Rescued by Dr. Rafe

by Annie Claydon

  ‘Nope.’ He walked away, chuckling.

  When everything was ready, Wolfie was carried through to the balcony and lowered down on to the dinghy. Men were standing, waist deep in water, on four sides of the craft, ready to guide it back to the waiting ambulance.

  Mimi seemed about to climb over the balcony, to accompany the dinghy but Rafe lay his hand on her arm.

  ‘My turn, this time.’

  For a moment he thought she might argue with him, even though it was obvious that his height and strength made him the one for this particular job. Instead she nodded. ‘Better take this.’

  She pressed the EpiPen, containing the Naloxone, into his hand. It was highly unlikely that he’d need it now, but it was a kind of acceptance, that he was right.

  ‘Thanks.’ Rafe climbed over the balcony, wading through the freezing water towards the lights on the other side.

  * * *

  They’d handed Wolfie over to the ambulance crew, and Rafe had called the hospital to make sure that they were aware of the possibility that the incoming patient had a ruptured spleen. Then he’d made for the car, found a pair of sweatpants in his overnight bag and stripped off his soaked jeans in the cramped confines of the front seat.

  The sky was beginning to show the first signs of an approaching dawn as Rafe drew up outside Mimi’s cottage. Now that she had nothing to do, fatigue had taken over and she was already yawning. As soon as he got back to the hospital and into a hot shower, Rafe reckoned he’d be yawning too.

  ‘What day is it?’

  He had to think about the answer. ‘Thursday.’

  ‘Yeah. That’s right, Thursday. I’m off duty for three days, now.’

  ‘Right. Get some sleep.’

  ‘I’ll text Jack first...’ She felt in her pocket for her phone and then seemed to give up, unequal to the task of finding it.

  ‘If he’s got any sense he’ll be sleeping. Probably in a warm bed in the church hall.’ A warm bed sounded like heaven at the moment but, however cold and tired Rafe was, he couldn’t resist stretching these few moments out just a little.

  ‘Suppose so.’ Mimi stifled another yawn. ‘What are you doing now?’

  ‘I should get back to the hospital. Get a few hours’ shut-eye and then back on the road.’

  She thought for a moment. ‘Why don’t you stay here? You won’t get any sleep in the doctor’s on-call room today, and anyway you need to wash and dry your clothes. And you won’t have to drive back out here to pick me up later on.

  ‘Pick you up? Where am I taking you?’

  ‘I don’t have a vehicle or a partner, remember?’ A little quiver of her lip betrayed her uncertainty. ‘If you still want me around, that is.’

  He wanted her. ‘Think you can put up with me?’

  A tired grin. ‘I’ll try.’ She opened the car door and started to climb wearily out. ‘So are you coming...?’

  Rafe reached for his overnight bag and pulled it out. Locking the car, he followed her up the front path and into the house.

  Mimi fussed about a bit, leading the way into the spare room and switching on a lamp by the bed, which gave so little light that it served only to stop him from bumping into the furniture. She gathered a few items of washing that were drying by the window and then collapsed the drying rack.

  ‘Leave your clothes in the basket in the bathroom and I’ll put them in the washing machine tomorrow morning.’

  Rafe nodded.

  ‘I’ll get you a towel...’ She walked out of the room, reappearing a few moments later with a clean towel and putting it on the bed. ‘Bathroom’s all yours.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Have you...’ She frowned as if she’d forgotten what she was about to say. ‘Is there anything you need?’

  ‘Go to bed.’ He could have slept on a washing line at the moment, and Mimi looked as if she was half-asleep already.

  ‘Yeah.’ She swayed a little as she turned, and Rafe wondered whether he should follow her to make sure she got to her bedroom without falling asleep on the way. Then she left him, closing the door behind her.

  Rafe waited until he heard the door of the main bedroom close and then walked the few steps across the hallway to the bathroom. He showered off the bits of river mud, revelling in the hot water, and then made his way back to the spare room.

