‘We’ll be fine,’ Holly assured him. ‘We won’t take any risks.’
‘Make sure you don’t!’ he warned.
She and Ben left the office together, stopping en route to collect their equipment. Holly wriggled into the bright green suit and zipped it up then pulled on a fluorescent yellow vest emblazoned with the word DOCTOR across the back. A lightweight safety helmet came next and then she was ready to leave.
‘What about your boots?’ Ben looked pointedly at her feet. ‘You can’t go tramping about in the wood in those.’
‘Drat! I forgot. I’d better change them.’ She grabbed her boots off the shelf and sat down on the bench to change out of the comfortable shoes she wore around the hospital.
‘Here you go.’ Ben crouched in front of her and pulled the leather tongue out of the left boot to loosen the laces.
‘Thanks, but I can manage,’ she protested, trying to take the boot from him.
‘It isn’t a problem,’ he assured her, his fingers cupping her heel as he lifted her foot off the floor and guided it into the boot.
Holly bit her lip as a rush of heat spread from her foot and raced up her leg. She quickly slid her right foot into the other boot before he could help her and laced them both up. Ben was waiting by the door when she finished and she summoned a carefree smile as she joined him.
‘Good practice for when you next play Prince Charming, eh?’
‘Something like that,’ he replied rather gruffly.
Holly shot him a wary look as they let themselves into the garage. Had he been annoyed by that flippant remark or was there something else bothering him? She sighed as she opened the car door and climbed into the passenger seat because once again she was falling into the trap of worrying how Ben felt. She had to remember to distance herself, keep it in mind that they were colleagues now instead of partners.
She carefully kept that thought in the forefront of her mind as Ben drove away from the hospital. Although she’d never attended a plane crash before, she’d read about the types of injuries they might encounter. Crush injuries would be one of their main problems, along with multiple fractures. Then there could be open wounds plus burns if the plane had caught fire. She and Ben could find themselves dealing with any or all of those and it was a little bit scary as well as exciting to think about what lay ahead.
‘Ever been to a plane crash before?’ Ben suddenly asked.
‘No, never. How about you?’
‘Me neither.’ He turned and grinned at her and she felt her heart kick in an extra beat when she saw the excitement in his eyes. ‘Think we’ll cope?’
‘Of course,’ she replied, trying to inject a note of firmness into her voice, no easy feat when her insides felt as though they were melting into mush. Ben’s smile had always had the power to affect her and it was just as potent now as it had ever been.
‘Mmm, good to hear you sounding so confident.’
‘I wouldn’t dare admit it even if I was scared stiff!’ she countered pithily. ‘You were the one who drummed it into me that I had to learn to trust my own judgement if I hoped to survive this type of work, don’t forget.’
‘Oh, I haven’t forgotten. It’s just that life has a nasty habit of knocking you back when you least expect it. Still, I’m glad to hear that you’re feeling up to the challenge because it doesn’t sound as though today’s little incident is going to be a picnic.’
Holly frowned because there seemed to be more to that comment than had first appeared. Had Ben’s confidence been rocked in the past couple of years by something that had happened to him?
It was hard to accept because he’d always been so sure of himself and his own ability. To imagine him suffering any kind of doubts simply didn’t gel with the image she had of him. She shot him a careful look but he was concentrating on the traffic as they approached the motorway and she bit her lip in a quandary of indecision. She could ask him to explain, of course, but would it be wise to do that when just a few minutes ago she’d resolved to keep her distance?
It was hard to decide what to do and in the end she was forced to let the matter drop because they’d reached the slip road where the police were waiting for them. However, as Ben drew up to speak to an officer, she knew that she couldn’t just forget what he’d said. If something had happened to rock Ben’s legendary confidence then it had to be something really momentous. It was difficult enough to deal with that idea but even harder to cope with the one that followed it: had it been that event which had made him decide to end their relationship?
Holly’s heart began to drum as they set off again because the thought that Ben might not have wanted them to split up if he’d had a choice had changed everything.
‘We’ll need to get them out of there. How long will it be before the fire brigade gets here?’
Ben waited while the police officer consulted his colleagues. They’d had to park the vehicles on the edge of the wood and travel the rest of the way on foot so they’d already lost a lot of valuable time. His main concern now was to get the passengers out of the plane so he and Holly could examine them but unfortunately the doors had jammed shut on impact. He shook his head when the policeman informed him that it would be another ten minutes before the fire crew arrived at the scene.
‘That’s far too long. We’ll have to get them out of there ourselves.’
He turned to Holly, steeling himself when he saw the expression on her face. What on earth had possessed him to pass that comment? He’d realised immediately that she’d picked up on it and it had been sheer good luck that he’d not had to explain because he doubted if he could have come up with anything plausible. He’d have to be more careful in future. He certainly didn’t want to tell her the truth at this stage when it would look as though he was trying to split up her and Josh by doling out some sort of a sob story.
‘Can you get on to Ambulance Control and tell them that we have five casualties? Explain that we haven’t been able to examine them yet but that we’re going to need ambulances standing by to ferry them to hospital.’
