She felt her lower lip quiver before she could stop it and quickly turned away, hating herself for letting him see that he had the power to upset her.
‘Oh, hell!’ He reached out, as though he was going to touch her, then let his hand fall to his side without actually making contact. ‘Look, Meg, I wasn’t trying to make you feel that I wanted Yvonne here instead of you,’ he ground out, as though the words had cost him an awful lot of effort.
Maybe they had, Meg thought with unaccustomed cynicism. It certainly couldn’t have been easy for Jack to lie for the sake of harmony within the team!
‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said with an insouciance which cost her even more. ‘I certainly shan’t!’
He didn’t actually grind his teeth but the effect was much the same. Her blue eyes widened when she saw myriad emotions cross his face at that moment. It was a measure of his strength of mind that he managed to control himself, but she was shaking in her boots.
Why in the name of all that was holy did she know that he’d been tempted…sorely tempted…to kiss her? She had no idea but the thought was enough to make her head spin.
‘I apologise, anyway. Goodnight.’
He strode away, leaving her standing there, staring after him. Meg took a tiny breath and let it trickle into her lungs. A bigger one might have helped but she didn’t seem capable of that. Breathing was an effort, thinking even more of one, but feeling…well, feeling was easy-peasy!
She shivered as a hot trickle worked its way up her spine, shuddered as a cold one flowed the other way. Hot and cold chills were suddenly racing through her body however they chose and she couldn’t stop them!
She closed her eyes and tried to subdue the little devils but that was a mistake of gigantic proportions. Jack’s face suddenly filled her mind—lean cheeks, moody grey eyes, enticingly kissable lips…
‘Oh!’ Her eyes shot open before her wayward mind could go any further. Stills she could just about deal with, but if that picture had become animated and moved to the next frame—a close-up of the kiss Jack had so very nearly bestowed on her…
She groaned then clapped a hand over her mouth in case anyone heard her. She had to get a grip! So what if Jack had been tempted to kiss her just now? It didn’t mean that she would have let him or responded. It took two to tango, as her mother was so fond of saying, only that didn’t sound nearly as reassuring as it should have done. While she had absolutely no desire to tango with Jack…
She cut the rest of that thought dead!
Meg wasn’t sure what had woken her. She was so tired that it was a wonder anything had. Yet suddenly she found herself wide awake and staring round at the darkness. Lesley was snoring softly in the adjoining campbed so obviously whatever had woken Meg hadn’t disturbed her.
For a moment she debated rolling over and going back to sleep, but the nagging feeling that something was wrong wouldn’t go away. Pushing back the mosquito net, she took her shoes from the end of the bed and shook them to dislodge any creepy-crawly visitors before slipping them on her feet.
Leah had left them a candle to light the hut with while they’d got undressed but they’d blown it out and now there was only the pale shimmer from a sickle moon to see by as Meg made her way to the door. She peered out across the clearing in the centre of the village and felt her skin prickle with alarm when she saw shadowy figures moving about in front of one of the huts. What was going on? Who was out there? And, more importantly, should she go and find out?
Meg hesitated but the feeling that something was wrong wouldn’t go away. Her legs felt like lead as she stepped from the relative safety of the hut and began to cross the clearing. It was a relief when she spotted Moses among the crowd of people gathered by the hut.
‘Is something wrong?’ she asked, going straight over to speak to him.
He turned to her and his face looked grey and drawn in the moonlight. ‘It is Leah, Dr Meg. The baby is coming but there is something wrong and he cannot be born.’
He gave an expressive shrug which said more than any words could have done. Meg felt her heart sink as she wondered what the problem might be. There were so many things that could go wrong during a birth, although thankfully most could be dealt with in the safety of a hospital. However, this was the middle of the African bush and she had no idea what she was letting herself in for as Moses eagerly accepted her offer of help. At that moment, it seemed a very long time since she’d done her stint on the maternity unit.
