by Sarah Morgan
Someone thrust a stick into Flora’s hand and she looked at it with relief. Perhaps now she could stop the bleeding. ‘Do I push it under the tie and twist?’
‘On top.’ Conner stopped chest compressions and bent to give another rescue breath. ‘Between the two knots. Twist. Make a note of the time—we can’t leave it on for more than ten minutes. But if we’re not out of here in ten minutes, it will be too late anyway.’
He covered Lily’s mouth with his again and Flora followed his instructions, placing the stick between the first and second knots and twisting until it tightened.
‘The air ambulance has just landed on the beach,’ Jim, the ferryman, was by her shoulder, his voice surprisingly steady. ‘What can I do, Flora?’
‘I don’t know. Keep the crowd away, I suppose. How’s Jayne?’
‘Out cold. Might be the best thing. Someone’s looking after her—a nurse from the mainland on a day trip.’
Conner returned to chest compressions. ‘Jim—get over to the paramedics. I want oxygen and plasma expander. And get them to radio the hospital and warn them. She’s going to need whole blood or packed cells when she arrives. I want her in the air in the next few minutes. We don’t have time to play around here.’
‘Will do.’ Without argument, Jim disappeared to do as Conner had instructed and Flora lifted the edge of the towel.
‘The bleeding’s stopped.’ She felt weak with relief and Conner nodded.
‘Good. We’ll release it and check it in about ten minutes. If the bleeding doesn’t start again we can leave it loose, but don’t take it off—we might need it again.’ He bent his head to give Lily another life-saving breath and Flora saw the paramedics sprinting along the quay towards them.
‘They’re here, Conner.’
Conner wasn’t listening. His attention was focused on the child. ‘Come on, baby girl,’ he murmured softly, ‘breathe for me.’ His eyes were on her chest and Flora watched him, wondering. Had he seen something? Had he felt a change in her condition?
‘Do you think she—?’
And at that moment Lily gave a choking cough and vomited weakly.
‘Oh, thank God,’ Flora breathed, and Conner turned the child’s head gently and cleared her airway.
‘There’s a good girl. You’re going to be all right now, sweetheart.’
He spoke so softly that Flora doubted that anyone else had heard his words of comfort and she felt a lump block her throat as she watched him with the child.
So he was capable of kindness, then. It was there, deep inside him, just as she’d always suspected.
But then he lifted his head and his eyes were hard as ever. ‘Get some blankets, dry towels, coats—something to warm her up,’ he ordered, and then looked at the paramedics. ‘Give her some oxygen. I want to get a line in and give her a bolus of fluid and then we’re out of here.’
‘How much fluid do you want?’
Conner wiped his forearm across his brow, but he kept one hand on the child’s arm. Offering reassurance. ‘What’s her weight? How old is she? We can estimate—’
‘I know her weight exactly,’ Flora said. ‘I saw her in clinic last week. She’s 16 kilograms. Do you want a calculator so that you can work out the fluid?’
‘Start with 160 mils of colloid and then I’ll reassess. I don’t want to hang around here.’ Conner released Lily’s hand and started looking for a vein, while one of the paramedics sorted out the fluid and the other gave Lily some oxygen.
The child was breathing steadily now, her chest rising and falling as Conner worked. Occasionally her eyes fluttered open and then drifted closed again.
‘She’s got no veins,’ Conner muttered, carefully examining Lily’s arms. ‘Get me an intraosseous needle. I’m not wasting time looking for non-existent veins. We need to get her to hospital. We’ve messed around here long enough.’
The paramedic dropped to his knees beside Conner, all the necessary equipment to hand. ‘You want an intraosseous needle?’
‘Actually, just give me a blue cannula. She might just have a vein I can use here.’ Conner stroked the skin on the child’s arm, focused. ‘One go—if it fails, we’ll get her in the air and I’ll insert an intraosseous needle on the way.’
Flora leaned forward and closed her fingers around the child’s arm, squeezing gently and murmuring words of reassurance. Lily was drifting in and out of consciousness and didn’t seem aware of what was going on.
