by Joanna Neil
‘I saw you with him this afternoon, when you were coming from the park. You can’t deny that you were together. I was on my way to see Amy, and I saw you. He had his arm around you and you made a very cosy trio.’
He gazed down at her, his glance lingering on the softness of her mouth. ‘He’s married, Emma. You have to remember that. He’s not for you. You should concentrate your attentions on someone who’s available, someone who doesn’t have any ties.’
She stared at him, light dawning in her eyes. ‘Is that what this is all about?’ she said, her mind whirling. ‘You think that I’m involved with Elliot?’
‘I don’t see any logical reason why he should have left Amy. I know they both say that things have gone wrong between them, but Amy has her doubts. She believes that he has found someone else.’
‘And that’s why you kissed me, isn’t it?’ Incensed, she glared at him, her body still reeling from the shock. ‘You thought you would entice me away from him and show me that there are other men around.’
His shoulders moved in a negligent shrug. ‘It wasn’t quite like that…but I’m not married. No one is going to be hurt if you should decide to take up with me.’
If you should decide…The words echoed through her mind. Didn’t he know how much he was hurting her with his casual, offhand play for her? She had always wanted him, cared for him, dared to hope that something might come of their relationship, and it was all for nothing, because he was just using her for his own ends, wasn’t he? She didn’t want him like this.
Emma wriggled away from him, and when he would have come after her she tensed her limbs, throwing up a barrier, every part of her warning him off. ‘Don’t flatter yourself that I would even give it a thought. What makes you think that you’re even in the frame? You caught me unawares, that’s all. Believe me, if I was looking for someone, you’d be the last person I’d turn to.’
He sent her a quizzical look. ‘This is just a misunderstanding. You’re getting yourself worked up over nothing.’
‘No, it isn’t a misunderstanding. I’m perfectly well aware of what you were trying to do, and I have to tell you that I resent being treated that way.’
She braced herself and faced him squarely. ‘I want you to go, now. Please, leave.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘WE’VE managed to cut her free from the wreckage of the car, Doctor,’ the fire officer said, ‘so whenever you’re ready, you should be able to move in and bring her out.’
‘That’s good. Thanks.’ Rhys turned to Emma and Martin. ‘OK, let’s get started, shall we? We need to work together on this. The pain medication Emma gave the patient seems to be working, so we’ll make a start by immobilising her spine with a backboard. Let’s try to get her into the helicopter as smoothly as possible.’
He went over to the car and spoke gently to the injured woman. ‘Sarah, can you hear me? Are you with me?’
The woman opened her eyes and nodded slightly, but didn’t say anything. She was a slim woman in her early forties, and up to now she had been vague about what exactly had happened to her. Emma was worried about that. All she appeared to know was that she had been driving along and then somehow she had crashed her car.
‘We’re going to get you out of there now. It looks as though your hip has dislocated, and there’s also a fracture to your leg, so this might be a little uncomfortable for you, but we’ll try to get you into a position that will be easier for you to cope with.’
The manoeuvre was a difficult one, but by acting as a team they succeeded in bringing the woman out of the tangled metalwork of the car and then they transferred her to the waiting helicopter. Chris, the copilot, radioed ahead to make sure that a surgeon would be standing by at the hospital to receive her and that a theatre would be made ready.
As they took off, Emma looked back at the place where the road curved slightly and the car had careered headlong into a brick wall. She saw it, but none of it made sense, and she couldn’t fathom out quite what was wrong. All day she had been battling with this sense of unreality. It was as though she was empty inside, as though nothing mattered any more.
‘You’re looking very subdued,’ Rhys commented, sending her a sidelong glance. ‘What’s wrong? Do you think we might have overlooked something, or left some equipment behind?’
Emma lifted her gaze to him. Didn’t he ever miss anything? He was obviously keeping a close eye on her. Perhaps her preoccupation was beginning to show, and that wasn’t good. It was one thing Rhys taking note, but it wouldn’t do for her colleagues to become aware that something was wrong, would it? She was here to do a job of work after all.