The hut was lit by candles, and as Meg went inside she could see several women gathered around the low pallet that Leah was lying on. It was obvious that they were the local midwives and she was conscious that she might offend them if she offered her help. However, they made no objection when she knelt beside Leah, simply moved aside to make room for her. She had a feeling that they believed they’d done all they could and her heart sank even further at that thought, although she tried not to show any trace of concern.
‘Hello, Leah. It’s Dr Meg,’ she said softly, noting the lines of pain that bracketed the girl’s mouth. ‘Can I just check how your baby is doing?’
Leah nodded mutely. She was obviously too exhausted to speak. She arched upwards as another contraction began, a keening wail coming from her as the pain tore through her body. Meg was shocked by how strong her contractions were because there had been no sign that she’d been in labour when she’d served their meal a few hours earlier.
She placed her hand on the young woman’s abdomen and gently palpated it, feeling the hard form of the baby beneath her palm. She couldn’t be certain but she suspected that it was lying in the breech position and that was what was causing the problem. Turning the baby was beyond her because she simply didn’t have that kind of expertise. However, it was obvious that something had to be done—and quickly—otherwise both mother and child could die.
She patted Leah’s hand, trying to sound a lot more confident than she actually felt. ‘Don’t worry, Leah. I’ll go and get another of the doctors and we’ll help you deliver your baby. All right?’
She wasn’t sure that the girl had even heard her as Leah stared at her with pain-glazed eyes. Meg hurried from the hut and ran across the clearing. Whether it was professional courtesy or pure instinct which made her go straight to Jack’s hut, she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t stop to debate it as she ducked under the low lintel. Leah needed help and, in her view, Jack was the best qualified to give it.
‘Jack, wake up!’ Pushing aside the mosquito netting, she put her hand on his bare shoulder, ignoring the frisson which shot up her arm as she felt the heat of his skin. He was naked from the waist up, a thin white sheet covering the lower half of his body and outlining the narrowness of his hips and muscular power of his long legs.
Meg quickly averted her eyes and focused on the task of waking him rather than letting her mind go wandering off. All right, so Jack was superbly fit but now certainly wasn’t the time to be thinking about it. She tightened her grip on his shoulder and shook him. ‘Wake up, Jack!’
He came to in a rush, grabbing hold of her and rolling over in one swift movement. Before she knew what was happening, Meg found herself flat on her back with Jack looming over her.
‘What the devil…?’ For a moment he looked as stunned as she felt before a slow smile spread across his face. Meg felt her heart go into overdrive because it wasn’t a nice sort of smile by any means. Wolfish. Mocking. Sexy, certainly, but definitely not nice!
‘Well, well. What have we here? Don’t tell me that you’re hoping to improve my opinion of you that way, Ms Andrews?’
CHAPTER THREE
‘I…YOU…Let me go!’
Meg rolled to her feet as soon as Jack had released her. Pushing back her tumbled hair, she glared at him. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’
He lay back against the pillow, a thin smile curving his mouth. ‘I think I got my question in first, don’t you?’
Meg felt a rush of colour wash up her face a
nd was glad that it was so dark that he couldn’t possibly have seen it. Did he honestly believe that she would have tried to influence him by offering to sleep with him?
The thought sent another surge of heat through her veins which she decided owed itself to anger. It had nothing to do with the remembered feel of his powerful body as it had pressed hers into the mattress, no connection whatsoever to the fact that just for a moment she’d found herself actually enjoying the contact. She was angry because never in her life had she been so…so insulted!
‘If you imagine that I shall dignify that question with an answer then think again!’ she snapped back.
‘In that case, you’ll understand if I don’t answer your question, won’t you? Anyway, I suppose there must have been a reason why you saw fit to wake me even if it isn’t the one that sprang to mind. Is something wrong?’