There was a commotion next to them but Conner didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t look up or hesitate. Instead, he applied himself to the task with total concentration, slid the needle into the vein and then gave a grunt of satisfaction. ‘I’m in—good. That makes things easier. Let’s flush it and tape it—I don’t want to lose this line.’
The paramedic leaned towards him with tape but just at that moment Jayne launched herself at Conner and tried to drag him away. ‘What are you doing to my baby?’ Her face was as white as swan’s feathers, her eyes glazed with despair. ‘Let me get to her—I need to hold her—Get him away from her.’
‘Jayne, not now.’ Flora quickly slid an arm round her shoulders and pulled her out of the way so that the paramedic and Conner could finish what they’d started.
‘But she’s dead,’ Jayne moaned, and Flora shook her head.
‘She’s not dead, Jayne,’ she said firmly. ‘She’s breathing.’
‘Not dead?’ Relief diluted the pain in Jayne’s eyes but then panic rose again as she saw Conner bending over her child. ‘What’s he doing to her? Oh, God, there’s blood everywhere.’
‘Lily cut herself very badly,’ Flora began, but Jayne began to scream.
‘Get him away from her! Get him away from my baby! I don’t trust him!’
‘You should trust him. He’s the reason the bairn’s breathing now.’ It was Jim who spoke, his weatherbeaten face finally showing signs of strain. Gently but firmly he drew Jayne away from Flora. ‘Flora, you help Dr MacNeil. Jayne, you’re staying with me. And you’d better remember that Conner MacNeil is the reason Lily is alive right now. I know you’re upset, and rightly so, but you need to get a hold. The man is working miracles.’
Conner straightened, conferred with the paramedics and together he and the crew transferred Lily’s tiny form onto the stretcher. Then he wiped his blood-streaked hands down his soaked shorts. His handsome face was still damp with sea water and the expression in his ice-blue eyes cold and detached as he finally looked at Jayne. ‘We’re taking her to hospital.’
Jayne crumpled. ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.’ Tears poured down her cheeks as she looked from him to Lily’s still form. ‘Can I come with you? Please?’
Conner took a towel that a tourist tentatively offered him. ‘That depends on whether you’re likely to assault me during the flight.’ He wiped his hands properly, watching as Jayne breathed in and out and lifted a hand to her chest.
‘I—I really am sorry.’
‘No, you need to understand.’ Conner handed the towel back, his voice brutally harsh. ‘This isn’t over. If she arrests during the flight, I’ll be resuscitating her. Can you cope with that? Because if you can’t, you’re staying on the ground.’
Jayne flinched but for some reason his lack of sympathy seemed to help her pull herself together and find some dignity. ‘I understand. Of course. And that’s fine. I’m just grateful that you…’ She swallowed and nodded. ‘Do everything,’ she whispered. ‘Everything. I just—I just want to be near her. And with her when we get there. I—Thank you. Thank you so much. Without you…’ Her eyes met Conner’s for a moment and he turned his attention back to Lily.
‘We’re wasting time. Let’s move.’
In a matter of moments the helicopter was in the air and Flora watched as it swooped away from Glenmore towards the mainland.
Suddenly she realised how much her hands were shaking.
She stared down at herself. Her shorts were streaked with blood and Lily’s blood still pooled on the grey co
ncrete of the quay. ‘Someone get a bucket and slosh some water over this,’ she muttered to Jim, and he breathed a sigh and rubbed a hand over his face.
‘I haven’t seen anything like that in all my time on Glenmore.’
‘No. I suppose it was because the quay was so crowded. She must have been knocked off the edge and into the water.’
‘I didn’t mean that.’ Jim stared into the sky, watching as the helicopter shrank to a tiny dot in the distance. ‘I meant Conner MacNeil. He was in the water like an arrow while the rest of us were still working out what had happened. And he just got on with it, didn’t he?’
‘Yes.’ Flora cleared her throat. ‘He did.’
‘Logan says he was in the army.’ Jim pushed his hat back from his forehead and scratched. ‘I reckon if I was fighting in some godforsaken country, I’d feel better knowing he was around to pick up the pieces.’