‘Will do.’
Holly took the radio out of their Thomas pack and moved away from the plane. He watched her press the call button a couple of times.
‘Can’t you get a signal?’
‘No. It must be the trees.’ She nodded her thanks when a policeman offered her his radio to use but the reception was no better on that. ‘I’ll try walking back up the path.’ she explained. ‘We passed a clearing on our way and I might be able to get a better signal there. Won’t be long.’
‘OK.’ Ben turned his attention to the plane as she hurried away, wishing he didn’t feel so relieved that he had some time on his own. He certainly wasn’t making a very good job of dealing with this situation despite his earlier resolve. One of the police officers had had the foresight to bring along a crowbar and between them they managed to force open the cockpit door. Ben leant inside the cockpit but it didn’t take him long to establish that the pilot was dead.
They lifted him out then Ben climbed in and checked the passengers next. Three were dead and the fourth, a man in his thirties, was in a very bad way. He shook his head when the police officer asked him how the man was.
‘Alive. That’s the best I can say. It’s difficult to tell what injuries he’s sustained until we get him out.’ He broke off when he heard someone shouting, feeling his heart leap right into his throat when he recognised Holly’s voice. He scrambled out of the plane and ran to meet her as she came racing out of the trees. ‘What’s happened?’
‘I’ve found a child in the clearing. It looks as though the plane must have hit a tree as it was coming down and sheared off some of the branches. The boy’s pinned beneath one of them and I can’t tell how badly injured he is.’
‘In that case, you’d better deal with him while I stay here. We’ve got four dead and one still alive, although it will be touch and go whether he survives.’ Ben glanced round when he heard voices coming from the trees and
sighed in relief when he saw the firemen heading towards them. ‘Looks like the cavalry has arrived at last so we should be able to make some headway.’
‘I’ll get one of them to go with me and take a look at this branch,’ Holly told him, hurrying away.
Ben ran back to the plane. The passenger was still alive but his vital signs weren’t good. He did what he could—oxygen and fluids, analgesics to relieve any pain, plus a neck brace to guard against any further damage when they lifted him out of the plane. The officer in charge of the fire crew decided there was too much fuel about to risk using the cutting gear so they had to manoeuvre the man out through the cockpit door and simply hope they wouldn’t make matters worse.
Ben checked him over again, feeling increasingly despondent as he logged up injury after injury. There was barely a bone in the poor fellow’s body that wasn’t broken and Ben didn’t rate his chances very highly. However, he did everything he could then passed him over to the paramedics and went to see how Holly was faring. He found her lying on the ground beside the child, talking to him while the firemen cut through the branch.
Ben ground to a halt, feeling his heart aching. It was like a rerun of the first time he’d ever seen her and the effect it had on him now was every bit as potent. He loved her so much yet he could never tell her that. Quite apart from the uncertainty of what the future might hold in store for him, there was the fact that the treatment he’d received for his cancer could have done all kinds of damage.
His consultant had warned him at the outset that the chemotherapy could leave him sterile and he’d never had the guts or the desire to find out if it had. He’d been offered the chance of having some of his sperm frozen and had agreed to it because it had seemed easier than arguing that there was no point. Everyone had kept telling him that it was the right thing to do and he simply hadn’t had the heart to explain that the only woman he’d ever wanted to have his babies now hated him.
He closed his eyes as huge wave of pain ripped through him. What a mess it all was, what a rotten, horrible mess!
‘Shh. You’re going to be fine. Don’t be scared now. You just squeeze my hand and we’ll soon have you out of there.’
Holly winced as the boy gripped her fingers. She glanced up to ask the firemen how much longer it would take to free him but the question got all tangled up in her throat when she suddenly spotted Ben standing on the edge of the clearing. There was an expression of such anguish on his face that her heart turned over. Coming on top of what had happened earlier, it was impossible to ignore it. No matter how risky it was to get involved, she knew that she wouldn’t rest until she found out what had happened to him.
The boy suddenly whimpered as the saw sliced through the last section of the branch and Holly quickly turned her attention back to him as the firemen lifted the branch out of the way. She quickly examined the boy but, amazingly, she couldn’t find any serious injuries. He had several nasty abrasions—one on his cheek and another on his arm where a large strip of skin had been shaved away—but she couldn’t find evidence of even a single broken bone.
‘How is he?’
Holly kept her gaze fixed on the child as Ben came hurrying over and squatted down beside her. Maybe it was cowardly but she wasn’t sure she’d be able to maintain her composure if he still looked upset. ‘Much better than I feared. Take a look yourself because I can’t find anything obviously wrong, apart from a few cuts and bruises, of course.’
She sat back on her heels and watched while Ben examined the boy. His hands moved systematically over the child, gently probing and testing his limbs, and a rush of heat assailed her as she recalled how those same hands had caressed her the other night. Despite their hunger for each other, Ben hadn’t rushed: he’d taken his time as he’d brought her body to life, touching her in ways no other man had ever done. He’d seemed to derive as much pleasure from it as she had, in fact, and that thought was another one that came with a question tagged on the end: why should he have been so moved by the experience if he didn’t still care about her?