  He had neither the energy nor the inclination to worry about what he was doing here, or how awkward things might be when they woke. Rafe loosened the towel from around his waist and crawled into bed.

  * * *

  He woke slowly, knowing that he wasn’t anywhere familiar but unable for the moment to work out exactly where he was. In fact he probably wasn’t awake at all because he could smell the citrus scent of Mimi’s favourite soap. Rafe considered the possibility of lucid dreaming and whether he could control what happened next. Then he opened his eyes.

  Not bad for a first try. Mimi wasn’t draped over the end of the bed, wearing black lace. On the other hand, the smell of cooking was wafting up from the kitchen. Bacon sandwiches would be his second choice of things he most wanted to wake up to at the moment.

  He tried again and failed. He must be awake. Rafe stumbled out of bed and drew the curtains, looking up at the sky. It was iron-grey and threatening, but at least it wasn’t raining.

  Turning, he caught his breath. If none of the rest of Mimi’s house held any memories, this room was full of them. The walls were a plain cream colour, and the pale blue patterned curtains and bedding were unfamiliar, but the bed was the sturdy pine one that he and Mimi had shared. And against the far wall was an old mahogany wash stand.

  The memory hit him like a punch to the chest and Rafe wondered for a moment whether his heart had really stopped or it just felt that it had. They’d found the washstand in an auction, sitting unwanted in the corner and covered with grime. But Mimi had seen some virtue in it and so Rafe had put in a bid and secured it for her. When they’d got it home, she’d gone to work on it, carefully polishing up the wood to reveal an age-old patina, removing the brass handles and making them shine. It had sat in the corner of their bedroom, transformed from a piece of junk to something precious.

  He supposed that Mimi’s ruthless purge of the cottage had been tempered by practicality. Here in the spare room, she didn’t have to look at the furniture all that often, and so the few things that reminded her of him which she hadn’t wanted to throw away had been consigned to this room, where she could shut the door on them.

  The bed, rumpled on one side only, filled him with an unexpected sadness. He’d told himself that he was over Mimi. That had been a mistake, but he could rectify it. Last night had given him hope that perhaps they both might find some closure.

  He wondered briefly whether he should pull some clothes from his overnight bag to make the three strides across the hallway to the bathroom door, but the towel was large and thick and it was easier to just wrap it around his waist. From the mouth-watering smells coming from the kitchen, Mimi was downstairs cooking, anyway.

  He opened the bedroom door at almost exactly the same time as hers opened. Rafe caught a glimpse of her startled face, her green ambulance uniform, and then the door closed with a loud slam.

  ‘Sorry. You first...’ Her voice came from behind the door.

  Rafe called back a thank you, wondering how she could be in two places at once. This was nothing she hadn’t seen before, more times than either of them could count. So why had her sudden startled look sent an electric pulse travelling across his bare shoulders? And why had she slammed the door with such agitated force?

  He padded across the hallway, shut himself in the bathroom and locked the door, switching on the shower. Clearly he had some more thinking to do before he could work out what either he or Mimi really felt.

  CHAPTER SEVENr />
  MIMI HAD WAITED until she heard the shower running and then gone downstairs to see how Charlie was doing with the breakfast and put away the shopping he’d brought for her. When she heard Rafe’s footsteps again, and the door of the spare room close, she ventured up to the bathroom to empty the washing basket.

  ‘Doing his washing, now?’ Charlie raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Oh, be quiet.’ The thought had already occurred to Mimi and she was trying to ignore it. ‘He’s meant to be staying at the hospital and he can’t get these washed there. And we don’t have time to visit the laundrette...’

  She pressed her lips closed. Charlie was grinning, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender, and she was protesting far too much. Mimi dumped the pile of clothes on to the floor, almost glad that the nasty-smelling mud on the legs of Rafe’s jeans was enough to overwhelm his scent.

  Automatically, she felt in the pockets. A little loose change in one, and in the other... Held securely in his pocket by a clip, Mimi knew what it was before she even drew it out.