The day had not gone smoothly so far. They had been rushed off their feet, attending to emergencies one after the other, and she had done her best throughout to keep a clear head. It was difficult, though, to go on working so closely with Rhys in a calm and professional manner when her mind was taken up with the way he had kissed her back at the flat. How could he have done that? How could he have shown her the sweet taste of joy, and then let her down so badly, destroying everything?
He didn’t seem to be at all fazed by yesterday’s events, and that was annoying. It might be perfectly feasible for him to behave as though nothing had happened, but she was finding it far more of a problem.
‘I suppose I’m wondering why the accident happened at all,’ she said, reverting to safer ground. ‘The weather conditions are fine, and there was no dramatic bend in the road, or even a great deal of traffic about. The patient’s heart rate is fast, but there’s no underlying abnormal rhythm or any sign that points to what might have gone wrong. It all seems very odd.’
‘Perhaps she had an argument with her husband earlier, or maybe she was simply distracted.’ Rhys watched her in a steady fashion, a faint twist to his mouth. ‘It happens sometimes, especially where women are concerned. They seem to be just fine and then they go and get emotional and out of sorts, and all manner of things start to go wrong.’
Her green eyes sparked fitfully. Was that meant to be a dig at her? She glowered at him from under her lashes, but she wasn’t going to allow him to provoke her into saying something that she would regret later. If he thought she was emotional and uptight, he would learn that she could just as easily be the opposite. See how he coped with cool and withdrawn. She would teach him that he couldn’t make fun of her and get away with it.
She looked away and made an effort to control her breathing. Thank heaven her shift was due to come to an end any time now.
Back at the hospital, she handed her patient over to the surgical team and then went to change out of her uniform. When she went back into the main body of the unit a few minutes later, Rhys was waiting for her.
‘Are you planning on going to see Lindsey before you go home?’ he asked.
‘Yes, that’s right.’ She would have liked to walk straight past him, but people would have thought that odd. ‘Her friend is going to drop Kayla off at the hospital, and I said I would take her to see her mother.’
‘Then perhaps I’ll walk along with you. I’m meeting Amy at the lift bay downstairs. She has an appointment with a consultant and then she’s going on to have tea with my parents.’ He frowned. ‘The hospital appointments are ongoing. The specialist is trying to find a way to help her to break out of her depression.’
‘He doesn’t seem to be succeeding very well, does he?’
‘No, that’s true. No one seems to be able to get at the root cause of her troubles.’
Emma stared at him. Was he actually coming to believe that the accident at the restaurant wasn’t the beginning and end of everything?
He walked with her along the corridor. ‘I imagine you’re going straight home after you’ve seen Lindsey. It must make things difficult for you, having to cope with a small child, and it must be very limiting if you have to run your timetable around nursery school and so on. Isn’t her husband able to get home to help out?’
‘Not for a day or two. He’s out
of the country on business. I think they’re having some trouble getting hold of him.’ She pulled in a quick breath. ‘Anyway, I’m getting by well enough. Kayla’s a sweet little girl, and she’s no trouble at all.’
She paused, and then added, ‘Besides, I don’t have to go straight home today. I planned on spending an hour or two in the City first, looking around the shops. There are one or two things I need to buy, so Elliot said that he would call in at the hospital and take over from me.’
She waited a moment to let him absorb that. Already, a small line was digging itself a notch in his brow. ‘He has to come by here on his way to meet a client, you see. The girls are going to a birthday party, but Tracey’s mother has an errand to do first…it’s all a question of timing, really. Elliot said he was going that way and would drop Kayla off at her party so that I could go in the opposite direction.’
She sent him an oblique glance, gauging his reaction to the mention of Elliot’s name. If he really thought that she and Elliot were involved with one another, he could think about the arrangements they had made and stew in his own juice for a while. She wasn’t about to let him off lightly after the way he had treated her.