She very nearly turned round and marched right out of the hut. She had sensed all along that Jack had a low opinion of her but she hadn’t realised before just how low it was. It was only the thought of Leah which helped curb her temper and remember what she was doing there in the first place.
‘Leah’s in labour but there seems to be a problem,’ she explained through gritted teeth. ‘I might be wrong but I think the baby could be breech. Can you come and take a look at her?’
‘Of course.’ He was out of bed before she could blink, stepping into his trousers and dragging on his shirt as he headed for the door. Meg hurried after him as he strode across the clearing, answering the questions he shot at her to the best of her ability. She felt a trifle stunned by the speed of the transformation as he’d switched back to total professionalism in the blink of an eye. Obviously, work came first on Jack’s list of priorities and everything else came a very poor second. Why didn’t that surprise her?
Jack went straight to the bed. Kneeling down, he smiled reassuringly at the young woman. ‘Dr Meg tells me that you’re having trouble, Leah—may I see?’
‘Yes…’ Leah’s voice was weak with exhaustion and Meg found it difficult to hide her concern as she knelt beside the bed and took her pulse. It was so thready and faint that Meg’s heart plummeted because she knew Leah wouldn’t survive if something wasn’t done soon to help her.
Jack looked up and his eyes reflected her concern as he looked at her across the bed. ‘The baby is lying horizontally rather than breech from the feel of it. There’s no chance of it being delivered normally because its arm and shoulder appear to be jammed in her pelvis.’
Meg swallowed as she realised the implications. ‘She needs a Caesarean section, you mean?’
Jack nodded. ‘Yes. There isn’t any other option open to us at this stage. The only way to get that baby out is by doing a section otherwise we’re going to lose both of them.’ He glanced at the young woman and for a moment his face contorted with pain. ‘It might be too late even now but we have to try.’
Meg didn’t question his judgement because she knew he was right. If they didn’t operate immediately then both Leah and her baby would die. She stood up and there was a new determination in her eyes when she looked at Jack. Even if there was only a slim chance that they could save them then they had to try.
‘What do you want me to do first?’
Jack stood up as well and she felt her pulse leap as he smiled at her because for the first time ever there was a trace of admiration on his face. ‘Reckon we can do it, then, Meg?’ he asked quietly, his voice sounding very deep.
She squared her shoulders, striving for a calm she wished she felt, but it was hard to achieve that state when it felt as though dozens of butterflies were fluttering around inside her stomach. To see Jack look at her that way was everything she could have wished for, even though she wasn’t sure why it should have mattered so much.
‘Yes. If anyone can help Leah, I know you can,’ she said quietly, knowing in her heart that it was true.
He inclined his head in brief acknowledgement but that didn’t mean she missed the flare of some other emotion in the depths of his eyes…
She turned away before her mind could start racing along paths there simply wasn’t time to follow right then. She focused strictly on what Jack was saying as he rattled out a list of instructions. Fortunately, they had all the supplies they could possibly need close to hand, although the thought of performing the operation under such conditions was daunting.
In the end, Meg decided that it would be better not to think about it and just get on with the job. If they didn’t operate, Leah and the baby would die. There simply wasn’t a choice so she had to accept the problems and deal with them.
‘Do you want me to fetch Lesley or Kate?’ she offered once she was sure she knew exactly what he wanted doing.
He shook his head. ‘No, there’s no need to disturb them just yet. I’ll get Moses to wake them if I think it’s necessary, but I’m sure you and I can cope, Meg. However, I will wake Rory. We’ll need him to give the anaesthetic.’
Meg nodded her agreement before she hurried away to collect what was needed, but she couldn’t deny that her heart had lifted when she’d heard Jack say that. Maybe he was beginning to trust her after all? Odd how much comfort she derived from that thought.
Afterwards, when Meg looked back on that night, she found it hard to believe that she hadn’t dreamt it. There had been a surreal quality to the whole event which made it hard to believe it had actually happened.