  ‘What’s that?’ Charlie’s question made her realise that she was staring at the watch, running her thumb slowly across the face of it.

  ‘He must have taken his watch off last night, so it didn’t get caught in anything.’ It was an expensive watch, but that wasn’t what made it special. It wasn’t obvious at first sight but, when you looked more closely, an old silver sixpence was set in the centre of the dial, behind the hands.

  The strap was different, and he’d obviously had the glass replaced because the scratches that she remembered were gone. But the sixpence was what mattered. Rafe had said that his grandfather had carried it in his pocket for years, and then had the watch made for his only grandson when he went to medical school, saying he’d had all the luck he could stand and he was passing it on now.

  Something tugged at her heart. She’d seen Rafe take this watch off the nightstand every morning and put it on. Having grown up in a world where he was surrounded by things of material value, this was the only one he seemed to care all that much about. He must have been so tired last night that he’d forgotten that it was in his pocket.

  ‘Still got his lucky watch, then.’ Charlie chuckled. ‘Good thing that didn’t go into the washing machine.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Mimi put the watch down on the table. Even there, it seemed to be radiating some signal, activating memories that she’d rather not think about at the moment.

  She stuffed the clothes into the washing machine and was fiddling with the dial when Rafe appeared at the kitchen door. Thankfully he was dressed now.

  She could hardly look at him. His thick, dark blue shirt was open at the neck and tucked into jeans that fitted better than they had any right to. Mimi thought she recognised the brown leather belt, or one quite like it. Suddenly this was almost worse than seeing him half-naked. The shirt couldn’t conceal his broad shoulders, and the jeans only accentuated his slim hips. And her treacherous memory was busy filling in the gaps, reminding her that she knew every inch of his body and that it had always been beautiful.

  ‘Have you seen...?’ He was clearly looking for something.

  ‘On the table.’

  ‘Ah... Thanks.’

  Mimi turned her back on him, studying the instructions on the packet of washing powder as if this was the first time she’d ever washed clothes. She’d armed herself against all the obvious things, his smile, his scent, but she’d forgotten all about the watch and it had sneaked in under her defences. She’d deal with it, though. Just as long as she didn’t have to see him put it on...

  Charlie came to her rescue. ‘Hey Rafe. Good night’s sleep?’

  ‘Yes, thanks. Much better than if I’d stayed at the hospital.’ He seemed to want to explain his presence here.

  ‘I imagine so. Sit down; breakfast’s almost ready.’

  The scrape of a chair and then a sudden laughing exclamation from Rafe. ‘Really?’

  Mimi turned and saw that Charlie had pulled himself out of the wheelchair and was sitting on a high stool next to the cooker.

  ‘Yeah, really. Took a bit of work.’

  ‘I’ll bet. Nice one.’

  Rafe was grinning from ear to ear. The same grin that Mimi had worn for days when she’d seen Charlie wave away his physiotherapist’s help, leaning heavily on the parallel bars for support as he took his first laborious steps. Now, standing and even walking a little was something he did many times a day.

  Suddenly it seemed all wrong that Rafe had missed out on that. She could have at least sent him a text to let him know how well Charlie was doing. She could have, but she hadn’t.

  ‘Have you heard from Jack?’ Rafe was leaning back in his chair, still smiling.

  ‘Oh... Yes. He texted me. Holme’s completely cut off at the moment, so he’ll be staying there for the next twenty four hours at least.’

  ‘Everything’s okay with him, though?’ Charlie interjected.

  ‘He said so.’ Jack hadn’t gone into details about exactly what he was up to, and Mimi had been happy to take his lead. ‘Apparently ambulance control told him the same as me—that they don’t have a spare vehicle and he should take his days off. They’ll sort something out for when we go back on shift.’

  ‘And, in the meantime, you and Rafe are doing your thing.’

  Shut up, Charlie. Mimi gave him a withering look and he ignored it and began to dole out the contents of the pans on to three plates. Like so many other weekends when the three of them had eaten together, only then it had been either Mimi or Rafe doing most of the cooking.