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t rise to the bait. ‘How is Lindsey doing?’ he asked instead.
‘She’s not doing too badly, I suppose. She was lucky that there were no other injuries, other than a degree of bruising internally. She’s being treated for acute pancreatitis, and that means she’ll have to stay in hospital for a few days yet. We’re hoping that she’ll make a full recovery.’
By now they had reached the lower floor of the hospital, and she said, ‘I have to go. I can see Tracey’s mother waiting for me by the door.’
She walked away from him, and didn’t look back, and she didn’t much care if he thought her parting from him was abrupt.
Kayla greeted her with a hug. She was overjoyed to be going to see her mother. ‘I want her to come home,’ she said, ‘and I want to see Samson as well.’
‘I know you do,’ Emma murmured. ‘At least they’re both feeling a little better now. Perhaps it won’t be too long before things are back to normal.’
The visit went well. Lindsey was feeling much stronger, and she had even managed to speak to her husband’s boss on the telephone. ‘They’re doing what they can to find him and bring him back,’ she told Emma. ‘He’s away somewhere, showing a group of Japanese visitors around the various projects, and the boss seems to think they’ve made a detour somewhere along the way. I thought perhaps they shouldn’t try to get in touch with him, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to manage too well on my own when I get home—not for a week or so, anyway.’
‘You know that I’ll do whatever I can to help,’ Emma murmured, and Lindsey nodded, giving her an appreciative smile.
They left a while later, when Lindsey started to get tired, and Emma walked with the child to the cafeteria, where she had arranged to meet Elliot.
She was surprised to see Rhys in there, sitting at a table with Amy, and for a moment or two she dithered, wondering whether she ought to leave.
It wasn’t her way to turn her back on trouble, though. When she had purchased cake and milk for Kayla, she took her tray and approached them cautiously, looking for a table but glancing at the woman who had once been her friend.
Rhys’s sister was attractive, her long black hair plaited into a neat style at the back of her head and pinned up with clips, lending emphasis to the slender line of her neck and the perfect shape of her cheekbones. Her features were strained, though, and she was pale, with shadows beneath her eyes.
‘Would you like to join us?’ Rhys asked.
Emma hesitated, but then said, ‘Thank you. That would be good.’ She didn’t want to refuse an opportunity to make up with her one-time friend.
Rhys pulled out a chair for her, and another for Kayla, while Emma put down the tray and then searched in her bag for a colouring pad and pencils. She had learned that it was a good idea to be prepared where children were concerned, and now she handed them to the little girl.
‘Hello, Amy,’ she said with a smile as she sat down. ‘I didn’t expect to run into you here, but it’s good to meet up, isn’t it?’
Amy frowned, but said nothing.
Emma tried again. ‘It’s been such a long time since I saw you last. How have you been getting along?’
Amy still didn’t respond, but instead she looked uneasy, drawing back a little. She stared awkwardly at Kayla, a wary look coming into her grey eyes, and Emma realised that she was probably very guarded around children since she had come to believe that she couldn’t have any of her own. Perhaps any child served as a reminder of that loss.
‘This is my neighbour’s little girl,’ Emma murmured. ‘I’m taking care of her while her mother’s in hospital.’
‘I see.’
Emma frowned. Amy was monosyllabic and this was turning out to be much more difficult than she could ever have envisaged. She glanced quickly at Rhys, and he said quietly, ‘They’ve just been to see Kayla’s mother. She was injured and she’s staying on a ward on the third floor. Emma and I went to help her when the train was derailed.’
‘I read about that in the papers.’
It was a start. At least she was talking, and Emma said quickly, ‘It was a horrible business. Some people were really badly hurt.’ Her expression was thoughtful as she looked at Amy, and she asked, ‘How are you feeling these days? I know that you’ve been quite low in yourself, but have you recovered from the physical injuries?’
