‘Daniel!’ she shouted as she stepped inside the room. ‘Where are you?’
There was no reply so she stumblingly made her way further into the room. The heat was growing more intense as the fire spread. Flames had danced down the curtains and were racing along the worktop like a red-hot river. Fumes and smoke stung her eyes, making it difficult to see, but she refused to give up until she was sure the child wasn’t still in there.
‘Daniel! Daniel!’ she cried again, then coughed as she sucked in a lungful of smoke. The fire alarm was ringing in the background now, its shrill sound increasing her sense of urgency. When her foot caught on something lying on the floor she could have wept with relief as she realised it was the little boy.
She knelt beside him, her head swirling from lack of oxygen as she attempted to pick him up. He was sturdily built and quite big for his age, and she couldn’t seem to lift him up from the floor. Summoning all her reserves, she tried again but she just didn’t have the strength to pick him up. The acrid fumes were clogging her lungs now, making her head feel woozy, and she knew that she was going to pass out. Somehow she had to summon assistance before it was too late.
‘Help! Someone, please, help me!’
The words were hardly out of her mouth when she felt herself being lifted into the air. In a daze she stared into a pair of familiar grey eyes, wondering if she were dreaming.
‘Mark…?’ She couldn’t go on as a cough racked her.
‘Don’t try to talk, darling,’ he ordered thickly, carrying her into the corridor. ‘You’re safe now. I’ve got you.’
‘Daniel…’ she began, struggling to make him understand, although it was an effort to speak. Her lungs seemed to be full of liquid fire, burning each time she tried to draw any air into them.
‘Tom’s got him. He’ll be fine.’ Mark’s tone was so grim that her heart seemed to shrivel inside her. Would he ever forgive her for what he thought she’d done?
It seemed unlikely and she felt tears fill her eyes. Suddenly it was all too much to cope with, Mark’s anger and the fire. She turned her face into his chest so that he couldn’t see her tears. She was vaguely aware of other people milling about as he carried her along the corridor…firemen, staff, some of the children…
She gasped, struggling frantically to be put down. ‘Robbie! Where is he? I have to find him.…’
‘He’s fine, Laura. Madge Bickerstaffe has him. Everyone is safe.’
Mark didn’t falter, looking neither to left nor right as he carried on walking, and the crowd parted as though by magic to let him through. Laura had no idea where he was taking her and didn’t ask. It didn’t seem to matter so long as Robbie and Daniel and the other children were safe.
Mark kicked open the door to the doctors’ lounge with scant regard for the paintwork. Putting Laura down on one of the battered old couches, he went straight to the phone. His tone was terse to the point of rudeness as he spoke into the receiver.
‘I want oxygen brought to the doctors’ lounge immediately. And tell James Kershaw to get down here as fast as he can.’
He replaced the receiver then came back to the couch and stared down at her with an expression on his face she found impossible to interpret. She closed her eyes in sudden agony, wondering why she was even bothering to work out what he was thinking. In the past few awful days, Mark had made it only too clear what he thought of her!
‘If you ever do anything like that to me again, Laura, I promise you that I won’t be held responsible for my actions! I thought I’d lost you.’
Her eyes flew open as she heard the anguish in his voice and she felt her heart lurch to a stop. She didn’t want to believe what her eyes were telling her because if she was wrong then it was going to be too painful.…
She wet her lips but her voice sounded so thin and cracked when it emerged that she barely recognised it. ‘W-would it have mattered, Mark?’
‘Of course it would!’ He sank down onto the cushion beside her and dragged her into his arms, holding her so tightly that she could feel his heart pounding beneath her breasts. ‘Don’t you know how much I love you, Laura? Don’t you realise that you’re the most precious thing in the whole world to me?’
Her eyes misted as she heard what he said. It was more than she could have hoped for in view of what had happened. Had he realised at last that she’d never tried to deceive him?