  Now, Rafe was sitting back, watching. He knew as well as Mimi did that you only helped Charlie when asked.

  ‘Come and get it, then.’ Charlie had finished serving the food and Mimi went to collect the plates and transfer them to the table.

  ‘This looks good.’ It was a full English breakfast and Charlie had crammed as much as he could on to each plate. ‘I’m starving.’

  ‘Me too.’ She heard Rafe behind her but didn’t dare look round at him. His hand shot out of nowhere and suddenly he was shaking Charlie’s hand. ‘Really good to see you on your feet, mate.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Charlie shifted on the stool and Mimi got out from in between them, carrying two of the plates over to the table. When she looked around, she almost dropped them.

  Charlie was on his feet and Rafe had him in a man hug. It wasn’t so out of the ordinary for Charlie—he did that kind of thing all the time—but Rafe... All the same, there was no trace of stiffness or reluctance on his part.

  ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t there to see it.’ The admission startled her even more. The old Rafe would have just sucked up his regret and walked away, never mentioning it.

  Mimi put the plates down on the table. She was going to have to find a way of not watching Rafe’s every move, hoping to find evidence that he’d changed. She was going to have to find a way of not caring, and do it quickly before he left again.

  * * *

  As expected, they didn’t have to wait long before they had a call from the control centre. With eight hours sleep and a good meal inside her, Mimi felt a great deal better about that. Being able to see where they were going was no bad thing either. As they moved closer to the flood area, large puddles had become lakes and the fields were now deep in water.

  The car slowed and came to a halt. In front of them, a dip in the road was knee-deep in water for the next couple of hundred yards.

  ‘Can we manage that?’

  Rafe was surveying the path ahead of them. ‘I’d rather not try if there’s an alternative.’

  Mimi nodded. The surface of the water was almost serene but that could be deceptive. The road underneath could be strewn with sharp rocks and potholes, any one of which had the potential to put them off the road.

  ‘Tha
t looks a better bet.’

  Rafe turned the car abruptly on to a track that wound upwards and Mimi saw a handwritten notice pinned to a tree: Diversion and Manor Hotel.

  ‘Yep.’ She clasped her hands tightly in her lap. The Manor Hotel’s main driveway was three miles further along this road. If they could get up to the hotel from here and then drop back down again they’d avoid the flooded section of road.

  She wondered if Rafe remembered. Because, as the old stately house loomed on the horizon, she was having difficulty forgetting.

  Date night. Although it had been more than five years ago now, it was suddenly fresh and clear in Mimi’s memory, a treasure that had remained untouched and unchanged. Preserved in every detail, right down to the note she’d found on the kitchen table when she’d come home from work.

  Going out tonight. Dress up.

  By the time Rafe had arrived home she’d been almost ready. He’d showered and changed into a suit, and complimented her on her dress. Then he’d kissed her, refused to tell her where they were going, and led her to the car.

  They’d driven here. It had been a summer’s night and they’d dined on the patio, with flickering torches lending a sense of drama to a good meal. As dusk had begun to fall he’d dropped a room key into her hand...

  ‘A four-poster!’ The solid, dark wood structure had been big enough to close the curtains, shut the world out for a night and have Rafe entirely to herself. ‘I’ve never slept in a four-poster before.’

  ‘You want to sleep?’ Rafe’s wicked, seductive smile had made it very clear that sleep wasn’t on his agenda.

  ‘Got a better idea?’ she’d teased him.

  ‘Much better...’ He’d taken off his jacket and loosened his tie. Picking up a wooden chair from the corner of the room, he’d placed it carefully and sat down. Mimi had known just what he wanted. If she stood in front of him he would be able to see her back, reflected in the big mirror over the dressing table, which would give him a three-sixty-degree view when she unzipped her dress.

  Undressing slowly, she’d revelled in his gaze, his murmurs of approval pricking at her senses like fingers running over her skin. Finally she’d shaken her hair free across her shoulders and advanced towards him, perching on his knee.