‘He looks OK to me, although obviously we’ll need X-rays to confirm it,’ he announced at last, looking up.
‘Then let’s get him to hospital.’
Holly quickly schooled her face into a neutral expression as she stood up. She certainly didn’t want Ben to suspect what was going through her mind because she needed to find out the truth. Something told her that he would avoid giving her the answers she wanted if he could do so. The other night was a prime example of that, wasn’t it? He’d told her nothing apart from the fact that he’d lied about his reasons for ending their relationship, but she wasn’t going to let him get away again that easily a second time.
Ben went away to fetch the paramedics while Holly patched up the child’s cuts. She kept him talking to take his mind off what she was doing and quickly discovered that his name was Daniel Harris, that he was twelve years old and lived with his parents on the other side of the woods. When Ben came back with the paramedics, she relayed the information to them and they promised to radio it through to base so that someone could go to the boy’s home and tell his parents what had happened.
‘Aren’t you coming with me?’ Daniel demanded, clinging tightly to her hand as the paramedics picked up the stretcher. ‘I don’t want to go on my own!’
‘Yes, of course I’ll come if you want me to,’ Holly quickly assured him.
She turned to Ben, thinking that it might be a good idea if she travelled in the ambulance. Not only would it help to calm Daniel down but it would stop her being too premature and trying to cross-question Ben. Although she was desperate to hear what he had to say, she really needed to speak to him on his own, without any distractions. ‘You don’t mind if I go back in the ambulance, do you?’
‘Of course not. I’ll see you back at the hospital.’
There was a shade too much eagerness about the way he agreed to her request. Holly smiled rather grimly as she followed the paramedics along the path through the woods. Had Ben sensed something was going on? Her smile turned even grimmer because she was going to get to the bottom of this mystery. One way or the other!
It was way past the time she should have gone off duty when they arrived back at Dalverston General but Daniel pleaded with her to stay with him while his X-rays were taken and Holly didn’t have the heart to refuse. Ben popped into Resus as she was waiting for the films to show up on the screen, and told her that he would write up their report before he left.
Holly politely thanked him, hoping he couldn’t tell that her nerves were positively fizzing with impatience. This was neither the time nor the place to start a discussion but she promised herself that as soon as she’d finished then she would go straight round to Ben’s flat and have it out with him. They were both off duty over the weekend and there was no way that she could wait until Monday.
The X-rays confirmed that Daniel hadn’t broken any bones so Holly gave instructions that he could be discharged when his parents arrived. She moved him to a cubicle and left him in the care of one of the junior nurses, who happened to be the sister of one of his school friends. She was just about to leave at last when his parents arrived. They, quite naturally, were anxious to know what had happened so she ended up by taking them to the relatives’ room and telling them the whole story, from start to finish, so it was gone seven by the time she could make her escape. She hurried to the staffroom for her bag, almost knocking Lara over in her haste to leave before anything else cropped up.
‘That’s OK,’ Lara said cheerfully when she apologised. ‘Everyone’s in a rush tonight. I hope Ben managed to catch his train. There’s a massive traffic jam on the bypass so fingers crossed that he didn’t get caught up in it.’
‘Ben’s catching a train?’ Holly exclaimed. ‘Where to?’
‘He’s going to stay with his parents for a few days. Didn’t he mention it to you?’
‘No, he didn’t.’
‘Funny. Still, perhaps he thought you
had more important things on your mind, like a certain paramedic I could mention?’
Lara grinned at her and left. Holly sighed as she opened her locker. She should never have invited Josh to go for that pizza because it had caused more problems than it had solved. As for Ben, well, if she’d had any inkling that he was planning on going away that night then she would have insisted on talking to him earlier. Now she would have to wait until he came back and the thought of spending the weekend in such a state of uncertainty was more than she could bear. She wanted to get this sorted out because if they could only resolve their differences they might be able to try again.
She gasped in dismay. Was that what she really wanted? To be with Ben again? Was that why she was so desperate to get to the bottom of this mystery? Yet if they did get back together, would she ever be able to trust him again? She’d given him her love and her trust once before and he’d let her down.
Badly. Could she really see herself being brave enough to risk everything a second time?
A knot of pain suddenly formed in her heart because she couldn’t answer that question. It depended on so many other factors. She would have to wait and make up her mind after she’d spoken to Ben.
CHAPTER NINE
BEN spent the weekend at his parents’ house, pretending that his life was fine and that he couldn’t have been happier. He’d never been good at deceiving people so it was a strain, keeping up the act, but it was better than having to face Holly.
Maybe he’d misread the situation but he’d sensed that she’d had something on her mind when they’d attended that plane crash. He’d been so desperate to avoid any more difficult discussions that he’d phoned his mother as soon as he’d got back to the hospital and asked if he could go home for a visit. It had been sheer cowardice, to run away like that, but if it meant that he wouldn’t end up ruining Holly’s life by telling her the truth then it had been justified. Holly deserved someone better than him, someone who had a future to offer her and who could give her children.
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