Her body shook because the answer was so important to her that she hardly dared ask him. ‘But what about the other day and what…what you said?’ She couldn’t bring herself to repeat the accusations he’d made, didn’t need to as she heard him groan.
‘I was hurt and confused and I should be shot for saying something like that to you, my love! But I’ve come to my senses now.’
He tipped her head up so that he could look into her eyes, and she felt her pulse leap as she saw the sincerity in his. There was no doubting that he meant every word he said. ‘I know you didn’t make love to me for any reason other than it was the right thing to do. I know that you weren’t trying to find yourself a meal ticket because it would never enter your head to do such a thing.’
He took a deep breath and his voice seemed to grate with a new depth. ‘I know that I love you, Laura. That I need you. That I can’t face the thought of a future without you in it. I know all that but I don’t know how you feel.’
She bit her lip as the old fears resurfaced for a moment. Yet as she looked into Mark’s eyes she knew that she was lost. Right or wrong, she couldn’t lie to him about something so important!
‘I love you, too, Mark,’ she admitted softly. She smiled as she raised her hand and cupped his cheek. ‘I love you so much that it hurts!’
‘Oh, darling!’
His lips were hungry and full of passion yet the kiss was laced with that tenderness which was such an intrinsic part of him. Laura responded blindly, willingly, but it was over all too soon.
Mark determinedly set her away from him, although she could see lines of strain bracketing his mouth. ‘No, I can’t do this!’
‘Do what? Kiss me?’
She couldn’t hide her surprise and she heard him laugh. There was a wicked gleam in his eyes but it didn’t disguise all the other things she could see there as well.
‘Uh-huh. It would be totally unethical to take advantage of a sick woman!’ He looked round as a knock came at the door, sparing her from having to think up a suitable retort. ‘That will be the cavalry, I expect. We shall continue this later—when you’re in a fit state.’
He treated her to a smile which almost made her melt, then turned to greet the dark-haired man who had put his head round the door. ‘Glad you could make it, James. Laura has been playing the heroine and I want you to check her over. She must have inhaled a lot of smoke in that kitchen.’
‘Mmm, I heard you’d had a bit of a fire.’ James Kershaw, the senior registrar on the chest ward, grinned as he came over to the couch. ‘Hi, Laura. From the look of you, you don’t appear to be suffering too many ill effects from your escapades, although I’ll need to keep you in for observation just to be on the safe side.’
He glanced at Mark and winked. ‘A bit of my skill and a large dose of TLC and she should be right as rain tomorrow.’
‘Well, I’m more than willing to provide the TLC, although maybe it would be better to wait until she’s discharged from your ward, James. We might raise a few eyebrows if I got too carried away with my role!’
James laughed as Laura blushed furiously, although her heart was behaving shamelessly at the thought of the tender loving care Mark intended to dole out!
A nurse appeared just then with a wheelchair, and Mark helped her up from the couch. Within a very short time Laura found herself sitting in the chair, an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth assisting her breathing.
Mark dropped a kiss onto her forehead, totally unconcerned by the amused glances James and the nurse exchanged. ‘Just take it easy and rest, darling. I’ll be in to see you tomorrow m
orning. Now, I’d better collect Robbie and take him home.’
Laura’s eyes said what she couldn’t over the mask, and he squeezed her hand. They didn’t need words, she realised, her heart overflowing as she saw the love in his eyes. They didn’t need anything so mundane to say what needed to be said. Her lungs might be suffering but her heart felt better than it had felt for ages!
She turned to wave before she was wheeled into the lift and felt herself fill up with emotion when she saw him standing there, holding Robbie’s hand. They looked so right somehow, as though they were meant to be together. Maybe they were. Love had a knack of overcoming all kinds of obstacles. Suddenly she knew that her fears were just that, fears, not realities. As long as she and Mark were together, they could work anything out!
EPILOGUE
TWO MONTHS LATER…
‘So, what do you think? Is it or isn’t it just perfect?’