‘Yes. He was amazing.’
‘He’s not cuddly, of course.’ Jim held up five fingers to a tourist who tentatively asked whether or not the ferry would be running. ‘Five minutes. But in a crisis which do you prefer? Cuddly or competent?’
Flora swallowed, knowing that Jim was right. Conner’s ice-cold assessment of the situation had been a huge part of the reason Lily was still alive. He hadn’t allowed emotion to cloud his judgement, whereas she…
Suddenly Flora felt depression wash over her. The whole situation had been awful and she was experienced enough to know that, despite Conner’s heroic efforts, Lily wasn’t out of danger. ‘I’d better go, Jim. I need to clean up.’
‘And I need to get this ferry to the mainland.’ Jim gave a wry smile and glanced at his watch. ‘It’s the first time the Glenmore ferry has been late since the service started. Nice job, Flora. Well done.’
But Flora knew that her part in the rescue had been minimal.
It had been Conner. All of it. He’d been the one to dive into the water. He’d pulled Lily out. And when she’d been frozen with panic at the sight of Lily’s lifeless form covered in all that blood, he’d worked with ruthless efficiency, showing no emotion but getting the job done. Nothing had distracted him. Not even Lily’s mother. He’d had a task to do and he’d done it.
CHAPTER SIX
SHE COULDN’T relax at home so she went back to the beach with her book and when it was too dark to read she just sat, listening to the hiss of the waves as they rushed forward onto the beach and then retreated.
She wanted to know how Lily was faring, but Conner wasn’t answering his mobile and she didn’t want to bother the hospital staff.
Shrieks of excitement came from the far corner of the beach where a group of teenagers had lit a fire and were having a beach party. Flora watched for a moment, knowing that she was too far away for them to see her. They weren’t supposed to light fires but they always did. This was Glenmore in the summer. She knew that sooner or later Nick Hillier, the policeman, would do one of his evening patrols and if they were still there, he’d move them on. Back home to their parents or the properties they rented for a few weeks every summer.
‘What’s a nice girl like you doing on a beach like this? It’s late. You should be home.’ The harsh, familiar male voice came from directly behind her and she gave a gasp of shock.
‘Conner? Where did you come from? I thought you’d still be on the mainland.’
‘Hitched a lift back on a boat.’
‘How’s Lily?’
‘Asking for her dolls.’
Flora felt a rush of relief and smiled. ‘That’s wonderful.’
‘If it’s wonderful, why such a long face?’ He sat down next to her and there was enough light for her to see the dark stains on his shirt and trousers. It was a vivid reminder of just what he’d achieved.
‘It would have been a very different outcome for Lily if you hadn’t been there.’
‘Someone else would have done it.’
‘No. No, they wouldn’t. And I was no use to you at all. I’m sorry. I was completely out of my depth. I’ve never seen anything like that before.’ Just the thought of Lily’s body, lifeless and covered with blood, made her feel sick.
‘You were fine.’ He reached behind him for a pebble and threw it carelessly into the darkness. There was a faint splash as it hit the water.
‘Conner, I wasn’t fine.’ She’d been thinking about it all evening and becoming more and more upset. ‘You always imagine that you’ll know what to do in an emergency, but I didn’t. I didn’t know! I mean, I suppose I knew the theory but nothing prepares you for seeing a little girl you know well, covered in blood and not breathing. I—I just couldn’t concentrate.’
‘That happens to the best of us.’
She was willing to bet it had never happened to him. ‘I’ve never even tied a tourniquet before.’
‘Join the army,’ he suggested, and reached for another stone. ‘You get to tie quite a few. Believe me, it’s a talent I’d willingly not have to use ever again. You were fine. Stop worrying.’
‘There was so much blood.’
‘Yeah—it has a habit of spreading itself around when you hit an artery.’
‘It didn’t worry you.’
‘Blood?’ He shrugged. ‘No, blood doesn’t worry me—but emotion…’ He gave a hollow laugh and threw the stone. ‘Now that’s a different story. When they discharge her from hospital, you’re the one that’s visiting.’
