* * *
She didn’t mind, if that was what Callum was hinting at, Leonie thought. After their downbeat meeting of the morning it was a delight to meet up with him again in a happier frame of mind. It was the third time they’d met unexpectedly in the same place, which was strange.
The two previous ones hadn’t been happy occasions. This one could be the same if she let it, but Callum didn’t deserve that. He didn’t have anything on his mind as soul-destroying as she had, and for a short time she was going to forget everything except the pleasure of his unexpected appearance.
They’d moved on a few yards away from the bend and spread the food out on a grassy area to one side and with lots of soft drinks and a camping kettle steaming away for those who preferred something warmer the atmosphere was happy and light-hearted. If the ward sister and the doctor were struggling with that, no one seemed to notice.
‘Did you finish your shopping?’ Leonie asked as they sat side by side.
‘More or less,’ was the brief reply. He wanted to talk about them, not mediocre things such as that, but it was hardly the right moment.
He’d had a phone call from Ryan as he had been about to set out on his walk to say that they were having a few friends round that evening and asking him if he was free to join them. As it was always a pleasure to be with the Ferguson family, he had said that he would and hoped that Leonie might be amongst those that they’d invited.
She was, and sitting beside him in the countryside she was having mixed feelings about the invitation. To be near him would be joy if he hadn’t decided to put an end to the overwhelming attraction they had for each other, and then there was the christening.
She hoped that it wouldn’t be discussed while she was there in front of Callum. If it was she would have to give a vague answer to what she would have been delighted to agree to under other circumstances and hope that it would be left at that for the time being.
The baby was due any day now and there was always the concern that it might be a safe birth after the accident, with the arrival of a healthy infant for loving parents who had each other to celebrate with.
* * *
When all the food had been eaten and the remains of the picnic cleared away, it was time to move onwards and upwards for all those from the community centre, and Callum wondered what Leonie would do now.
Would she leave them to be with him, or do as she’d done the last time in similar circumstances and display no desire for his presence? He soon had his answer.
‘Bye for now,’ she said, and fell in alongside her friends.
If Callum had asked her to spend the rest of the afternoon with him, she would have done, reflected Leonie. But he’d made it so clear on Julie’s wedding day that he was tired of being kept at a distance, that he could play that game too, and now she felt that the easiest way was to go along with it.
* * *
When she arrived at Melissa and Ryan’s house that evening Callum was there, as she’d known he would be, and it made up a little for the aching feeling of loss when she’d left him on the hillside in the afternoon.
There were a dozen or so folks present for cocktails and canapés, including some of the hospital staff, and amongst them was Julian’s replacement, a keen young registrar from the Manchester area who was being introduced to everyone.
Callum was chatting to him when she appeared and smiled briefly in her direction, and then Melissa, hugely pregnant, was by her side with a warm welcome for the friend she wished could be as happy as she was. She knew nothing of Leonie’s past, only Julie knew that, but she sensed sorrow and something else that she couldn’t quite understand that sometimes came through in her manner.
It was there tonight, so maybe when Leonie was asked to be godmother to their new little one when he arrived it might bring some happiness into her life.
Callum was observing the two of them from the other side of the room and from Melissa’s expression guessed the moment that the woman he loved had been dreading had arrived, and he sauntered across to the two of them and said casually to his hostess, ‘Can I borrow Leonie for a moment to introduce her to Julian’s replacement?’
‘Er, yes, of course,’ he was told, and as Melissa turned to greet another guest he guided Leonie towards the young registrar and as he did so she said in a low voice, ‘You don’t forget anything, do you, Callum?’
He smiled a twisted smile. ‘If that is the case we have something in common as there is certainly something bugging you etched in your memory for all time, isn’t there?’
She didn’t answer immediately and he repeated, ‘Isn’t there?’
‘Yes, there is, and it wouldn’t be so difficult to share with you if you weren’t so perfect.’
‘Perfect! Me? I am far from that. I can be a pain sometimes.’
‘Not to me, never to me.’
‘So why don’t you trust me enough to unburden yourself of whatever it is that hurts so much?’
She turned away from his searching glance. ‘I don’t know except that the words won’t come when I want to do so.’
He sighed. ‘All right, have it your way for now. So let’s catch the new guy while he’s free and I’ll introduce you, but I can’t keep butting in when you’re chatting to Melissa. They have already asked me to be godfather and I’ve said yes, so now the ball is in your court. If your reluctance is anything to do with not wanting us to be together on that occasion I can’t think why if I’m supposed to be so perfect!’
For the rest of the evening she was spared having to refuse the invitation that Callum had already accepted because Ryan and Melissa were looking after their guests, and when she was ready to leave at close on midnight her hostess said, ‘The next time we meet I have something to ask of you, Leonie.’
She smiled, feigning ignorance.
Callum, who was close by, said, ‘I’ll get us a taxi, Leonie,’ and, when she would have protested, ‘You are not going home alone so don’t even think of it!’