‘I still walk with a bit of a limp,’ Amy answered stiffly. ‘It seems to be taking a long time for me to get over it.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Emma frowned. ‘I didn’t realise that there was any lasting problem. Is there anything that can be done to make things easier for you?’
‘I think they’ve tried everything that there is to try.’
Rhys interrupted at this point, and said, ‘Amy is having physiotherapy. There was some scar tissue left after her operation, and the treatment is designed to free everything up.’
Emma nodded. ‘These things can take quite some time.’ As she said it, she was aware that Amy was looking towards the door of the cafeteria, and now her face had begun to lose what little colour it had had to begin with. She guessed that Elliot had walked in.
Elliot came over to them, and said with a frown, ‘I didn’t realise that you would be here, Amy. I came to meet Emma. I promised that I would drop Kayla off at a birthday party.’ He hesitated, looking uncomfortable. ‘How are things? Did you manage to sort out the problem with the workmen the other day?’
Amy’s mouth made a straight line. ‘You came to meet Emma? How very cosy.’ Her shoulders stiffened. ‘It turns out that I was right all along, wasn’t I? I thought there was something going on.’
He looked at her blankly, and Emma leaned forward and said softly, ‘It isn’t what you think, Amy.’
Amy directed a laser sharp stare in Emma’s direction. ‘I wasn’t talking to you.’
Taken aback, Emma stared at her, sucking in a sharp breath. Then she collected herself and stumbled to her feet. She was upset, tormented by the scarcely veiled accusation Amy had made, and shocked because of the cold way Amy had spoken to her.
Determined to hide the true extent of what she was feeling, she said in a careful tone, ‘Kayla, we should go and wait over by the door. Bring your colouring book with you. I think Amy and Elliot need to talk for a while.’ She picked up the child’s plate and the half-empty glass of milk and walked away.
There was a table by the exit, and Emma went over to it and sat down, letting Kayla trail after her.
‘I haven’t finished colouring the teddy bear,’ Kayla objected.
‘That’s all right. Sit down and you can finish it now.’
Rhys came to join them and Emma’s brows drew together. ‘Doesn’t your sister need your support?’
He shook his head. ‘You were perfectly right
in what you said.’
She sent him a quick glance. Was he giving her the benefit of the doubt, and finally coming to the realisation that nothing was going on between her and Elliot? ‘Was I?’
‘Yes. She needs to spend some time alone with her husband.’
Emma gritted her teeth. ‘Then perhaps I’ll give the shopping a miss and take Kayla to the party myself. I just need to call in at A and E before I leave.’
‘Why is that?’
Her mouth firmed with exasperation at having to explain herself to him. ‘I’ve been giving some thought to that last patient and the car crash, and I want to have a word with the team that’s treating her.’
‘Is this to do with the reason for the crash?’
‘Yes. When I spoke to the woman first of all, she said something about feeling dizzy and having a headache, but her voice was slurred and I thought it was just that she was confused after the accident. Now I’m beginning to wonder if I heard her right. If she was trying to tell me that she had been suffering from those symptoms for some time before the accident, then it could be that there was a medical cause behind the crash after all.’
He was thoughtful for a moment or two. ‘You might have something there. It certainly won’t hurt for them to do a neurological work-up on her once she’s recovered from the surgery.’ He gave her a narrowed stare. ‘It just goes to show how your mind keeps ticking over when you’re preoccupied with other things, doesn’t it? I’m sure you’ve had lots of unrelated matters to deal with since we handed her over to A and E, but your brain is still busy trying to figure things out.’
‘That’s true.’ She hesitated. ‘The same probably applies to you. After all, you’re most likely fully aware of what’s going on between your sister and Elliot right now, even though you’re standing here, talking to me. I know it because I see you looking their way from time to time, and I’m pretty sure that you’re taking everything in. Even so, you aren’t showing any signs of wanting to go back to help her out.’