At Jack’s insistence, more candles and an old paraffin lamp had been brought into the hut to supplement the inadequate lighting, but conditions for performing the operation had still been far from ideal. It had been quite a struggle too to source basic supplies and equipment from the packing cases in the trucks.
They’d had to leave Leah on her bed for starters, as there had been no other suitable surface to use. Meg had covered the straw mattress with several sterile sheets, then had brought in a packing case to lay their implements on, draping that as well with a sterile cover. It had seemed very inadequate protection against infection but it had been the best she could do in the circumstances.
Jack had scrubbed up, then let her help him into a gown, holding out his hands so that she’d been able to snap the thin surgical gloves onto his hands.
‘We need to double-glove for this,’ he advised her softly. ‘It would be foolish to take any risks.’
Meg nodded as she went to fetch a second pair large enough to fit him. Aids was endemic in many African countries so she knew he was right to take extra precautions. She followed his lead and put on a second pair of gloves herself, before going to assist him.
Rory looked up and grinned when they joined him by the bed. ‘Typical, isn’t it? You think you’re going to have a nice peaceful start to things and suddenly find yourself thrown in at the deep end!’
Jack’s brows rose. ‘How many of these trips have you been on now? And when has anything ever gone the way we’d planned it? I think I’d worry more if it did!’
Both men laughed ruefully. It was obvious to Meg that they had a great deal of respect for each other and she found herself thinking how wonderful it must be to be an accepted part of the team. She shot a look at Jack and smiled to herself. Still, maybe things weren’t quite so black as they’d appeared a few hours earlier if he was prepared to let her help him?
‘Right, let’s make a start if you’re happy with everything, Rory? We can’t afford to waste any time.’
Jack glanced at the younger man who nodded. Leah had been given an epidural anaesthetic as the risks to both mother and child were far less than if she’d been given a general anaesthetic in her weakened state. She hadn’t made a murmur when Rory had injected local anaesthetic into the epidural space surrounding her spinal cord. It was obvious to Meg that Leah was completely worn out by the ferocity of her labour and she knew that the sooner it was over the better. As to whether they would be able to save both mother and child, that was something they would have to wait and see, but she murmured a fervent prayer that
everything would go in their favour from here on.
‘Scalpel.’ Jack’s face was set with concentration as she slapped the razor-sharp knife into his gloved palm. He swiftly and deftly made a horizontal incision in Leah’s abdomen just above her pubic bone. Meg stood beside him, watching intently as he carefully slit through the lower part of the uterus. She could see the baby now and held her breath as Jack lifted it free and handed it to her, working swiftly as he tied and cut the cord.
‘Right, it’s up to you now, Meg,’ he told her tersely, turning his attention back to the young woman.
Meg didn’t say anything because there wasn’t any time to waste. It was a baby boy and she could see at once that he was in some distress. Carrying him swiftly away from the makeshift operating table, she sank onto a chair and laid him across her knees then used a thin piece of sterile tubing to suction the mucus out of his mouth. He hadn’t cried as yet and her heart was racing as she tipped him head down so that any fluid he might have swallowed would drain from his lungs.
‘Come on, poppet,’ she muttered, willing the tiny scrap to take his first breath. ‘Come on, you can do it!’
She tapped the soles of his feet, mentally running through everything she knew about childbirth. Since she’d learned that she’d been accepted by the agency, she’d spent hours poring over her textbooks, brushing up on skills which had become a bit rusty through lack of use. However, all the reading in the world couldn’t compensate for hands-on experience and she prayed that she would be able to help the child. She would never forgive herself if he died!
Laying the baby across her knees again, she placed her mouth over his nose and mouth and gently breathed into his lungs, willing him to respond. There was no sound in the hut apart from the measured rhythm of her breathing as time after time she inflated the infant’s lungs. When Jack appeared beside her Meg didn’t look up because she couldn’t afford to let her concentration lapse. This child was relying on her and she had to help him!
Touched by Angels Page 4