When they were seated side by side in the vehicle he said, ‘So do I take it that you haven’t yet been asked to be godmother to the baby?’
She nodded, overcome by his nearness. Her gaze was on his hands, the hands that healed the broken bones of children—other people’s children, never his own—and the longing to give him a child was making her weak with the force of it.
The short journey home was over. They were outside the yurt and above them the North Star, which from time immemorial had been trusted by travellers to guide them, was shining silver bright in the night sky and all around them was quietness and the smell of flowers.
It was a night for lovers, Leonie thought achingly, and she was in need of guidance, something to point her in the right direction regarding her love for Callum. At that moment she felt like throwing caution to the winds, wanting to reach out to him and tell him what he wanted to know, but would she still feel the same when the heat had left her and the longing was under control?
He was observing her questioningly, his dark hazel gaze trying to read her mind, and she told him, ‘The magic of the night is getting to me. The silence, the scent of the flowers and...’
Her voice trailed away and he said, ‘And what?’
‘You here beside me.’
‘So I’m not entirely out of favour?’
‘You never have been. I wasn’t the one who decided to give up on us.’
‘But you are the one who doesn’t trust me enough to tell me what it is that made me feel, without knowing the reason why, that I had to rescue you from Melissa when she was about to pop the question about the christening back there.’
She turned away. What he had just said was the unpalatable truth and she didn’t blame him for thinking as he did, but it seemed as if his life was an open book, while hers was a horror story, and she said over her shoulder, ‘Everything you say is true and I am so sorry, Callum.’
‘So don’t go! Stay here with me and we’ll talk about everything except the p
ast.’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t. The thought of it will still be there like a bad dream.’
He took her arm, swung her round to face him, and with their glances locking said, ‘One day you’re going to wish you had done me the courtesy of confiding in me.’ With that he took his leave, striding across the bridge, his back straight and unbending.
The phone was ringing when Leonie finally went inside. It was Julie on the line, sounding nothing like her usual calm self, as if the news she had to impart had wiped from her mind everything else, otherwise she might have hesitated before telling Leonie of all people that she was pregnant.
‘It will mean that we can’t afford to buy a house of our own just yet and will have to stay here in this flat for the time being, but we are so thrilled, Leonie.’ she said.
‘Yes, you must be,’ she agreed, ‘and I am so happy for you both.’ She was, but it didn’t stop her pillow being wet with tears as she lay beneath the bed covers.
An hour had passed and sleep was hard to come by. Callum’s last terse comment before he’d left her was taking over her mind, filling it with doubts and confusion, as if it wasn’t already.
She slipped a jacket on over her nightdress and went outside to stand in the silence that was only broken by the sound of water skipping over rocks that had been there for centuries in the river bed.
The bridge, only feet away, was well lit for the benefit of those who crossed it at night and she went to stand on it to view Callum’s apartment.
It was in darkness and her melancholy increased. It made her feel more shut away from him than ever, but who was to blame for that? Not him.
The sound of young voices broke into her thoughts, shouts of glee and laughter coming from the river below, and when she looked down she saw two teenage boys were trying to steer a homemade raft that looked a lot less than safe in the direction of where the hotel stood on the river bank beside a weir. There was a drop at the other side that would take them into deep water littered with rocks.
‘Boys. You must turn back, it isn’t safe!’ she cried, leaning over the rail of the bridge, but they just waved the frying pans that they were using as oars and sailed on.
In a flash Leonie was off the bridge and running along the path beside the river, trying to catch up with them and shouting all the time for them to turn back, but it was too late. The current was much stronger as it flowed nearer to the weir and the flimsy raft was totally out of their control as it went over the drop on the other side.
As she finally drew level there was the sight of the wreckage floating on top of the water and one of the boys, face down and unmoving, being swept along into deeper water while the other one was struggling to get to the bank.
After flinging off her jacket, she bent and tied a large knot in the hem of her nightdress to stop it from ballooning around her and prepared to jump in as the other lad reached the safety of the bank.
‘Midge is going to drown, isn’t he?’ he cried hysterically.
‘Not if I can help it,’ she told him grimly.
‘There’s a guy!’ he cried, pointing towards the opposite bank, but Leonie didn’t hear him. She was already swimming towards his injured friend.
* * *
Instead of going straight to the apartment when he’d left Leonie, Callum had gone to the hotel and had lingered, with no wish to be alone with his thoughts, until at last he had reluctantly left for the short walk back that took him past the weir.
He was stopped in his tracks by a frightened young voice calling to him from the other side, telling him that a lady had gone into the river to try to rescue his friend, that they’d been on a raft and she’d been on the bridge. Callum was already half out of his jacket and kicking off his shoes.
‘All right, stay there!’ he bellowed as he threw himself into the water, ‘and if you’ve got a phone that isn’t waterlogged, call for an ambulance!’
He consoled himself at the same time with the thought that Leonie would be long asleep, so the head he could see bobbing up and down way ahead of him wouldn’t be hers, would it?
