the road. Nobody was being allowed to leave until they had been questioned by the police whose main priority now was to find the van driver who had caused the accident. ‘What a mess!’
‘It’ll take a while to sort it all out by the look of it,’ Matt observed.
‘It will.’ Rachel sighed as she turned and looked at the multi-storey car park. ‘Heaven only knows when I’ll be able to get my car out of the car park. The exit is completely blocked by traffic and there’s a huge tailback of cars along all the ramps. It’s going to take ages to clear them away.’
‘It is.’ Matt frowned as he studied the build-up of traffic. ‘Have you finished all your shopping?’
‘More or less. To be honest, I don’t really feel like doing any more tonight,’ she admitted.
‘Then why don’t you leave your car where it is and let me drive you home?’ He pointed across the road to where his car was still standing in the same spot he had abandoned it well over an hour before. ‘I’ve given the police a statement and I’m free to leave. It seems pointless for you to hang around here when I can give you a lift, doesn’t it?’
It did and Rachel was tempted, very tempted indeed. However, would it be wise to accept the offer after what had happened since that night they had slept together? She had done her best to stay out of Matt’s way and allowing him to drive her home certainly wasn’t the best way to maintain her distance.
‘It’s kind of you, Matt, but I’m not sure if it’s safe to leave my car there overnight.’
He sighed heavily. ‘I doubt if that’s the real reason, is it? Look, Rachel, I know you’re keen to forget what happened between us that night—you’ve made that perfectly plain. However, all I’m offering you is a lift home, nothing more.’
Rachel flushed, embarrassed by his bluntness. ‘It just seemed better to give you some space,’ she said quietly. ‘I could tell you were upset about what we’d done the following morning and I didn’t want to make the situation even more difficult for you.’
‘I appreciate that, although I think you were just as keen to put it behind you,’ he said flatly, and she frowned when she heard the echo of hurt in his voice.
‘In a way, yes, I was, but not because I regretted what we’d done. I just don’t want you getting hurt, Matt. That’s all.’
‘And here I was thinking that you didn’t give a damn. How wrong could I be?’ He smiled at her, his eyes filled with such tenderness that some of the ice that had filled her heart started to melt. Was it possible that they had been at cross-purposes?
The thought was way too enticing. Rachel bit her lip, afraid of what she might say if she allowed herself to speak. Matt brushed her cheek with his knuckles and she could feel the tremor that passed through him as his fingers glided over her skin.
‘I think we need to talk, Rachel, don’t you? Let me drive you home and see if we can sort this out.’
Rachel nodded, surprised to find that now she couldn’t have forced out a single word. She followed him across the road to his car and settled herself in the passenger seat and still she didn’t say anything. She had no idea how they were going to resolve this problem if she was still struck dumb when they reached his house, but it di
dn’t seem to matter. The fact that Matt cared enough to want to clear up this misunderstanding far outweighed everything else.
It took them a bare ten minutes to reach Matt’s house. He drew up outside the front door and turned to look at her. ‘Are you all right here? We can go to yours if you’d feel more comfortable there. I should have checked with you before.’
‘No, here is fine,’ she replied, trying to control the tide of heat that threatened to engulf her. Was he remembering what had happened the last time she had been in his home? Recalling in exquisite, exhilarating detail their love-making and how wonderful it had been?
Her legs felt as though they had turned to jelly as she followed him into the house. It wasn’t surprising either when her mind was busily unreeling a whole series of tantalising images, pictures of them lying together, their limbs entwined, their bodies fused in the most intimate fashion possible. Matt had been the most ardent and yet the gentlest of lovers and she knew that she would never experience the joy he had shown her that night with anyone else. She couldn’t do. It was only Matt she wanted, only him she loved.
The realisation filled her with joy but it also scared her. It made her see just how very vulnerable she was.
Matt could hear his heart thumping as he led the way into the kitchen and switched on the lights. It was making such a racket that he would be amazed if Rachel couldn’t hear it too. He glanced at her as he plugged in the kettle but her face gave away very little about her feelings. In fact, she looked ever so slightly stunned, as though she had suffered a shock and was desperately trying to deal with it.
He grimaced as he reached for the jar of coffee. They had just attended a major accident so was it any wonder if she felt shocked? What she needed at this moment was a cup of coffee and some time to get herself together before they talked about them.
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