She curled her toes into the soft sand. ‘I remember Jayne from school.’
‘Me, too. I think I might have kissed her once.’
‘You kissed everyone.’ Except her. She turned to look at him. Fresh stubble darkened his jaw and in the dim light he looked more dangerous than ever.
He flung another stone and then leaned back on his elbows, watching her through narrowed eyes. ‘What the hell are you doing out here at this hour, Flora Harris? You should be tucked up in bed, having exhausted yourself with a fat book.’
Flora drew a circle in the sand with her finger. ‘You think I’m so boring, don’t you?’
‘Trust me, you don’t want to know what I think.’
‘I already know.’ Her heart thumping, she looked at him. ‘I’m probably the only girl on Glenmore that you haven’t kissed, so that says quite a lot.’
‘It says that I still had some decency, despite what the locals thought of me. You weren’t exactly the kind of girl to indulge in adolescent groping.’ Conner glanced towards the crowd on the beach, barely visible in the darkness. ‘You didn’t do late-night beach orgies. I suppose you were studying.’
‘Yes, I probably was.’ Flora thought of the life she’d led. ‘Dad hated me being out too late. He always worried about me.’
‘You were a good daughter. You never once slipped off the rails, not even for a moment. That’s good. Be proud of it.’
‘It was easy to stay on the rails because my rails were smooth and consistent. I lost Mum but I still had Dad.’ She glanced at him, hesitant about saying something that would upset him. ‘It must be very stressful for you, coming back here after so long. You had such a difficult childhood and all the memories are here.’
‘Actually, I think I probably had an easier childhood than you. Everyone expected you to do well, so you had to work hard and deliver or risk disappointing them. No one expected anything but trouble when I was around, so I could create havoc and meet their expectations at the same time.’ He sat up and flung another stone. ‘Your father expected you to be home before dark because he loved you and worried about you, so you didn’t dare go out and paint the town red in case you upset him. My father didn’t give a damn what I did as long as it didn’t involve him.’
‘You must be very upset and angry with your mother for leaving.’
‘Not at all.’ His tone was cool. ‘He beat her every day of their marriage. She had no choice but to get out. She should have done it sooner. Probably would have done if it hadn’t been for me.’
Flora was so shocked by his unexpected confession th
at it took her a moment to respond. ‘Oh, Conner…’ She’d heard rumours, of course, but no one had ever known for sure. ‘But she left you there. With him.’
‘She had no choice about that. If she’d taken me, he would have followed. Her only chance was to go before he killed her.’
Flora sat for a moment, trying to imagine what it must have been like, and failing. She’d only ever known love. ‘Did he ever…?’ Her voice trailed off and she shook her head and looked away. ‘Sorry, it’s none of my business and I know you hate talking about personal stuff.’
‘Did he ever hit me? Is that what you were about to ask?’ He lay back on the sand and stared into the darkness. ‘Just once. And I was so angry I stabbed a hole in his leg with a kitchen knife. I was six years old at the time. After that he left me alone. I think he was always a bit worried I’d empty the contents of the science lab into his tea. Did you know that science was the only subject I never skipped? I went through a phase of making bombs—blowing everything up. You probably remember that phase. Everyone on Glenmore does.’
Flora hesitated and then reached out and touched his arm, because it seemed like the right thing to do. ‘I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you.’
‘It was amazing fun. I was causing explosions all over the place and no one could stop me.’ He showed no emotion but she wasn’t fooled.
‘So if it’s that easy and you care so little, why haven’t you come home before now?’
‘Good question.’ He was silent for a moment and then he laughed. ‘Perceptive, aren’t you? Yes, I suppose I’m back here because I wanted to see how it felt to be home.’
‘And?’
‘It feels every bit as bad as I thought it would.’ He spoke calmly and turned his head to look at her. ‘So now I’ve spilled my guts, what happens next? I cry into your soft bosom and get in touch with my feelings?’
‘In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m pretty flat-chested so that won’t work.’ She kept her tone light because she sensed that was what he wanted. ‘I suppose I just want you to know that, well, that I’m a friend—if you need one.’