Mark made no attempt to hide his delight, and Laura smiled. He’d been very secretive ever since they’d set off that morning, telling her that he had something he wanted to show her and that it was a surprise. She’d been on pins as they’d driven across town, wondering what it could be, but she’d never dreamed it would be anything as wonderful as this!
‘It’s beautiful…really lovely, but—’
‘But me no buts, as the saying goes!’ He kissed the tip of her nose then took hold of her hand. ‘Just tell me that you would love to live here as much as I would.’
‘Of course I would! Who wouldn’t?’ She took a deep breath as she stared at the exquisite little stone cottage in front of them. Sometimes she felt that she should pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming because the past two months had been, quite simply, the best time of her life.
When she’d left hospital after being given the all-clear after the fire, she’d moved straight back into Mark’s flat. He’d insisted and, frankly, Laura had seen no reason not to. She’d wanted to be with him as much as he’d wanted her there, so what would have been the point in waiting?
However, it had soon become apparent that living in the flat would have to be a temporary measure as it had simply been too crowded with the three of them there. It had been Mark who’d suggested that she should think about selling her house. He would sell his flat and they would buy another property together.
Laura had agreed without hesitation. It was time to move on and build a new life for herself. She would never forget Ian and would always cherish the time they’d had together, but she couldn’t live in the past and waste the future, the future she and Mark were planning together.
With them both working, and looking after Robbie in their free time, it hadn’t been easy to go house-hunting so she’d never suspected that this was the surprise Mark had had in store for her. Now she turned to him with a mock-ferocious scowl.
‘How come you managed to find this place without saying anything to me?’ she demanded.
‘Oh, I have my ways!’ He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, grinning as he felt her immediate response. He rubbed his lips up the side of her cheek, let them drift to the soft curls at her temples, let them linger…
Laura pulled back and glared at him, although her heart was beating so hard that he must have heard it. ‘You are not going to sidetrack me this time, Mark Dawson!’
‘I see. Well, if I can’t have my wicked way with you, I suppose I’ll have to tell you the whole story.’ He smiled as he took hold of her hand again and led her up the path to the door of the cottage, where he produced a large iron key. ‘Let’s go inside and make ourselves comfortable first, though.’
‘But won’t the owners mind…?’ she began, and heard him chuckle. She turned to face him, her hands on her hips. ‘Come on, you wretched man, tell me what’s going on!’
Mark led the way inside and walked right to the centre of the first room they came to. He took a long look around before he spoke. ‘The owners won’t mind because we’re the new owners, Laura. Or we shall be if you decide you want the cottage. It belongs to Tom Hartley but he’s decided to sell it and has given us first refusal.’
‘Really?’ Laura gulped. She looked round in a daze, taking stock of the oak beams and polished wooden floor, the diamond-paned window which gave a wonderful view of the river. ‘I don’t know how he can bear to sell it,’ she exclaimed.
Mark shrugged, although his expression was momentarily sombre. ‘With Tom going to Boston on the exchange programme, he won’t have any need of the place. He was thinking about renting it out but suddenly decided that he would sell up as he isn’t sure he wants to come back here.’
Laura sighed as she went to the window. ‘Because of him and Rachel splitting up, you mean?’
‘Probably. I wish things could have worked out for them but Rachel seems to think it would be impossible in view of Bethany’s animosity towards Tom. Even though she’s slowly getting used to the artificial limb, it can’t be easy for the poor kid, I don’t suppose,’ he added.
‘And, typically, Rachel has put Bethany’s feelings first.’ Laura sighed then shrugged philosophically. ‘Well, only Rachel can decide what she must do, even though I wish things could have worked out for her and Tom. However, if Tom is set on selling the cottage then I can’t think of anywhere I would like to live more. Robbie will just love it here!’
‘Won’t he just?’ Mark smiled as he slid his arms around her waist. He nuzzled the nape of her neck with a loving kiss then let his chin rest on the top of her head. ‘This is the perfect spot for children, Laura.’