* * *
She had reached the boy and was trying to turn him over as she made for the bank but he was a dead weight and not a slim kid by any means, and when a voice spoke from behind her she almost let the lad go in the shock of it because it was Callum’s voice!
‘I’ll take over, Leonie. You make for the bank. What on earth are you doing here at this hour?’ Are you trying to give me a heart attack?’
She obeyed him, just as amazed as he was, and when he brought the lad to the bank and the two of them began to work on him desperately it seemed like that other time when it had been the motorcyclist that had brought them together unexpectedly.
It was like an eternity before the boy began to cough up river water and opened his eyes, and they exchanged damp smiles above his head, which was bloodied as if he had hit a rock or some similar object as he’d fallen off the raft.
Leonie was beginning to shiver and Callum wished he had something warm and dry to wrap around her, deciding that when this was sorted he was going to take her back to his place.
At that moment they heard the siren of a fast-approaching ambulance and he thought thankfully that the other kid must have found his phone useable. He knew she would want him to see to the injured teenager before anything else, but they were both soaking wet and he wanted no harm to come to her.
When the paramedics had carried their young patient carefully on board the ambulance, covered with blankets, and had provided Leonie with one to wrap around herself, they picked up his friend from the opposite bank and did the same for him.
When that was done Callum told them to take the two boys to the children’s hospital with all speed, that he would follow on after getting cleaned up and into some dry clothes, and that in the meantime he would get in touch with Ryan, who was in charge of Neurology, and ask him to go there as soon as possible as the boy had lapsed into unconsciousness again and there was a deep gash on his head.
Leonie was blue with cold in a soaking wet nightdress in what were the chilliest hours of the night, but she would have protested at them not accompanying the young rafter all the way to the hospital. Callum, reading her mind, said, ‘It is the sensible thing to do, us going to get dry and into fresh clothes, and then I’ll follow the ambulance without delay.’
She nodded. He was right, of course, though she would rather have gone straight to the yurt to get cleaned up and into some dry clothes instead of his apartment. But once again they’d been a team, the two of them working together for the good of others but never getting any closer to each other,
Just thinking about what had happened to her brought a bitter taste to her mouth that had nothing to do with any river water she might have swallowed. It was because of the tricks that fate had played on her by letting her meet Adrian Crawley and be seduced by him when there were men like Callum in the world.
She often thought that to be able to have his children would be joy unspeakable and as she didn’t want to keep them any further apart by refusing to go to his place she said, ‘I hope that you’re going to be able to find me something to wear!’
He was in the process of phoning Ryan before they left the ambulance to explain what had happened, and went on to tell him that he was going to the apartment to get cleaned up before going to the hospital, but would be there with all speed as the emergency, which on the face of it was neurological, could have orthopaedic problems as well.
‘And so how is Leonie, the heroine of the hour?’ his friend asked.
‘Cold and exhausted,’ was the reply, ‘and looks as if she might be developing a fever. I’m taking her where I can keep an eye on her and will be in touch again soon.’
* * *
They were in the apartment, wet and bedraggled, with Leonie’s blanket trailing behind her. It might have seemed comical in other circumstances, Callum thought grimly, but not tonight.
The boy, Midge, co
uld have drowned out there if she hadn’t swum out to him and so could she. The water was unbelievably deep at the other side of the weir and if he had lost her he would have gone insane.
The moment they were inside Leonie had sunk down onto a chair, and aware of the state she was in he went to run a bath for her immediately and left a robe and pyjamas near for her to put on when she’d had a long warm soak.
‘I don’t need those things,’ she told him weakly. ‘I’m coming with you.’
‘No way!’ he told her. ‘I’ve made you a warm drink and as soon as you are out of the bath it must be into bed in the master bedroom at the front of the building.’
‘And where will you sleep when you come back?’
His smile was wry. ‘No need to panic. I’ll be in the guest room.’ He frowned. ‘I wish I didn’t have to leave you in this state, feverish and exhausted.’
‘Just go and see to the boy,’ she said softly. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘All right,’ he agreed. ‘As soon as I’ve whizzed in and out of the shower I’ll be off. And, Leonie, make sure you have your phone handy while I’m gone.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
WHEN HE ARRIVED at the hospital the first boy was waiting for his parents to arrive, having been cleaned up, found dry clothing, and in the meantime was enjoying his brief moment of notoriety, until his father arrived and told him off big time for sneaking out of the house to do something so dangerous.
Callum had gone straight to Theatre and when he and Ryan reappeared they had to tell Midge’s parents that he had a deep head wound that was being scanned before they made any diagnosis.
‘What about the nurse who rescued our son?’ his mother asked anxiously into the silence that had fallen on the waiting room. ‘Is she all right?’
‘Er, Leonie Mitchell is not too well at the moment due to the after-effects of what happened,’ he told them, ‘but is most concerned about your son.’
‘You can go to him while we’re waiting for the result,’ Ryan told the parents. ‘He has regained consciousness and is talking normally to the nurses who are with him, and as soon as we have news for you we’ll be back.’
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