She heard the question in his voice and took a deep breath. They had talked through her fears at length, and talking about the problem had clarified her feelings and helped her put them into perspective. ‘It would. When we start a family of our own, there’ll be plenty of space for them to play.’ She turned into his arms and kissed him quickly. ‘However, there’s one very important thing we need to decide first.’
Mark’s face darkened with momentary pain. ‘Darling, you aren’t still worried about having another handicapped child, are you? You know what Niall Gillespie said—that the chances of you having another Down’s child are very remote and that you’ll be offered all kinds of tests.’
He brushed a kiss over her mouth, although he was still frowning when he drew back. ‘And you know how I feel, that I would love our child unconditionally, just as I love Robbie.’
‘I know.’ She slid her arms around his waist and hugged him, wondering how she’d been so lucky as to find such a wonderful man as him.
‘So what is it, then? I love you, you love me, we love each other—what more do we need?’
Laura laughed softly as he calmly dismissed the idea of there being any problems in the way of their happiness. ‘Nothing, except that I’m a bit old-fashioned in some respects. I want us to be married before we have this great big family you’re planning, Mark Dawson. Is that a problem?’
‘Not from where I’m standing. In fact, I’m way ahead of you.’
He suddenly dropped onto one knee, his expression both tender and comical as he looked up at her. ‘Will you do me the honour of marrying me, Laura?’ He fumbled in his pocket and withdrew a small velvet box, opening the lid with a flourish. ‘As an added inducement, I bought you this.’
Laura gasped. ‘This’ turned out to be the most exquisite solitaire diamond ring she had ever seen! She couldn’t think of a thing to say as Mark rose to his feet and took her hand. Easing the ring from its satin cushion, he slid it onto the third finger of her left hand and, of course, it was a perfect fit! Raising her hand to his lips, he kissed her knuckles and there was no hint of teasing in his voice now.
‘I want this ring to be a symbol of how much I love you, Laura. I want you to know that finding you has made my life complete.’
‘Oh, Mark!’
She kissed him, tears of joy and happiness streaming down her face. She laughed as he handed her his handkerchief.
‘Thanks! Silly to cry when you’re so hap
py, isn’t it? The ring is just lovely and, yes, I’ll marry you. I can’t think of anything I want more. I feel the same about you, that finding you has made my world complete.’
She blew her nose then laughed again. ‘Wait until Robbie finds out about this. He loves weddings!’
‘Oh, he already knows,’ Mark informed her airily. He grinned when she opened her mouth. ‘I explained it to him this morning on the way to Claire’s. I expect she and Sean know all about it by now, not to mention Ben and little Amy, although maybe the baby won’t find the news all that exciting.’
‘You did? And they all know? But…but you didn’t know if I would say yes…’ she began, but he just grinned.
‘Didn’t I?’ He hugged her close, stopping her from saying anything else in the most satisfying way possible. His eyes were shimmering when they drew apart, full of love and a wealth of tenderness. ‘I know how much you love me, Laura. That isn’t bragging or being blasé, just a statement of fact.’
‘Mmm, and to think that a couple of months ago you were worried that I was only after a free meal ticket,’ she teased, loving the fact that they could now joke about it.
‘I still can’t believe that I was such an idiot! Although I had come to my senses—and before the fire, I might add.’
‘Had you?’ A frown puckered her brow.
He sighed as he led her to the sofa. ‘Yes. I know we haven’t really spoken about this since then. We didn’t need to because you realised that I knew I’d been wrong.’
His face darkened. ‘I should have guessed that Cathy had been causing trouble, but I was just so shocked when I overheard what you said that day that I couldn’t seem to think straight. I suppose it had something to do with how fast it had all happened. I never expected to fall in love virtually at first sight, but that’s what happened when I met you.’
‘Was it?’ Laura smiled smugly at him.
‘You know it was!’ he retorted with a rueful laugh. ‘You dropped into my arms that first morning and from then on I was putty in your dainty little hands!’ He kissed her quickly then drew back, a slight frown marring his brow.
A Very Special Child Page 21